The Christmas Party 2019

These beautiful humans hosted their annual Christmas party.  Bethany and Elinor were thrilled to have Clark home to handle most of the hosting-- just like the good old days.  This gathering was all about ugly Christmas sweaters, gingerbread building competition, white elephant gift exchange and Christmas karaoke.  

They entertain themselves.

Oh, heck!  They entertain me.

Never one to be left behind, Faith got herself and ugly sweater and joined the party.

Victoria, Clark, and Lily-- They won the award of "Best Structural Engineering"

Sam, Emily, and Sierra-- they won "The Spirit of Christmas" award,

Ben, Faith, and Zandy-- they were the overall winner with the "Best Use of Theme", which was "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.

Enoch, Savannah, Elinor, and Zach appear to be snorting crushed up Smarties.  

So proud.  Theirs started out well and had some nice elements.  The judges didn't feel the pooping gummy bears and ninja gang fight behind the house was the right direction.  They won the "Thanks For Playing" award.

Thano, Cameron, and Bethany.  You can't see it well in this picture, but their building project did... shall we say...not go well.  It involved a Santa with broken knees and a dead reindeer with its entrails smeared on the foil.  So yeah.  They won the "You Shouldn't Have Played" award.  

It was well deserved.

Our kind neighbors, Tammy and Annie were this year's distinguished guest judges.  

You know it's going to be "good" white elephant gift exchange when the mid-size kitchen appliances start coming out!

A singing bass with a Santa hat mounted on a plaque.  Believe it or not, this item was actually stolen in the game.

How about a classy collection of mugs purchased at the local D.I.?

Oh, my darling... you are simply marvelous.

Best karaoke picture of the night-- Clark and Lily singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside".  It's an inappropriate song on so many levels, but it's still a great song.  There.  I said it.

The Foxy Ladies.

Elinor and Savannah

Cameron and Clark singing "Underneath the Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber.  Things I never expected to see.

On the other hand, I totally would have expected to see the Endemano boys singing "Santa Tell Me".  They did it justice!

Joe and Cannon singing "Last Christmas".  Joe is George and Peter's hip hop teacher and they adore him.

As is evidenced.  They were pretty excited to have Joe at their house.

Bethany and Cameron singing "Wrecking Ball".  

Karaoke wrapped up around midnight.  But the night morning was young, and so they started a movie.  Oh! To have such youthful energy again!  

Christmas Recital 2019

My piano students had their recital on December 19th, which is much later in the month than we usually do it, but December was exceptionally full this year.  I LOVED this recital.  My students all played beautifully and I was crazy proud of them.

I currently have 24 students-- including three of my own kids.

These four, plus Elinor, Faith, and Katelyn, made the evening extra special.  They were the alumni performers.  Bethany and Jakob played "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".  So beautiful.

Jakob and Corrine reprised a glorious "Carol of the Bells" duet.  Sariah, who recently moved on to a more advanced teacher came back and played a piece.  So much fun to see these kids who have worked so hard and now play so well.

Katelyn  (on the right) came back as well.  I love that I still get to teach Tristin (middle).

Faith and Elinor played their duet of "Angels We Have Heard on High.  This is the video from their recital a couple days earlier with their teacher, Shari Aston.

The girls-- especially Elinor-- LOVE Shari and they've made great progress with her.

This was little Peter's first piano recital.  He was over the moon excited and he did very well.  He played "We Three Kings"-- or rather "We Free Tings".  His piano skills are moving along quicker than his speech articulation:)

His dabbing bow was classic Peter!

George loves to play piano and plays very musically.

Cannon had a lot of fun with his piece-- "Go Tell It On the Mountain".

A favorite moment of the recital was when Hayden absolutely slayed "The Hallelujah Chorus".  Of course, everyone had to stand up for his piece.

The traditional trip to Arctic Circle after the recital.  We race the Schramms to get there first and I'm pretty sure they win every time!
While we were enjoying our frozen treats together, Bethany had the idea to take their talented show on the road.  The next day she got on the phone and made several appointments at local retirement/ assisted living homes to go play and sing their Christmas songs.

They had so much fun and agreed it was the best part of the whole Christmas season.  They came home so excited and moved -- there was actually crying at how much they loved it.  They said some older folks begged them to come back the next day.  SO THEY DID!  The "Ministering Minstrels"!  A tradition is born.

A highlight was an older lady who got out her harmonica and played along with them as they played and sang.  I was so proud of them and so happy for them to feel the TRUEST meaning of Christmas.

Clark's Homecoming Sunday

Clark spoke in church and reported on his mission on December 15th and he was shown the love by lots of family and friends,  many of whom gathered at our home afterwards for a brunch.  It was a perfect day and we loved it all.  Here are a few pictures of the day.

The Young family plus Brad Ferguson

Some Cannon cousins plus one Fox cousin
Abe set up his tents in the backyard and he rented several standing heaters to keep everyone a little warmer.  And it worked out extremely well.  The weather was also quite cooperative-- which was lovely.

The Schramms and several robotics buddies.

A few Fox brothers.

Bethany, Jacob, and Zach

She will always be Aunt Misty to my girls.  They love her.

Ward friends came over after the second hour of church.

The tweeners-- Bella, Hayden, Eli, George, Cannon, Ryder, Jake, James, Kaylee

Some of my side of the family

Clark and his closest cousin growing up-- Alexis.  It was wonderful to see them all grown up and happy to be together again!

My sister-in-laws were so helpful in helping get the food ready quickly.  I love them.

Clark with the Shaws and Ryan Butterfield. The Shaws are parents to one of Clark's best friends, Bryson, who is currently serving a mission in North Dakota.

Fox cousins-- Everett, Jadan, Mason, Elinor, Grace, Gentri, and Ellori

Elinor and Faith played a beautiful duet of "Angels We Have Heard on High" for a musical number at church.

It was a very full house, but somehow it all worked.  We were so thankful for the support for Clark.