New Years Eve 2019

A couple weeks back Greta wore this dress that had once been worn by Elinor and then by Faith.  I haven't saved a lot of the girls' clothes for hand-me-downs, but a have soft spot for church dresses.
Greta was walking through the house having a pretend phone conversation with her closest-aged cousin, Grace.  I immediately remembered a picture we had of Faith about the same age, wearing the same dress, having an actual phone conversation with her cousin, Eliza.

Here it is.  Oh, my heart-- Faith was so cute!  I mean, she's still cute... but she's thirteen now.  So it's not quite the same.

A little side-by-side.

The day after Christmas my sister and I and our girls were treated to a lovely afternoon high tea by Lari-- my mother's best friend in high school.  She has been so good to us.  She is a connection to our mom who passed away almost 19 years ago.  She entertains us with stories of their teenage antics and she told our girls how much she loved our mom.  I am so grateful for her kindness.

New Years Eve 2019 was simple and fun.  As is our tradition we had a game night with our dear friends, the Johansens.  This gang was with us for part of the time, and then most of them head off to their various other activities a little later in the evening.  Kara (right next to Clark) got home about ten days earlier from her mission to Argentina.

Ben (the tall one) is a good sport to entertain all of his little admirers.

We just played games all evening and it was so enjoyable.

I think we figured this was our twelfth year in a row of ringing in the new year together.  Granted, they don't look thrilled in this picture, but it really was fun.

Some friends gave us a game called "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza"-- it rather violent and rather FUN!  No bone were broken and blood was minimal!

In other exciting news-- Clark got all moved into his apartment down in Provo.  He is living in the Glenwood.  It's kind of fun because that is where Abe and I lived when we met.  He is thrilled to be back to regular life.  He likes his apartment and roommate.

Clark and Kara at Kara's homecoming-- the recently returned missionaries.

Kara and Bethany were such close friends growing up.  Bethany was so happy to see her again.

These six are all recently returned Spanish speaking missionaries from our ward.  So wonderful.