Friday, December 30, 2022

Christmas Ball at Plumfield 2022

 

A Regency Christmas Ball at Plumfield (on Jane Austen's birthday, no less) was a sheer delight!





This wasn't everyone, because some had already left, but it was a fabulous group of people who were all in!  It was awesome!

This is another occasion I hope to see repeated annually!

Riverton 18th Christmas Breakfast 2022

 

Our ward Christmas breakfast was an absolute delight!  All these cute little girls found a table altogether.  

Greta was so excited to get these Snoopy pajamas at DI, so of course, we needed a picture with Karolee wearing her Snoopy shirt.

This was the first time our ward did a breakfast rather than an evening dinner.  I liked this so much better!
Aly and Greta are best little friends and I love that Annie is my dear friend as well.  We are currently serving in Young Women's together.
This Santa was the best I've ever seen.  What I liked best was he didn't ask the children what they wanted to get for Christmas.  He asked them what they were going to give for Christmas.  Brilliant! 
This Santa was very quick-witted.  He did a total burn on George about singing that had us all, including George, in stitches. 

Selfie with Santa.
What good boys they are!
The funny moment when Faith asked, "Santa, can I have a boyfriend for Christmas?"
For the record, Santa tried to deliver a boyfriend, but she wasn't interested. Ha ha ha!  She's a tough cookie.
We love our ward choir -- so many good people and we have such a good time.

Gingerbread Date Night 2022

 

Taking ugly Christmas sweaters to the next level!!!!! My dear friend, Candice found this little beauty for me and knew I must have it for the gingerbread competition date night we had planned.

This group understood the ugly sweater assignment!
The grand winner-- a haunted house created by the Ryans and the Lees.  The theme was "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and they zoomed in on the line-- "they'll be scary ghost stories".  It was a controversial win, but the judges were firm in their decision.
And what gracious winners they were!
Abe, Keith, Alyson, and Greta-- theirs was really good.
The Hansen and the Robinsons.  Theirs was also very good, but they went with a school theme--- a bad choice considering the judges were all minors.
The Camerons and I went for a "Christmases long, long ago" focus.  We did not win, but we probably didn't deserve to:)
Honestly, this team - the Snows and Kitchens--really should have won!  Theirs was so beautiful!
The whole evening was great fun! 

December Begins

The boys' neighborhood sock drive was once again a great success!  The Chase family does such a great job organizing it and the boys look forward to it each year.

Grover.
Then Peter got a turn to go with Abe and some of the Snow family to a BYU basketball game.  He was thrilled to get a picture with Cosmo.
Going on a date with Abe to see A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater was a highlight of the season for me.  It was especially fun to see Abe's former co-worker star as Ebeneezer Scrooge.  He is incredible.

Well now, isn't that just a cute picture?
A little Christmas angel.
This was another of my favorite moments of the season-- as a family, we had just voted the winner of a double-elimination tournament to determine the best popular Christmas song.  It was none other than "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey.  These two performed a dramatic lip-sync beginning and when the beat picked up, they were spot on with their kick line!  Ha, ha ha!!!! So funny! Here is a link.  

November Happenings

Dad and Greta went on a date to Black Bear Diner.
Elinor and I had a lovely time at Time Out for Women.  It was wonderful to spend so many hours with her and it felt miraculous to me to be there with her.  She also introduced me to CupBop and it was delicious!
Faith joined some swim friends from Skyridge High School for the football state championship game at the University of Utah.
Abe and Cannon enjoyed joining the Butterfields for some football on Thanksgiving morning.  Ryan grew up in a great ward in Sandy (with some of my Clark cousins) and they still gather each year.  Pretty cool.
We enjoyed a very lovely and very low-key Thanksgiving at Andrea and James's place downtown.  We ate and we played games and it was chill.  This picture is Elinor's shocked face when she won Liar's Dice.  We have a few other pictures from the day, but for whatever reason they are all quite blurry.  


A few days later we had our Italian Thanksgiving at Plumfield.  I suppose another name for this traditional gathering would be Friendsgiving--- but we also have it with Italian food.  I had to explain to one of the kids that Italian Thanksgiving isn't an actual holiday that everyone celebrates, rather it is just a tradition we do:)
I had been getting after our kiddos this evening about not being on phones and just talking and playing games.  My requests were not very well-received.  Devices were confiscated--- they weren't happy, I wasn't happy--nothing terribly interesting there.
So the next evening, when phones had not yet been released from their captivity, the kids were teasing me that I just wanted them to become Amish.  
Somehow, I don't think Faith thought it was that funny.
The next morning, lo and behold! Our Elf  (who had made an early appearance because we were all too excited for Christmas festivities to begin) was dressed in his Puritan attire.  So what if he got the Puritans and the Amish mixed up?

A little fun family football in the backyard.
Grover loved running around with the kids.
Abe and I went with my dad and Bev to a Messiah sing-a-long in Draper.  It was very enjoyable but much shorter than in years past, so I didn't quite get my fill.
SICKNESS.  Blah.  We (and everyone else we know) has had so much sickness already this season.  I suppose all of our immune systems are shot to pieces after the isolation of covid.  Anyway, it's been through all of us multiple times.  
Grover is such a nice snuggly companion for sickies.
Abe and George went to a BYU basketball game at Vivint Arena, thanks to some friends who gave them tickets.
Abe and Cannon joined the Schramms at their place for a big University of Utah football game.
Faith and her besties, Anya and Alyssa, at the Silver Rush swim meet.