It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

 It's December 3rd and Christmas is in full swing.  

(except...where is our snow?!)

Since we spent most of Thanksgiving vacation around home we were ready to start by day 1. We are decorated inside and out, Christmas music is paying every evening, new ornaments have been purchased, advents are up, 80% of Christmas gifts are purchased, and a few social events have already been attended.

Such as....

Darin's work's Christmas party.  Darin works with such fun and interesting people, it's fun to get to know them.  The dinner was great, but the best part was hearing all the nice things Darin's boss said about him.  Darin hates when I gush but I just can't help being proud of him. To work for a company that you truly believe in and are inspired by it's purpose is a gift, and not something I take for granted.

We are trying to keep up with #lighttheword daily acts of kindness. We've had to re-arrange some things to match up with our schedule but we are doing our best!

The kids and I met Cristin and Anna at Festival of Trees.

This was a special Christmas request by Miriam.  We use to go all the time when she was little and we could go during the day to avoid crowds.  She has such good memories of the trees, the music, and the treats. 

I could take a zillion photos but I tried to restrain myself.

Thanksgiving 2017

 Grateful for my mom who gathers us all together. No matter how many of us there are, she will work hard to accommodate everyone.  Grateful for my dad who makes sure everyone is comfortable and having a good time.  I am getting to an age where my friends are losing their home base, and losing those people in their lives who organized the gatherings....this makes me stop at take stock of how lucky we are right in this moment. 

I love my parents unique Danish dishes and the feelings that arise when a table is set with them.  Those sturdy blue goblets mean a family holiday meal is about to take place. We have had so many of them throughout the years. 

I love seeing my siblings as couples and parents.  We are all doing the best we know how. Lots of wisdom, kindness, and love through the struggles we each face. I don't know why in the world I thought our family was above trials but somehow I am surprised every time something challenging is thrown our way.

Grateful for transportation and technology that brings Mark and Esme to us. Having a brother live so far away is exotic and exciting, but it wouldn't be any fun at all if we didn't have the ability to see him once and awhile.

Grateful for my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law who provide such delicious food! 

Together we always have an amazing spread.

I am grateful the cousins got time to play together and make memories.

Grateful I experienced a free range childhood with plenty of time in the "Honda Hills" riding my bike, or our 4 wheelers.  I took the boys on the "whoop dee doos" and even let Bub drive the big 4 wheeler.  He was in heaven!

I guess this year in particular it has hit me how fast things can change in life.  Our family has changed so much in just the last few years, it's kind of amazing to stop and take stock of it all.  It makes me want to soak up just how everything is right now. 

November

We have been recording our daily gratitude in individual notebooks and sharing them with each other since October....we started a bit early because our family could use a heavy dose of gratitude.

So here is ANOTHER November gratitude practice..... family blog style....

A double dose of gratitude is always good.

Every once and awhile good weather and an unscheduled hour collide and I get to rush up to the hills.  This was my fun fall hike where I ran into wild turkeys.

Miriam was invited to a breakfast birthday party at Kneaders...so grateful she is making friends at her school.  Since I was driving her 15 min away early Friday morning I took the opportunity to introduced the boys to cinnamon french toast.
They hare now huge fans. Grateful for sweet breakfast foods.

The Grays had their annual pie party right at the hight of leaf falling season, which is perfect because the kids entertain themselves by jumping from their ginormous tree into a huge pile of leaves.

I am grateful Miriam made this pie for us to share (under Darin's supervision). Grateful for long time friends who knew us waaay back when, and for all the deliciousness we enjoyed that evening.

It snowed!! Just the tiniest bit but the boys caught those first flakes of snow...I am grateful for their enthusiasm...they make life so fun. Another thing I am grateful for is Byron's enthusiasm for whatever he is into at the moment.  Ever since going to Grandpa's car show last summer it's been cars.  He and Soren have memorized all the makes of cars and will shout out everyone they see. So imagine driving around to this "Honda! Ford! Toyota! Honda! Honda! Dodge! Scion Cube, are you kidding....I love those things!!" Admittedly it gets old, but I also love those dudes  so I have a high tolerance for their games.

Grateful for Miriam's first ballroom competition of the year.  She had nice dance partners and enjoyed herself immensely.

We all enjoyed watching her dance....it's just that the boys enjoyment has an expiration time.  Luckily we had cousins who came to watch, we had a fun lunch out for Pho, and we all got to hang out with those wonderful cousins for an hour or two afterwards.

Halloween 2017

The boys and I were done with school/work at 3:25, ran to get Miriam by 4:00. Home by 4:15...started the annual mummy dog and veggie dinner. The boys wanted to be out Trick-or-treating by 6:00, Miriam needed to be at a party 15 min away by 6:15. We were still assembling costume supplies, searching for saftey pins, lighting pumpkins and getting the hidden candy out of the basement.

Thats when a panic text went to Darin "If it's okay can you come home early?"

And bless him...he did.  Darin took over lighting the proton packs so he and the boys were out ringing doorbells close to 6 and I got Miriam to her Halloween party just a few min late.

The boys LOVED their costumes.  Spontaneous singing occurred as they walked around.  They blasted all the ghosts they came across. They came home with over 4 lbs. of candy each (I know because we weight it...buy it from them by the lb so we can eat what we want, and then send a piece in their lunch everyday till it's gone). Solid Halloween.

Miriam had the best time at her party...I am glad she has made some friends at her new school, and was brave about going to the pary. So happy she had a good Halloween. 

The trees are almost bare, there are deer jumping fences between us and our neighbors and, on my jaunt up into the hills this morning I was startled by WILD TURKEYS. We scared the heebeegeebees out of each other, I screamed and they took off running. 

All signs that Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

The Carving

Halloween is in 2 days. 2?! Costumes are not ready.  Luckily I don't work tomorrow (but am hosting a Star Wars Club meeting for Byron's friends)....it will get done, it always does. 

I have not been great at documenting my life but I do have a few events I want to get down before the Halloween photos need to go up.

We got to babysit Parker right before Fall Break

My camera was cloudy for the first few photos....

But I cleaned it off before dinner time. We loved hanging with that guy for the evening. 

 STEAM night!

Miriam and I got to volunteer at the Good Samaritan House in Salt Lake with the Young Women.

Such a good experience! We want to go back with the whole family.

Miriam's Musical Theatre class is pretty unbelievable.  They are BIG on the class bonding! A few Saturday's ago they had a big scavenger hunt which the team Miriam' was on won (the team I was the driver for came in dead last).  As the winning team Miriam's team got to go see a local high school's drama performance, and then had a steak dinner together. Feeling all sorts of grateful for the good teachers Miriam has had this year.  It takes a village....