Our month started off with the end of flag football season. The girls made signs to cheer on D’s team. They won the first game so got to play in the league’s “Super Bowl.” It was a disappointing loss but they got medals for making it to the Super Bowl. I think that’s a pretty nice finish to a wonderful season with great coaches and great kids on the team. It will be sad to not have S’s dad and T’s dad coaching and having D hanging out with S & T a couple time a week next fall. Why? We are going to move D to the other flag football league that doesn’t have games on Sundays. It will be hard but it will be worth it to not be playing on the Sabbath. D has already expressed concern that serving a mission will negatively impact his aspirations in athletics but I promised him that if he was willing to serve the Lord he would be blessed more than he could know.
The same day as D’s Super Bowl I attended our ward’s 8 is Great as the Activity Days leader. It was fun to see how excited the children that used to be my Sunbeams (and who I had subbed for two weeks in a row in November) were to be baptized in 2019. They are a great bunch! That evening was the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. Let’s just say I liked listening to it a whole lot more than the children did. Try as I might to focus on the Savior at Christmas time, Santa is a pretty hard act to beat.
In December D began martial arts (Muy Tai) at a place where a couple of his friends go to be able to stay active during the winter. He is absolutely loving it. My dad takes him on Wednesdays after school while I have either Activity Days or Girl Scout meetings. We also came to the compromise that D is allowed to go on Monday nights every other week but needs to attend the therapist with us the other Mondays. He can also go on Saturdays but that’s kind of hard to remember to do some mornings! We’ll get in the hang of it eventually.
K’s volleyball is in full swing and she is loving how much better the other children on the team are. So far she is assigned to be a hitter, which I know she will do very well in. Their first tournament is in January and I’m already pretty excited to see what that is like! She did have to attend really long scoring clinic because all the club players have to help line judge or score at every tournament. Thank goodness her friend C & A were there to suffer through it with!
I tried to get N in soccer but there aren’t enough children her age signed up to hold a class right now but I was able to get M signed up for horse lessons that begin in January at the place she’s been attending horse camps and had her birthday party last year. She has been wanting them for quite some time and is happy to really learn how to ride instead of just having fun. I do, however, feel like our family’s newest hobby is to go to the chiropractor. Two or three times a week you can find a member of our family there to help with back pain (M & Hubby), wrist pain (K), foot or elbow pain (N and I) or just all over needing to be put back together right due to sports (D). We all are feeling better so it was totally worth the time and money but I’m hoping there won’t be so many trips there in the new year.
Speaking of trips, we decided to drive to Utah for the first time in 18 months. The children all really wanted to spend Christmas with their cousins so we decided that’s what we were going to do. We haven’t been there for a very long time because K had such a hard time coming home. She really wished we lived there and was extremely sad and when she is sad she gets angry and it was very hard on all of us to see her that way so this year Ashley helped us for two sessions on things we can do to help make the return trip easier for her. I think one of the best ideas that came out of that is making sure she is first to pick the movie on the way home. I think we will have a great time seeing Hubby’s family, his extended family, and some of our friends that we haven’t seen for a long time.
Before Christmas we had Hanukkah Activity Days meeting complete with talk of miracles, playing dreidel, doing a menorah craft and eating homemade latkes with applesauce. (See https://cooking.nytimes.com/
The next morning I spent at Cookie Training in Loveland wondering what on earth I got myself into volunteering to be the cookie mom for M’s troop. At least our December meeting was a blast and a breeze by playing games together and having an awards ceremony!
Our Ward Christmas Party was really well run by the new RS president and had plenty of food and fun and since our family stayed to help clean up the decorations we got to go up to the attic of the church for the first time. That weekend we also enjoyed the Dancing with the Stars Juniors finale way more than you would expect. When Jordan Fisher & Frankie Muniz announced the winners the girls in my house about went crazy with surprise and glee. It is the only show we were willing to sit down every Sunday night at 7pm and watch all those commercials they have on tv. That is really saying something for children who have grown up on Netflix!
Thanks to Kari having N over for a play date after kindergarten, my dad and I took another trip to the temple and of course loved being there. My to do list was long and I didn’t get the housework done that day but there is no other place I would have wanted to be that day. When I go to the temple I am reminded that God knows all, loves all of us, and that we must be reminded of forever in order to have an eternal perspective and keep our priorities in line on this earth. I am grateful I was able to go again and feel like it helped me with the many extra things that must be done in December.
Some of those to do items were having fun like volunteering in N’s classroom for parachute present delivery & her mtss meeting. N is progressing really nicely thanks to extra support at school and her willingness to work on her Lexia iPad homework at home with me. I am very proud of her and how she is trying her best. I know she would rather not go to school 5 mornings a week but she always goes because she understands that what you do when you’re 5 and a half years old.
Q’s birthday party at the Climbing Collective introduced K to indoor climbing and she liked it enough to say she might want her birthday party there this summer. I think that’s a very high compliment. That night we had the missionaries over for dinner and our family really enjoys this companionship. I have got to learn to take pictures with our favorite Elders before they get transferred. The next night was Hubby’s work’s holiday party. We had so much fun! My mom was great and came and spent the night with the children having a slumber party in the basement after we rented the movie Smallfoot from Redbox for them to watch. The children’s favorite babysitter had caught a stomach bug the day before but Grandma saved the night & was so kind about it. She reported that K was a great helped and was the only reason all the children were asleep before we got home from the party. I’m glad we didn’t cancel because we hadn’t gone to his work party in YEARS and we got to play Blackjack, which I haven’t played since my Apple co-workers taught me how to play at our work Christmas party back in 2006. It was fun to see that I remembered just what to do and actually be better at something than my husband for a change! After the good food, interesting people to talk to, playing Blackjack and laughing our way through a couple photo booths we were a very happy couple.
The next day I appreciated Bishop K. having us over to his new house for tithing settlement and the time he took to teach our children and even use Hersey’s Kisses to teach them about tithing. I was very proud of M to pay her tithing once again. I loved when she told the bishop she didn’t think she was a full tithe payer (Hubby and I think she is) that her willingness to pay tithing and striving to pay a full tithe from now one is all she had to do to be a full tithe payer. M sells herself short — the rest of the children flat out refused to pay anything at all! That night we attended our former neighbor’s Christmas Cantata and they did a wonderful job. It was great to be there watching him sing as part of the “praise team” and of course the children loved all the Christmas cookies! I had made Gluten Free and Dairy Free gingerbread men for the first time in my life that Sunday for Hubby’s deacons to take to members of their quorum and for the cantata and was thrilled when they turned out all right. They were even better after a few days. I don’t know why fresh GF cookies aren’t as good as ones that have rested a day or two but that just seems to be the way GF baking works. (See https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-gingerbread-cookies-recipe.)
3/4 children had gifts to prepare as Secrets Santas for their classmates (D and M) or a gift and snack for Girl Scouts (N). M and D had their very first strings performance on Wednesday. I was glad it was during the school day and that Hubby could join us for a break from work. The 3rd graders went first and I was very glad to see M’s beautiful fingering. Starting off with a pro teacher may have caused some tears this summer but it was worth it. And I’m glad J from across the street can help M practice every week now after M had a solid foundation. No tears! I was impressed with how hard D was working to try to keep up with other 4th graders, some of whom began playing over a year ago. The cellos were so close together they were poking each other with their bows as they played but they all kept their composure!
The performance got out a few minutes early, which gave us extra time to get ready for our historic Activity Days meeting. It was the last meeting for our 3 11-year-olds that will be entering Young Women’s together in January and Sister E and I decided to have the girls who will be joining Activity Days in January to come to the special Christmas activity Sister E had planned. So, for this one time, we had 7-year-olds and 11-year-olds together to make a bracelet, play games, sing the 12 Days of Christmas and drink hot chocolate with GF Oreo type cookies. I am so pleased K will begin YW at the same time as her friends, L and L! I remember it was so hard for my best friend to wait for her December birthday to move out of Primary the year we turned 12. This way they can all go to Girls Camp this summer too — I wasn’t planning on that but here they go! What really blew my mind was when I heard they will be able to obtain temple recommends. Are they really old enough for that? When I think about it, K has grown up so much since turning 11. I am proud of all she has done the first half of 5th grade and how well she can babysit N for short periods of time. I am grateful at all the changes President Nelson has been announcing. After listening to one Oct. 2018 General Conference talk/day I began listening to President Nelson’s talks beginning when he became an Apostle and have felt uplifted, educated, admonished and encouraged. Here’s to the future!
Thursday was the last full day of school for 2018. K and N got to have a pajama day, which made D insanely jealous. He has been begging to go back to the public school saying that he is bored and wants to start school later in the day but Hubby and I feel he should finish out the year at the Waldorf school so that he can experience all the seasons, participate in the school play and not have three different teachers/classes in one year. I have had phone meetings with his main teacher twice already this month. Even with all his complaints, especially when he and M had a half day of school on Friday and K and N didn’t his teacher still reported he behaved well anyway after having a rough start to the week. Yes, he got sent to the office for the first time in his life on Monday during Spanish class. He said it was fun.
Thursday was also a super busy day for M. After school M went to the dentist to pick up her new orthodontic device, then went to the chiropractor, then had her viola lesson with J. By the time she was down with that my parents had come over for dinner and opening of Christmas gifts. I was proud of her for powering through. We had breakfast for dinner and I actually made pancakes from scratch instead of from a mix. Whoa — I’m getting braver in the kitchen. K’s favorite present was her spa craft supplies, D’s favorite was Splatoon, M’s favorite was a intricate coloring kit and N’s favorite was her panda slippers and polar bear stuffed animal. Thanks for picking out some great gifts, Mom!
Friday was packing day and took ALL DAY LONG. Thank goodness my dad came over to see if I needed help — he wrapped presents for me for almost 2 hours while I ate lunch and kept on packing. Hubby came home from work early and got put to work too, poor soul. I ended up sending K and M to a Girls Party I was invited to at the O’s house so that we could be ready to leave in the morning. Luckily when I went to pick them up around 9pm I got to talk to S and B for over half an hour before we actually went home, which made me feel more connected and less anti-social. This week did make me hope that the next time I think about going out of town at Christmas time I remember to allow more than one day to get everything done!
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