December Dynamo

I decided to kick off the month by joining in on Service Day and made eight flannel pillowcases for the "Ryan's Cases for a Cause" project that our ward took on. They give the pillowcases to terminally ill children in hospitals to put on their pillows to cheer up their hospital rooms.

Andrew and Lindsay kicked off the month by waiting for the little girl they're adopting to be born and then take home. Nora Leigh Hansen was born Dec. 1st, weighing 7lbs. 6 oz.  She came home to a family full of love. Andrew and Lindsay will have their hands full with another one coming in May, but they know Nora was meant to come into their family. She brings our total up to 8 grandkids. We're feeling pretty blessed.

Dale sang with the American Festival Chorus, joining Gentri, a trio of gentlemen with some really great voices, for their Christmas concert. I was fortunate enough to usher two of the shows and loved hearing both performances. The Cache Children's Choir, Westminster Bell Chorus, and Mike Christensen, a great guitarist, joined them as well. A great kick-off to bring in that wonderful Christmas feeling.

Dale also traveled to Kamas, UT and did the same program there at the DeJoria Event Center there with the choir.

I started my winter DIBELS testing and ushered for the Juanito Bandito's Christmas Carol show at the Eccles theater. We had a little fun and wore mustaches to honor Junaito Bandito himself. I also ushered for the Bar J Wranglers Christmas show. We're quite the crew aren't we?

Amie and her kids, and Garrett, Zandra and Jorie came and joined Lindsay, the kids and Dale and I for the Hansen family Christmas get-together.

We met at Pioneer Valley Lodge where Grandpa and Grandma Hansen are living and had pizza,

visited and played the gift exchange game. I got a bit creative and put together a fun vegetable tray even. Garrett used his artistic skills and cut the star out of cheese.

Nate and Kim enjoyed the slopes and Crystal Mt. Resort near Mt. Rainer, did some ice climbing at Chair Peak and did the Alpental Summit at the  Snoqualinie Ski area. They got some good snow before we did and made sure to take advantage of it. I can't say I don't blame them it looks beautiful!

Matt's coaching the Oakley girls basketball team, Amie's coaching Jaxon in basketball, and Jaxson's still taking piano lessons and had his Christmas piano recital, Jaxson and Kennlyn had their school Christmas programs, and Amie gave Mazin his first haircut. What a handsome little guy they have there.

Andrew, Lindsay and kids and Garrett, Zandra and Jorie all headed south to see the lights on temple square to get a jump start into the spirit of the holidays.

They also got out and hit the slopes at Beaver Mountain some with the new snow that we got. It's going to be a white Christmas!

Garrett and Zandra also got to go to a Jazz game with some friends. Pretty fun for them and Jorie LOVED the game.

Andrew went elk hunting up Smithfield Canyon and ended up getting one. He had to call Dale for help to get it down the mountain though, and Dale was glad to get out of the office to get up in the mountains to help out. Nice job guys.

Danica got done with finals and felt pretty good about how they went. She later found out that she got all A's and made the Dean's list again. She also got a job in Ogden at VASA Fitness, so she has a job waiting for her next month. She had to say good-bye to St. George and the sun......

She packed up her room and loaded up her car and headed north, driving in a snow storm with her friend Jason, and pet hedgehog, Willow to keep her company. School is history for her. They stopped in Ogden and spent a few nights with friends, went to a Jazz game and Danica did some training for her job before pulling into our house.Welcome home Danica!

Danica and I went and visited Aunt Vonda for awhile were glad we could spend some time with her.

We had all but Nate and Kim here for Christmas. It was a full house full of fun. To kick off our Christmas activities we met up with everyone in Farmington, UT where we ate lunch and then did a little Christmas shopping. Dale and I gave each couple/family $20 to spend on something to give away to someone during the rest of the day.  We then headed to Salt Lake to go see Hogle Zoo's Zoolights. We gathered at the gate and some nice people gave Dale three children's tickets to the zoo! How nice was that?  Andrew from our group used their $20 to buy tickets for others to get in as a Pay it Forward type deal.

The zoo was all lit up almost as much as temple square! It was pretty neat. We walked around and handed out our gifts to people we thought could use them. We also got to see some of the animals. It was a fun twist on seeing some cool light displays.

We all headed over to Red Robin in Layton for dinner and then headed home to hot chocolate and our warm beds.

Christmas Eve day we bundled up again and headed over to Hardware Ranch and went on a wagon ride and saw the elk herd that they feed there. Boy were there a lot of elk and some pretty big ones too! We even got them to bugle a bit. We were pretty close to them too. It was really neat.

We stopped and visited the cemetery and sang Christmas songs at mom and dad's grave and then headed home to our traditional soup, cheeseball and crackers and vegetable tray meal. Kennlyn and Danica put the vegetable tray together this time.

We also celebrated Mazin's 1st birthday. Amie made a cute snowman cake and we had him open his presents.

Then we did our little program where each family shares a talent and after that we all shared what we'd done with our $20 and how it made us feel to help out or cheer up others. Amie's group bought some toys and treats to give away, Andrew and crew paid for a family's Zoolights admission, Garrett's family paid for someones meal behind them at the drive-up and then handed out treats, Danica and her friend, Jason, bought a build a bear and gave it away and Dale and I handed out gloves, a hat, some slipper socks and toys. We all had that good feeling doing it too. We sang Christmas songs and shared memories of favorite Christmas'. It was a nice evening, but Dale's been battling a bad cold though, so not real fun for him. Poor guy.
Garrett, Zandra, and Jorie stayed the night as well as the Mallorys and Danica. Getting everyone to settle down for bed wasn't too bad though because we wore them out. We had fun getting things ready for the big day tomorrow.

Boy, with the Mallory's, Garrett's bunch and Danica here the house was full and the Christmas tree was filled with presents under it when we woke up Christmas morning. We kept tradition and read from Luke 2 about the Savior's birth, but we had to all sit at the top of the stairs in the hallway because we couldn't all fit on our bed. Langston was in charge of putting baby Jesus in the manger.

He was so cute about it too. So gentle and loving like it was a real baby.

Santa was good to us all. He even brought more snow!! We got about 4-6 inches of snow!! We opened our gifts and then everyone got in their Sunday clothes and we went to Sacrament Meeting. We went to our home ward and I sang in the choir. It was so neat to look out and see all of the families sitting together with kids that had come home for Christmas. The program was real nice and I felt the spirit as we sang the songs. I love the Christmas music and the feelings it brings.

With Zandra's help we had a delicious Prime Rib dinner with all of the fixings. Everyone was great to jump in and help with preparation and clean-up. The kids all got along and we had a good time.

We loaded up the cars and headed over to Hyrum for the Petersen family party. It was in the gym of Canyon Elementary. We got to the school and where it had been snowing off and on most of the day realized we had no sidewalks shoveled. So I flatted down the snow the best I could in the parking area by driving around and then they shoveled a walking path to the door.

We ate finger foods, visited, played games with a parachute as well as played human hungry hippo with roller boards, buckets and balloons. We all had a great time. We had a smaller group there, maybe 30, but we had fun! Tradition carried on. Thanks Larry, Glee, Marci, Jeremy and kids, Suzette, Dustin and kids, Danny, Terry, Erin, Christian and kids, Dale, Amie, Matt and kids.

Nate and Kim spent Christmas in Washington with Kim's folks and her brother and sister-in-law. We get to see and spend time with them for New Years.

The day after Christmas we loaded up and headed to Cherry Peak Ski Resort for a half-day of fun on the slopes and in the lodge. The youngest skier was Amie's little guy, Mazin, who was in a backpack on Amie's back. It was also her 4 year old, Langston's, first time on skis, but he was getting the hang of it. Zandra, Jorie, Dale (who has been coughing his head off) and I stayed in the lodge and played games and manned the lunch, which was Taco Soup, carrots, celery and cookies. We all had a fun time and the snow was great.

We got home and warmed up some then Garrett, Zandra and Jorie headed home and we headed out to the Eccles Ice Arena and went ice skating with the crew. It was Hyde Parks annual skate night. Amie and her kids, Danica and her friend, Jason, and I all skated. We pushed Mazin around in the stroller. Dale and Matt sat out because they didn't have any skates available in their size. We saw a lot of neighbors and friends, and had fun. We even got to watch the Zamboni freshen up the ice.

Andrew and Lindsay and kids didn't join us on the colder events because they have that cute little 3 1/2 week old and Eloise has a bad cold, so we missed them. They joined us for the inside stuff though.

The crew left and the house was quiet for a bit, but not too long cuz Nate and Kim came to Utah to ski and to bring in the New Year with us. Nate got in some skiing at Crystal Mountain Resort in Washington before heading onto our snow in Utah.

Nate and Kim got to Utah and hooked up with some friends and hit the backcountry in Garden City, UT. With all of our fresh snow and sunshine it's sooooo very pretty out!!

We got together with Andrew, Lindsay and the kids and had Nate and Kim join us for pizza and games to bring in the New Year. We even did a some simple "Utah" fireworks to bring in the New Year.

Nate and his buddies, Jon Bennion and Brody Hatch, started a tradition back in high school to jump off the bridge at First Dam to bring in the New Year. They are crazy in my eyes and lucky they didn't freeze to death. Boys will be boys however.....

What a way to end a Dynamo December, right?