Dandy December

We got off on a good start this month by getting snow on the first day of December! It was enough that we needed to get the snowblower out and give it a try. Our area didn't get as much as the areas south of us though, but we were happy with what we got. 

In the few weeks following we got enough snow to open Beaver Mountain, but the snow is still pretty weak and not real great for skiing. Cherry Peak is hoping to open after Christmas. They've tried making snow, but the conditions haven't been good enough to get much added to what they got. Time will tell, we don't know what Mother Nature has in store for us this month.

We were invited to attend the Smithfield's Chamber of Commerce's Annual "Night of Giving" event that was held at Sky View High School by Andrew and Lindsay, since they are now members of the Smithfield Chamber of Commerce, due to owning Stonefire Pizza now. 

It was a nice evening. We bought raffle tickets, got some candy bars for the Golden Ticket prizes, had a nice meal in good company with Josh & Nicole Nuckles, Nicole's parents, the Nielsen's,  Andrew, Lindsay and Dale and I at a table.

During dinner they drew for the door prizes and raffle winners. Everyone at our table got something except us. Go figure, oh well, you win some, you lose some. It was fun to meet and see people we knew there though.

Thanks for the fun and tasty night out Andrew and Lindsay!

We rode to Morgan, UT with the Mallory's and met the Hassell's at a live Nativity that was put on by the Morgan Valley Church of Christ. It was held in an indoor horse arena and the people were dressed up in authentic dress. At the door we got a small bag of money to pay our taxes, and were then met with soldiers and the tax collectors where we signed the book that showed we paid our taxes. Their were horses, goats, sheep and a donkey. It was pretty impressive and made you feel like you were walking the streets of Bethlehem. I felt the spirit testify to me the importance of this event as we were gazing on the scene with the Christ child. Oh, how grateful I am for this young child and the live he lived and gave for us, so that we can return back to our maker someday.

After going to that event we went to the Kapp Compound (Jason's Aunt & Uncle's family hang-out place) in South Weber where Danica, Maria Potter King, and Jenny McGregor Franson pulled the Hansen Family together for a Christmas Party. We all brought a soup, salad, veggie tray, or dessert and had a nice meal. The kids (and some adults) got to play virtual indoor soccer, basketball & pickleball, we all visited and were even able to have  Santa (alias Jonathan Potter) show up with gifts (provided by the kids parents) . It was SO good to get together with Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins we hadn't see for awhile. Thanks to three sweet granddaughters for pulling this off for all of us in attendance. Fun times were had and memories were made.

Dale and I were able to attend a Christmas production put on by Nathan Pacheco at the Eccles Theater. Another wonderful way to get into the spirit of of holiday season. 

I also had the opportunity to usher a show put on by a father/daughter duo, The Shaw family. Matt and Savannah Shaw, from Farmington, UT,  started singing together a couple of years ago and have made a few CD's. This was their first time going on tour. It was another nice way to feel the spirit of Christmas.

For an early Christmas gift to Dale and I we joined up with our friends, Floyd and Alison Griffiths and went to Orlando, Florida for a week. We left Utah in the low 30's and landed in Florida in the low 60's. Day 1: We waited at the airport for quite awhile for our shuttle to pick us up to take us to our car rental place. Because of the long wait, we got upgraded from a Rogue to a Durango. It was a lot more roomy. We found our new home away from home and got settled in. The Griffiths hooked us up in a nice place by using their time share points. 

We checked out the area some and found a nice Thai restaurant to eat lunch at. From there we went to see a production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" put on by students in the Osceola Arts program in Kissimmee, FL. From there we stopped at the Eola Winter Wonderland, which didn't disappoint. There was a tunnel of lights, lights all around the lake, food trucks, an outdoor market, a movie on the lawn, and they also had a booth that gave out free hot chocolate. Of course we got some of that. It was very pretty. On the way back from there we found a grocery store and got some items for breakfast foods and snacks.

Day 2: After breakfast we headed out to go see the production of "A Christmas Carol" by the Orlando Shakes team which is celebrating its 35th Anniversary Season, Orlando Shakespeare Theater has grown into one of the region's most acclaimed professional theaters producing classic, contemporary, and children's plays and musicals. It was probably the best production I've ever seen of "The Christmas Carol". The acting, the music, the set designs, the costumes, it was all just very entertaining. Well done!!

From there Dale and Floyd navigated us to the Blue Springs State Park where we were able to see over 500 manatees which have been coming into the area because of the water getting colder with the winter season. This park has been known to have over 2,000 manatees migrate there.

Blue Springs State Park covers over 2,600 acres, including the largest spring on the St. Johns river. It's a designated manatee refuge and the winter home to a growing population of West Indian Manatees. During manatee season, which approximately runs from mid-November through March, several hundred manatees can be viewed atop the spring's overlooks on cold days. Manatees are in the waters for around a month before they start heading back out into the ocean. It was pretty cool!

We got back to the condo and planned our our next day and played card games before going to bed.

Day 3: Floyd made up his famous French Toast for breakfast before we headed out to go to Saint Cloud, FL and check out "Wild Florida" where we rode into the everglades on an airboat and saw alligators, birds, and a lot of green. It was crazy how the airboat could ride on top of not much water and go over grasses so smoothly. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water too.

We did get to see at least 6 alligators, one was pretty big too. 

As part of the Wild Florida adventure, we got to go into a Gator Park, that houses alligators that have been taken in as a refuge and learning center for the public. They had exotic birds like a Toucan, reptiles, and other animals, and a LOT of alligators. Sometimes these alligators are relocated into zoos. We were able to watch a gator feeding too. Boy, do they have big mouths, and they can jump!!

We also got to drive through a Safari Park and saw exotic and native animals like zebras, giraffes, watusi, bison, water buffalo, wilder beasts, camels, fallow deer, etc. to name a few. 

We saw emu's and ostrich's as well. When we were stopped an ostrich came up to the car and tried to stick his head in the car because I had the window down. It scared me to death!! It then kept hitting the window with his beak.  It was pretty crazy, but funny too. The car in front of us had set crackers on the side mirror of their car, so it wanted us to feed it too. 

Sorry, Charlie, we didn't have any food. 

This took up most of the day, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the condo where we played some card games before hitting the sack.

Day 4: After going to Church, we headed out to Lake Nona, a new area that had a few food trucks, and some Christmas lights, decorations, and a little outdoor marketplace, but not a whole lot to do so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to go see another state park, but our GPS took us to an apartment complex, so we just ate, did some sight seeing and headed back to the condo getting caught in a downpour and lightning storm on the way back. Dale got us back safe and we planned our next couple of days and played games.

Day 5: The day started out in Kissimmee where our driver, Dale, took us to the Gaylord Palms Resort, where we saw an Ice Show,  the Cirque show: Spirit of Christmas and The Greatest Story show. All were great in their own way. 

To see the ice show, you need to wear a parka because it's 9 degrees in the area where every display is made out of ice carvings. It was AMAZING! The theme for the show was "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It was cold, but so worth seeing. We even got to slide down a slide made of ice! 

It's quite the process the ice carvers go through to pull this show off. We got to watch one of the carvers work on a project as we were there. Those guys have a lot of talent!!

The Gaylord also had a" Cirque: Spirit of Christmas" show going on that we got tickets to. They were singing, juggling, spinning, and doing ariel acrobats. It was quite entertaining.

We also saw a group put on "The Greatest Story" a song story of the birth of Christ. The singers were very good, and the costumes were very nice, which made for a very nice program.

                                                      

The Gaylord Palms is a very nice Resort and was probably the only place other than the Eola Lakes Winter Wonderland display that was pretty decked out for the holidays. I really liked this Christmas tree.

When we were at Church on Sunday a guy told Dale that NASA was going to be doing a rocket launch today at 8:15pm so we decided to see if we could find a place to watch it. With Dale and Floyd's navigation and help from a nice lady at the gas station we found the perfect spot to watch it. We just had the river and a field between us. We could see the rocket through the binoculars on the launch pad, and the lights with the natural eye. We waited 2 1/2 hours and then we got word that the launch had been called off due to weather conditions. Dale got the best picture one could get of what we saw with our natural eye. Bummer for us!

We got back to the condo quite late because we had a long ride back and we stopped for a light dinner at Wendy's.

Day 6: Epcot was on the docket for today. We went to as many of the attractions that we could and rode as many rides as we could. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be and the wait lines weren't too bad. 

We Did the Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, rode on the ride Soarin', and Living with the Land . We rode the "Seas with Nemo & Friends" attraction and saw the "SeaBase" attraction that is like an aquarium. These were all in the World of Nature area.

In the World Showcase we went on the "Frozen Ever After" ride, saw the Reflections of China in Circle Vision, watched the American Adventure, went on "Remy's Ratatouille Adventure", and watched Canada Far and Wide in Circle-Vision 360. We saw, listened to, and heard to the "Christmas Witch" La Befana, from Italy share the tradition of Christmas in their country. We also got some picture from being in other countries.

In the World Celebration area we watched a 4D Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival of popular animated movie shorts, and checked out the Journey Into Imagination with Figment. 

The World Discovery area gave us the biggest thrill though. We experienced a NASA style simulated space launch. It gave us the feel of being in a space rocket as the crew. I was the navigator, Dale was the commander and Floyd was the pilot. We felt the G-forces that got you feeling tingly all over during the take-off and got a glimpse of what the earth looks like while in space. Pretty cool experience.

We also got to work as a team and built a race car, then we rode in our test car. It did best in  the collision field. That was pretty fun to do and experience. 

We ended the day with a nice fireworks show over the big lake that's in the center of Epcot. It was a full day of adventure and fun. We got back late again and hit the sack.

Day 7: After having a good sports meal for breakfast to clean out the fridge the best we could we packed up our bags and headed out to spend some time at Disney Springs before we had to return the Durango and be at the airport to head home.

For me the highlight of Disney Springs was the Lego store because of all of the Lego displays they have that are amazing. We saw everything from princess' and dragons to Star Wars figures and Santa Claus made out of Legos. 

We did some shopping, went to the show "Wish" to pass the time, and grabbed a bite to eat. Then we loaded up and headed to Action Car Rental where we returned the Durango and caught a shuttle to the airport. Getting to the airport went quicker than it did when we arrived so we arrived in plenty of time to get through security and be at the gate with time to spare.

Well, we ended up at the gate a LOT longer than we thought we would be. We got loaded on the plane and sat on the tarmac for almost 45 min. before the pilot came on and said that the plane was having some mechanical issues and that we would need to get off the plane so they can fix it. Another 45 min. wait and we were told that we could reboard the plane. 

This time the plane got down by the runaway and then stopped for awhile and we waited another 1/2 hour before the captain came on and said, "Folks it looks like the problem still isn't fixed, we're going to need to go back to the gate and let you off. I looks like our maintenance crew needs to get a part and that we need to get you a new plane and crew to take you back to Salt Lake". So we got off again and the airlines brought us water, cheese crackers, and granola bars to hold us over because all of the eating places were closed or closing.

Day 8: We were told to move to another gate and waited some more, walked the halls of the airport wing and played cards with the Griffiths into the wee hours of the morning.  The airport was lite up all bright and Christmas music was blaring so I didn't get any sleep, but among it all I never heard anyone really get negative about the delay, we all just took it in stride. The board on the kiosk by our new gate said the departure to Salt Lake would be at 2:30am, but we never started loading the plane until 3:30 am.  We landed in Salt Lake around 7:30am and arrived home around 9:30 am. We had snow on the ground and found out that it had snowed around 8 in. while we were away. Thanks to Andrew and our neighbor, Ned Hansen, the drive-way and walks were clear.

Needless to say I probably only got 3 hours of sleep due to a meeting I had to be to at 1:00pm.

Then I got caught up in doing Christmas cards and stayed up until midnight. Am I going crazy?  

Dale had planned to sing with a combined choir for a Tri-Stake Messiah Concert, but without getting to the last practice and his voice being weak from a cold he had earlier we decided to just go watch the concert and sing with the choir from the audience. It nice to be on the receiving end this year. 

Since being home we've kept busy by attending the temple, serving in the temple, getting together for a Girls Lunch date in Ogden; where we ate at this cool crepe place and were able to visit, serving at the CVHC, and going to a USU Men's basketball game (which they won). 

Andrew and Lindsay invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them at their house. We joined up with the Mallory's for dinner and visiting and to celebrate Mazin's birthday. He turned 8 years old. 

We ended up sleeping over at Andrew and Lindsay's and were able to hear the sounds of excitement, love and joy in the morning as the kids opened up their gifts. 

We headed home and checked our Christmas stockings to see what Santa had left and opened the gifts we had under our tree. Nate & Diana had our name this year and they gave us a nice Apple Air Tag to help us keep track of our phone, purse, and keys. The Hassell's gave us an outdoor heater for ice fishing and Andrew and Lindsay gave us matching USU shirts to wear to the games. along with a cozy blanket and glass bowl for popcorn. All thoughtful and nice gifts. We gave each other some collapsible camping chairs, collapsible roasting sticks, and our Florida trip.  

We got had the traditional ham, au gratin potatoes, corn, salads, rolls, and pecan or pumpkin pie for dinner here with the Mallory's and played games to finish off the day.

Dale and I were able to combine our December birthday dates and took Nora and Mazin to dinner at Pizza Pic Cafe bowling and to Shivers for frozen custard after. 

We found out that both Nora and Mazin are pretty good bowlers (it helped having the bumpers up) and I even surprised myself and beat Dale! We all had fun together and hopefully created some fun birthday memories. I know we wore one cute girl out, she fell asleep on the way home!

Because this was our off year to have all the kids together around Christmas, Danica pulled us all together for an after Christmas get-together for those living in Utah  (sorry Nate and Diana), to go ice skating at the new outdoor ice skating rink that opened in the new Carol Laub downtown plaza. Our youngest skater was June at 21 months and our oldest was Dale at 64. It was fun for all. 

After we headed north so the kids could use the gift cards we game them to help pay for their dinner at Stonefire Pizza because we all wanted to support our new restaurant owners. That was a tasty way to end our day. Thanks all for a fun day.

With the cold days and new snow after Christmas, Dale was able to get in some ice fishing. He went to Treasureton, ID and had some fun. I think he even out-fished Adam, which was a big feat! He got Jaxon, Andrew and Titan together to go the next day and guess what....no one caught a fish!! But they had a good time trying! You win some, you lose some, but time with loved ones always comes out as a win doesn't it?

For New Year's Eve, Dale smoked up a couple of racks of ribs and we went to our friends, Mike and Kathy Bullen's and met the Olson's, Perkes', and Masuyama's and ate and played games to bring in the New Year. Their were a lot of homes around in their neighborhood that did fireworks we got to see to bring in 2024.

Nate stayed home more this month and kept the office open while Diana joined a women's ice climbing group and got in some ice climbing. She climbed in Hyalite Canyon. She'll be showing up Nate before we know it. 

This is from a Facebook post on the Hansen Foot and Ankle site --

Perfect fits and smooth slopes! Because your feet deserve the VIP treatment too. Step into winter with our precision ski boot fittings and custom orthotics. #happyfeethappyskiing

Dr. Nathan D. Hansen is looking to get another Podiatrist to join him in his office. He's been interviewing and is starting to narrow it down. He'd like to have someone in with him by spring.

The Mallory's are heavy into basketball and indoor soccer. Amie and Matt are still involved with coaching/so-coaching some of the kids teams. We were able to watch Mazin and Langston play in their games, and Dale watched Kennlyn in hers, but he didn't take any pictures, that stinker.

The family got into the Christmas spirit by decorating gingerbread houses. They all did quite well for beginners, don't you think?

Amie is full swing into her job at Cherry Peak over the ski school and lessons. She put out the plea for help and has been hiring and making up schedules hoping to be ready for when the resort opens. 

Matt had a month long kindness awareness event happening at Heritage school where he works. The kids were asked to add cotton ball marshmallows to the cup of hot chocolate. If it got full the kids were treated to cups of hot chocolate during the lunch recess. From the picture it looks like the cup was stuffed with cotton ball marshmallows. They definitely wanted hot chocolate!!

Andrew's and Lindsay's Nora celebrated her 7th birthday the first of Dec. and all she wanted was snow. Well, guess what? It snowed for her birthday!! She was in heaven. Andrew hooked up a rope to the back of their ATV and gave the kids a ride in the backyard. She was one happy girl. Happy Birthday Nora, we love you!!

Andrew and Titan had a man date and used our USU Men's Basketball tickets to watch USU beat San Diego on their home court, in the Spectrum. They both said they had a good time. We were glad the tickets got used.

Eloise, Nora and Arwyn went to a Sky View Cheer Camp and preformed during half-time at a Girl's basketball game. They loved being out on the court! Where we were sitting we couldn't get a picture of Nora and Arwyn, but we got one of Eloise! Way to go girls!

The family got to spend some time together having fun seeing the sights of Christmas. They have some homes in their area that go all out on decorating!

They also pulled the kids together to help get the restaurant ready for the big week ahead where the kids are out of school and the New Year is around the corner. I think the kids like helping out too. A family that works and plays together, stays together, right?

Garrett and Zandra took their kids out on the slopes at Snow Basin after the first snowfall. They are going to make the most of those season passes they bought. Zandra's teaching beginning ski lessons at the resort so she gets a family discount. Well worth the work to enjoy the family fun.

Dale and I went and watched Luke and Jorie preform in a Christmas gymnastics program. Jorie's got her back hand-spring down!! She went to fast to get a good picture though!!

They also carried on their tradition and made a giant gingerbread house where all helped decorate it. I think they used cardboard instead of cookie dough for the frame this time, which was pretty clever.

The Hassell's also took advantage of the first snowfall in their area. Jason and June made a little slide in their backyard that June loved going down. They also went to Bear Lake and stayed with Grandpa Hassell and the family at Ideal Beach in his condo after more snow hit the area. They got pulled behind a ATV and went sledding. Fun times with family were made by all.

Later in the month to get in some fun in the sun they headed south and went to ST. George to give June some time to spend time with Great-Grandpa Hassell and Grandpa Hassell. I'm sure Jason and Danica loved the warmer temps too though because they got in some hiking, golfing, and June got in a visit with Mr. & Mrs. Claus and a horse ride while they were there.

They must of brought the sunshine with them when they came home because we had a spell of some warmer temps with sunshine. It made it so that June could be Danica's little helper in delivering their neighborhood gifts. Wouldn't you love having this little helper ring your doorbell?

Two days before Christmas we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground!! I got my Christmas wish in having white Christmas!! 

In World News-- 

       The first day of a cease fire begins with Hamas releasing 24 hostages --

        Israel - Hamas Truce ends as Israel launches an attack on Gaza --

    

        President Putin orders an increase in the size of the Russian military --

        The General Assembly of the United Nations voted for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza --

        Pope Francis gives priests in Catholic churches the authority to bless same-sex couples --

A month of family, love for others, love for Christ, and happenings in our lives added with some world news to top it off. 

It's been a great year. Bring on 2024!!