December Beginnings

 This Birthday Party at State Bank of Southern Utah was really in November. We go every year if we can. This year the decor was so cute-- butcher paper wall murals all over, depicting the desert and western theme. The employees were dressed in western attire and greeted us with a hearty "Howdy." ;-)

I took this photo on our way home from St. George once in November. It's Zion National Park and we're just speeding up the freeway on the way home. It was such a gorgeous site, I could not resist.

Here are some samples of a few of the Christmas Cards I painted this year. I have been wanting to do this for YEARS and finally did it!  I think they turned out nicely. I hope I get them mailed out in time.

I picked up some pretty leaves on neighbor's lawns during the past month, pressed them and got them made int o a new, brighter fall wreath. My old one was so broken and faded, it felt good to get it updated. In all honesty, this photo is an "enhanced" one making it slightly brighter than in real life. But only slighter.

One wintry December morning, Mike and I went to the temple to do our regular Wednesday morning shift in the office . . .  first cold and snow of the season!  We are praying and hoping for a good snow pack this year in our mountains. We sure need the water!

Even thought we didn't get a lot of apple cider made, we can still enjoy it for a while. This is a caramel apple drink!  yummy and delicious!!

Sort of Christmas cookies.  Mike found marked down cookies, so we took those out to our Relief Society sisters when we did our visiting early this month.

Thanksgivinig

 We had a small group of 8 for our Roast Beast Dinner:

Me, Mike, my Mom, Gayela Garnder, Eric, Matt, Caroline, C's roommate Nickie.

We did share some things we were thankful for and tried guessing who wrote what as I read them from slips in a jar.  We had a rousing game of Thanksgiving Bingo, as well. But no prizes.  Lame. :-)

I ordered some Rolls from Liz Carter Hink. They were good, but Mike assured me that mine are just as good.  I don't make them often enough to know! ha.

After I came home from AGW in November, Gayela came to stay some weeks with us. Part of that was spent with her children up North. We all went on Friday November 14 to Olivia Gardner's wedding to Braeden  . . . hmmm. Somebody. I don't remember their last name right now.  It was a lovely day. Nice drive up to Payson from Cedar City that morning, the sealing in the Payson Temple at 12:30. A dinner in the evening, followed by a reception.  Gayela got to see ALL her kids at one time in one place! That hasn't happened for about 15 years, she said. She stayed up there for a few days after the wedding and came back to Cedar City on the Shuttle

 

We went to parties, our Ward Christmas Dinner on December 2nd, and a Temple Office Party on December 1. We went to the movies once, met Mom and Donna there to see "Sarah's Oil." That was a really good film! Donna was here for a few days after AGW, too. She and Mom got to shop and play and relax together. It's fun to have Donna here. We played games with HER, too.

Once, Mike and I and Gayela went out to eat at Rusty's and enjoyed coconut shrimp with Kim and Terri Hunter. We had one of those coupons that we just couldn't let go to waste, you know. haha. And of course, we never think to take photos of our fun times like that! Ever.

We saw one more movie with Gayela, Wicked for Good (2) before she left to go home to Denver on the 3rd of December. Other than that, we just sat around and read and did our usual stuff, plus a trip or two down to St. George. Once to attend the temple at Red Cliffs with her, another time to gather some shoes and office supplies.

 

I've been doing Christmas Cards to send out this year.  I haven't SENT them yet as I only finished water coloring them today.  I did 94 of them! That was a lot but I had a lot of fun doing it (most of the time). The only things I had to buy were some envelopes and cardstock. And I opted to get a gold and a silver gel pen, too.  I had the paints and paper and brushes already. Plus a slew of screenshots stolen off of the internet of others painting trees and ornaments, etc. 

 

And I have decorated for Christmas up stairs in my house. Two trees because I'm scheduled to host the December Relief Society Sisters birthday dinner. But only a couple can actually come. I hope we don't cancel or postpone it like we did in October. . .  all that decorating for naught. haha. No, we will enjoy it lots. 

 December 4 I went to my first session of Physical Therapy. It's been MONTHS since I injured my hip playing pickleball (? maybe? I'm not really sure how it got hurt). Hopefully after a few sessions I'll be able to use stairs without pain once more.

December 5 was Eric's Christmas concert for the St. George Chamber chorus he sings with. It was lovely. Long, too. We were tired, but they sounded so good.  The drive to St. George was nice, too.

 

Dec 5 I did some Relief Society visits to sisters in our ward and dropped off pointsettias or cookies and just had some really nice visits. We really need to do that lots more. We just tend to get caught up in our everyday busy lives and don't get it done. However, I think the coming months will be very busy for us as we have two shoulder surgeries, one knee replacement and three babies coming up in our Ward Relief Society Sisters in the next three months! That's a lot of meals to take around and tending to help with as 2 of the sisters are having baby number 5 and their oldest ones are only about 7 or so.  LOTS of littles!