2025 Happy New Year!

 We had minimal celebrations at OUR home!  Just me and Mike. He watched movies and football in the basement, I finished binge-watching some show on PBS.org. I can't even remember what it was, but I know I have watched ALL of "Theodosia" (that was on BYU tv) and ALL of season 5 of "Miss Scarlett" and now I'm nearly done with "All Creatures Great and Small," season 5. I love those fun shows. Mike loves football games. I don't.

Damian's family came to go skiing between Christmas and New Years. They skied in Beaver mountains, so we didn't see a whole lot of them, but it was nice to have dinner and visit a couple of times.  Poor Ella injured her wrist on day two.  They thought it was a dislocated bone in her hand, but on further inspection once they were home, it was fractured.  Lexi and Tandy got away with mere bruising, and Damian was sore and achy.

Damian cooking quesadillas in the kitchen one evening for dinner.

We all had traditional Breakfast Cassarole for the night when they got here, as we had not had it for Christmas breakfast like we usually do.  And fruit Salad. Pam and my Mom were able to join us that night.

I got a Christmas Present!  Ella said she saw it in WalMart and just had to buy it for me.  We are the only ones who have played it so far.  Damian helped us once, too. It's just for two teams, so he helped both of our "teams" of one.  And apparently Ella and I are loud. Damian was doing some online testing in the dining room (while wearing ear buds) while Ella and I played in the living room and he had to shush us. Just like anyone would have to shush really loud librarians. :-) 

And of course GAMES!  Caroline joined us for some of those, too.

We had a fun Relief Society activity one freezing cold night, too. Jan 7.  I spent most of my set up time OUTside, sprinkling ice melt crystals all over the sidewalks. One sister still slipped and fell while getting out of her vehicle. 

It was a small turnout, but we enjoyed ourselves. 

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Then began the preparations for Mom's 90th birthday party.  I did a lot of contacting, shoppimg, price comparisons, etc. for that. We had it on January 11 and more than FIFTY people came to eat and visit and take pictures and have cake.  Fifty. Pretty much all of them were her family.  Her visiting teacher stopped in for a minute, and two friends that Mom and Dad knew well in Missouri who now live in Utah drove all the way here to see her. It was such a fun afternoon. We had lots of food -- thanks to Janet!  She always does such a good job. I'd prepared for sandwiches and Pasta Salad and Potato Salad and Chips and Water, but SHE brought cheese curds. She also bought tons of fruit. She said it was for those who wouldn't have cake for dessert, and because she knew her grandkids would eat lots of fruit. And they did. So did EVERYone. Haha. Had it only been my provisions, I think folks may have gone hungry as there were practically NO leftovers of meat and cheese, bread, water, salads.  Maybe some folks went without. I don't know.  

Some photos NOT of the birthday party, but of gathering at our home before and after the birthday festivities. It was fun to have everyone here, enjoying each other, food, games, treats. 

We had some fun gatherings at my home, too. Katie and her whole family got in way way late on Friday the 10th, and spent the night. The next day, Saturday, Nick's family arrived in time for the noon party.  Gail, Seth and Jonathan came in on Friday evening and bought us pizza for dinner. Yum!

I think the party wore Corbin out.

This is Emily, "swimming" down the hall.

Emily was following Jane, kind of like a shark.

Hayden played the piano for us.

Eric took time to take digital photos of pictures in our albums.

Mike grilled us some yummy elk burgers for Saturday night's dinner

Cousins had a lot of fun with toys and playing together. Sometimes it was on screens.

Casey and Matt checking out a game. I think.

Merry Christmas 2024

This was our first practice/staging shot before the hair and wardrobe change. But Mike said he likes it better because the word "Favorite" is right over my head and I'm his Favorite. 

He did some secret Santa shopping and bought me an outfit. (I'll have to exchange it for a different size.) Other than that, there wasn't much of a gift exchange. We both got new Church shoes we shopped for a few weeks ago. And we received tons of neighbor gifts and goodies...some of which we have devoured.

A beef chuck roast and potatoes are in the crock pot for Dinner, but only Mom will be able to join us, as Eric and Matt both "have been smitten by the flu." I do hope it's a short 24 hour bug so they won't suffer very long. 

We look forward to seeing Damian, Tandy, Lexi and Ella later this week, and the rest of our kids on Jan 11th for Moms 90th birthday.  We are gonna have a party!!

Christmas in the kitchen

 I don't usually decorate too much in the kitchen. But I did this year!

Mr & Mrs Santa by the sink, with a box of received Christmas greeting cards. I missed sending them this year.

Cute containers and pinecones on the coat rack.

The reindeer jar usually has Whoppers in it. But we keep eating them. (Oink) Swedish Fish or cinnamon gummy bears go in the center jar...something red. But we keep eating those, too. The mini marshmallows last a bit longer. But only a bit. 

It was kind of fun to toss stuff around and make it more festive.

Until I needed to make applesauce two weeks ago. Then I had to move it all out of the way. Today, the counter looks quite cluttered. But in a good ( yum yum yummy good) way. PIE!

Apple, pumpkin, pecan. A coconut pie is in the fridge. Who needs a Christmas dinner? I'll just have pie, thank you very much!!

New Phone/ quick Vernal trip

 It took several days, but my new phone finally came in the mail. There was no repairing the old one. The water damage was too extensive, even after drying it out. It just won't power up. So sad. Luckily, I had a lot of information out on the cloud, and it was saved. I have pictures, etc. And I even was able to find on my new phone the Keep Notes app that I used for lists and so forth. That was a relief to find it. But I do have all my contacts back. I did lose all of the old texts and that's sad. There were many family photos and things in there. But, it could have been a lot worse! We didn't have to spend a ton of money for the phone, so that's nice. I do still have to get a case and a screen protector for it. But I am connected once more! Hip hip hooray!

Mike and I went up to salt lake on wednesday. We spent the night with Nick and kaylee. We met their new dog, Roz. He is a Maltese puppy and quite cute. We got to spend a little time with grandkids. 

Thursday we had lunch with Phil dixon. 

Then we drove on to vernal and visited with family and handed out Apple cider. We spent the night at Sally and devere's house. Friday morning we picked up pork and beef and drove home. Quik trip, but it was a lot of fun. No pictures, though. I'm trying out my new phone and it's Talk to Text Feature. It does not capitalize very well. :-) and I'm leaving it as is. I'm just relieved to have a new device. Poor Mike must have gotten very tired of me saying "Where's your phone?" all the time.

Mike and Roz snuggling.

Friends for eternity and fleeting phones

 Tonight  Kim and Terri Hunter came over to have dinner with us. Kim said something about he and Mike being friends in our pre-earth life. I think I can believe that! Some people just click. Some become dear, dear friends right away, and then they just stay that way. 

Eric and Matt dropped in for dessert afterwards. They were in town for a painting/art class with our friend Hannah Dawson ( Prussian Blue art designs).

It was fun to chat with them, too.  

Since I seldom think to take photos of our friends, I seized the moment tonight and we donned the Santa hats. 

However,

My phone took an unfortunate deep dive into the toilet  and I did not know it for quite a while. It spent some time in a rice bag, but now is at a repair place to see if we can salvage any of the data. I sure hope so. I'm missing it quite a lot, quite frankly. My tablet does not have my current and updated calendar. And I can't text the photos of Kim and Terri to them. But I can email, so I hope that will do! And I hope I can find them for this post, too. My first attempt failed to locate them. Oh dear.

Great evening with family and friends,  after a long-ish morning at choir rehearsal and afternoon in Temple office.  And a 30 minute nap this evening for me!