Holiday fun and snowy days

We attended "Babes in Toyland" at the Centerpoint theatre with Mom Hall, my sister in law, Vonette, her husband and two daughters.  It was fun although not my most favorite play or performance at Centerpoint.

Jena also started a new assignment at the theatre. We now go about an hour early and Jena (and I ) work in the costume department.  Jena's responsibilities are to put away fabrics which have been pulled out of the fabric closet away (it is organized by colors) and to organize each shelf and clean it up.  I will get a picture but imagine a room about 30 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 14 feet tall lined with shelves from top to bottom filled with all types of fabric.  I don't like to sew but I have a mother who loved fabric and I can appreciate it through her eyes.  Jena is delighted with this new assignment.  It takes her a bit closer to her life goal to work in the costume department of a theatre.

Jena had some fun parties throughout December in addition to her normal busy schedule. She is part of a choir at STEPS and they performed an outside Christmas concert at Farmington Station and then an indoor concert at the Kaysville Police Station and City Hall.  Here she is waiting for the concert to get started at the Police Station.  She loves to sing and be part of the group.

Saturday December 12 we had our 24th Hall Almost Annual Adult Christmas Party.  It was hard to narrow the invitation list down.  We had our good friends who we have shared the holiday with over the years but also a new ward family who we are trying to get to know.  We invited 14 couples which included four from the new section of our ward.  Only one from the new section attended so it was really like a Family reunion. How great it was to be with these sweet friends who although still live only a block or so away--we never see them!  Our new ward is in another building so we can't even run into each other in the hallways at Church on Sundays.  It feels like they have moved to the other side of the world.  Our invitation was done in the style of a Wikipedia page defining "Hall Almost Annual Adult Christmas Party".  As usual we did a white elephant gift exchange and this year I was in charge for the first time ever.  Our goal is to also have something different as we exchange gifts. This time we had a "Handle Exchange".  Gifts were tagged each time they switched people and when they had the eight dot placed they were frozen there and that person kept the gift for the rest of the game and was exempt from all other types of exchanges.  Some people figured out how to work that to their advantage and some of us were not so lucky.

This gift was a favorite (and actually one that we brought).  Kevin and Jolie Watson figured out how to conspire to end up with it by counting the exchanges carefully and making a smart move at the right time.

This was the gift I ended up with--a bath towel with directions for drying! I apparently was not as skilled as the Watsons.

As usual the lizard made his appearance and ended up going home with the family from the new section of our ward.  They only have adult children but I guess it scared one of their daughters when she stopped by and saw it on their kitchen counter.  She said she would definitely have not taken that home. It was fun and always reminds us of our many other parties and friends from all over the place.  Perhaps someday we can have a Christmas party reunion with our friends from everywhere.  Do you think we will have time for that in Heaven?

And since it is December, I guess it is okay that it snowed a few weeks before Christmas.  I am not a snow fan but I tolerate it in December for the whole white Christmas tradition.  Jena helps out while waiting for her bus while Gary starts his busy morning of snow blowing up and down and all around the neighborhood.

The snow was very heavy.  This is the view out the middle front window of our house where the branches were so filled with snow that they covered almost the whole view.

Okay, even for an "un-fan" of snow, there is something magical about the new fallen snow.  Even I can see that.

Our maple trees

The view out of our dining room window

During these snows, Ben was down in UNI in Salt Lake.  It is located near the University of Utah up in the benches of eastern Salt Lake.  As I pulled into the parking lot one night to visit him, my headlines hit upon this deer just a few feet from the end of the parking stall.  There were about 4 deer grazing on the bushes.  He didn't even move when I got out of the car to walk to the door.  They must eat there a lot and are used to people coming and going. Look how high the snow is on the deer who was fairly good sized.

Jena spent a couple of evenings putting together her mission newsletter and Christmas cards for all those serving from our ward or her friends.  That was 25 cards she sent out and she wrote a personal message to each one.  I am sure they loved them.  (And her Christmas cards got mailed out before Christmas....mine were the week after Christmas!)

Despite my best efforts for time to slow down so that I could get done the things I wanted to get done, Christmas came on time--first with our Monday Night Hall Christmas Eve dinner and then actual Christmas Day....that will be the next post.