Mission Temple Trip to Jordan River Temple

Another cold day for a temple trip so no picture out front.  

One sweet experience as we sat down in the room, a woman sat down by Jena and reached  her hand over to me and said, "You might not remember" but I did.  It was Nancy Ross, our neighbor in West Jordan when we lived in Vista Lake subdivision.  I have a variety of memories of them--all good.  The Friday that we got our offer to go to Hong Kong her brother was in town from Hong Kong where he lived with his family.  He was able to come and review our expat package and let us know that it was a good package. It was so helpful to us and gave us confidence to move forward into the great unknown.  Later, as we lived in Hong Kong, we became friends with him, his wife, and family.  We were able to talk briefly in the Celestial room with Nancy and Grant and it brought back so many memories of the three years we lived in that neighborhood.  A sweet tender merch to see old friends.

Back to our missionaries--We had 20 missionaries attend the temple and 16 joined us for lunch at a nearby Sizzlers...great conversations

We love these wonderful missionaries and feel so blessed to work with each one of them.  They all have a story (which we love to hear) and have made their own sacrifices to be able to serve whether it is full time or part time as missionaries.

Christmas Gift: #3 Out Of 4

And going from one of the entertainment field to maybe the opposite end--Wednesday night we headed down to BYU for some COUGAR BASKETBALL!!

Christmas break and lack of as many students as normal allowed us some nice seats and some good social distancing which was nice in the pandemic world we live in currently.

We even wore our BYU clothing for the occasion....

and my trusty BYU mask Gary gave me for my birthday in 2020 (didn't think I would still be wearing it 18 months later.)

Introductions have been upgraded since I was a student at BYU!  Go Cougs!

And we had to get a Cougar Tail---When in Rome, as they say!

It is a 18" maple bar which was yummy and one was enough for all of us.  Highly recommend them if you ever attend a BYU basketball game.

Ask anyone, I am slightly nuts about BYU but I loved being there with Gary and Jena and cheering for my Cougars (who won the game, by the way)

Rise and Shout!!!!

And for those keeping track--Gift #4 will happen in February so stay tuned.

Christmas Gift: #2 Out of 4

On Christmas, I revealed to Jena and Gary what the three remaining activities were on their Christmas family gift so they could get excited about the upcoming events.

The first one happened the Tuesday after Christmas at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City.  We headed first to the Food Court at City Creek Mall for dinner and then walked through the mall to get as close to Abravanel Hall.  A storm had come in and it was freezing cold outside.  Not quite the winter wonderland walk I was hoping for when I first planned it.

We went to attend--

This is a group which has been around about 26 years after starting as students at Utah State University.  It is an a cappella group of 6 men.  They do a wide collection of music, but mostly have performed during the Christmas season.  We have attend several of their concerts over the years and have some of their CDs.  This was their last concert.  About 10 years ago, one of their members passed away due to cancer and this past January, another founding member passed away suddenly from a heart attack.

Getting fancy with our posed pictures with the stage behind us--before the show shot.

It was a very sweet concert with a mix of their Christmas songs and some of their classic numbers such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Farmer Tan, and The Lion Sleeps Tonight....and of course, a tribute to John Huff who had passed away with the throwing of rubber ducks on to the stage!  Here is an example if you have never seen the Rubber Duck song by John Huff.     
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_UlASVugk

I loved the whole concert and while it wasn't earth-shattering or life changing, I felt so glad that we had been there to see them say goodbye to their fans in this last show. We are so blessed to have opportunities like this during our lives.

Christmas PJS Everywhere!

It started because I was looking for new pjs to get for Christmas Eve for my granddaughter, Carter, who is 3 and loves all things dinosaur.  When you google that, you find out that there are thousands of dinosaur pjs for girls and boys and everyone else.  When I found a Christmas Eve book that featured dinosaurs, it cinched the deal--dinosaur pjs for everyone (I did send a quick text to Chantel to see if she thought Scarlett (age 7) might feel too old for dinosaurs.  She thought it might work.)

To top it off, I got Jena her own pair as well---

Here are Jessica's and Elessia's kids in their dinosaur pjs...

Scarlett modeling her purple ones--

Tosha is a brilliant connoisseur of Christmas pjs buying.  (Remember last year they had Dr. Seuss pjs).  This was their family photo this season in the pjs she got.  (Her kids like the dinosaur ones as well)  They did a mini-family photo shoot with a local photographer.

James was sick over Christmas this year which is never fun! We did see some brief smiles on Facetime, but he definitely didn't feel well.  Scott reported he was back to himself and enjoying his Christmas gifts shortly after Christmas.

Pretty cute kids if I do say so myself!