Christmas Decor

I always love putting up our Christmas decor. It's so fun and festive. I especially love our Nativity Sets. We have many of them and keep adding to our collection.

This year, back in November, Deseret Book had a "grand reveal" of their Nativity Sets for this year. They had music and cocoa and a little party and then removed the coverings of their display shelves and showed their new sets. We LOVED them and bought one to add to our collection.

We saw this round, luminary, glass Nativity and I decided to come back to buy one when I had a coupon. So, at the end of November, I went back. While I was there, the sales person told me that since we were "Platinum Members" at Deseret Book, we could take part in the Black Friday sale after Thanksgiving and everything would be 40% off. I lamented that we would be out of town that day. They said that they could arrange to let me buy something two days before Thanksgiving, rather than the day after Thanksgiving. When I went back in, I was going to buy one of those glass luminaries. When I realized they were 40% off, I asked how many they had in stock and whether they could order more. The manager came out and told me that they only had a few, but that they could order more. I asked what the price would be after the discount. He told me $5. What!?! I said that I wanted 20 of them. He then went up to order more and ring up my order. Then, he said that he had calculated wrong and that they should be $15, but since he told me that, he would honor the price? "Really?" I exclaimed. He nodded and proceeded to adjust the price on all 20 Nativities in the register. Yay!!! He told me he had ordered them and I would get a call in about 2 weeks when they came in. Holy cow!!! That was awesome!!! After I left, I thought that I should have ordered more. This thing for $5? LOVE IT!!!! So, we gave one to each of our parents, one to my sister, one to our ministering families, and one to several neighbors and friends. Love it!!! Plus, we made sure to keep one for ourselves. We put it right by the computer in the kitchen. When you light the votive candles in the middle, it glows and you can see the silhouette of the Holy Family. Beautiful!!!!

In addition to the new Nativity Sets, we also added some light up ceramic ornaments with a scene inside - from Bath & Body Works. They play music and/or light up. So cute!! We also added these glass pillars with a snow globe inside. They light up and the glitter in the snow globe is blown around. I LOVE them!!!!

Other than those additions, we have our good ole standby decorations.

I LOVE Christmas time and the fun decorations that we have to put around our house.

Oh - and my sister Amber came up for a day to help me with the tree in the living room. Steve and I bought this tree, fully decorated, from Tai Pan Trading when Cole was a baby. We have enjoyed and used it every year. It originally had SO much stuff on it. Years ago, Amber and I stripped it of ribbons and ties and several elves on the tree. One thing I haven't liked about it is that it has colored lights, so, it was never very bright. Well, we took EVERYTHING off of the tree - all the lights, all the ornaments, everything. Then, we strung it with white lights, making it so much brighter. Then, we placed ornaments or garland or things back on the tree in a deliberate and organized fashion. It was perfect! I love a bright tree with white lights and red and green ornaments.

We decorated everywhere - bedrooms, bathrooms, desks, dressers, shelves. It was great! It totally gives me a Christmas-y feeling when I would walk around. PS - Reagan has collected several Disney ornaments that are shoes of the various princesses. For example, Tinkerbell's shoe has a white ball on the toe - which is like her little tail. It also has wings of green and a shoe of yellow. Cinderalla's shoe. is blue with white and crystal like her dress and her glass slippers. They are all adorable! Rather than put those on a tree, she has lined them up on the hearth of the fireplace in their playroom (that way she can see them when she is studying). So cute!

Overall, I LOVE what we did this year and changing up the Christmas tree in our living room (the 6th Christmas tree in our house, not counting Reagan and Cole's miniature ones in their rooms) just made my season. It stayed in the garage all of last Christmas season because I knew we didn't have the time or energy to re-do it. Thanks to Amber, it's reborn!!!!!

Yep - I love our Christmas decor!!!!

Making the Rounds to See Both Sets of Grandparents

Since it was the week before Christmas and we were out of school, we figured we would make the rounds to hang out with each set of grandparents. First, we went to see Steve's parents. We just hung around and chatted with them.

Then, we went to see my parents. I'm not sure how I got a pic of my mom with the kiddos but nothing of my dad. Oh well - I promise he was there and we got to be with him :) 

Having been able to see and be with all four grandparents just made our season. Love you Grandma & Grandpa Petersen and Grandma & Grandpa Smith!!!!

Breaking in the Snowshoes

We needed to get out of this yucky inversion, so, we decided to head up to Solitude Nordic Center (basically Silver Lake next to Brighton Ski Resort) and break in our new snow shoes. When we left our home, it was dark and dreary, but when we got to the top of the canyon, there were blue skies and sunshine. It was a beautiful day!! Yay!!!!

We got up there and went into the Visitor's Center to see what was going on. Turns out that they charge for you to be able to snowshoe. Remember that this entire canyon was Steve's playground growing up. He and his sibs and his friends would hike and fish and camp and play. So, the idea of having to stay on a marked trail and to pay money to be able to walk around Silver Lake (which is frozen and under snow right now) was literally unbelievable to Steve. Well, the people create the trails and groom them and mark them, so, I guess it makes sense. They close up there at 4 pm and Steve said (within earshot of the worker) "Next time, we come at 4:15." Ugh! Oh well - we are here and ready to go, so, let's do this. 

It really was a lot of fun. The trails were so groomed that I'm not sure we actually needed snowshoes, but we took the chance to go off on the side of the trails a bit and that had deeper and softer snow. Cole definitely liked that more :) 

We walked up and around Silver Lake - which was labeled the "Lake Course" and then we headed over on the side - toward Solitude which was labeled the "Cabin Loop". We ran into a few people, but not many. We pretty much had the place to ourselves on the Cabin Loop. It was cold, but sunny and bright. Perfect conditions.

After a while, Reagan and Cole were tired..... really tired. The just dropped into the snow and decided to lay down for a while. I just chuckled - silly kiddos.

Once they had a little rest, we were back up and returning to the Lake Course. We circled around to the Visitor's Center, changed back into our regular shoes and headed down the canyon.

What a fun day. I'm not sure what other snowshoeing trails look like, but this was super fun, a good workout and family time together. I think I like snowshoeing!!!!

Cole Receives the Priesthood!!!!

This is HUGE ya'll!!!! So, in the past, a boy who turns 12 advances from Primary into Young Men on his birthday. He also can then receive the priesthood. It is a big responsibility and the Young Man then attends youth activities (instead of Primary activities) and church classes on Sundays. Well, toward the end of last year, the Church announced age changes for youth progression and ordination. These changes will take place January 1, 2019.

Basically, instead of waiting until a boy turns 12, all the boys who will be turning 12 during that calendar year will advance together on January 1. So, Cole will turn 12 in October and thought he wouldn't be advancing to Young Men until October. Well, with notice of only two weeks, he became a Deacon (the boys who are12-14 and the lowest quorum of the Aaronic Priesthood. He collects Fast Offerings (money donated to help the poor) and gets to pass the sacrament during our Sunday Sacrament Meetings. He was SO excited! Likewise, all boys who will turn 14 during that calendar year, will move up on January 1st from a Deacon to a Teacher. All boys who will turn 16 during that calendar year will move up on January 1st to be a Priest.

We had planned to have grandparents and other relatives come and participate in the ordination, but on the first Sunday of the month, the Bishop called Cole to come in before church for an interview. Then, at the end of the interview, he said "We'll take care of the ordination right after church." Wait - what? We hadn't planned on that, but Cole was over the moon. He was so excited that he would be ordained that day and that he would be able to pass the sacrament the next Sunday. So, we just went with it. Reagan and I sat in the Bishop's office while Steve and Bishop ordained Cole to the office of a Deacon. We are so proud of Cole for being worthy to be ordained and for wanting to hold Heavenly Father's priesthood.

He received his Certificate of Aaronic Priesthood Ordination and is on the journey to serving others with God's power. Way to go Cole.

Steve's Dad has a copy of his Priesthood Line of Authority hung on the wall in their home. I snapped a picture of it and want to get a copy done for Cole. So, Steve ordained Cole and Steve's Dad ordained Steve. Cole would just add on to Steve's Dad's Line of Authority:

I'm so glad that Cole was way ahead in his Faith in God book. We thought he would have until October to complete all the projects and check off all the requirements for him to receive his Faith in God Award. 

Well, with only three left to go, he was able to complete those three in the two weeks leading up to his ordination. Yay - done and done.

I also had to include his sweet testimony that he wrote in the book. 

Cole had his interview for his Faith in God Award at the same time as his priesthood ordination interview and the Bishop signed off his certificate. (I got to sign it as well since I'm the Primary President.)

The next Sunday, Cole was super excited to pass the sacrament. The Deacon's Quorum President met him at the church early to "train" him. Well, maybe no one trained him because he didn't give Cole much help. When the boys are passing the bread and water to the congregation, they each take assigned sections of the chapel. Cole eventually figured it all out, but his president didn't tell him where to stand for which section or what, exactly, to do. At the end of the sacrament on the first Sunday, he came and sat by us and said "Whoa - That's WAY harder than it looks!" Um... really? Ok. He said it was confusing which rows he passes the sacrament to and then takes it back compared to which rows he sends it across to the other side, etc. He also said that while the boys on his side of the chapel waited for the boys on the other side of the chapel to finish passing the sacrament on that side, the boys on his side were seeing who could hold the sacrament tray with the fewest fingers. One boy was holding the tray with just his pinky finger, balancing it as it was swinging back and forth. Cole hated what these boys were doing and said to them "Dudes! It's the sacrament - Not Cool!!!"

I assured Cole that it would get easier as he did it more and commended him for setting a good example about the sacred nature of the sacrament and to not make jokes or play while they are passing the emblems of the sacrament to the congregation.

Cole was excited to be in Young Men and to have classes with them, rather than to be in Primary with the youngsters for another 10 months, but I miss him in Primary. He was my helper when I had to teach Sharing Time or when I needed help setting something up. He's growing up and progressing sooner than I thought..... I'm not sure I completely like it :) 

On another note, since they made the change with the ages, my entire Valient 11 class just vanished. All four 11 year old boys and the one girl were just gone. I lost 5 Primary children in one week, rather than one in February, one in March, two in October, one in December, etc. Our Primary room looked so empty with seemingly just really little ones. I had to snap a pic or two:

We are such a little Primary. You would think being in a suburb of Salt Lake that we would have tons of Primary children, but the demographic of our ward is mostly older people who are empty nesters. There are not a lot of children. It's all good. I can keep track of this many :) 

Even though I'm struggling with Cole moving up to Young Men, it actually makes my life a bit easier.  Cole used to have 11 year old scouts on Wednesday nights while Reagan had Young Women on Tuesday nights. They both have karate on Monday nights and have music on Thursday nights, so, I was having to bring Cole to karate, alone, on Tuesday nights while Reagan was at Young Women and then bring Reagan to karate, alone, on Wednesday nights while Cole was at Scouts. However, now, he is in Young Men and their weekly activity is the same night at the same time as the Young Women. Plus, often - they meet together!!!! That's great and it simplifies our schedules just a bit.

We really are proud of Cole for wanting to receive the priesthood, for completing his Faith in God and earning his award and for wanting to progress into Young Men and start on a new chapter in his life. Go get 'em Cole!!!! oxoxoxo

PS - I had to post some pics of him in his suit - ready to head to church to pass the sacrament. So dapper! (And so silly!)

Happy New Year!!!!!

We had a pretty low key New Year's Day. We stayed in comfy clothes (Reagan was a bit comfier than the rest of us) and played games and relaxed. We also set our goals for the year in various areas and watched some movies.

When it was evening, Reagan and Cole were all about having a toast (you know how they love that). So, we pulled out our Martinelli's and grabbed our glasses that we bought in Venice and we toasted to the new year and all of the possibilities it could bring.

Happy 2019 Everyone!!!!! May it be our best year yet!!!