This will be my last post for 2023. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Ours was fairly quiet, but nice.
After I wrote last week, we spent the evening making and decorating cookies.
I had choir practice Sunday morning before church, since we were singing three songs in Sacrament Meeting that day. We sang an arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High which included some brass instruments, a descant, and the congregation singing the melody with us. We also sang a song called Born is the Light of the World and an arrangement of Silent Night. Silent Night included the congregation singing the last verse. The women in the choir had an alternate melody, and it sounded really nice with everything put together. I really enjoy choir songs where the congregation joins in. I think it helps everyone feel united and feel the spirit together. I had a number of people afterwards tell me how good the choir sounded, and our choir director said she got lots of compliments from people too. For me, being able to sing praises is one of the ways I feel the spirit the strongest so I am always thankful for a chance to sing in a choir.
The music took up most of the meeting on Sunday. One of the young men gave a short talk about our opening hymn (I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day) and our bishop talked for a while too. The meeting actually ended about 5 minutes early and everyone hung out for a while, visiting and sharing Christmas greetings. It was nice! On the way home, we stopped to deliver treats to families we minister to.
I spent the rest of the day getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner, which included cooking the food. pulling out the nice dishes and other tableware, and making place cards. None of the food was complicated, but it still took time to get everything ready.
I remembered to take a photo of the table before everyone arrived and before I made the place cards, but I forgot to take any photos after I added the place cards or during dinner or the rest of the evening. Oh well! You will have to take my word for it that Jared & Jessie and the missionaries from our ward came over for Christmas Eve dinner since I have no photographic proof.
After dinner, we read the story of Jesus's birth in Luke, Matthew, and 3 Nephi and then everyone opened a present (except for Frank and me). We got Maryland flag mugs for the missionaries and they loved them! After everyone went home, Frank wrapped my presents while I cleaned up dinner and got all the stocking stuff ready. Then we put out Santa Claus stuff and went to bed.
Frank and I both woke up around 7:00 on Christmas morning but we were still awake before Seth, who slept until closer to 8:00. We got up and saw what Santa brought, but didn't open the rest of the presents until Jared & Jessie arrived around 9:00. We ate breakfast before they arrived also (cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs).
After Jared & Jessie arrived, we opened the rest of the presents from under the tree. Then we played a game that we had given to Jared & Jessie. It was a version of Clue that was a collaborative escape room type game. It was pretty fun, and in the end we successfully solved the mystery, so we were proud of ourselves! Once again, I forgot to take any pictures while Jared & Jessie were here. They headed back to open presents and have Christmas dinner with Jessie's family around noon. The rest of the day was pretty quiet for us, but that was okay. We enjoyed gifts and took naps. We got to talk to Tanner and Scott for a while with a video chat and I also talked to both Amy and Mom on the phone, so it was nice to connect with some family.
We got quite a few things for the kitchen this year. We replaced our toaster oven with a toaster because the toaster oven doesn't work very well and Frank wanted to get a toaster instead. We also got a new crock pot because the cord on our old one was fraying. I got a vegetable chopper thing which I already love because it makes chopping vegetables so much quicker and easier, and I normally have to chop vegetables every day. It's been getting a lot of use this week. Jared & Jessie got us a cook book holder and that has been getting a lot of use too. Besides the kitchen stuff, I also got the 2023 Newbery winner book, some music, and some earrings that are similar to the ones that got stolen from my luggage this summer. We had a goal to keep Christmas simpler and to buy fewer gifts this year and I think we mostly succeeded and everyone was still happy. 😊
The rest of the week has also been pretty quiet and uneventful since Frank has been off work all week and Seth didn't have school and he and I didn't have Seminary. It's still been pretty busy for me because I still have all the regular chores to do like cleaning, grocery shopping, and laundry. Frank and Seth have helped a bit with some of those chores, which has been nice. I have also started preparing Seminary lessons for next week and have been working on the tax certification test. I haven't made as much progress on either of those things as I would like, but I am slowly getting them done. I've completed the questions for six of the tax scenarios (out of 9) and I have basic outlines for both of next week's lessons done. I'll be working on both lessons and the tax test today and tomorrow and hopefully I will be finished or mostly finished with them by the end of the day tomorrow. I have been getting a lot more sleep at night, which has been great but in spite of that I have still ended up taking a nap nearly every day! I don't know why I am so tired when I'm sleeping well at night, but I guess my body is trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost the last 4 months. (Or trying to stock up before Seminary starts again?)
Last night we went down to the temple to see the Christmas lights. We were kind of surprised when we arrived to discover that there were TONS of people there. It was so crowded that we had to park at the adjacent stake center and walk over to the temple grounds. It's nice that so many people are interested in seeing the lights, though, and it was very beautiful, as always. Our cameras don't take great photos...it looks a lot better in real life...but here are a bunch of photos anyway.
This photo is blurry and Seth's eyes are closed, but it is the least blurry of the three that we took at this location:
And here's a couple more at another location. I included two since Seth is smiling in one and Frank is smiling in the other:
In the visitor's center they always have a large display of nativity sets from around the world. We had to wait in line quite a while to see those but it is always a beautiful display. I took a whole bunch of photos, but I won't inflict all of those on you. 😉 Here is one to give you an idea of how many sets there were:
That's just one wall...there were two more walls lined with nativity sets, as well as an area in the center of the room with a few more sets. This year, they had them grouped together by continent, starting with Asia and working around to Africa, Europe, South America, and North America. I don't remember Australia, but it was probably in there somewhere too. 😅
Visiting the temple grounds to see the lights and the creche display is always worth the effort (and dealing with the crowds) and we're grateful we were able to go.
That's all I've got to report this week. I think I have more photos than words, but that is okay!
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