Last Saturday Candice wanted me to come up and help her set up her sewing machine.  I had brought with me  my drawing I had made for Brenda's picture.  Candice had told me about this projector thing Curtis has that will shine your picture on the wall, then you can easily trace it onto your fabric.  First we had to get it onto the computer though so I took a picture of my picture then sent it to Candice's email.  She finished up the technical stuff and bam there it was on the wall!  Wow that made it a hundred times easier than trying to trace it on my light box.  I gotta get me one of those!

 Then Candice got out her sewing machine and we dusted it off.  I gave it to her for Christmas about two years ago.  She lost the cord to it in one of her moves and hasn't used it at all.  Then Curtis said he had a cord that would fit in it and it did!  It was so exciting to plug it all in and see everything work!  It's kind of fancy and everything is computerized, so we were a little intimidated, but we got out the instruction book and started from step one...wind the bobbin.  I was a little bit jealous of how easy it was to do that...my machine..not so much.  Then we threaded the machine and got ready to sew.  There are about a hundred computerized stitches that you can just push a number and it will do it.  Very cool!  Isn't she a cute little sewer.  I'm so glad she enjoys sewing too...it's sure brought me a lot of pleasure (not to mention saved me a ton of money) over the years.

We spent a nice afternoon discovering all the magical things her machine could do and just enjoying a wintery day together in her cozy little house.

I got a special treat on Monday.  A while ago, Candice surprised me with tickets for our family to go to The Forgotten Carols.  How thoughtful is that? 

I love this program and have been wanting to go so I was real excited...these two were excited  too!

 This year was kind of special because Michael McClain's son and wife were in the program too.  His son has a pretty amazing voice. I love the part after the show when Michael sits and sings with the audience and gets us all singing too.  I can't sing "we will be together forever someday" without  bawling.  Then I liked how he ended with us all singing and then humming silent night.  Very special feeling in that room.

That's pretty much the best gift anyone could give.  Thanks Candice

 Thought I'd take a picture of my tree...turned out kinda cute

A few weeks ago, Stacey brought over this little wooden horse that had belonged to Shawn when he was a little boy.  It didn't look like this though.  It was missing a leg and was stained a dark brown....no mane or eyes.  I think Kelley did a great job getting it back into shape.  I hope little Eva enjoys.

 We had the nicest Bunko Christmas party last week.  It was at Stacey's house and she really went all out for it.  Everything was so nice.  We had a yummy dinner then did our present exchange.  It's always fun to see what clever things they come up with each year.

 This was everyone having a sniff of the scentsy type  burner thing Holli got.

 I made this picture for my gift.  I actually stitched it a couple of years ago when mum was living with us.  I got the quote from her one day as we were chatting.  It was around Easter and we were talking about having a big dinner with the family and getting out the fancy dishes for the occasion.

We didn't ever talk about mum dying, although the hospice people really wanted me to.   They said it would make her feel more at ease with it.  I did not agree.  I'm sure for some people this is the right thing to do, but with mum, I didn't think that would do any good at all.  She was always very cheerful and positive and we chose to talk about happier subjects.  I knew that she knew her days were numbered and I knew that she knew that I knew too so there was no need to dwell on it.  She had lived a very good life and was at peace and actually looking forward to taking the step into the next life. I know she longed to be with daddy and missed him so much.  I can only work and pray that I would be able to leave this existence in such a peaceful way.  Those are some tough shoes to fill.

Anyway, while we were talking about the fancy dishes, she said "you know, where I am in my life right now, I look at each day as a special occasion...you just never know how many more you will get."  That really stuck with me and I decided to stitch the words.  Many tears were shed as I finished it and stashed it away after she had passed.

So I thought I would get it out and have Kelley make me a frame just to remind one of these dear ladies to look at each new day as a special occasion.  I'm glad Karen got it...although after what she's been through I think she already knows it and lives it.

 A few pictures from the ward Christmas party...it was fun to have the Taylorsville Madrigals come sing for the program because Abby is in the group this year.  I think they were about the best bunch  I've heard.  They did one song where they were singing to chopsticks and several of them took turns running around the piano playing parts of the song.  It was pretty impressive how many of them knew how to play the piano and the girl that played for all of their songs was really good.  They had asked Arnolds to be in charge of the Christmas party this year and they did a great job with it.  Lots of people there that you never see at church...that's really what it's all about.

This is our cute young women and young men up at the Joseph Smith Building.  We went up to see the lights at temple square for our combined this month and oh man it was cold.  Seriously, I think it was 9 degrees when we went. Everybody dressed warm, but it was just unbearable to be out in it.  So we kind of ran from the Joseph Smith building to the visitors center....oooo, ahhh pretty pretty. OK lets go.  It was nice to have a gal that lives by Bonnie that we hadn't met before come out.  Bonnie had seen her outside and asked her if she would like to come see the lights with us.  She got along great with the girls.  I was really impressed with Abbi and Brielle that night...they made her and Candice feel comfortable and welcome and hung around with them all night.  They are really great that way...accepting and friendly to everyone.

Last Sunday at church we had asked the yw presidency (the young girls) to teach the lesson.  We divided the lesson up between the three of them and told them to take about 10 minutes each.  We were a little nervous about it, wondering if they would really follow through and do it, but wanted to give them the experience.

Sunday morning, I got a text from Emily saying she wasn't feeling well so she wouldn't be there.   But the other two came totally prepared.  Mckenzie went first and did a great job.  She had really put some thought into her presentation.  Then Alicia did her part.  She had her mom come in to tell about an experience she had had that really added a lot.  She had a lot of questions to get the class involved too.  Then she bore her testimony about standing as a witness of Christ.  It was pretty powerful and the spirit was strong.  I know it was really a hard thing for Alicia to do this assignment and she was terribly nervous, but she thanked us after for giving her the opportunity and was glad she did it. It's an amazing plan they have set up for the young people now to prepare them to be missionaries and leaders in the near future.  It's pretty cool to watch it in action. 

Kelley came in Monday afternoon and said Mark had called and wondered if we would like to go to the jazz game with them that night.  That sounded fun...even if the Jazz are pretty sad, it's still fun to go watch them.  They had got these tickets from Marks brother and they were awesome!  They let us in for a nice buffet, then seats on the third row!  Ha!  It was pretty cool to see the players up this close.  They were huge!  Lots of good people watching too.

We ran into one of KC's friends that does the tricky jump and dunk half time show.  He was pretty good!  It was good to visit with Kim.  Seems like our lives get so busy we don't get together like we used to.  It was so cold that night it hurt to breath walking to the car, but I'm glad we went.

Very fun night. 

 Tuesday night we had our Young Women Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun! 
Stacey had found this idea on Pinterest where you have several visitors come to the party and tell a story. 
First we had the Grinch (Becky) show up and read How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  She did such a good job and really hammed it up.  She even brought a cute pair of socks all wrapped up for each of the girls.
Next we ate our dinner.  Bonnie had made a real nice Chicken dish and we had baked potato's and salad.  We were expecting our next visitor ( Santa) about 7:00.  I waited till almost 7:30, then I called his cell phone.  No answer.  So I called Ernie.  She said he was out home teaching!  Ha!  He had forgot about the change we had made to Tuesday because of the RS party.  She said she would get a hold of him and have him come right over.
In the mean time, we sang some Christmas carols and the Wise men showed up.  The bishopric was pretty awesome.  They were dressed perfectly and came in and told the story of Christmas from the Bible.  Then they showed a video that told about Jesus life.  It was pretty cool when they talked about all the things the Savior has done for us. 
Just as the wise men were finishing up, Santa came to the door.  He felt so bad about the mix up but did a great job.  He had the girls help him make up a different  'Twas the night before Christmas' story and they had fun doing it.  We wanted to end on a spiritual note with the wise men, but Santa's message of giving and service ended the night just right.

 Oh and this is the little gift we made for them.  Thanks to Kelley for cutting them all out and painting them...they turned out really cute (thanks pinterest.  I love you)

 A few other things from this week...Wednesday night Candice came over and we went to the Relief Society Christmas party.  I'm so grateful for her! It means so much to me that she will go to these things with me.

I had to go over a little early because I was asked to sing Silent Night on the program with Shauna.  I had been stewing over this a bit, thinking it would get kind of boring with just us two singing all the verses, so I asked Debbie if she would sing a third part with us.  I wrote a tenor part and she took the alto.  When we got there to practice, Marilyn had found a nice accompaniment for us so I think it went OK.  They had such a nice dinner for everyone and we had a good time visiting with the ladies at our table.  After everyone was finished eating, we went into the Relief Society room for the program.  It was really nice.  They had different ladies depicting different women in Jesus' life.  Donna had written a beautiful script for it.  We sang right after Mary's part and I think it went pretty good.  Shauna has a real pretty voice. 

Singing in a trio like this sure made me miss my sisters.  When they were here yesterday, we were talking about putting all of our Christmas songs on a CD. I think that would be fun cause some of these songs you never hear anywhere else....they are kind of slipping away.  I hate to see that happen cause they are great old songs.   I love that the girls have learned some of these songs and have sung along with us in past Christmas get togethers.  It's kind of hard to think of these old songs disappearing because they have been such a sweet part of my life.  I hope the girls will carry them on and teach them to their kids too.

Bishop Light just busted these amazing candle stick center pieces out for the party...unbelievable!

 Thursday night we went to Kelley's work party.  The last few years Dan has had it at Fat Cats and we eat and bowl.  The people who work for Dan are pretty diverse but very nice people and we had a good time visiting with them... Man it sure seemed like it was just a few months ago that we were doing this...I don't know where this year has gone. 

I got  real lucky on my last game and got the high score...184!

 Friday evening, Candice came over after work.  Her and KC sat and puzzled over what classes she should take this next semester.  She has decided to change her plan and go into psychology.  They checked out the different teachers for the classes she wanted and came up with a good schedule for her. 

Then we decided to go get a Christmas tree.  We always have to wait until there is a good snowstorm or freezing temperatures and this night certainly qualified with the freezing temps.  For the past 10 days we have had record breaking freezing cold weather.  It all went to pot right after thanksgiving.  We had a huge snowstorm that left about a foot of snow on the ground, then the air turned cold  (I'm talking so cold it hurts to breath)  so none of it has melted.  Now it has cleared off, there are warmer temperatures up in the mountains, but we are trapped in an ugly gray inversion.  Booooo I hate the cold.  I'd rather have 50 snowstorms if the temperature could be above  20.  Oh well what do you do...no end in sight right now.

Anyway, we decided to just go over to this little lot right down the street.  They had a great selection so it wasn't hard to find one that was 'real nice'!  We brought it home then ran back over to Cafe Rio for our weekly fix.  Fun evening with the kids.

                                            Brought it home Griswold style minus the roots

I've gotten a little behind because this has been a very busy week!  I took a few pictures along the way though so I'll just start with this lovely day and go backwards.

My sisters all came down today for our fun day of candy making.

 It's been such a long time since we've been together it was sure a treat for me!  I've sure missed them.

Brenda was telling us a little about their experience of cleaning out Dennis' folks house and selling it after his mom passed away last summer.  They didn't seem to be having much fun with it.  We were thinking about our experience cleaning out and selling mum and daddy's place and were feeling grateful for the sweet relationships we have with each other and how that made each week that we got together a joyful one as we reminisced and celebrated our parents lives.

Anyway, we visited a while, catching up on each others lives, then got busy with our candy.  Oh the treats!  We really made some good ones today!  Teina made corn chex candy and these yummy pretzel rolo, pecan bites that I can't stop eating.  Brenda made thin mints (better than girl scout cookies) and chocolate covered pretzels and caramel popcorn, Les made peanut clusters,  pretzel Hershey kiss, m&m bites and cherry-o-let goodness (which she left in my fridge...oh darn!)  I made caramels, then stuck a pecan in them and dipped them in chocolate, and toffee corn pops. (thanks to Kelley for tracking me down some corn pops!)  Everything turned out just yummy. 

We ate lunch ( I made some soup and Kelley got me some good rolls from Reams this morning) Then we exchanged our presents.  Teina gave me the cutest snowman ornaments that you can put a picture in that will be perfect for the grand kids pictures. and some nice piano music of hymn arrangements that looks really fun to play.  She sure knows what I like!  I gave Brenda this picture I have been working on for a little while.  Kelley finished it off with a cool frame made from mum and daddy's old fence.  I think It was fun to think about each one in their family and try to make the picture look like them...turned out kinda cute!
Brenda showed us some pictures of Phil and Stacey's babies.  They are all doing well and have grown so much! They are sure cute.  I don't know how Stacie does it.  Brenda has been going up there a few days a week and helping her out and I think her sisters helps her some too, but with Phil in Idaho all week teaching school, that's got to be rough.

 We planned our Christmas party we are having the Saturday after Christmas.  It will be extra nice for me because my whole family will be here!  That hasn't happened in quite a long time!
We loaded all the goodies onto plates and into bags and got them ready to go.  Gosh the day flew by so quick.  I sure wish we lived closer so we could do things like this all the time.  Love my sisters.