Ward Party

Our Ward Christmas Party this year was put on by the youth, with a Whobilation theme. 

They did an amazing job decorating the cultural hall.

they built us a fireplace and had Christmas trees and presents everywhere.

Even the place settings were amazing.

The seminary teacher in the ward also made this amazing cake. Each layer was green and white stacked cakes.  I didn't taste it, but everyone else did and loved it.  Although The Captain didn't eat the green part, not sure why.

The Grinch even crashed the party.  This man was as dedicated to costumes as I am.  His face and hands were painted green.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were there, too. 

Here's another look at Joy's who-hair.

We really have the greatest Ward Family.  They are loving and accepting and kind.  We are so grateful to have been able to move here and be a part of starting this new ward.  They have been a huge part of why this year has been so wonderful. 

Nativity

Every year our stake puts on a Community Nativity Display.  This year was the tenth anniversary,  and the first time we have been able to go.  We braved the ice storm last year, but the parking lot was deserted.  Apparently later that day more people did brave the storm and it was open, but we didn't go back. So this year, I suppose in an attempt to make up for it, we helped out a lot.

I made lunch for the volunteers setting up on Tuesday.  Johnny went and helped set up on Wednesday.  I was a host on Thursday, and The Captain sung with the Primary on Saturday.  

The cultural hall was open to the chapel where musical groups from other churches in the community and families in various wards constantly filled the display with Christ-centered beautiful Christmas Music.

There were three "kiosks" in addition to displays all around the cultural hall.  This picture only shows two of the three and is missing the stage, which had a cutout of the city of Bethlehem on it.

Close up of a kiosk.  This one had displays from Italy that included
whole villages, and one from the Netherlands with working
windmills.

There was a live nativity facing the chapel, which was one of the first things you see on your way into the display.  There were hour long shifts for Mary and Joseph and sometimes even a live Baby Jesus.  

They had nativities grouped by country of origin, but also a little area with children's nativities.  This one is a pop-up book. 

There were nativities in all different mediums: scarves, glass, marble, wood, bullets from a civil war in Africa, snowmen, paintings . . . 

Here is a plate

and some stamps, didn't know they made these,

and chocolate.  And in the background you can see the paper nativities they handed out to all the kids as they left so they could color, cut and display them at home.

This is a great example of how they displayed these awesome nativities.  There are three on this wooden block, which is the top of three shelves, all full of nativities.  There are trees and lights everywhere, as well as lamps, fabric, signs, pottery, and baskets.

This one in a basket is from Argentina, I believe.

The Asia and Africa section was one of the most amazing ones to me, because who knew that there were such beautiful nativities to be found in India

or Japan

This was a pathetic pictorial representation, really.  It was overwhelming and in the ten years that some people have been setting up, they have yet to see all the different nativity sets.  There are at least 1000, and I could no sooner pick a favorite then count the stars.  But next year I will take more pictures because this is definitely becoming a tradition as long as we are here.

Thanksgiving

This year we continued our tradition of having a gratitude tree on our wall.  Each day we added leaves with things we were grateful for.  I've included the list in between pictures and videos of The Captain's Thanksgiving Kindergarten program.  

Gratitude Tree

 Pumpkin pie

crib

art

pictures

the sun

beds

my calling

moon

 Legos

The Captain

prayer

crayons

eyes

the van

Jesus

microwaves

toothpaste

pots & pans

games

friends

Google

laughter

music

light

warm jammies

How did that get there?

Brazil (Johnny's mission)

clothes

food to stay healthy

my phone

toys

mirror

flowers

my family

Lee

books

Primary

Book of Mormon

candy

medicine

butterflies

my house

air conditioning

hugs

sleep

couches

trees

Daddy & Mom

Daddy's job

health

shoes & socks

muscles

darkness (so we can sleep)

Joy's Preschool

pillows

backpacks

Polite Pig* 

vacations

The Captain's school

heater

teachers

*This was from a Preschool lesson I did on manners.  We passed around the "Polite" Pig using please and thank you.

Halloween is here . . . sort of

Yes, it's late, but I still want to document Halloween.  After all, it is one of our favorite holidays around here.  Since I was busy with a retirement party until the week before, I put off a lot of Halloween things because I didn't want to get overwhelmed.  Thus it came to pass that we were decorating pumpkins on October 30.

Joy with her pumpkin

The Captain with his pumpkin

The pumpkin we painted for Lee

Our Halloween dinner: Dracula soup, Halloween pasta, and
Ghost potatoes.

 And our Halloween costumes.  We actually took these pictures on the 1st, when our Ward had its Trunk-or-Treat, but by that point The Captain's costume had fallen apart.  So this is just a fraction of its Ninja Turtle Glory

He got many compliments for having a homemade shell, so I got a little kudos.  I tried to convince him to be Einstein, but he's past the age where he will let me pick his costume.


By contrast, Joy is easily manipulated sweet enough to do what I ask her to.  She literally asked me what I wanted her to be, and became very excited about being Amelia Earhart.

She's all about sticking her tongue out in
pictures these days.

And after much debate, it was determined that I would not be able to turn Lee into Einstein.  So in a twist, we decided to not make our baby cross dress, and instead present to you, Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth I

  I decided to stay with the Girl Power theme and went as Rosie the Riveter.  I won Most Original Costume at the Ward Party.

We can do it!

 Represent ladies!

Easter

Yes, I know, Easter was so one month ago, but I am catching up, people.  And we're almost done.  Just in time for me to have a baby and get really behind again. Anyway, Easter.  Yes.  We celebrated that.  We went to a giant Easter egg hunt at a baptist church near us.

 As you can see, the fields were full of eggs.  Johnny said they looked like they had been sprinkled.  

They had four fields divided by age.  Joy was at the top of her age group, which was babies to 3.  

She took her time and picked out the eggs she wanted.

Mostly it was the ones with the most designs.  

I'm pretty sure The Captain's field went the quickest.  They were done about 30 seconds into the hunt.  Joy's group lasted 5 minutes or so.  This place was great.  They have playgrounds and a splash area.  For this event they had bounce houses set up.  We stayed and played.  I got my second sunburn of the year.  We ran into several of our friends.  It was a great day.  

For actual Easter, we died some Easter eggs after breakfast, since we have so much time before church starts at 1.  Joy actually let me do her hair, which is always a good time.

Joy has had a bloody nose since our North Carolina trip.  It's just because of actual sores on her nose that scab up, which blocks her nose, so we have to peal them off, which makes them bleed . . . it's a vicious cycle.  Anyway that is not why she is so sad.

She's sad because she cracked four of the eggs after playing with them when I told her not to.  

We had egg salad for lunch.  

Joy wasn't the only good looking one.  The Captain looked spiffy as well.

After church, we had our own Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  

Making sure there are no eggs left.

Christmas

Christmas is good.  I got the flu.  That was not so good.  But, not to be annoyingly optimistic, but the timing wasn't that horrible.  Johnny had work off or got home early all the days I was sick.  That would not have happened another time.  It put a damper in my holidays plans, so no neighbors got presents, no sleepover under the tree, no driving around looking at lights.  But Santa still came and we still had a wonderful Christmas.  And after the presents were opened, I took a two hour nap and Johnny took care of dinner.  (Ham instead of turkey--another sacrifice for health.)

Christmas morning.  She was not tired, just not used to flash.
Christmas jammies courtesy of Grandma P.  They were awesome
this year, as always.  And the kids were glad to open something
Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning breakfast sweet rolls, courtesy of Kroger.  

Joy went straight for her new bike that Johnny put
together the night before.  We were worried it
would take a long time, but it only involved two screws.

The Captain was happy that Santa put R2D2 in his stocking.

Christmas cheese.

Since we had a new bike and nice weather, we went to the park to
ride around for awhile.

And play Frisbee

And sit around talking about how awesome Christmas is. . .
or just pick some grass.