Christmas 2021

                                                               

Though we didn't have snow on Christmas, we had a few mornings earlier in the week when we woke up to just enough snow for the boys to have some winter fun.

Rex and Lyle's cute little snowman with the carrot that Rex had been saving in the fridge for quite awhile for that very purpose.

The neighbors set up a hot cocoa stand on their front porch.  Rex and Lyle loved it and went over more than once.

Pretty fun to see secret elves on bicycles with headlamps delivering our 12 Days of Christmas gifts to our new neighbors.

Headed to Yakima on Tuesday to watch Sariah play East Valley and turned around to see Lyle writing love notes in the condensation.  "I Love You Mom and Dad."

Rex thought it was good idea.

Another basketball game!  The boys had had enough basketball, they went to Dax and Jen's to meet their new dog, Duke, and 4-wheel in the snow.

James and the kids used Gp and Gm Wells's Christmas money to go watch the new Spiderman movie in the theater--the first time for most of them in a theater since COVID started nearly two years ago.

James and I were able to go to the temple on the 23rd for Lauren Schultz's endowment.

Christmas Eve morning was beautiful.  The kids took a little hike up Sagemoor Hill and when they returned there was a knock at the door--definitely made me smile to see these dancing midgits.

Kept up the Christmas Eve tradition and went swimming.  Hyrum goes for the dunk!

The family picture for the day.  Bryant's suture is still in so he didn't get in the water.

Rex with his watermelon water ball.

Blaire and Kioa gave us a money tree for Christmas!

The Nativity with Spechts.

Santa made it!

Dad and Mom

Hyrum

Lyle and Rex

Talmage

Bryant

Sariah

Bryant's gift to Rex, a gun case wrapped with love.  Talmage gave Hyrum a screwdriver with removable heads.  Sariah gave Lyle a book lamp.

Dress socks for B from Rex and hair care for Sariah from Lyle.

Lyle made everyone a ring with a special note.

And an Oculus showed up from Grandma Hales!

We got to talk to Elder Hales.  He had been invited to Christmas dinner during the day.  (James and the kids made Christmas breakfast for the Elders in our ward.) Talmage said they took a walk and the streets and parking lots were quiet.  Another elder bought Catan and they were going to play an evening game.  Our package for him didn't arrive in time but fortunately he got to enjoy the Mandalorian Advent calendar James has got him.

Rex on Jhett's new go-cart!

The Christmas crew this year--a little strange without Gp and Gm and everyone else.

For some reason, today, the day after Christmas, was the Sunday they chose to just do one hour of church.  (Sariah and I wore our matching dresses.)  Then James, Bryant, Sariah, and I went to Julia Henry's farewell talk while the little guys played The Farming Game.

Basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball, and basketball.

Yes, we survived 6 straight nights of basketball games, 3 in Connell and 3 away.  

We actually missed Sariah's Wahluke game on Friday since we were at James's work party.

Wednesday evening (after Hyrum's game) was our ward Christmas dinner.  James led the primary in "Away in a Manger."  It went much better in sacrament meeting today.  

Sariah was the narrator for the nativity.

Can't keep all of the art projects so we are taking pictures.

The latest game that the kids have made up to play indoors during cold weather.

There have been a few outdoor games created too.  Rex and Lyle were outside on Saturday in the snow before James and I were out of bed.

Mission Call to Guatemala!!!

Glory Academy got a tour of Oakdell's Egg Farm--incredible operation.  Over a million eggs every day!  There favorite part though was the swim afterwards.

Hyrum received his patriarchal blessing on December 5th.  It is times like these that I realize I am simply a steward over these amazing people for a short time on this journey we call mortality.

Monday night was the start of getting lights on the tree... (James and Sariah realized very quickly that this was a painful process with the tree we chose.  OUCH!)

...and making donuts.  Sister Inglima had been at our house that day for 4 hours stringing popcorn.

We have watched A LOT of basketball lately and this week we will have 6 nights of basketball games in a row!

Tuesday after Sariah's game we huddled in the van while Bryant shared his mission call on Facebook--Guatemala Coban Mission!!!  He had opened it earlier with just Talmage.  All of his current roommates served in Central America and most of them served in Guatemala.  The packing list includes a mosquito net and apparently the weather is "eternal spring."

We didn't make it to the Medical Lake game but we wanted Sariah to know we were thinking of her.

By Wednesday we finally had lights on the tree.  Friday, the ornaments went on.

Took longer than it ever has, but we finally have a decorated Christmas Tree and it is a floor to ceiling wonder.

 

Christmas Tree Adventure

James decided this was the year we were going to do what we have talked about so often--go cut a real Christmas tree.  We packed up our snow clothes and piled into the truck for the trip to Tollgate.  I had bought two permits on Friday and we decided to get a 2nd tree for the Rios family in our ward.  

We started out with everyone having an opinion about the perfect tree.  After about an hour of searching and some snowball fighting with the leftover snow from a previous storm, the perfect tree seemed to be impossible to find.  At about an hour and a half the opinions softened drastically and then just about any tree seemed to be just fine.

As you can see, there wasn't enough snow to go sledding, but Burger King seemed to appease the crowd.