December

 Ah December....Jason left on a work trip the Monday (the 28th) after Thanksgiving to Houston.  Things were plugging along until I got sick that Thursday and Jacob had to fend for himself as far as food went.  I guided him through cooking eggs and bagels (getting the timing right) for himself.  He heated up tomato soup for me.  He put it in a bowl, heated it in microwave and brought it up to me.  He told me he knew it wasn't right and I asked him if he checked to see if he needed to add water.  He did.  He went back down and added water and tried again.  It was OK, but I need to teach him how to heat up soup.  It was a bit lumpy--but he was trying.  

 

Since I was achy, low grade fever, not wanting to eat I thought I should get checked for the flu.  I called my Dr. office, but the morning appointments were full and they don't work in the afternoons.  UGH!  The medical system is screwed up!  

I went to Instacare and they tested me.  Everything came back negative--which is good...meant I was not spreading anything dangerous.  Just had a bad cold.  

The inability to function much lasted through Sunday.  On Saturday Randy took Jacob over to Jared and Stephanie's where he played games with Lilly, Grace and Robbie.  He also brought some groceries over for us.  That helped so much!

The weekend Jason was in Houston he went to see the Kennedy Space Center.

Our ward is helping with some refugee families.  We, along with 3 other families have been collecting items to take to them.  Gloves, socks, clothes, blankets, coats, etc.  

Socks for the kids

The rest of the week was spent getting Jacob through school.  He does fine academically, but gets frustrated at times, but any extra work.  

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with friends.  In the picture, starting at bottom left and going clockwise, Margaret Pearson, Haeli Hanseen Steinmann Herndon, Le Ann Stamos, Judy Seiders, Me, Shanae Richardson.  It was fun to visit and catch up.

Saturday night was our friend annual Christmas party--Elroy's Christmas party.  Not all could come, but it was fun to see everyone.  

Llyod received this beard

Those who came:  Clark White, Dianne Hammon, Tina Ackerman, Lori Harward, Llyody and Sherry Jones, Chris and Paul Sorensen (they hosted), Elroy and Becky Vogler, Margaret Pearson, and us.  

Apparently Paul has 2 of them himself

On to the rest of the month.

We had our last Activity Day of the year.  We combine the boys and girls and did cookie decorating.  Afterwards we watched a video Stephanie Eldredge put together of pictures from all of the activities during the year.  It was really fun.

The Saturday before break began we went to the

gym.  Jason lifted a weight wrong and hurt

his back.  Marcia invited us over to their

hot tub to see if it might help.

Jennifer Fisher does a Christmas open house
every year.  I went over and it was fun to see
people.  This is Lisa Hansen and Jana Evans.
I haven't see Lisa for at least 8 years.  Jana for
probably 15 years.  It was fun to catch up.

The leg room at the concert was
tight!!

On Monday, the 20th, we had the opportunity
to go see Eclipse 6...an acapella group.  The
Cutler's, in our ward, had 2 extra tickets.  I 
took Jacob.  It was fun, but I miss seeing 
Voice Male.  

The first official day(Dec 19) break started we went over to Cathey's to play games and watch a movie.

The week before Christmas was spent getting ready, Jason took Jacob out driving and they went to Randy's to see Steve, Hannah and Meilin, who were in town for Christmas.  

Christmas eve was on a Sunday this year and I invited my family to come.  Erick spent it with Adrienne's family, but we had Joy, Matthew, Ryan, Gayle (Matthew's mom) and Jessica (Matthew's niece) over for dinner.  

After dinner we passed out the pipes and did Christmas carols...each of us had a note and we played as Ryan directed us.

Christmas morning.  This year some of the magic faded for Jacob as he knew most of what he was going to get.  We had to ask him, as we wouldn't have known what to get. 😜

Jacob's PS4 VR heads

For Jacob this was the year of clothes.
He received a jacket, socks, a
church shirt, sweats and PJ's. 

After opening our gifts we went to Randy and MarySue's.  I didn't get many pictures at their house.  Josh and Irina were in England, Jenny and Jacob were in Houston.  Steve and Hannah came up for a couple of weeks.  Janette was here for Christmas and then went to Florida to meet Josh and Irina and headed out on a cruise.  Most of the pictures I took were of the games we played.  

Move the Oreo from your forehead to your mouth, Cups and Yes/No.  It as fun.

After Christmas we hung out, Jacob played video games, we met the Cathey's at the library on Friday and they came over later to play our new game--No Your Ma's Jong.  The kids hung out in the basement and played. 

Sunday was New Year's Eve.  We went to Cathey's, played games and watched a movie.  We rang in the New Year with Fat Boy's mini ice cream sandwiches.  We then headed home and tried to talk Jacob into not staying up to just watch TV by himself.  We need to figure out something for next year, as we realize his 15/16 year old inclination is to stay up.  😕  Our 59/54 year old inclination is to go to bed!  We managed to get to bed around 1:30 a.m.

November

 Abby is home from her mission!  We went to the airport on Friday, Nov 10 to see her come in.  Afterwards we went to Jared's for lunch and visit.  She seems good!

That night we went to a Grizzley's hockey game with Jason's work group.  We had a box for the group, had some food etc.  It was something fun and different to do.  

While we were there Jacob Nielson called and said Jenny's water had broken and they were headed to the hospital.  He asked if Jason could help MarySue book a ticket to come the next morning.  Since we were at the game we asked Jared to do it.  

MarySue was originally scheduled to fly out on the Monday after Thanksgiving as the baby was going to be induced on Dec. 4.  But he came a month early!  6.5 lbs and 18.5 inches long!  Nice and healthy.

Jacob had a chance to hang out with Itai and do airsoft guns.  

On Friday, Nov. 10 Sally Nef texts Wendy Cathey and me to ask if we're going to be around this week.  They were driving to town for Thanksgiving and wanted to get together.  

They drove straight through, 23 hours, and dropped kids off at their parents and some at Cathey's (Jacob couldn't go due to a cold) and we went to dinner at Cafe Rio.  It was so fun to see them and catch up on what's going on!

The day before Thanksgiving Nefs, Catheys, Andersons and we went to Airborne to jump.  The kids had a fun time and it was fun to visit with Sally, Wendy and Sherrie.

Scripture study...sometimes sitting on 
Jacob helps!  😅 

 We hosted Jason's family for Thanksgiving at our house.  We were in charge of the turkey, potatoes and gravy.  I began to peel and the whole bag was green!  So I went back to the store and exchanged them for a better bag.

The adults ate in our formal dining room.  2nd time we've used the room for eating in 17 1/2 years!  

The kids ate in the kitchen and then talked and laughed.  We also did a family history activity where we each brought a story about a family member and told everyone about it.  That worked out really well.

Janette invited 3 of her roommates, Sariah, 
Faith and Charity (yes, the 2 are sistsers)

Jacob loves pictures!

Jason left for a 2 week work trip to Houston and Pascagoula the Sunday after Thanksgiving.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I have to share this. MarySue texted me on Monday morning to tell me that Randy would be dropping by blankets for the Afghan family we are helping with the ward.

Then, about an hour later, I was upstairs (around 10:20 am), and I thought I heard the garage door open. I have an app that tells me if it’s opening or closing and I looked on that and I saw it opening and then I saw it closing.

At my advanced age, my brain had forgotten that Randy was coming. So I was a little spooked, more so probably because Jason is out of town.

I was wondering, if I go out and check is the bogeyman in the garage waiting to attack me. ;)

Jacob and Jason both have the garage door opener app on their phones also. I texted Jacob to ask if he had opened and closed the garage door because sometimes he does that.  He told me no so then I was even more spooked. 

Jacob then used his tech savvy skills to look on the app and told me it had been opened with the keypad. When he told me that I remembered MarySue’s text and was right again with the world.                                                                         

Jacob had learned well to smile for the camera....

On Monday night Draper City help their annual tree lighting.  They had hot chocolate, Crumble cookies and space heaters.  It turned out really well and we had fun. 

....unless he is under the influence of party 
pooper friends! 

Yummy!