Christmas Work Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The few days leading up to our Utah trip seemed really busy. I included a photo (or two) of our visitors from Sunday the 8th. Justin's stake meeting was cancelled due to ice and wind so we enjoyed a nice Sunday with him home with us.

Monday was crazy. To the normal huge mountain of laundry that graced our kitchen floor I added in Christmas doughnuts. I made a delish vegetable soup to off set the sugary doughnuts. We invited over the Woods and Carlisle families to help make doughnuts. By the time 5 o'clock rolled around I still did not have the dough made. Decided to try out cake doughnuts this year since the dough did not need to rise. It took Maren and I a couple tries to get the dough thickness correct. The doughnuts were pretty good, a little on the heavy/greasy side. Not sure I will make them again. I love the fluffiness of yeasted doughnuts. Sarah glazed the doughnuts with almond-vanilla glaze. The guys helped with the babies and assembling plates. My favorite part is delivering the doughnuts to our neighbors. This year I added a couple new houses of folks I really wanted to meet. The wind made the air so cold my fingers nearly froze as we ran from house to house. Delivered 14 plates this year!! Hooray!

Tuesday evening was Justin's annual work party. As work parties go his are pretty fun. I showed up 30 minutes before Justin came to the party. That meant juggling 4 plates of food with two hands. The kids were so excited to visit Santa, who was sitting in the next room. I think everyone actually ate dinner. Everett was so pleased to sit on Santa's lap. He knew a candy cane was coming! The candy cane trumped the present. He hopped off his lap and ran away with just his candy cane. After laying on his gift he opened it to find a duck pillow, then played duck soccer with it. The kid's loved the crafts, playing with all the kids, the gifts, and the food. We arrived home with hyper kids.

Evelyn is finally holding her head up well enough to sit in her bumbo for a minute or two. She is also stiffening her legs to stand up in our laps. She is so cute with her cheeks hanging down. Amelia really wanted to see Frozen again (so did I). We invited Ella to go with us Wednesday evening. The girls were so excited for a girl date. We practically had the theater to ourselves. Two other ladies viewed the movie with us. Amelia and I sang along with the characters! So fun.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday packing bags, doing laundry, and assembling supplies needed for our Utah trip. It is astounding how much stuff one little baby needs. Add in Christmas gifts, photography tools, and winter gear...phew! Packed to the gills. Amelia's school concert was at 2 pm on Thursday. We all attended her concert. She sang all of the songs beautifully! My favorite was a turkey song. Mr Jeffers is so awesome. He read Twas the Night Before Christmas. That guy is such a character! We left for Utah right after a really short stop back home after the concert. Our drive was uneventful. Justin DJ'd some rocking tunes for the first hour or so. I turned on a movie so Mia would not get car sick. Justin chose to try a Thai restaurant in Rawlins, WY. Honestly, it was amazing. I had a really spicy shrimp dish. Justin tried out the Pad Thai. The kids enjoyed rice, soup, and pot stickers. We arrived to our hotel in Rock Springs around 9 pm. Our room was a suite, which meant we had room for everyone! The extra room was so nice. To be continued....