December 2016

Well this sad little blog needs some attention. I haven't written a thing for a year. I have enjoyed making the blog entries into a hard cover book at the year's end in the past, like a family yearbook. So I'm going to start up again. It's early in January, but instead of starting with today, I'm going to jump back and re-cap part of our December. It was a fun month.
Chronologically, here we go.
Dave built another float and was in the Electric Light parade. According to my calculations, he has been in this parade 10 years now.

My brother Curtis got married. Curtis and Laura are a great match and the wedding was unconventional and fun. Curtis sang to Laura as she entered the venue-- very sweet --  and Dave performed the ceremony (his first as a newly ordained Bishop).

Our annual Bookclub Christmas party was (and always is) so fun. Suzanne hosted at her house this year. We had a cozy sit down dinner and a fun gift exchange. We all bring 3 book related items or gifts inspired by something we read this year, then draw names and exchange the gifts.  These were my awesome gifts I came home with. My initial, cut out of a hard cover book!

The photo doesn't do these gifts justice. The pages were removed from this book, a zipper added, and it opens up to a silk lined bag/container. Awesome!

These were made by my friends (members of bookclub)! I always like bookclub. I look forward to it every month.

We made a short visit to New Orleans. I'll make a separate post about that trip.

Dave took the youth Christmas caroling on his parade float. It is an annual traditional now.

Roxanne and Jonny were going to spend Christmas with Jonny's family in California, and Melanie is moving away shortly after Christmas, so we decided to have a faux Christmas Eve a week early. We ate in the living room by candlelight next to the Christmas tree, exchanged presents, enjoyed a pleasant evening. I love family holidays! Brady wasn't with us this year, he was terribly missed.

The next week, the real Christmas Eve, we decided to go out to eat. We went to "A Different Pointe of View" up at the Pointe Resort. It was beautiful. We had reservations at 5:30 so we were able to see the sun go down and the city lights come on. The food was good, the service was good. Suzanne was the one who suggested that restaurant, and without talking to each other, we both made reservations there at the same time. Us with our family, and her with friends.

After dinner, we drove through the Moon Valley area looking at amazing Christmas light displays in the residential neighborhoods there.

Christmas morning was wonderful. Christmas fell on Sunday this year. We decided to relax and sleep in a bit today. We got up and went to church at 9, our ward choir did most of the program, and it was very sweet. It was nice to spend the morning with our ward family. The kids spent the night here and went to church with us.

After church ended, we came home and enjoyed a day together eating tamales, opening presents, cooking together, playing games and eating all day. Melanie has a new boyfriend who spent part of the day with us too. 

Overall, another wonderful Christmas season. 

On the 28th, Suzanne and Penny and I planned a hike up near Yarnell, I'll write a separate post for that, then on New Year's Eve, we (our YW Presidency) talked the YM presidency into taking on the food service at the New Years eve dance for the youth this year, and we took the night off. In our defense, we did plan, purchase and prep all the food, then handed it over to them to actually attend. Then Dave and I put on our jammies, put in a movie and relaxed all evening. Melanie was not impressed that we planned and looked forward to just that. She was off partying all night. She and Chris had 3 events they were going to pop in to. 

So that's our December 2016. It was a good year overall and we are looking forward to 2017.