Social Media Angst

What accomplishment from this past year are you most proud of?

At first when I saw this prompt circulating on social media, I felt sad.  Absolutely nothing came to my mind and I kind of felt like I had failed.  I mean, I do feel like I/we are doing good things in our home and with our family, but nothing out of the ordinary stood out.  However, once I reflected on the question just a bit more, I realized I have accomplished several things in 2019 that I can feel proud of.

1. I put together/printed our 2018 family album (Shutterfly 110 pages).

2. My dad and I wrapped up his memory book from childhood.  (First edition printed.  Now we are proofreading text and brightening some of the pictures before several copies of the final product is printed.)

3. I worked out fairly consistently throughout 2019, usually about 3x a week.  I have some challenging work out classes which have pushed me.  (Now I just need to balance that aspect out with my chocolate addiction.)

4. I memorized over half of The Living Christ.  I have committed to finish up within the first 6 months of 2020.  Honestly, this was very challenging for me.  I wasn't sure I would get past that first paragraph when I first began.  I wish I would have stuck with it and finished my original goal...but, as the saying goes, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Tomorrow will be next month, next year, and the next decade.  Looking forward to an amazing 2020.

Christmas Day

We had a very nice Christmas Day. 

I asked Parker the day before to remove the helmet and replace the star...but alas, it did not happen.  Football takes over our lives in so many aspects so I guess it is kind of fitting.

I love the lights on our bookcase and the stockings on our mantel.  Our beautiful nativity is my favorite decoration.  I try to make it the focus of our decorations every year so we can remember the true reason for the celebrations.

Poor Aubrey...it's hard to be surrounded by teenagers.  (She will be 13 in January though.)

We have a tradition were the kiddos have to wait in the hall before coming to look at their stockings.  She was up and waiting in the hall at the pre-planned time of 6:45 a.m.  However, she had to wait a good 10 minutes before the other three joined her.

Tanner, Aubrey and Brinley were a little confused by this lovely key chain in each of their stockings.  Park had extra pictures from getting his passport and gifted them to his siblings.

They were thrilled.

Gram and Gramp came by a little after 7:00.  We exchanged gifts and they stayed for almost an hour before heading on to Britney's and then Chris' and then Kerry's house.  They were busy little elves.  

They gave the kids BYU Cougar gear.  (Bryn and Park received sweat pants and Tanner and Aubrey received sport shorts.)  They gave a fun filled stocking to Brian and me. (One of the funnest gifts in that stocking was Apple Airpods.  Our children were jealous!)  We gave them the traditional photo calendar, a fuzzy blanket and a "love you dad" wooden sign.

So many thoughtful gifts were given and received.  Bryn gave me this "Book of Mormon" journal edition and Brian framed pictures of them together.  Perfect!  It was fun to see the kids make time to think about and shop for each person in the family.  Tanner purchased favorite soft drinks or treats for the girls and Brian and me.  The boys went in on a headset to each other/from each other.  (I kind of had to talk them into that.  They weren't too sure it counted.)   Parker bought bath bombs for Aubrey and warm gloves for Brinley.  Aub gave Brinley a photo mug with family pictures on it plus two face masks.  Brinley gave Aubrey a BYU Cougars shirt.

Grandpa Gwilliam made these beautiful wooden containers from wood from a walnut tree they had in their backyard.  After working with him on making wooden bowls at Thanksgiving, I think this means even more.  They understand just a little bit about the labor of love that went into this gift.

 He also made pens for the boys!

 

Every time Brinley asked Tanner what he wanted for Christmas, he would answer "tacos, lots of tacos" or "a taco truck."  Well, his wish came true...  I also made him a pair of church socks: Tanner's Tacos.

Scott and Carrie sent a cute little framed picture of each of our kids with Tyler.  So sweet!  (Aubrey received hers at Thanksgiving, and she has it set up in her bathroom.)

It would take the whole blog to document everything but I'll mention some sweet gifts I received: Tanner gave me two huge Hershey bars--chocolate is my love language.  Aubrey gave me the cutest fruit shaped luggage tags.  I am ready to put those babies to good use.  Parker gave me a box of treats with some coupons.  Good for cleaning six skylights plus several more I can use for whatever I need.  Oh ya!  (I mentioned Bryn's gift above and Brian and I didn't really exchange gifts this year.)

The day before Christmas I asked Parker what gift he was most excited about giving.  He mentioned the portable charger he purchased for Brian.  We all know this is definitely something Bri will put to good use. 

Tanner was excited about what he did for Brian as well.  Brian kept telling him, "I like rice" when Tanner would ask him what he wanted for Christmas.  Well, Tanner bought him Coke Zero, 6 Twix bars and hid/wrapped them in a large bag of rice.  Bri had a good Christmas surprise.

I wish I would have asked the girls what they were looking forward to gifting.  I think the Fossil watch we gave Parker was the gift I was most excited about giving.  We had it engraved with, "I can do all things through Christ."

Brian made us a delicious breakfast (egg dish, hash browns and toast) and also Christmas dinner (ham, green beans, salad and funeral potatoes.)

We played Jackbox.tv games for quite awhile in the afternoon.  We also played "Five Seconds" which is our new game from Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam. 
Several of us took naps.  Some of us walked over to Gram and Grandpa's for an evening visit.

Overall, it was a beautiful Christmas day.

Christmas Eve Gathering

We met out at Kerry's for our Christmas Eve gathering.  We mingle, eat, share talents, and read Luke 2 with a Nativity by the children.  This gathering has been happening for as long as I can remember, and I love it.  

My beautiful girls.

 Everybody loves Ella!

Back row: Aubrey, Hudson, La  Front row: Emily, Jake Davidson (Charity's boyfriend), Charity, Char and Kate

 

Ashley & CJ King, Grandpa, Erin, Charity and Parker

Aileen and Alan Pitt, Gram, Donna and Spencer Thompson

Brian and I with our older kiddos.  Grandpa Honey was taking pictures for us and we were cracking up.  He said, "I will take four pictures.  Ready?"  Then he would slowly count to three and take one picture.  And then slowly say "one...two....three..." and take the next picture.  Four times!  

Nate, Beth and Quetta

I especially love the gifts we give each other by sharing our talents.  Last year our family talent was Aubrey doing a dance with Lauron.  This year the Gwilliams were the appreciators of all of the talents!  (I almost shared some crafts I had made this year but with the holiday craziness, I decided to just be an appreciator.  Maybe next year....)

The Dave Martin family shared a magic trick.  (Dave is my sister-in-law Angelique's brother.) This is the fun thing about this gathering as well...it is extended family, family related to other family members, friends, missionaries etc...  It varies from year to year.

The King family, Laurel is my 1st cousin, singing a song about how they are moving to Midland soon but they will be close.

The Bird family with a silly rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  Lincoln, 2 years old, broke out in the giggles and it made it even more fun!

Our annual handstand contest.  We have a lot of gymnasts and former gymnasts.  Hudson won the 13 and under category.  Charity won the 14 and up.  I can't even believe Kerry and Nate (44 and 42) still hold their own in this contest.

We did a "Star Wars" hula hoop contest as well.  Elementary winner: Hudson
Middle school winner: Holden  Older teen winner: Erin Meisje Adult winner: Angelique (I was second--so close.  She beat me most years at Reagan too.  Occasionally I would come out on top.  She's good.)

Donna and Spencer Thompson shared a story from a Christmas he had in Germany and then sang a song.  Notice Trump in the background.  If you look at several of these pictures, he was a prominent person this year.  (Terrifying.)

Gram shared Papa Fanning's twist on the poem "The Night Before Christmas."  He included family names and personalized it for our extended group.  Pretty sweet.  We miss our Papa Fanning.

Trump photo bomb.  

Charity accompanied Stevie and Lauron on a duet.

Ang wrapped up the talent portion of our evening by reciting from memory The Living Christ.  The spirit was so strong and everyone was very quiet as we listened to a beautiful testimony about the life of Christ.

We then mingled a little bit more while those in the Nativity got prepared.

Wise women: Ang, Ashley, Emily  Star: Danielle  Mary: Charlotte  Animal: Holden  Joseph: Dylan  Animals: Aubrey, Hudson, Lauron and Ella  Shepard: Braddock

We don't have many little ones anymore.  Lincoln, two years old, went home early.  Christian, 5 months-ish old, stayed home sick.  This is our group.  We had to recruit older teens and adults to fill some roles.  They did an amazing job fitting into tiny costumes. 

We had a very nice Christmas Eve gathering.  The focus on the birth and the life of our Savior truly brought a special spirit into our hearts.

Pre-Christmas Entertaiment

On Saturday night, Brinley, Brian and I walked Shiloh Dr and looked at the beautiful lights.  (Aub was sick and the boys were not interested.)  It was fun to get bundled up, enjoy the amazing decorations and visit with our girl.

We enjoy receiving Christmas cards from friends and family each December.  We are not very good about sending our own cards out.  We usually send one about every third year...just enough so we don't get axed from our friends' Christmas card lists.

I love my  beautiful, new wall hanging.  I sent it over to the Nativity Festival in Midland and forgot all about it.  They returned it a week ago and I fell in love all over again.  I just hung it  up two days ago.

On Monday, the 23rd, Bryn, Morgan and Aubrey created some lovely ugly Christmas t-shirts.  I loved hearing them laughing, talking non stop and singing Christmas carols.  I'm grateful the older girls included Aubrey too.

Parker and Tanner hung out all afternoon and evening in the 23rd.  Harper came over for awhile and then they headed over to Cole's house.  They got a group together went to the trampoline Park and then wrapped up the night hot tubbing.  Brian and I had our sibling gift exchange Monday evening, but I will do a separate post for those picts.

...woke up on Christmas Eve to our lovely new tree topper.

 

Our pre-Christmas excitement included a family work project in the front yard.  We live it up over here on Christmas Eve.  It was a gorgeous day and with everyone working together, we spent about 20 minutes.  

We will have our extended family/friend Christmas Eve gathering tonight out at Kerry's.