December

On the first day of December...the kids decorated the upstairs Christmas tree. I had wrapped every branch and the trunk in lights the day before, Ivy had organized all the kid ornaments, and I took a nap while they decorated. They did it so fast that I made them come back when I was done napping so I could get a picture of each of them. We were officially decorated for Christmas after this, a big task around here but so worth it. I love our Christmas-y house.

On the fourth day of December...Ivy got to open our new Christmas book. This year's book was "The Legend of the Poinsettia". We are big fans of Strega Nona and this is the same author so I figured we would enjoy it as well. Ivy was very excited because one of the teachers read it to her class last year and she had loved it then.

We had a sneaky elf this year.

On the 5th day of December...we went to the Heber Chamber of Commerce gala. They always have a theme and, since I'm the worst at dressing up, I usually don't do anything. This year the theme was "Diamonds and Denim" so I raided Molly's closet and found a thrifted jean skirt and knit sweater. (Not pictured are her cowgirl boots she wore for the Taylor train last spring.) Justin made a belt buckle out of cardboard and was pretty proud of his cleverness. 

some AFCU peeps-the two girls are Justin's managers at Park City and Pleasant Grove branches; Marsh on the far right is the financial planner that works at Justin's branch a lot

On the seventh day of December...Stockton helped with games for the Primary kids at our ward party. I made a double batch of cinnamon rolls but stayed home with a migraine. Brynn left early to go to work and Molly stayed home and tried to get caught up on homework after missing two weeks following a sinus surgery she had in November. Justin and Ivy attended as well and had a good time.

Stockton, Camden Rose, Mason Allen, Travis Bowles

On the eighth day of December...we watched the Christmas Devotional, ate caramel popcorn, made snowflakes, and started our new Christmas puzzle. You can see that we made a delightful mess. When we finished the puzzle the next day, there were two pieces missing. We looked everywhere to no avail. I thought they probably got thrown away with the snowflake garbage. So I went out to the big outside garbage, got the bag I figured was from that night, donned some latex gloves, dumped the garbage bag, and sorted through all the garbage-which was more than just paper. Yuck. I didn't find the missing pieces. So I went back to the couch, pulled it all the way forward and...ta-da!...there were the missing pieces. Justin claims he looked there. Apparently not.

On the eleventh day of December...we watched Ivy in her clogging recital. She was so excited and she did great. I was wondering how she fit on this team-she tried out for the competition team this year and made it but she is the newest and most inexperienced, with just the one year of clogging. I needn't have worried, she was totally fine. She knew all the steps and kept up just fine. It made me so happy to see the biggest smile on her face the whole time she was performing and to know that she has found something that brings her joy and gives her confidence.

getting a candy cane from Santa

with Grandpa and Grandma Moyes

with Grandma and Grandpa Goodrich

Here are her clogging pictures for the year!

Ali Robinson and Ivy

second in from left, standing

On the fourteenth day of December...we cheered on Brynn at her first competition of the season. They had done so well at showcase the month before so we had high hopes for this first performance that matters. They had packed their routine with high difficulty skills so they could be really competitive against other gyms. They were a little nervous because most comps get divided into big gyms (over 100 athletes) and small gyms (under 100 athletes) but this comp wasn't doing that for Brynn's level. So we, as a very small gym, were going up against very large gyms. We told the girls to do their best and I was just hoping for a clean routine to build confidence going into the January comp season. Well, those girls blew us away. The routine they put on the mat that day was incredible. They were so clean and so crisp and everybody hit everything. We were so happy for them and so proud of them. They ended up with second place, the highest score in the gym's history, and were only beat out by the biggest gym in Utah County by .8 of a point. It was such a boost for these girls who spend hours and hours each week in the gym.

getting her hair teased

TMS girls...?, Oakley Keys, ?, Savannah West, Shaylee Williams, Dani Fritzsche, Brynn, ?

Coach Ashley, Brynn, Coach McKinley

Brynn and Oakley

third in from right on the bottom

Ivy sent her letter off to Santa that night.  She asked for a Christmas tree for her room and a rainbow loom for making bracelets.

Most every Sunday in 2024, we would have three cars at church. Justin would go early, then I would take Stockton later than that but still early for sacrament prep, and then Molly would come a little later than that. Brynn and Ivy would usually come with me but occasionally weren't ready in time and would go with Molly. Anyway, one Sunday our Explorer was out of commission so we all had to go at the same time (minus Justin, of course).  Molly said "take a picture" so I did!

Brynn finished her letter to Santa. She asked for a make-up subscription, hair clips, and any other ideas/surprises.

On the 15th day of December...we had our Bethlehem dinner. We watched a variety of nativity videos for an hour or so while enjoying the peace of the moment and each other. We piggy-backed traditions that day and had peppermint ice cream sundaes while watching Mr. Kreuger's Christmas after our dinner. And then the kids wrapped presents for each other after that.

On the sixteenth day of Christmas...Ivy had her piano stations day.  She got to show us all the things she had learned her third semester of piano and then perform her song for us at the end. I was especially impressed because Ivy took her song, Angels We Have Heard on High, which was written in the Key of G, and transposed it to the Key of C while reading the original music. She's learning so much!

Ivy and Miss Kim

On the 17th day of December...I had my piano party. The students who I've had for several years, or even just a couple, have really started to look forward to this party which makes me so happy. It's just a good mix of fun, low-pressure, and experience playing for an audience, in this case just their peers. I love it! Ivy played her song this year and Brynn came to help, play Bingo, and hang out with Taylee.

Travis Bowles, Kessley Coleman, Mallory Pearson, me, Haley Knowles, Lily Chappell, Vincent Treu, Ivy, Emery Pearson, Reese Allen, Taylee Baird, Tessa Baird, Bradley Baird, Joanna Quinn, Nora Owens, Alina Quinn (missing Sam Stinebaugh)

On the 20th day of December...Ivy had her Pioneer Party at school.  This was the last day before break and what 4th grade does for their winter party. They played marbles, had popcorn, "quilted", square-danced, and made yarn ornaments. I helped in the marble/popcorn station. Brynn wanted to get checked out early to go to Ivy's party and Mrs. Hall was so happy to see her and gave her the job of photographer. It was a fun afternoon and kicked off the start of the break.

That night was a Friday and quite literally the single night of the entire month that no one had anything. Everyone was a good sport to give that night up for some family time (and, actually, I think they were all happy to stay home). I had been busy making cookies all day so as soon as Justin got home and we had had some dinner, we headed out to do our jingling. Ivy would have been devastated if we weren't able to make this work so I'm glad we figured it out! This year our cookie plate had molasses crinkle cookies, sprinkle sugar cookies, and chocolate peppermint cookies.  Yum!  We dropped off 9 plates and took one home (we had intended to deliver all 10 but Ivy stepped on one in all the excitement so it was in no condition to give to anyone else and we enjoyed the cookies at home).

We extended our family car-time after we did our jingling to go see some Christmas lights. We saw the house in town that does the whole lights-and-music thing and then drove around to see other lights. We decided a lot of people are duds and don't decorate because the amount of houses with lights on them was very few and far between. Boo.

Brynn climbed out the sunroof to the top of the car to watch the light show

Which picture is better? 1 or 2?  Justin being weird or Ivy being silly?

I had told kids that they could make plans for when we were done but they all decided to stay home and we stayed up super late that night watching a The Muppets Christmas Carol.

On the 22nd day of December...we went to church for the Christmas Sunday program. I regret not getting a family picture. Stockton drove us and that is the only documentation I have of that morning. Our program was all music and one speaker and I accompanied a violinist to the Piano Guys song "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". It was a hard song and I had another sister step in for two pages on the left hand just because it is so fast and I was afraid of losing my spot and not being able to pick back up and keep going. It ended up going really well and was a beautiful song and I was grateful for the chance to be stretched a little. Justin had an ordination right after sacrament so we hung around for a little bit and then all drove home together.

That afternoon was our Moyes family party. We played Bunco which was new for most of us and a lot of fun. The cousins exchanged their gifts for each other. Ivy got a fanny pack and diamond painting, Brynn got a makeup bag with some products, Stockton got glow-in-the-dark balls, and Molly got a blanket and lotion.

We ate a prime rib dinner with all the sides and plenty to offer for dessert. We did the nativity. And then some of the kids went out caroling which was especially fun for the younger kids who had never been caroling before. We drove home to a living room already set up for a sleep-over-under-the-tree night. They stayed up late and watched a movie, maybe The Santa Clause...we always try to make it through as many Christmas movies as possible.

Gavin, Grant, Abby, Spencer, Lucy, Ivy, Molly, Seth, Stockton, Tessa, Chloe, Ben, Grace, Brynn, Josie, Harper

I laughed out loud when these boys came out-those wise men outfits got a little short and a little tight for them!

Lucy, Brynn, Jeff, Grandma, Grace, Harper, Josie, Chloe, Molly, Abby, Ivy, Spencer

the next morning

On the 23rd day of December, the kids woke up from their sleepover to Christmas crepes! Ivy was my helper and she wanted to make sure that the stack of crepes was patterned red-green-red-green, etc. She ran into a problem when I had a little more green batter than red but solved that problem by putting double green crepes on the top and the bottom.

This is also the day that we traditionally decorate our cookies for Santa. So I made the cookies but the kids had to do it in shifts...Stockton and Ivy on that day and Brynn and Molly the next since they both were working that day. Everyone picked their favorite cookie and those are the one's they left out for Santa on Christmas Eve.

After that, we excitedly wait for Christmas Eve to arrive, Mom makes a boat-load of food (I swear I spent three full days in the kitchen), the kids try to watch all the Christmas movies that haven't been watched yet, all the beds get set-up in Stockton's room for Christmas Eve night, we blast the Christmas music, and we try not to go crazy.  It's the most wonderful time of the year!