December

Elfie is baaaack! I convinced them (with much debate from some) to change his name. I mean, come on... Elfie? The older boys agreed. It would be like calling us Humany. So Collin threw out Stewart. I like it. Certain helpers agreed to assist with the elf antics this year. Phew. Life savers. They had a lot of fun with it. 

Maybe too much fun. This one did not get my approval!

We started out the season with the MCO choir concert! My mom invited us and it was so incredibly beautiful. I was swept away by the majesty of it and loved that I got to start the month on such a spiritual high note. Afterward, we got dinner at El Charro! The famous El Charro where my parents went to dinner right before taking my dad to the airport for his mission and my mom graduated high school. I had never had it before and being inside felt like stepping back into time. I really don't think the bathroom has been remodeled since the 70's. It was delicious! I loved every bite. 

World Cup is on, if you didn't know.

The Gardners were gracious enough to host the office Christmas party again. They got catering from Famous Dave's BBQ and had kareoke going all night. Olive was all about it. The boys stayed busy on the sport court. 

I noticed Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols on Netflix or Living Scripture or something like that. I love those songs. So we watched it with the kids over a couple of Sundays. I felt like it set the mood nicely!

I thought it would be nice to have a Lindblom Christmas party but not everyone was into the idea. Seemed easier to just turn a normal Sunday dinner night into a Christmas party. So that's what happened. We had a little talent show and Grandpa made his yummy, hot chocolate. Olive played the piano and Scarlett played her violin with Grandma! Tanner recited a poem, I think. 

Morrison Ranch Christmas Bash is always a favorite. Olive had to come late because of dance. The older boys immediately broke away to play football in a nearby field with friends. So it was just me and Mr. Tanner! He quickly ran into a friend from school, Aaron, and they had a great time running around to all the rides and attractions!

Leah and I seem to manage about one hike a year. Wish it was more! We lost the trail, but had a good time talking and enjoying the beautiful weather. Her dad has left the church and is very vocal about it on Facebook. Doesn't make life very easy for the rest of the family. 

Olive and I try to work on a dance together for Instagram on her afternoon at home. We don't always get to it, but it's really fun when we do!

What's cuter than a kindergartener in a homemade, holiday crown?!

Winnie leads a mighty, bored life. So she comes with me to do school pickup most days. 

Olive was in Inspire's rendition of The Nutcracker as a Gingerette! Camilla is the most supportive friend ever and hauled out to Queen Creek to see her. Grandma Lindblom and Aunt Shelley and her girls and Aunt Marcie and Scarlett were so sweet to come see her on a night I couldn't go. Olive is sure loved!

I was asked to be in charge of our ward's Christmas party a few months ago. When Travis was in the bishopric I was a little vocal to him when a ward Christmas party didn't happen. That's probably what landed me in this position. I knew immediately I wanted to get Alisa Coates to help me. She had told me last year about her grandma's tradition to do a live nativity of sorts with lots of musical numbers for their ward party growing up. I asked her if she would help me recreate her grandma's program. She cried for a straight 30 minutes while we talked about it. She was so emotional and excited. I called a committee and we started planning early. I wanted it to be a really special night dedicated to the Savior. We had meat catered from a Mediterranean restaurant called Niros House Mediterranean Kitchen. Heather Wayment took care of the rice, Kim Johnson brought the hummus and pita bread. Lynn Christensen made the spread for the pitas. I bought 16 bags of salad from Costco. We spent all day at the church setting up. Alisa had the most amazing connections in the music world and brought in such talented singers for the special musical numbers. Her dad flew down from Utah to play his classical guitar and her sister played the piano. We asked ward members to play the parts of the nativity. Olive got to be the "star" that walked in slowly during one of the songs. She looked so beautiful! I was so glad she could make it. She had a Nutcracker performance, then my mom brought her straight to the party, which was a life saver! My mom was so helpful with this! Tanner got to sing with the primary choir, Away in a Manger. Be still my heart!!! I was behind the scenes, helping with costumes and directing the "cast" in from the hallway when it was their turn. The Spirit was so strong. I had tears in my eyes the whole night. Heck, the whole day! While we had been setting up the trees earlier, she had the singers practicing and it was incredible to get to hear them while we worked. Everything was exactly like I had hoped! It all came together in such a beautiful way. I could tell everyone who came was touched. People gushed compliments all night and the rest of the month. I was beyond humbled and grateful. God was in all the details. This is what Christmas is about! Feeling the love of our Savior and worshipping HIM. 

Just a little snapshot of our Sunday afternoons! We have a missionary lesson with Allie after church at our house. Often, Megan and Bella Milius come too. It's been a really wonderful experience for our family. We love having Allie sit with us at church. She is a light! Her parents would like her to go to church for a year before she gets baptized. 

This texting conversation just made me laugh. You have to read it in my "dragon voice" to really get it. The Bag Princess is a favorite book around here. .

ALA's winter sing. Olive LOVES to sing! She has to be the smiliest kid on those stands.

And Tanner's Winter Sing! 

Tanner had a field trip to Organ Stop Pizza. They had limited space on the buses and requested parents drive their children if possible so I picked him up and we partied with his class at this Mesa icon. The kids were ENTHRALLED. It's been awhile since I've been here so I was pretty entertained too haha.

Tanner got the honors this year! The lights on this tree poooped out 3 days later, so it was off to buy a new one and redecorate. Which worked out ok because then I had an extra tree to use at the ward party!

Olive takes piano lessons from Janae Samuelson, where Craig and Camille live. So Olive got to meet their dog, Paisly, after one lesson.

Instead of a big, Christmas recital, Inspire just does performances at their studio. This was their tumbling performance! So fun that she gets to take class with two of her best friends, Mia and Emerson! Sweet girl didn't do as well as she had hoped and was fighting back tears at the end. I felt for her, but tried to remind her that mistakes happen! It's part of life. And she actually did amazing! I can't believe how quickly she's picking up tumbling! Already doing multiple running back hand springs!

My cute baker! He's pretty good in the kitchen!

Sibling sushi night at RA! Sometimes life just gets too busy and I don't get to see my favorite people enough. David represented for the brothers!

Doing those long runs on Saturdays. Killing. Me. Slowly. So hard to fit in during the holidays.

The Goodman/ Evans Christmas night might be my kids' favorite tradition. The Goodmans brought LJ's pizza and I made homemade gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate. Shelley also brought all the fixings for yummy, fancy drinks!! So fun! Usually the kids make gingerbread houses but it always turns into such a mess and it's a lot of money for 45 min. of craftiness that goes into the garbage. So, I thought we could dip pretzel rods into caramel and chocolate and make bags to give to their teachers! I also bought cute cards for them to write thank you's to their teachers. I was perhaps a little too ambitious. And dipping pretzels for a crowd didn't work as smoothly as I had hoped. Oh well! Back to the drawing board for next year!

This year we drove to Agritopia to look at Christmas lights and blare our music! Made a little stop at David and Abbeys too. The boys are into this Banjo music song and everyone joined together to make the back of the truck go up and down. So funny to watch. Shelley brought back a little souvenir on the back of her sweater haha!

Camilla, Posey, Olive and I did our annual tea party at The Camby! It was very fancy. Olive and I ate all the things, per usual. Posey gave Olive a soft, pink blanket that she loves! Camilla gave me many things but my favorite was this dried, orange garland! I hung it from my kitchen light fixture and was so sad to throw it away at the end of the season. 

Another year of ordering tortillas from Carolinas to hand out as neighbor gifts! Energetic kids are the best delivery people. They just fight with each other a lot. As kids were yelling, "no it's MY turn!" and "he took my spot!" I couldn't help but sigh. We were trying to spread holiday cheer but I think we were spreading something else entirely.

The talent show at Grandma and Grandpa Evans included Tanner reciting a poem and Weston playing guitar. Collin participated in a silly skit that Abbey and Kayda dragged him into but I think he secretly loved. Olive was sick so we had to watch from Facetime. 

The Mosley's son was hit by a car on his motorcycle and in bad shape at the hospital. Besides bringing food it's a very helpless feeling. So the kids helped me make hearts to heart attack their house with.

We dared to show the boys National Lampoons Christmas Vacation! Minus the naughty parts. They seemed to appreciate it. I still remember being in bed as a kid and running down the hall to see what was so funny when my parents were watching this movie.

We took the missionaries out to dinner with Allie. Taye Hill came too which was so nice. We got dinner at Somburros then went to the temple to have a discussion. We met the temple president and showed her the inside then went to the church next door to have the discussion. It went really well. I'm so glad my kids get to have these experiences.

Weston got invited to another fun day with his friend, Liam Dixon!

The week after Christmas we went on a family hike in Phoenix. The kids weren't exactly thrilled but I was determined to get out of the house and do something together, dang it! ;)

We got Canes afterward and had to laugh at the National Lampoons reference after having just watched it!

Grandpa always does such a good job blinging out his RZR for all of us to use! We stopped by this house just south of Mesa High that had hundreds of little houses lit up in the front yard. It was insane. I couldn't believe my eyes. One of the coolest things I've seen!

We had a Prenda reunion at the park! I had to coerce the boys and girls to play together. I could tell the girls wanted to but the boys were oblivious and happy to just play football together.

Abbey had the idea for us all to go to this place in Scottsdale called Enchant. It was hard to find a time before Christmas so it worked out fine to do it afterward. I just felt bad because Cohen was being a nightmare and they left early. We went ice skating and walked around, looking at the lights. There was a little scavenger hunt to find certain light displays. Pretty pricy, probably wouldn't recommend, but we made the best of it. We found Santa at the very end which was funny since Christmas is over. Oh well! Santa is always fun to visit!

Tanner got to go home and have a sleepover with the Figs! Lucky boy!!

Another Christmas thing we didn't get to til the end of the month... the Giving Machine! It's never too late, right? I always feel so blessed to be on "this side", able to donate to those in need. 

I took down my conference quotes and put up new ones. I'm always a session behind. These were some of my favorites.

We took Tanner's friend, Aaron and Weston's friend, Liam, and Olive's friend, Mia, to Fat Cats and spent way too much money on mini golf and bowling and food. Ay yi yi. Having kids home from school is expensive! We were out of seats in the car so Collin came solo and helped me wrangle kids.

Collin somehow lost a band around a bracket. Dad to the rescue!

Family bike ride to Chick-fil-a! I can't believe we didn't know about this path next to the 202! It's perfect! We only have to cross one intersection and it takes us straight to the golden chicken.

Olive had a private lesson with Shelley VanShear and I had to smile at the text I got. 

I made a goal to read one book a month this year. It was the end of December when I realized I was one book short. So I binge read Considering the Cross. I literally finished it an hour before we went to my parent's house to celebrate New Year's Eve. It was incredible. Gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for Christ's Atonement and his sacrifice on the cross. Highly recommend! John Hilton is a great teacher.