Happy Holidays

Hi All! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends etc. etc. etc.! We had a lot of fun. Derrick and Shayli headed up to Schweitzer on Christmas Eve morning and spent a big chunk of the day there. Last year Shayli was so sure that she wanted to ski, not board. So now that she has her own ski's, boots, etc. She wants to board. "The boards look so much cooler and you can buy cute boots and stuff..." Funny girl. So maybe next weekend we'll let her rent a board to try it out.
Shayli headed to her mom's for Christmas Eve evening, night and Christmas morning. And Derrick, Rad and I headed to my Mom and Bob's. They had quite a few people up! The Elders were there, Linda Edwards was there... she is a fun lady that I'll mention again later in this post. Bob's daughter Antoinette, her husband and son were there. Bob's son Yuri, and his wife and 4 1/2 kid's were there and Bob's daughter Laura with her husband and son were there too. Of course Michael, Shane and Valeri were there as well. We just chilled, ate good food, the grandkid's acted out the nativity while Grandpa Bob read the story. Then Antoinette's son Payton opened his birthday presents and everyone else got to open one present. It was fun, as always to kick back with the family and laugh and just be silly.

Christmas morning we checked out our goods from Santa and then headed back to Mom and Bob's for more presents, then back home to open the presents under our tree with Shayli and then yet again back to Mom and Bob's to end the day. Lots of back and forth but fun all the same.

Derrick received lots of new tools, I received lots of new tools and my very OWN toolbox. That will be fun. Shayli received lots of DVD's and new stuff for her room and Diddles received a cool new dome tent that connects to a tunnel that connects to a TP. Pretty fun for him. However, while opening presents Rad just wanted to sit on one of his big wrapped gifts (a potty chair) and read books. It was cute and I've posted a picture in the post.

Last weekend Shayli and I went to visit some nursing homes around town. We went to the one that Linda Edwards lives in. Linda is someone that my mom has known since she was a child and my mom says that if her mom were still alive that Linda would be living with her. So we include her in on all of the holidays. She's a lot of fun, loves to play board games and every other weekend Shayli and I are going to stop by and play a game or two with her in her home. That'll be a good time. We visited another home that was more of a convelescent home. There was a woman there who put her arms around me and just sobbed. When I finally had to leave they actually had to restrain the poor woman. I felt so much compassion for her. In YW's on Sunday we talked about people with disabilities and how to serve them and I think that lots of elderly people fall into that category at some point toward the end of their lives here at earth. Shayli felt the same compassion so we are going to make it our goal to spread some sunshine for the folks that we do feel so much compassion for.

On the subject of service, we've decided to start a new tradition in our household and "adopt" children from the Giving Tree's around town during the Holiday Season and give them the best Christmas that we can. We did it this year and it just makes you feel so good to do something so good for others.

Derrick and I are both back at work today. Derrick will finish out this week and part of next week building here in town and then it is off to Alaska for 3 weeks to work on the airport that he helped build this summer. I'm actually on campus 4 and maybe 5 days a week starting next week. That will be a change that I wasn't so excited about at first, but I get to bring Rad and Shayli when needed and I am very blessed to have this job... so no complaints. I'll do it with a smile. ☺

I'm doing a musical number this Sunday in church. It'll be a mix of Away in the Manger and The Lord is my Shepard... something that I arranged myself. I haven't done a musical number in so long, but it's something that I need to start doing again. I just pray that the spirit will be felt. Our friend Alex is coming to church for the first time on Sunday too, AND there is a good possiblity that Derrick will join us.

Geez- this has been a long post and I'm leaving lots of stuff out. But I'll post again early next week. Until then, know that we love you all lots and miss you tons.

OH! Jared, Amy and Tavin will be here in early January and we CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM! Yay! ♥

Have a great New Year!