Merry Christmas

We've had a quiet and nice Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, our family band, Gourmet Chips, played some Christmas songs together (see Instagram).   Jared and I played together a little as well.  We also played a new board game that we got for Christmas, and we played the hand-bells.  We reenacted the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon, and finished with some Lego Rock Band.  It was a pretty fun night. 

Christmas morning started at 7:30 am.  Jared got some bongo drums, and Ruth got a comforter set for her bed, Chuck got a shirt and tie, and I got a pressure cooker.   After presents we had to get ready for church (and I had to do some food prep).  

My Christmas program at church went pretty smoothly.  My choir sang as well as I have heard them. I have about 15 more people at Christmas than any other time. It's nice to hear all four parts for once. Overall I was pretty happy with it.  

On Christmas afternoon, Ben, Kaitlin's boyfriend, came over and we all anxiously awaited Kaitlin's call.  We had a great conversation with her.  She was so happy!  She had been in to the hospital that morning for a follow-up, and she said she has the fanciest doctor in the whole city and is getting good care. She is so excited to come home in just five weeks.  We had a good visit with Ben, and learned that he isn't going back to school this spring, rather he is staying home to "earn some more money" and will return to school in the fall. 

It's been our tradition to make ornaments every year. This year it was "ugly Christmas sweaters." 
Can you guess who made which? One is a give away.

It's also our tradition to reenact the Christmas story on Christmas eve. This year we did the Book of Mormon story.  Here is the angel/Captain America telling Samuel the Lamanite, and his reindeer, and his turkey, to go back to Zarahemla. (Everyone chooses their own costumes). 

This is Samuel the Lamanite (and his turkey) on the wall fending off attacks from the wicked people. 

On every Christmas eve there is a quiet moment late at night or early in the morning that Moms get to enjoy, when all the gifts are under the tree and most of the hard work of Christmas is done.  Making Christmas happen is a great work. 

The thing Kaitlin wanted most in our Skype call with her was a "talent show".  Here is Jared playing for her. Ruth also did some of her debate presentation for her. 

Kaitlin was so excited and happy to talk to us.  She sounded like she was doing really well. 

Have you ever made Turkey in the crockpot??  I have now!   This is a 13 lb turkey and I cooked it for 8 hours.  Next time I'll cook it a little less. It was tender. delicious, and super easy. I also made potatoes in my new pressure cooker.

Our Christmas cracker hats at Christmas dinner. 

We got 6 inches of snow on Christmas eve.  We're glad we had decided not to travel, because all that snow had an icy underbelly.  Luckily the streets were plowed by the time we headed for church.

All About Jared

Today is Jared's birthday. He is 14 (for reference, when Harry Potter was 14, he participated in the Triwizard Tournament).  Jared chose for his birthday today to have Salmon, a cheeseball, and rootbeer floats.  I also made him egg-in-toast for breakfast.   Jared got some clothes (including a Good Mythical Morning t-shirt), headphones, treats, and a juggling toy.    Since today was Sunday, Jared also had some other cool things happen.  First of all, he was ordained to be a Teacher.  That is the next level for boys in our church after Deacon.  Jared is super excited to be a Teacher because he was Deacon President for over 18 months and he wanted a break.   Jared also got recognized in church for finishing his Duty to God (a program for boys where he has to fulfill certain requirements like serving in the church and doing service and reading scriptures and that sort of thing). He got a certificate and was recognized in front of the entire congregation.  So that was pretty cool.

This week was also Jared's holiday band concert.  This was his first time playing the Bells (the Tubular Bells) and the base drum. It's cool to be the mother of a percussionist because it's like your kid has a solo in every concert because you can hear what they are playing so clearly.  He really likes band and his concerts are getting progressively better and better.

We spent a couple hours this week playing guitars together.  Jared's learning to play a basic bass line while I play the rhythm guitar.  It's pretty fun.

We Moved but Didn't Go Anywhere

When we moved into our house almost 12 years ago we told ourselves that we would replace the ratty carpet soon.  Well, we finally did it.   On Monday and Thursday very nice workmen showed up (not punctual) to our home to put in new carpet. We replaced all the carpet upstairs.  So Sunday night found us moving everything out of one half of the house, then Monday night we moved it back; on Wednesday we moved everything out of the other half of the house, and then Thursday night we moved it back.  I told everyone that if there was something they didn't want to move back into their room to put it in the basement, now the basement is half full with boxes, bags and random bits of furniture. On the bright side, our rooms are clutter free.  Our whole house smells like new carpet. 

Christmas Arrived

Christmas was on hold until the new carpet was installed.  In addition to moving back into the house we also moved Christmas in. The tree went up and the stockings and all that stuff. Now it feels very Christmasy. It's hard to wrap my head around how fast time is flying by. 

More Debate

Ruth's domination of the debate world continued this weekend where she took one first and two second places (one of those 2nd place wins was in Storytelling - a brand new event for her), and then took second overall for the entire tournament.  This is her highest ranking finish ever. 

My New Job

I've been at my new job for two weeks now and I'm really enjoying it.  I am a teacher's aid assigned to first grade.  I work for four teachers who divide me up between them and I do whatever they need me to do.  In two weeks I've put up four bulletin boards, made hundreds of copies, laminated, figured out how to run the new CD players, tested hundreds of sight words, and have read a story about a hen (with two wings, and two legs, and a long neck) sixty times.   The work suits me well. I don't have to make decisions. It isn't stressful. Every hour I'm doing something different. It's perfect and I'm happy. 

Our church Christmas party had a "photo booth" so here we all are with a selfi-stick.  It isn't very often that the whole family is in a picture, so here it is. 

We had a nice and quiet thanksgiving at Grandma's house.  Activities included: talking, eating, cleaning, talking more, cutting out snowflakes, eating more, and setting up Grandma's Christmas tree.

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The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was filled with a retileing project in preparation for getting new carpet next week. We managed to get all the old tile removed, the floor prepped, and the new tile laid out and cut.  

Reflections

Ruth won some Reflections things at her school.  She entered four areas and was in it basically to make money and to get points for her Sterling Scholar application.  She made $20 in gift cards with the two wins.

Election Woes

Ruth's debate team had an election party on election night.  Ruth drew a map of the US on a whiteboard and the team filled in the states as they were called.  It was a tough night for them, and a tough night at our house.   The next morning the debate team got together for a post-election breakfast just to console each other in their sorrow.  It was a tough week overall for all of us.  It just made it clear that the way that our family sees things is way different than others see things, including our own family and neighbors.

New Job

A month or so ago I got a phone call out of the blue from a local elementary school saying they had my resume and they wanted me to come and interview for a part time aid job. I was surprised because, while I had started looking at the job market again, the resume which they had was over a year and a half years old.  The amazing thing is that I had just told God two days before that if he wanted me to get a job that I needed some help opening some doors. So all things considered, even though I didn't really want to work as an aid again, I went into the interview just to see what they had to say.  A week later they called and said that I didn't get the job, but they wanted to hire me and they'd let me know if they had future openings. I just shrugged and went on with my life, not expecting anything.  Three or so weeks later I got a phone call from them saying they had a job for me and could I start at the end of the month?  It all seemed so surreal that I figured I better take the job.  I mean, how often are jobs just handed to you like that?  It's part time and has hours are in the middle of the school day.  So it's perfect.  I start the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Debate Judging

I got to judge at Ruth's debate tournament again this weekend.  This was a bigger tournament and there was a lot of competition.  Some of the kids I judged were amazing.  Ruth got fourth place, and was pretty happy with that considering the competition and that she'd been sick.  I took this picture of her before the competition.  Talking to walls is part of debate culture.  Before any tournament, you'll see tons of kids lined up against the walls giving their speeches and practicing their points.

Jared's Ukulele

Jared is still playing the Ukulele every day and he has an amazing talent for it, surpassing where many of my guitar students were after a year of lessons.   I love listening to him play and we've even played a few duets just for kicks.

New Adventures in Paraguay

We got word from Kaitlin this week that she's been moved from Asuncion to a city right on the border of Brazil.  She's a little nervous about the move as she was super happy in Asuncion, but she's excited to get more practice on her Portuguese.

More Debate

Yes, 'tis the season to hear about debate. Ruth competed in another tournament this week. I grabbed her for a picture late Saturday night after she had been at competition for 23 hours over 2 days.  She was exhausted because she had triple entered and then made it to finals in all three. One of her finals overlapped the other so she had to compete and then run across the school to be the last competitor in another one.  In the end she had gotten 1st in Humorous Interpetation, 2nd in Declamation, and 3rd in Poetry.  Her team got 4th overall which is a big deal because their team is really small so they rarely get any team level awards.  I guess one student getting 3 wins could help with that. 

Jared is a Star

Jared was given a rank advancement at our Scout Court of Honor this week. He's now a star scout. That's one rank away from Eagle. He also went on his last camp out with the scouts, as he will be moving up to varsity scouts next month.

Balancing the Books

This week between filling orders I actually tried to balance to books for my little hobby that pays for itself in preparation for the end of the year. I'm not making tons of money doing this, but I'm in the black so that's good.  I also made this commissioned Skyrim helmet.