December 2019

December was its usual blur of color and activity. We had a lot going on. Christmas seemed to arrive so quickly especially with the late Thanksgiving this year and Kameron's heart procedure. I felt like I was ten steps behind all month.

First up, we got our family pictures back. I am super happy with them. My friend Amy does them for us and she does such a great job! The day we got our pictures taken it was pouring rain and miserable. But our pictures still turned out great!

This year going into December we had several family discussions about traditions. Traditions are HUGE in my family. My mom was all about making family and holiday traditions and that has carried down to our family. I take our family traditions very seriously and very personally. Some of these discussions were not easy. Many left me in tears. Some traditions were going to have to change. I hate change. My mom was gone this year...No one believes in Santa...Reilly told me that some of our traditions were dumb and that the kids have out grown them. That didn't go over well. Not all of the kids agreed with her but she had a point on a couple of things. Her delivery could have used some work and I felt like Christmas was going to suck. We eventually hashed things out and made some compromises and I hoped for the best.

Bryn had a Christmas Cookie Party with her friends:

Ailey's French Club had a Buche de Noel Party:

Ailey and Sienna

We read a few Christmas books. This was one of our traditions that changed. No wrapping up Christmas books to count down to Christmas and reading one every night. The kids are just too old, too busy, and our nights are too chaotic. I still put them all, unwrapped, in a basket under the tree. We read a couple as a family and I saw Bryn reading them on her own occasionally. That used to be one of my favorite traditions. :(

Ailey had her dance team Christmas party:

We had our ward Christmas party which turned out to be pretty fun. Ward parties are either hit or miss for me. Usually a miss. This one was pretty good. I didn't take pictures though. I was super stoked that the Primary didn't have to do anything for it. Hallelujah!

Tyler, Bryn, and I went to Christmas Tree Elegance:

I love it!

We roamed around downtown and looked at all the lights and got hot chocolate. So often now it is just the three of us. We call ourselves "The Cool Kids Club" and we actually really enjoy it! LOL.

We had a fun Scandinavian night. Tyler made lefse and I made risalamande which is a Danish almond rice pudding with a sour cherry sauce. We did this as our Sunday dinner on the first night of Advent. Reilly and Hunter came over and Kam's girlfriend Abbey came over too. This turned out to be such a fun night and one that will become a new tradition. We always make lefse because it is Tyler's family's Norwegian tradition but doing a whole Scandinavian night was really fun. We had a bunch of things to go with the lefse and we all hung out in the living room and laid all of the food out on the coffee table, lit a bunch of candles, and enjoyed the Christmas tree lights. It was one of my very favorite nights. We also broke out the eggnog too! Abbey had never had eggnog before!!

Tyler ricing the potatoes for the lefse.

Ailey was an awesome sous chef and helped him with rolling it out.

Cooking the lefse.

This is Risalamande...not my picture. But mine was nearly as pretty if I would've had some mint sprigs. Tyler got the lucky almond (Or in our case pecan since I had run out of almonds!) I will be making this again soon. It is super easy in the instant pot.

Kam had his heart procedure. It went well. More on that in a separate post.

Ailey had her first dance competition of the season:

Our school hosted and Tyler and I were parent volunteers. We had a bit of a shock when we saw the program:

Tyler, Bryn, and I went to see the lights at the Gaiser Conservatory:

I love this tradition too!! 

Bryn had her Christmas Piano Recital:

She did a terrific job! She played The First Noel.

Bryn and her good friend Micah.

Kam and Abbey celebrated their one year anniversary. Kam went with her to pick out a Christmas tree for their family and they took this adorable picture.

Reilly and Hunter tried to recreate it:

#fail   LOL!

My mom would've turned 71 on December 15th. Man, we are really being hit with everything in 3 months. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my Mom's birthday. It has been hard. But we are forging ahead as she would want us to do.

Kelley and Elle met me, Bryn, Ailey, Jordin, Ramon and their kids on my Mom's birthday. We had dinner at PF Changs. Stacey and River stopped by briefly to say hello. Reilly wasn't able to come and Tyler stayed home with Kameron who was recovering from his procedure.

We recreated what we did on my mom's last birthday. Last year we went to see the vintage Crescent Christmas windows at the Davenport Grand after meeting for dinner. So we decided to do that again. Each year they are different. This year the theme was Babes in Toyland.

We thought this one looked like Kameron! Ha ha!

I found this gem on my phone later. LOL.

Ailey had her Winter Music Department Concert:

Ailey just singing her little heart out!

A few others had a bit harder time keeping their eyes open. Ha Ha! This concert is almost three hours long. It's choir, orchestra, band, and percussion with all of their different groups performing multiple numbers. I love the side eye from Kam. This was the first year he got to sit in the audience.

Photos by Reilly.

We were laughing so hard. Tyler, Bryn, and my friend Mary were all three asleep in a row. I refused to let Reilly take a picture of Mary. She would've KILLED me. Ha ha!

These two are trouble!

Abbey did great too!

  Kameron tried to whisk her away when we started taking pictures but I managed to snag one.

Later that night we Tim Tam Slammed:

Tyler and I continued to love our daily three mile walks as we attempted to solve the problems of the universe. Night walks were especially beautiful with all of the Christmas lights.

It's amazing how much some extra light can lift the spirits. It really struck home to me this year how Christmas lights represent the light of Christ in a dark world. This year it seemed that most of the people I know and many people on social media put up their Christmas decor early. I think 2019 was a rough year for a lot of us. We all needed some extra light this year.

Miss Beverly was so good around the Christmas tree and decorations. I was really worried about that. But she left everything alone even the presents under the tree. She is such a good little pup!

We also said goodbye to the Honda. The kids car or really I guess Kam's car as he was the only driver at the time. As I said in a previous post we were going to let Kam drive the Honda until it dropped or he left for his mission. Well it didn't exactly drop but it was on its last leg. I love this snapchat from Kam as it was picked up by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Christmas shopping this year was a nightmare. Normally we crank it all out in one day in one mammoth shopping extravaganza very early in the month usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That gives us all month to actually *enjoy* December. This year with the late Thanksgiving, lake time, Kam's heart procedure, and just all around chaos it was piecemealed out all month and it sucked. Throw in the fact that our kids are SUPER PICKY and would rather know what they are getting instead of being surprised made it extra hellish. We did manage to surprise them with a few gifts though. You can't know everything! But it made shopping and getting feedback through texts hellacious. Doesn't Tyler look like he is having fun??

I did manage to have a little bit of Christmas shopping fun with Kam. He wanted a new ski coat so we went to pick one out. That was also NOT fun. But afterward we went to visit Reilly at work and then out to lunch. That WAS fun and I don't often get to hang out with just our big kids.

The Christmas baking went on all month. Most of it was done by Ailey and Bryn which was so nice!!

Bryn and Ailey took over the task of making Grandma Vic's famous sour cream frosted sugar cookies. This was both sweet and sad. I loathe making these cookies and never did because my mom made them and I could just eat them. It was a clear reminder that she is gone if these cookies are being made at my house. The girls did a great job and they were delicious. Grandma Vic would be proud.

Ailey also had a new fudge recipe that she wanted to try so this year she made the chocolate fudge and I made the butter pecan fudge.

She also made these amazing confections. Frosted Mint Brownie Bites with a Chocolate Ganache. They were the best treats that I ate all December! Those can be added to the holiday roster.

Sadly, this year was the first year in...I think ever...that I did not make treat plates for friends and neighbors. Christmas cards and cookie plates are some of my very favorite Christmas traditions. I sent out Christmas cards but I just didn't have the energy to make a whole bunch of treat plates and run them around. Did I feel guilt about that? I sure did. I know it's ridiculous but I really felt terrible not doing something for friends and neighbors and for people who probably could've used a treat from us. I didn't want friends and neighbors feeling like we didn't care about them. Ugh... I know. I need to work on letting go of weird guilt. It is just that I know how much I appreciate it when I receive something like that and it was a tradition that my mom always did that we used to help her with and it was always so fun delivering them. Some things just had to go by the wayside. I feel like I have been in survival mode since Sept. 13th.

Speaking of my mom... I saw this meme on Instagram and it prompted this post on FB:

She knocked it out of the park every single year! No matter what were the circumstances. I know there were years she probably didn’t feel like celebrating and some years were more prosperous than others. I can see her baking, sewing, locked in her room wrapping, playing the piano, decorating, making cookie plates for neighbors and friends, hostessing, Christmas music at full volume, and always finding the perfect gifts for each of us. Thank you Mom. Thank you for making 47 magical Christmases for me and thank you for teaching me your ways! Nearly everything we have done to prepare for Christmas has come with “Grandma Vic always...and “remember when Grandma Vic...” and “Grandma Vic said to...” I hate that you aren’t here. I miss you so much! But you are such a ✨bright light✨ in our lives and one that will never dim.

I guess I feel that that meme also applies to me as a mom and doing my best to make holidays special for the kids. This year everyone was so excited for Christmas. I was too (ish). Sometimes I was faking it and putting on a cheery face when I didn't feel it. But Christmas has its own magic that seeped into the cracks in my heart and weary self.

The kids at home still wanted to do our Christmas Lights Tour. I think Kam slept through most of it but he joined in. We bought everyone their favorite fast food to eat in the car and we went out on a Christmas Light Tour extravaganza.

The first stop was one of my favorites. We call it blow mold land. There are hundreds of Christmas blow molds out in a field. It is a thing of beauty!

This video only shows about a 1/4 of the whole field. It is pretty amazing!

We went to the Dancing Lights and then to this beautiful park:

We were out looking at lights for over three hours and Tyler Johnson wasn't shutting it down AND was in a good mood. Christmas miracle! LOL.

We also did a lot of walking with Miss Beverly. She loves the snow and she loves to go for long walks. She is now up to 3 1/2 miles. Well most of the time. She does not enjoy mud or rain or wind.

It was my friend Mary's birthday. We had a fun girls night out with several friends at a fancy restaurant and then went to see this movie:

I wasn't sure what to expect but I absolutely LOVED it! I ended up seeing it twice over the holidays. I had to share it with my family.

Primary was crazy at the end of December. Due to all of the changes in the youth program we had a whole bunch of callings in Primary that needed to be filled and weren't. Trying to get everything organized for January was a total nightmare. It's very difficult to organize classes and teachers when you don't have teachers or activity leaders. I also had to have the Temple and Priesthood Preparation event for the kids moving up to YM and YW. So it was a lot!

Something that was really fun was that my friend Lynnette started an artisan bread baking business. She is an incredible baker and wanted us to be some of her taste testers. Yes, please!!

She brought us over several kinds of bread to try and homemade bagels. It was not a hardship! LOL. This honey wheat seed bread is out of this world delicious!

As a side note...how Bryn does the dishes makes me laugh:

Finally the last day of school arrived and it was Christmas Break! We were all so ready for it!

We had our Christmas Book Club and Book Exchange. Our book for December was:

Just a fun and super quick read. This is the same cover that I have on my own book that I have had since I was 10 years old. I remember being SCANDALIZED by the Herdman children when I read it as a child. All of our kids have read it and loved it. It has a sweet message. Bryn decided that she would reread it with me. It has one of the best openings of any kids book. Little Kristin was hooked. I've had it memorized for over 37 years. That's a good opener!

"The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls) and talked dirty and hit little kids and cussed their teachers and took the name of the Lord in vain and set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s old broken-down tool house."

In the book exchange I gave away a copy of one of my favorite books of all time... East of Eden by John Steinbeck. My friend Rebecca, who got it, had never read it before. I'm excited for her to read it. I received this book:

I'm not usually jazzed to read or receive religious books at book club but I am looking forward to reading this in 2020. I follow Emily B. Freeman on Instagram and I think she has some great insights. Plus with the way the last quarter of 2019 went I could definitely use this book. (Side Note... I also follow an Emily P. Freeman on Instagram. Both are religious authors and both are fantastic. Emily B. is LDS and Emily P. is not but both women are worth following and reading their books.)

One of my favorite Sundays of the year arrived...Christmas Sunday. It's one of the Sundays that I can usually count on having all of our children at church with us and I love it. Plus, we don't have classes after our Christmas Sacrament Meeting we just go and have refreshments and visit with the members of our congregation and guests.

Kameron got called into work at the very last minute and it bummed me out but we were happy to have Hunter there with us. Bryn sang Peace in Christ with the kids her age. That song has been on repeat here for weeks. While not a typical Christmas carol it is one that has really resonated with me this holiday season. It has brought me peace.

We played games, watched Christmas movies, and looked forward to celebrating Christmas. This picture makes me laugh. Beverly's like "Deal me in!" She is such a Nosy Nellie. She stayed like that for a long time. She was very into the game. LOL.

Christmas to New Year's Eve will be its own post. My brother and his family came to town and we spent most days out at the lake. The day that Kirk arrived Tyler and I had gone for a big walk at the park. It was snowy and the pine trees were so pretty. There was some ice on the road but it didn't look too treacherous. We were both in snow boots and had been having a great time walking and talking. At one point we decided to cross a road that happens to be on the downward slope of a little hill. We had just started crossing the road when Tyler said, "Be careful it's slick". Within seconds I fell down sideways and then he fell on top of me. Correction: he fell directly onto my knee cap. All of his weight onto the side of my knee cap. I'm sure we were quite a comical sight but my knee was jacked up. After laying in the street for awhile, much to Tyler's chagrin, I was finally able to hobble off to the side of the road and Tyler ran to get the car. He was fine as I broke his fall. I was not. I ended up going to get my knee checked out and it turned out to be just some pulled tendons and ligaments and some of the worst bruising of my life. Almost my entire leg was black and blue. I was able to limp around and each day it was a bit better. Good grief! I am so glad that nothing tore or broke which was pretty miraculous. I haven't been able to exercise since then which has sucked but I am going to try a light workout tomorrow.

Another less than delightful event occurred. Beverly went into heat. Yikes. She was supposed to be spayed in September; the week my mom died. Then it was supposed to happen in December but it was right around Kam's heart procedure so that didn't happen. So...yeah. I hate dealing with my own period, my daughters' periods, and I especially hate dealing with my DOG'S period. We went and bought her some cloth diaper type things to wear. She looks hilarious like she is running around wearing black silk panties. She did okay and it wasn't too horrible but that spaying needs to happen ASAP!

Ailey's best friend Savannah had a surprise Sweet 16 Slumber Party at a fancy hotel downtown. The girls had a FABULOUS time! They went out to dinner, a movie, and breakfast the next morning. It was almost a surprise for Ailey too. My friend Kata (the mom) told me about it before Thanksgiving but Ailey is so terrible at not giving away surprises that I didn't tell her until a few days before. LOL.

The BFFs: Ailey, Hannah, Maren, and Savannah

All in all, the month that I was dreading the most and the holiday that I was dreading the most turned out to be okay...and even fun...after Kam's heart procedure was over and he was pronounced okay that is! We had lots of time with great friends, family, parties, activities, festivities, and we did the Light the World campaign which is one of my favorite traditions. 25 days of service in December. There is something to be said about the Spirit of Christmas which is the Spirit of Christ that brings joy to a weary world. I am so grateful for that!