November 20th-22nd

I spent the 20th decorating for Christmas. I have not a ton, but enough Thanksgiving decorations, so the Christmas/Thanksgiving combo reminds me of Nightmare Before Christmas. I actually decorated for Christmas quite a bit before Thanksgiving and I still felt behind when we got back into town after Thanksgiving and it was already December 1st.

The 21st was spent working on our Area Conference. Lots of emails, texts, calls, writing messages, and answering questions. 

On the 22nd (Saturday) I met up with Sarah C and McKenzie and we drove up to the temple together. Elder Rasband came to visit his daughter for Thanksgiving and because he was local, he held a big Washington DC North Area Training. He invited the bishops to a special temple session in the morning, so we followed their pattern and invited all our presidents to worship together in the temple before our training. I let Elizabeth and Grace know, so it ended up being all the women presidents in our Stake. I had 6/8 of my presidents and it was lovely to be with them in the temple. 

After, we ate lunch in the temple cafeteria and then went to the Stake Center next door for our training. Because I've been managing the Area RS Coordinating Council, I know all the Stake RSP's by name and many by face, so it was fun to see so many friends. The training was excellent. Nothing new or groundbreaking, but very very focused on Jesus Christ, on helping people remember Him and learn of Him.

It was nice to ride with friends because we were able to talk the whole way up and then compare notes the whole way home.

I was home for about 30 minutes before Chelsea and Steve picked us up for Sarah's Women of Country Concert.

It was at The Rex and I had no idea they had a whole concert venue in the back. It was just a little smaller than the warehouse in Philadelphia where D and I saw Marina. I wasn't really in the mood for a concert since I'd been out all day, but it ended up being really fun! I knew (and loved) 90% of the songs and since it was so loud I was able to sing at the top of my lungs and so obviously I did.

It was fun to see Sarah - she's so talented, and to hangout with Chelsea and Steve. It was a long and full and beautiful day.

A Very Caliente Christmas

Saturday was a wonderful day full of dancing and driving and celebrating our baby. I really like the Caliente Christmas show they do Saturday afternoon. The Nutcracker is nice, but I love the variety of CC. Delaney's contemporary class danced to Silent Night and it was my favorite!!!

It was so beautiful and D hadn't shared any details, so I didn't know she'd be right up front or that they'd lift Olivia and I just loved it! Of course I got teary, but when I looked at Matt, who so rarely ever cries, he had gotten teary too.

During the break between shows we caught up on our advent calendar activities. We made our garland and actually had our family night lesson since we had to piecemeal it.

Delaney caught up on some gaming with Max. 🙄

I made a peanut chicken salad and then it was time for our last show of the weekend. The sunset on the way to St. Mary's City was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. This driving iphone photo does it no justice, it was perfection.

I volunteered to be a ticket scanner, but then other people wanted to, so I made a friend and we picked a spot to usher. D had 2 dances, the first with the candy canes and the second she was the tail of the dragon, which she loved. She is significantly shorter than the front end of the dragon and it was pretty funny seeing her little legs working twice as fast as the girls in front of her. 😂

We got a few more pictures of her, but they have a no pictures policy and they were enforcing it which is very annoying.

We made Delaney her customary candy bouquet and I was surprised when I got out my Christmas stuff to find that I'd bought her a Nutcracker last year too. Probably on clearance?

Lily was the Rat Queen and a) that's Delaney's dream role, and b) it was so special to see Lily dance in her last Nutcracker! She was beautiful and did such a good job. 

A super cold weather front came through Saturday night, so Stake Council was cancelled around 2:00pm. We went to bed wondering if we'd have church at all. I had planned to go up to Bowie, but when we looked at the weather when we got up it was dicey enough that I stayed home and went to Pax. I know at least 2 wards cancelled and Bowie also cancelled their Ward Council.

It ended up being a lovely, quiet at home day. And then sometime in the evening we got the call that there would be a 2-hour-delay, which really is best case scenario. We took our extra 2 hours and Delaney and I finished our super challenging Lego from our Amy Advent Calendar. And by 'us,' I mean that I found the pieces and organized them so they would be ready when D was ready to put them together. She's a really good Lego builder.

A few Rainbow Ellie Sparkles hijinx to round us out...

And finally, Frankie had her first game on Friday but I had to miss because of Nutcracker.

I'm excited to get to see her Wednesday!

Nutcracker time

Delaney has the craziest sense of style right now. If you can call what she wears “style.” We were cracking up that she had every color but blue and purple on on Thursday. 

I made copycat Crunchwrap Supremes and they were messy but very good. 

After dinner I visited with my WP and Branch RSP’s. I was able to sit down with one show her how to record ministering interviews, so it was a very productive and good visit. 

On Friday morning I made several batches of my giant Brooki Bakehouse Cookies for my ministering sisters. I met with my LP and Pax presidents and now I have 10/11 done, just one more visit on Sunday. I love President ministering season. ❤️ 

This evening Matt and Frankie went to her first basketball game of the season. Then Matt went to his work Christmas party all by his lonesome. Adi was going to be his date, but she had the opportunity to babysit and she’s saving all her penny’s for college, so she chose to babysit instead. 

Delaney and I headed down to St. Mary’s City for her first Nutcracker performance. She was a candy cane girl and also the tail of the Chinese dragon. I'll have to sneak a dragon picture tomorrow.

So many friends came to see the show. We have the best ward family supporting all the cute dancers.

Also, the way they release the dancers is dumb. 28 degrees in the dark is not the optimal way to get good pictures. It's very lame.

I can't wait to see buggy shine on the stage twice tomorrow!!!

Nacho bar

How fitting that right I would be writing about my October 30th Staff Appreciation lunch a few days after my December 10th staff appreciation lunch. The day before I made 10 lbs of chicken cutlets and I wanted to make sure they were tender and juicy so I brined them for the first time ever and they turned out really well. And I learned again why I don't like chicken cutlets! It took forever to remove the tendons for all that chicken. I saved the PTA some $$$, so I guess it was worth it.

I wanted to do something different for my event in October, so I planned a nacho salad bar. I had a volunteer set up to help me, but she got sick the day before. 

I was stressing a little, because salad stuff is so much better cut fresh and I had planned to cut everything up that morning at the school and then cut and restock all day. Thankfully I was able to enlist Matt to help take everything to the school that morning - and it was pouring down rain - and then stay for the first hour to help me chop. 

After that Ashlee hung out for a bit and then to clean and pack up I was flying solo and it was v lonely. It’s just a lot of work and I was so tired and actually sore. I’m not used to that kind of manual labor anymore! 

Also, and it’s weird when you’re blogging weirdly like I am, the day before was Alli’s birthday and we’d celebrated with her at Medieval Times so I was also sleepy tired. Anyways, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, staff appreciation ❤️. 

I thought everything turned out really well. People loved it and there was enough variety that there was something for everyone, no matter what food allergy they may have. 

I brought over a bunch of my halloween decorations and the staffroom looked cute. Except for the chalkboard that still sported flowers from Spring. I wish I could get my act together to make a new sign for each event, but it's good enough.

But mostly Rainbow Ellie Sparkles

 One of our advent calendars from Amy was a bag of christmassy pasta and then also I mistook our St. Nicholas Day candy from her for our 9th day treats, so we enjoyed them both at the same time. 

One of the colleges Adi applied for required her to have her meningitis vaccine which I had somehow missed. So she got a checkup and not one, but two meningitis shots for good measure. 

I’ll never forget the spring break trip I was on when my dad called to tell me my 17-year-old cousin passed away from meningitis. We’re vaccine believers. 

I had made a valiant effort to be ready for Christmas and be decorated early, but one thing lead to another and I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to do things this year. Then we were asked to host the youth so I hopped tall and got the porch done. Only our porch lights make hanging garland around the front door weird because the garland has to go in or out. And it does that depending on my mood each year. You never know with me. 

One day RES fell into a snake pit, silly elf and her silly sidekick. 

RES let the girls build snowmen one morning. 

I’m not sure how Adi avoided her picture, probs because she packed her snowman gear for lunch. 

I think teenagers should always enjoy their elf on a shelf. 😆

I also went to the RS Christmas party. Tuesday nights are the one night D doesn’t have ballet and usually no one else has anything so I try to safeguard that one night, but this was at Alecia’s house and I did want to go. It was a lovely evening and I stayed later than I should have but not as late as I wanted. Then I stayed home till midnight making some of the things that hadn’t been signed up for for my PTA Christmas lunch. 

On Monday I went shopping for the pta food, nesquick for our hot chocolate stand, a window candle that I accidentally broke, and some regular family groceries. We also had our weekly Women of Light Area RS Conference meeting. We opened registration last week and have spent a large part of everyday texting and emailing each other, other Stake RSP’s and women with questions. We’re so excited and nervous and trying hard to make sure it’s successful. 

Blake Ford Ray

Back at the end of October (I remember because she had him over Alli's birthday) Frankie got her long awaited baby from the Tech Center.

She got him the day of one of their football games, so she had one of the injured cheerleaders hold him down on the field where she sat and then Frankie could check on him during halftime.

She got a boy and named him Blake Ford Ray.

We all immediately fell in love because we are a baby family.

She was a good little mommy, very diligent and attentive. 

I heard him crying at night a few times, which was annoying and I also worry about my kids sleep, but I guess was fine since she only had him 3 days.

 Aunt D figured out a way to prop his bottle while we were watching him while Frankie was in the shower one night. He really did sound like a baby eating too, it was wild.

He has a sensor and they got graded on how well they took care of him. She only had one ding and it was from the night we went to Medieval Times and she couldn't quite hear him, even though she was holding him.

 

She was sad when she had to return him. She's excited to be a mom someday, hopefully not for at least 10 years, but someday.

No silent nights here

December is a wild ride! Add to that the sick season I have been annoyingly experiencing and I've fallen behind again. And I was so close to being caught up too. Oh well.

Yesterdays sunrise was so pretty! And neither sailors, nor shepherds needed any warning last night as the weather was cold, but fine.

Yesterday was my annual Staff Appreciation Holiday Lunch at the middle school. Mary came and spent the day with me and we restocked and rotated and chatted the day away, just as happy as can be. Staff Appreciation is the best PTA job and I'm like 50% sad and 50% ecstatic to be almost done with my service, since there's never been a PTA at the high school. Everything on my end went as smoothly as I could have hoped, even though the administration were stressed because Mission BBQ was late and then didn't leave us any way to keep the food warm. I unfortunately took zero pictures and Ms. Marschall and Mr. Trent had decorated it all so cutely.

We also hosted the youth last night after their ward caroling and everyone enjoyed hot chocolate and it was a full and wonderful day and, as is so often the case, I'm glad it's over.

But in between the busy staff lunch day and the busy hot chocolate evening, Miss Ruby Lynn had her first solid food. Jeanne made a carrot puree that Ruby didn't love or hate, and then, as they assured me is a thing right now, they gave her a piece of steak to gnaw on. It sometimes feels like I had babies last century with how much everything has changed, but this Mimi just cheers them on and oohs and aahs with how sweet Ruby is. I cannot wait to kiss those big cheekies in 2 weeks!

Rainbow Ellie Sparkles hijinx this morning were super fun.

I spent today wrapping presents and going over my lists. You might even say I was checking it twice. I've got all 11 of my progeny done, so now I just need to check my stocking haul and a few other adult gifts since Alli and maybe Ehlyvia are coming. I also went to the dr for just a general check-up where I assured her that I go to all my old lady appointments and even though my cholesterol is a little high (thanks dad) everything else looks good. I see a nurse practitioner and I really like her.

Delaney cracks me up everyday when she runs her little heart out to her bus. It's almost my lady time too and instead of hating everyone, everything is making me weepy, which I prefer to being an angry elf. Also, sending 3 girls out the door in the dark every morning is not fun.

I fell a few days behind but am all caught up now and enjoying Cami's advent puzzle!

And one last bit of randomness, Santa flew over all the schools on Tuesday and I ran outside but couldn't see him in the helicopter like we've been able to in years past. I did send the video I took to Bubba and told him someday he will be able to do Santa flyovers and he got excited about that one.