December 2022

 Here's a look at how we spent our December:

Bryce and I took his mom, who was in town from November-January to the Festival of Trees one evening and really enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful trees and other Christmas things that are sold to raise money for Primary Children's Hospital.  Bonus was running into Autumn's friend, Maci, and her family there.

After rehearsing for more than 3 months, my sister Kristi and I performed our Christmas concert with the South Jordan Chorale and Orchestra.  I love being a part of this program and it really helps me get into the Christmas spirit and feel the joy of the season.  Kristi and I made a new friend, Rebecca and I loved singing next to her.  Also, we had quite the fan section come to our concert more than 40 of our family and friends coming to enjoy the concert. Kristi also hosted ice cream at her house after the concert and it was so fun to socialize with our family as well.

I had my annual Christmas lunch and gift exchange with Mari, Michelle, and Berit.  These ladies are just the best women and make me so much better!! We have been friends for more than 20 years now and I can't imagine my life without them. 

We took Mary Lou to see "The Little Mermaid" at Hale Center Theater and they did an amazing job with the production!! We got showered with so much confetti that the next evening when Bryce and I went to dinner with the other members of our YSA Bishopric and their wives, when Bryce took off his coat he had at the production the night before, confetti rained down from the hood of his coat onto the floor.  It looked like we had brought our own party with us. :)

Evan celebrated his 4 month birthday.

We went to Logan for the weekend when Devin and Levi sang in their ward's sacrament meeting for the Christmas program.  Megan, Mitch and Evan came with us and we also went to see the Utah State ice skating Christmas program because one of Devin's friends was skating in it.

We got to enjoy three full weeks of Evan, Mitch and Megan staying with us and even though Megan, Mitch, Evan and I all got sick for part of their visit, we still enjoyed some really fun time with our grandson in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Evan is so smiley and giggly and interactive and we LOVE him!!!

I went to lunch with my quilting friends. These women are so loving and accepting and make me a better person. We all crunched into Leslie's SUV for the ride to lunch and it was cozy, but fun. Unfortunately, Leslie isn't in the picture, though. 

Autumn continues to be an amazing missionary in Regina.  She and Sister Heward work so well together and teach and laugh a lot and manage to survive the subzero temperatures - with windchills into the -50 degree range.  She also has some fun Christmas celebrations with her fellow missionaries and some members of her amazing ward. We love her and miss her a lot!

Megan had her cousins Bella and Bethani come over for dinner and bring their babies. In the picture is Bella with her twins, Meda and Finn, Megan with Evan and Bethani with her daughter Jester.

 

We celebrated Christmas Eve by acting out the nativity and then playing some fun Christmas themed minute to win it games.  It was fun and competitive and Team Naughty narrowly beat out Team Nice. :)

On Christmas morning, we all got up and donned our matching Canada pj's before going downstairs.  We got to spend time talking with Autumn, went to church, had a yummy Christmas dinner and opened presents and played games together.  It was a really good day.

On a very rainy and cool evening a couple of nights later, we went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point.  The pouring rain made it less fun than normal, but we still had a great time together and loved all of the amazing light displays.

We celebrated New Years Eve with our traditional fondue and fun games together.  Say good bye to 2022!!

November 2022

November was another pretty good month for our family.  Here are some highlights:

Bryce and I went to the temple several times, which is always a good time. :) The Mt Timp temple was closed for cleaning much of the month, so we took the trek over the mountain to the Draper temple. One night when we went, the weather was cold and rainy and SUPER foggy. We couldn't even see the temple as we approached it.  But then as we got right next to it, it appeared like a beautiful light in the darkness. So pretty!

We went to SLC when Bryce had a Friday off of work to go to The Leonardo museum.  We invited Seth to come along and enjoyed learning more about flight before going to an immersive impressionist art exhibit. It was a really fun time and Delaney was able to join us for lunch in between her classes and her new job working at an after school program at an elementary school in downtown SLC.

I had lunch with a few different friends this month and always love having time to spend with friends.  One of my lunch dates was with Alathia, one of my former Laurels.  It was so fun to get caught up! I love time with friends!!

My sister Kristi had her annual "Krafting with Kristi" Saturday for all of the girls in the family and we had so much fun getting together to do various craft projects and enjoy lunch together.  Megan and Mitch drove into town that day to be in town for the holidays, so Megan got to come, too (though she was later than she hoped to be due to car issues on the way).  I failed to take any pictures of the fun, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :)

Megan and Mitch have come to Utah for 6 weeks for the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years holidays and we are so so so happy to have them close by!!  They are staying with Mitch's family for the first 3 weeks since they had Thanksgiving with the Patricks this year, but we still get to see them every so often and love seeing them and having access to our adorable grandson!! Speaking of which, Evan turned 3 months old at the beginning of this month, met his Aunt Delaney for the first time (and his cousin Paisley and her parents Josh and Tina on Mitch's side of the family) and continues to have every single one of us wrapped around his adorable finger.

Autumn continues to love her time as a missionary!  It has been challenging to build a YSA area in Regina without having a YSA ward or branch, but she and her companion have been working very hard and are seeing a lot of success.  It is getting a lot colder in her part of Canada these days, but she manages to continue to make the world around her warmer and sunnier. :)

A photo showing how huge the snow piles are already

In Moose Jaw with her district

Learning how to make sausage with one of the Bishops in her area

Devin and Levi are still doing well in Logan. Devin has been working on his crocheting skills and earlier this year made some really cute animals for Evan's nursery.  This month he finished this sweater and we were all pretty impressed that it fits him so well.

Seth and Delaney are staying busy with work and school. We love it when they come over for Sunday dinner and games or any other time. :)

We had Thanksgiving dinner here at our house this year.  Grandma Ririe came into town and Jeff, Debbie, Alex, Sabrina, Brittany and Seth (minus Delaney who was at Disneyland with her family) all joined us for Thanksgiving dinner too.  We had a fun day of food, games and fun together, but again, I failed to take pictures.  But it was very delicious and very fun!

Bryce had a growth on the side of his head removed last month.  The dermatologist was certain it was a wart, but had it biopsied just in case and it came back as a squamous cell carcinoma.  So we went back to the dermatologist to have a surgery called a Moh's procedure performed where they cut out the affected area, have you wait while they perform an in office biopsy and if there are any cancer cells found, they come back, remove more tissue and repeat the procedure until no more cancer cells are present.  Thankfully, Bryce only had to have 2 rounds done before all cancer cells were gone.  He and I played card games while we waited for biopsy results, so I've included our score sheet picture as well. :)

That's it for our November - have a great Christmas month!!!