December Festivities

December has been extremely busy for us, what with receiving visitors, putting up decorations, getting ready to spend the holidays in Idaho, and Brian putting in some overtime to finish up a big work project before Christmas, we found some time for a couple other things. 

We were asked to help plan our Ward Christmas party. We helped come up with the initial plan and hand out assignments. We volunteered to be in charge of the food. The party was on Saturday, December 12. We, along with the other newer members in the ward who were asked to help plan the party, showed up hours early to help decorate the gym. It ended up being quite the job. We decorated the tables, strung lights across the ceiling, decorated the live Christmas trees that had been brought in (one of our Bishopric members owns a landscaping business). He had also set up a nice manger scene on the stage. It was really pretty. While I was helping with tables and lights, Brian was working to sync three different TV's in order to show a Christmas Video during the program portion. We finished about 30 minutes before we were supposed to go and pick up the food. We headed home to change, and then drove over to Lee's to get the baked potatoes, chicken, ham, and rolls for the dinner. On the way back to the church, every time Brian would make a turn, juice from the trays of ham would leak out into the back of our car. Ugh! Luckily the carpet in the back, comes right out, and I was able to was it the next day, but our car smelled like ham the entire evening. Once we unloaded the food at the church, we realized they'd forgotten to give us the rolls, so we had to make another trip back to the store. Once we'd delivered all the food, we were able to sit back and enjoy the evening. The food turned out great, as did the program. We had a good time, but it was so nice to have it done and over with.

A week or so later we got to spend an evening doing Initiatories at the Ogden Temple. We walked around the back side of the temple this time to see what it looked like and discovered a small reflecting pool. It was so pretty with the nativity scene set at its center. 

We are still learning the layout of this temple. Apparently, both the front and back doors open up to the main floor of the temple. When I finished with Initiatories, I sat in the foyer near the front doors where we had entered, waiting for Brian. After 30 minutes of waiting, the front desk workers told me to try walking back through to the back doors to see if he was sitting there. I had just assumed that the back doors led to the baptistery, and didn't know that he could be waiting there for me. But that's where I found Brian waiting for me! He was wondering what was taking me so long. Haha! Now we know to specify a waiting point before we go in.

This month was super exciting for Brian and I not only because of Christmas, but because of the release of the new Star Wars movie. We are huge Star Wars fans. 

Source

We were going to wait a week or so after it hit theaters to go see it, but pretty much everyone in Brian's office was planning to go and see it on opening day. They decided to give everyone and extra long lunch on the big day (Dec 18th), and his coworkers all bought tickets for the same showing. He couldn't pass up that opportunity, so we purchased tickets for the same time as well--I wasn't going to let him see it without me. 

I arrived at his office a little early so I could go inside, get a tour, and meet everyone. I don't know how much work was getting done that day, because when I got there, they had just finished with an office light saber battle. Yeah...once again Brian has found his people. Haha! The movie did not disappoint, and we had a lot of fun watching it. 

I had so much fun working on this cross stitch project during the month of December. I've done cross stitch before, but only simple projects when I was a kid--never counted cross stitch. I've always wanted to try my hand at counted cross stitch, and was so excited when I got this one from my Mom for my birthday. 

It was the perfect craft to work on while we watched Christmas movies in the evenings, and I had so much fun making it. I was a little skeptical of using the beads that the kit came with, but I just went with it, and I'm super happy with how it turned out. I finished it three days before Christmas, while watching my favorite movie White Christmas. 

I just need to find a frame for it. Although I didn't finish it in time to display it much before Christmas of this year, it will be a cute decoration to hang up in our home during the coming years.