Week of December 23-29, 2018

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday at church was wonderful! The most wonderful thing was to look down from the choir seats and see Kayty, Dad, Jessica, Nathan, Anna and Ellie there. While I couldn't sit with them, it was so nice to have a row and to not sit alone in the side seats in the row with a chip in the pew. Sacrament Meeting was filled with so many people...a lot of adult kids were home to see family...and many people I never knew. The choir sang and told the history of Christmas hymns/songs and I felt the Spirit as I sang. We came home and enjoyed a lovely Sunday with Nathan and Jessica and the kids here, and saw Amber, Doran and family briefly as they went out of town.

Dad attended a session at the temple on Thursday and did some Initiatory Work on Friday.

I am in Ether  in the Book of Mormon.

I have Indexed 23973 records and reviewed 64811 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Christmas Eve was wonderful for the Wilkins Family.

Allison shared: 
Christmas Eve shenanigans: fondue dinner, Christmas games, siblings gift exchange, hot cocoa by the fire, doing a reader's theatre about Christ's birth, new pajamas and singing carols. It was a good night. Wishing you all a Christmas of love, peace and joy.
 They also had a wonderful Christmas day...

Allison said:

We leisurely opened presents, played games, laughed, went on bike rides, teased, played some more, ate our traditional breakfast (monkey bread) and dinner (roast beef sandwiches) and had a beautiful Christmas. Love that we got to spend an entire day at home with each other with no obligations or places to be.

I wanted to pay for Christmas solely with my writing job, so I started taking on extra orders and clients in September, started shopping in October and wrapping in November... all for today. And I loved every second of it. Hope your day was just as wonderful!

The Ethan Rice Family

This was a very happy week for Ethan, Cameo and family.

They had a wonderful Christmas, and then Grampy Wadey flew in on Christmas Day to spend some time with them

And right after Christmas, this girl turned 6. Happy Birthday, Kaylee!!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber dropped by as they went to Flagstaff to the North Pole Experience.

They visited us on Christmas eve

Morgan

Aimee made a lovely change in her life this weekend...

She looks lovely either way, but we are glad she is happy!

 Their Christmas was wonderful too.

Morgan worked on Aimee's aquarium over the weekend...


Kayty

Kayty had a good week, though she had to miss two days of pay. Her temporary contract was extended three months, so its good she has a job, but no health insurance, benefits or holiday pay. We are praying. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Sunday was spent at church with us, resting, and visiting Jessica's family. We were able to sit and watch them on Christmas morning.

 The rest of their week was spent organizing, finding a lovely apartment to move into on February 11, and getting the paperwork done for Nathan's new job. I got to spend lots of time swinging with the girls and painting pictures, and having my nails painted. 

Dad's Garden

Garden is great!

Other highlights

Christmas Eve included pulling pork, Chinese Dinner, and visits.

Christmas morning, Dad and I drove down to get some things from her house and brought them to her, as well as two nightgowns I got at Kohls and we visited for awhile before she went to share a meal with Scott and his inlaws.

We had a yummy dinner with Grandma and Curtis. Grandma had prepared chicken parmesan, cauliflower and cheese, salad, garlic bread, and we shared snacks and desserts.

Gifts and stockings at our house were opened later in the evening at our house.

Nathan, Jessica and Kayty watched movies after the girls were in bed, and Dad and I sat in the living room enjoying the tree and village. It all is so much to put up...and so much to take down. Since this blog becomes my photo album, I am not going to share my personal assessment of Christmas. Suffice it to say, it won't be difficult to make next year better. The best thing, though, is seeing the happy faces of every single family as I go posting pics on here. I am so thankful every single one of you had a lovely Christmas. Thank you for the Facetime with Ethan and Cameo, for the Marco Polo with Allison and Mike and kids, and the messages on Rice Is Life. 

Christmas was all put away by late Saturday night...and I am beat! Monday I start to take the village down and put it away. It was lovely while it was up, and I love every single thing I have, every single ornament, and the memories each bring. Next year, I won't paint so many ornaments...a lot of work to put into a bag and store. I learned a lot this year and hope to set better goals to achieve next year.

Final Christmas 2018 Pictures...

Not so highlights

Nano's disease makes things really difficult for all of us. She has a great memory for certain things, but she easily forgets others, and it has made last week a lot more difficult. I will now have to set aside time to get paperwork stored in her house gone though and discard anything unneeded and work to make sure she has enough to maintain her care.