Week of December 20-26, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Our ward Christmas program was beautiful! Cello duet, socially distanced quartet, duets by mother and daughter and brother and sister, and a lovely soprano solo. We have such amazing and talented people in the ward. While I so missed being in the choir.

Temples remain closed for work for the dead. 

I was blessed to have some special Christmas scripture studies this week, along with my Book of Mormon reading and General Conference Talk studies. 

I have indexed 19,738 records and reviewed 130,279 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

On Sunday, a local trash company owned by a member of their stake, has a Santa Train under normal circumstances, but with Covid, this year, they had a Christmas Parade in a local neighborhood. They saw friends, Santa and had a wonderful time. Church numbers are still kept small but Allison was able to attend with Adam and Josh. They enjoyed a wonderful speaker and then delivered treats to the missionaries. Last week went well. School was either review, relax, or finals. Tuesday, they were able to see the lights at the cactus garden. The reservations opened up and they were able to enjoy it so much! Mike and Allison continue to do well at work and have been blessed with good hours. 

Adam's finals went very well. He got a haircut and got Senior Portraits taken. He has enjoyed playing video games with his friends and he is looking forward to sleeping on Winter break. Adam loves pink so his pajama shirt was pink and he got new sweats. 

Grace's week of relaxation included sleeping, a face mask, working on her room, finishing her room. Grace's Christmas pajamas were Elf pajamas. 

Josh finished up his soccer season this week. He had a great game Saturday and scored another goal. 

Sam had a Christmas book exchange and pajama day and a little school party. Sam got to open his Christmas pajamas early to wear to school. His were full of Santa sharks and were so cute! He has another wiggly tooth. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo headed with the kids to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to celebrate the holidays.

Snowy icy weather brought them home a day early, but they had such a great time. It was as if there was no illness anywhere and the streets were packed with people. 

We enjoyed a Christmas morning visit as we both opened our gifts from each other. 

Happy 8th Birthday on Saturday to Kaylee. 

She looked forward to being able to use her new roller skates she got for Christmas. We were able to Facetime as she blew out her eight candles on her birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday. 

The Doran Rice Family

We visited Doran, Amber Kelsie and Kooper on Tuesday. Amber had been able to return to work this week and she was ecstatic! She enjoys her coworkers so much and the kids are off school. They had a good week and Kooper even enjoyed the quick project school desk Dad made.

Morgan

Morgan is doing well, working as a maintenance person at his apartment complex. Unfortunately, he had his tools stolen while he was working but he is hoping to find some yard sale deals, etc. He and Cassie came by for a visit on Wednesday evening. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good week, working, watching movies, and was a super great help cleaning up after the Cookie Party.

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica, Anna Ellie and Emma had a wonderful week. We saw them a couple of times to play outdoors and Nathan and the girls took Dad and I out on Wednesday evening to see Christmas lights. 

They celebrated Christmas Eve with Jessica's family, Santa came on Christmas morning leaving a special note for each girl and awesome gifts. 

Dad's Garden

Dad's garden continues to do well, though the phantom plants that are NOT Chinese cabbage are being removed. 

Other highlights

First Annual Cookie/Cocoa and Gift Party was held on Sunday December 20th.

Charcuterie board included all the makings for great hot cocoa including crushed candy canes, marshmallows, a myriad of flavors of Hershey kisses, plus some cookies. We also had Christmas chips, doritos, Nano's velveeta cheese dip and a cheese ball. 

So many yummy cookies to eat and then take some home. 

The girls had worked and practiced two beautiful Christmas songs...the last one my favorite, "Silent Night". The one thing I had so missed at church that morning was no primary children singing and no "Silent Night", and they gave me what I had so missed. 

Christmas Eve was quiet. We got some groceries. We ended up watching White Christmas and then looking at the luminaries in the neighborhood north of us. 

Christmas Morning is the BEST jog, since many people keep their outdoor lights on all night. It was quiet and wonderful! I even got to jog past the temple and was sprinkled on with a bit of rain. 

Christmas Day was great for everyone! We are so thankful for all of Santa and his Elves' hard work this year! 

We enjoyed a lovely dinner with Grandma, Susan, Tom, Curtis and Jennilee.