December 2013 was filled to the brim with good times and great memories! Kim and I decided to suspend the remodeling until January so that we could have time to just relax and enjoy the holiday season. What a GREAT decision! Kim and I spend some much needed time enjoying sappy Christmas movies, playing with our grandson, and just enjoying the lights and music of the season. Shandra and I enjoyed the local community theater's production of "Five Carols of Christmas/Jingle Jacks" so much that we went twice! I even knitted a couple of scarves! (I put my schoolwork on hold throughout the holidays also - hopefully it won't prove to be problem and make it difficult to finish all of my classes by the end of the term.)
The first Saturday of December is always the Olsen Family Christmas Party. This year it was hosted by the Woodlands, and it was a tremendous event. Great food, fun trivia games for the adults, crafts and snowball fights for the kids. We tried to throw the ring on reindeer antler's and took fun pictures. It was lots of fun but we really missed Shandra, Tasha, and Zane.
Tristan had a fun birthday party at Burger King. The kids had a ball playing and I had a great time hanging out with my sisters and dad along with Shandra and Kalel.
Our ward Christmas party was very low-key, but very fun. I had been asked to direct the 6 year olds playing a Christmas song on Boomwhackers as one of only two numbers on the program (the other number was the 12 Days of Christmas sung by the members of the ward). I held several rehearsals in which I
patiently tried to keep four wild and crazy 6 year old boys on task while learning to play "Jingle Bells" with the boomwhackers (they were also used as various weapons - at one point a green whacker was not played on time because it had turned into a grenade shooter). However, it was all worth the trouble when Ethan, Landon, Kalel, and Tristan marched onto the stage and started playing their song. It was almost perfect, and the audience was intently listening to the entire performance. The only snag was that no one recorded the performance! So, we had the little whackers do a repeat show in another room which was recorded. Of course, the repeat show was no where near as good at the original, but at least we have it!
Of course the highlight of the party was the visit with Santa!
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| Kalel asked Santa for his own elf. |
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| Tristan was very thoughtful. |
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| Ashley, Me, Jodi, & Colleen - we have all been very good this year! |
The Saturday before Christmas was a day we had really been looking forward to! Tasha and Zane drove up from San Diego and we met them in Salt Lake. It was so good to see them! I can't believe how much I have missed them! Kalel was especially excited to see them.
After a dinner at Crown Burger we headed to the theater for a Bandito Christmas. I was surprised that the program was a variety show instead of a play, but it was still good.
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Two days before Christmas Shandra, Tasha, and I celebrated our time together with a Girls Day Out! We went shopping and got pedicures. Since Shandra absolutely HATES people to touch her feet, we didn't expect her to join us for the pedicure. However her dad said, with tongue in cheek, that he would pay to see her get a pedicure. Well, she decided to take him up on the offer and suffered through the torture to get the money from her dad. (Too bad he never specified how much he was going to pay!)
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| Hiding behind her sister before the dreaded event. |
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| Ahhhhh! |
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| Total relaxation |
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| Total terror - or is it disgust? |
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| The entire time she kept repeating "my dad owes me a LOT of money" |
We enjoyed a terrific dinner along with dessert at Applebees. What a super day!
It is such a relief that Shandra survived her pedicure ordeal! If not our girl's day would not have been nearly as fun. I feel so very blessed to have such a fantastic relationship with my two girls. I truly enjoy spending time with both of them.
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