New Year's Eve with the Halls + our last week of Christmas Break

We enjoyed a really nice New Year's Eve with the Hall family--Spencer, Megan, Katie, and Daniel came over at 8:00 pm with lots of delicious goodies to add to our own, and we stayed up til midnight with NO problems with this crew!  Played card games, watched a movie called Split, and suddenly it was time to run outside and make some noise.  

The next day everyone pitched in and helped take down and put away Christmas decorations.  Not really bittersweet this time, just fun!

Other highlights from the week:

--Later in the week we enjoyed putting together some Hello Fresh boxed meals (a great Christmas gift from Brant and Chris--thank you!)

--The boys enjoyed a golf day with Zach Bell down in Palmdale while Rhiannon and I had a girls' day

--I had lunch with two friends (Michelle Beames and Heidi Evans)

--We all went to Desert Memorial Park and put flowers on Howard Collins' gravesite for his birthday

--and Wade and I had a blast seeing the Spider-man:Into the Spider-verse movie.  It was AWESOME!

Sunday was our first day of 8:30 am church.  All of us enjoyed it, but it was still sure a back-to-back day for Jason with bishop interviews, meetings, and the like.  

Yesterday Wade and I started back to school, and we both agreed that it could not have been a nicer, smoother first day back.  For the win!!  I was particularly grateful because we'd had 50-mph gusts the night before and I slept t-e-r-r-i-b-l-y!

Today Rhiannon made a college presentation in Wade's English class with Mrs. Palerma Wilson, and she really enjoyed that.  She also had a great time at a work party with her movie theater co-workers.  It has started to sink in a bit that she'll be going back to school herself in a couple weeks, and she's sad about that, but we are confident she will do great!

37 + Christmas Card Update

2017 is rapidly coming to a close.  Tomorrow is New Year's Eve!  It was a FABULOUS year, but I didn't do a good job documenting that awesomeness here on the family blog with a meager 37 posts (so far) for the year.

I hope to do a better job on that in 2018 by inviting the rest of the family to contribute to it!

Will we make it to midnight?

Last night we walked across the street to the Hawkins' home and enjoyed a meal and games with their family, and the Evans, Randall, and Barney families.  Kristin had made 5 or 6 kinds of delicious cookies and the rest of us brought heavy appetizers.  I was SO FULL by the end of the night!  We also played several rounds of a fun group game, similar to Mafia, called the Werewolves of Millers Hollow.  That is a fantastic game for a large group--at one point there were 17 of us playing it!  We had so much fun and really appreciated the invite!

Right now it is 8:51pm on the last day of 2015.  Will we make it til midnight?  We hope so!

Today the kids helped me gather Christmas decorations from around the house and begin that clean-up process.  I thought I could put it off until Monday when everyone is back to work and school, but then all my helpers would be gone!

In the afternoon Jason took us to the bowling alley on base and we had a great time bowling a couple games.  The facility there is small but really nice!  Clean, updated and remodeled, great computer system, with a fully functional snack bar--win!

For our New Year's Eve festivities so far, Jason got a roaring fire going in the fireplace, we had dinner, and then we watched the Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation movie.  We are taking a short intermission, and then we'll watch Ant Man!  (and try to stay awake!)  Rhiannon helped me make a really yummy 7-layer dip, and I've promised bacon-wrapped little sausages, but that might have to wait until tomorrow.

I've had a pesky cough this week that has been worse today, but I'm grateful I've felt well enough to participate and have fun with Jason and the kids.  I told them tonight that there wasn't anyone else I'd rather spend New Year's Eve with!

There is still a lot of blogging to do on the last month, but 112 posts for the year isn't bad.  I'll catch up soon!

It's been a wonderful year--we are looking forward to many more great days in 2016!

Welcome, 2012!

Last night we watched Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, and then we headed over to our friends' home, the Okerlunds, to ring in the New Year.  It was relaxed and fun, and there was something for everyone.  We sure appreciate their hospitality!  Many thanks to Andy Pfahl who supplied the fireworks, too, on his birthday no less.  All of us breezed right past midnight with no problem.  Funniest part of the evening for me was at the end when the men were introducing the kids to the joys of helium-filled balloons.  Jason won the show when he started singing the Smurfs theme song and talking like Papa Surf--"La, la, la, la, la, la"--in this squeaky voice.  SO SORRY that I didn't catch that on tape--it was awesome.

This year our Sunday meetings will be from 1pm to 4pm--personally Jason and I MUCH PREFER morning, but it's our ward's turn to grin and bear it.  I'll admit the time change was nice today, too, because the kids didn't wake up until after 10am.

There is so much to catch up on, going all the way back to our Thanksgiving trip, then Christmas fun, Oscar updates, and our 2012 goals.  I'll get to it evenutally!

Welcome, 2012--Happy  New Year!