Friends, Family, Festivities

Henry was in a nativity with the Primary children in his church ward. He's the cow that doesn't want to keep his costume on. Adorable. Precious. Andrew, Heather, and Henry will be arriving at the end of the week. Can't wait till they're here.

We already have "visitors." Eric, Ryan, Mom, Dad, and Cricket made it safely to our house yesterday. My parents will be going to my sister's for Christmas, but they'll come back afterwards for a longer stay than this brief stop. Eric and Ryan are here for about 2 weeks. If we can't find a ride back to Rexburg for them, we might have to take them back ourselves.


I went to a friend's Christmas party on Friday. Jennifer is such a great hostess. Here's a picture of how our place settings looked when we arrived. Loved it.

Part of the party was a White Elephant gift exchange. I think it was a toss-up as to who got the whitest elephant. One was a wooden hand. This is what I got (confession: we added the googly eyes). We had such a good laugh. Friendship is one of the greatest blessings in life.

While I was at my party, Glen was playing a friar in the high school choirs' fundraiser, the annual Madrigal Dinner. He was a last minute-replacement which is why I wasn't there, but Alex went with him. Glen's sister, Kathy, and her husband, Gary, were on the royal court. Our nephew, Ben, was one of the choir members. Glen said it went really well.

Glen with the rest of the Court

I've been watching a lot of Christmas movies on Netflix as I clean, wrap, and bake. I think my favorite so far is Angels in the Snow. So if you are looking for a movie to watch, you might want to take a look at that one.

As far a music goes, I used to go to specific clips on youtube, but these days I just search something like "Christmas Music" or "Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas" and click play. I listen to whatever comes up. That doesn't mean I don't have my favorites, however.

There isn't a video to this first youtube clip, just the music, but it's one of my favorite songs about Christmas time. It's "This Year" from Eclipse 6.

And Peter Hollens is amazing. Here's his rendition of "Mary, Did You Know?":

Peter Hollens, David Aruchleta, and others with Angels We Have Heard on High:

And my favorite Christmas hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, as performed by The Piano Guys.

Same hymn, Mormon Tab version:

Same hymn, King's Singers' version (Veni, Veni, Emmanuel):

And one of the BEST. Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy:

birthdays, nativities, and the hay maze

First off, here is a great video I found this morning. It's a beautiful song and I love the video they made to go with it.

So, I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday. Glen, Alex, and I played my new game, Istanbul, and I actually won! Glen gave me one of the signs that Hannah and Becky were selling at last week's craft fair. I love it.

I didn't want cake and ice cream, but since there were leftover Scotcheroos that I had made for one of my seminary students (who shares my bday), we stuck a candle in them. Behind me is Hannah's tree that she won at the Toys for Tots auction last week.

(I had just spilled water all over papers Glen had been grading. Whoops)

We had our church's Christmas dinner Friday night. Of course, the children put on a great little nativity.

Glen's brothers made another maze with their hay bales and we have been over a couple of times. We went last night with the missionaries in the rain. It was cool, but my photos of Glen didn't turn out, so here's one from November. I need to get a few photos in the daylight since the maze is amazing!

Mom P's birthday was today, so we had a family dinner. Besides dinner, cake, and ice cream, we played a little charades using Christmas songs as the theme. It's always a great time when the family gets together. Happy Birthday, Mom!