Christmas Presents

Most of the Christmas presents we gave people were handmade be Chelan this year. Because of that not as much time lately has been spent on anything else. Even the 12 hour drive up to Utah was spent sewing. We were finally able to put my sewing machine away and get our dining room table back. The how-to books have finally been returned to the library and it was fun to give everyone their gifts.
I quilted a wall hanging for the parents. That means that I had to make two of these.

Here is a picture where you can see the back.

And a close up of the snowman.

These were a little harder than expected because I have sewn and pieced quilts but I have never done quilting. So I had to read up on how to do it properly. I also have not sewn on too many buttons, and between these two, I had to sew on 32 of them. It is lots of fun to see the finished product. Unfortunately I have not gotten the other presents to all of my sisters, so I should not post pictures of those until I get them.

Merry Christmas

This was taken before opening presents on Christmas morning. It has been fun to be with family during the holidays and to get a little bit of cold weather. We had a week of 55-60 degrees and rain right before coming up and decided if it was cold, we might as well have snow. We are also glad to have another break in school, and to finally be done making Christmas presents.

Snow!!

We are in Utah for Christmas. We made it through in between storms. Pretty lucky since even Las Vegas had 3 inches of snow and there were multiple road closures that could have made it difficult to drive up. We made it right before it started snowing and it has now snowed 15+ inches. The first day we were here we decided to go outside and play in the snow.
Here's Jeff all bundled up.
We made a huge giant snowball and then decided to turn it into a slide we could sled down. It was so much fun and so big. Here is Jeff getting ready to slide down, Caleb showing how tall it was, and Gabriel and Thomas so you can see the slide.

The slide was soo much fun. After building it, you still could not see the grass. We fought about who's turn it was, and this time I won.

We also built a giant snowman.

We had trouble keeping the arms in. Suzy kept wanting to take the sticks and play with them.

We have since gotten even more snow, making it difficult to get anywhere. Apparently no city has any money, so they are not plowing any of the streets. But at least we have gotten a very very white Christmas.

Christmas in Mesa

The Mesa Temple puts up lights every year. We went to see them the first Sunday in December and really enjoyed getting into the Christmas Spirit. They also have groups that come and perform every night at 7. It was lots of fun to hear a choir singing and to look at all the lights.

As you can tell by the way Jeff is dressed, it wasn't too cold. Although there were people who were wearing coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. A little overboard for 70 degrees.

They do lights a little differently here. They put lights on the palm trees.

And plant flower lights.

And add extra palm tree leaves to the palm trees. These look really cool in person. And water to the fountain.

All in all, the lights look really cool and make a fun night.

Christmas Party!

Two years ago, Jeff decided to grow a beard for the first time. He happened to do it right before Christmas. Our ward decided that because of the beard we would be the perfect couple to be Mary and Joseph in the Ward Christmas Party Program. I then told Jeff he was never allowed to grow a beard around Christmas again. Well this year he decided not to shave over his Thanksgiving vacation. When we got back from California, he had a beard. And we were promptly asked to be in the Ward Christmas Party Program. YEAH! Jeff was a shepherd and I was an angel. It was worse this time because we actually had to talk.Above is a picture of just us, and below is everyone who participated in the program.

And Jeff is really not allowed to grow a beard in the winter. Ever.

Even Worse!

I don't know how the swimming pool at the gym could get any worse but it did. Here's why:
1. No markings on the wall, so you can't tell where to turn. Normally you can go by the line on the bottom of the pool but...
2. No line to follow on the bottom of the pool. Only little 4 inch diamonds that are 3 ft. apart. You can swim straight, but no help being able to tell where the wall is.
3. No lane lines. They say they put in the lane lines but I still have not seem them in the pool.
4. There are three "lanes" but one corner has stairs and the whole wall has a built in bench. So no swimming in that "lane."
5. The pool is so short you think you have been swimming forever. You turn about 20 times and realize that only 2 minutes have passed since you got in the pool.
6. Because the pool is so short and there are no lane lines you are swimming the waves that you made. Add anyone else to the mix and the waves get so huge that you breathe in water. It's like swimming in a lake...but with a wall every 4 ft.
7. You only get 3 butterfly strokes, 4 breastroke strokes, 6 backstroke and 7 freestyle strokes before you have to turn around.
8. Remember how the guy told me that the pool is 14 yards long. That was a lie. It is actually 14 meters. You think they could get that straight.

Everyone in Arizona owns a pool. You would think that a 'high' class gym would build a pool larger than all the backyard pools around.

Bikes.

Jeff's parents and Becca were kind enough to bring our bikes to California where we got them and continued to Arizona with them. It has been perfect bike riding weather. Jeff now rides his bike to school and I ride my bike everywhere else. At least I did. Now my bike has a flat. I was riding it to them gym, got 1 1/2 miles away and then had to walk back home. With my bike and its flat tire. Luckily my bike weighs nothing so the walk wasn't too bad. I just called my Mom so that I wouldn't be bored. Too bad it was right past the construction, so I had to walk back past the construction workers where there is no road. The roads around here are a little hard to ride on because there is no shoulder. Literally. The white line that marks the edge of the lane is right next to the gutter. Oh well. Now I just need to fix the flat so I can take advantage of the great weather.