Christmas with John Taylor

We continued our tradition of learning about a prophet and how he and his family celebrated Christmas.  The year was John Taylor.
John Taylor spend many Christmases in England as a missionary.  Someone in our family knows about that!  We ate British food for dinner: roast, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and mushy peas.  It was all very good.  For dessert, we had sponge cake.  That didn't turn out too well - I will try it again.
Greg spend a few minutes telling us about some fun British traditions.  One of our family's favorite's is crackers.  We do them every year and the kids love them.  I make them and put candy in them (which is better than the silly toys you get in the store-bought ones).

We also read a story about John Taylor.  One Christmas, President Taylor was in hiding in Parowan with the Adams family during the polygamous raids.
"On Christmas morning the Adams family gathered to unwrap presents.  President Taylor was elated and touched to find that Sister Adams had knitted him a pair of socks from wool that she had washed, carded, and spun herself.  He exclaimed, "See, I have the best present of all," and removed his shoes and socks to try out his gift while the children looked on.  "A pair of nice warm stockings to keep my tootsie wootsies warm!" he declared.  The children couldn't help but laugh and blush at the sight of his long, bony feet.  Then they reminded him "that tootsie wootsies' were baby feet," not those of an old man.  Chuckling in reply, President Taylor answered, "Well, I'm being babied here, aren't I?"  Everyone laughed.  For President Taylor it was a welcome family celebration at a very difficult time.
--Christmas with the Prophets by Laura F. Willes

All the kids received warm socks to keep their tootsie wootsies warm.  Guard wasn't too impressed.

It was a fun night, a nice break from Christmas craziness.

Enoch's Piano Recital

Enoch has enjoyed taking piano with Sister Poulsen.  He has made great progress and she has been so patient and enthusiastic.  Enoch really loves her (even if he doesn't show it as lessons!).
He loves the song Silent Night and choose to play it again this year for the Christmas recital.  Sister Poulsen also asked him to pick out a song that he could play as a duet with a family member.  When he told me that I was wondering who was going to play with him.  I knew I couldn't.  He decided he would like to play with Grandma Randall.  He picked my favorite Christmas hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful.  And kuddos to Grandma for playing a dubet (as Enoch calls it) with an eight-year-old boy who follows his own timing and doesn't care what the music says!

He practiced so hard and was ready for his performance.  Right before his turn, the nerves kicked in and he started to panic.  He was so scared, I could see it in his eyes.  I took his face in my hands, told him he could do it, gave him a hug and told him he could take his book with him.
My brave and silly boy!  He did wonderfully and didn't even look at his book.
I'm so proud of him!

 

Trimming the Tree

We love our family's tree.  I love the reds, creams and grays of the ornaments.  Greg loves picking out our fresh tree at Smith's.  And the kids love trimming our tree.

Greg always gets to put on the star - he's the dad.  We saved a few ornaments for Gavin to add when he got home from Drumline.  The top was looking a bit bare, so he filled in some spots up high.
Our home looks so great and smells so good!

St. George

When we made plans to go to St. George after Thanksgiving dinner, it sounded lovely.  In reality, it was a lot of work.  I've decided it is a lot harder to pack a minivan than pack a motor home.  I'm convinced that it takes you just as long to pack as you will be gone on vacation.
Geeez!  I'm whining for being able to go on a trip!
We left right after Thanksgiving lunch at my parent's house.  It was a yummy lunch and we had a great time with family, but we were anxious to get on the road.  It was a long drive and we pulled in late and went right to bed.
The next morning, we were lazy.  When we finally got out the door, we spent some time at the outlets.  They had some good Black Friday sales and we picked up some clothes and a new mixer for me for Christmas.
We had a quick lunch at Panda Express and went back to the condo to relax for a bit and throw a lasagna in the oven for dinner.
While dinner was cooking we played at the super fun, super amazing, our favorite park ever that is down the street from the condo.

We weren't the only family there enjoying the park and warm weather.  It was very crowded!  Grandma and Grandpa Randall joined us at the park after driving down after their temple service.
After dinner we went to the St. George Temple to enjoy the Christmas lights.  By then, it had cooled off quite a bit, but we enjoyed the Temple grounds anyway.

After a good night's sleep, we were up early the next day and drove to Snow Canyon.  Our family loves Snow Canyon!  We were really looking forward to our favorite hikes.

After tremendous amounts of fun in Snow Canyon, we went back to the condo for lunch and relaxation.  The kids talked us into going swimming later that afternoon.  Gavin, Enoch and Kate had a blast.  Guard hated it until he warmed up and then he had a great time.

After a busy day, we all slept well.  We got up the next morning, packed and clean up some (Grandma and Grandpa were staying a few extra days, so they did most of the cleaning).  We left St. George around noon.  After a bit of driving, we stopped at Cove Fort.  I wasn't sure how the kids would do, but they loved it!  They loved going from room to room and learned what they did they and how they lived.  It was a great break from the driving.

We had a great weekend in sunny St. George!