Amazing Grace

We were in Utah this last week, celebrating Christmas with our family.  Here are the favorites and the photos that remind me of the very good things and the protections and blessings we received.

-Having a place in Utah is such a great thing for us! A soft landing every time.

I think this was Eve practicing photography on my cereal.

And on her brother

One of my favorite gifts was going to church all together in Eliza's ward. I sat front middle like I usually do. Eliza was a little horrified. "We NEVER sit this far forward! We sit in the back." To be fair, Frank was his normal self: very busy and kind of loud. I think everyone loved it. Eliza's ward had fun musical numbers and three people I have connections with. Sisters of people I know and love.

Brenda Lyman's sister Elaine. They grew up in Snowflake, AZ.

Jeff Salin's mom Darla.

I tried to get a picture of the matching dresses. Misty was asleep, Willa was gone, and Mariah and Juliet's dresses were too late in coming to wear for church.

Mariah set up a surprise 4th birthday party for Buddy with everyone there. Brett and Marcie even came! (They totally bring the party when they come.) It was great fun!

Misty helped.

Mariah made the cake. Willa brought the candles and motorcycle.

As he was watching a game, Mac pulled Mariah down onto his lap and they had a tiny conversation. I loved being able to watch that.

On Monday I got to go to a pilates reformer class (my first) with my daughters! And we went swimming at Provo Rec Center with Mariah and Mac and Eliza and Evan and all the littles. 

We had lunch with my dad and Marj! Doesn't he look great? Still photogenic.

Another favorite was visiting with Anthony and Angie Beutler that afternoon, who we have been friends with since North Carolina. It is so crazy now we are all grandparents and considering retirement and missions on the horizon!

We had pizza with M'Li! I loved that too. She is wonderful!

Mariah reading a bedtime story to her kids.

Christmas Eve Day we took G and E skiing at Sundance, just 20 minutes away. It was a beautiful day! There wasn't a whole lot of snow, but the beauty and not freezing our tails off made for a really fun day of skiing together. (Except for Griffin. Migraines are the worst.)

I sat by Frank and got put in charge of watching him with the soda during our tamale dinner. He LOVED the soda!

I think my favorite part of our whole trip was our chaotic and fun nativity reenactment.

Mac played Samuel the Lamanite. Costumes courtesy of Shelly Crespo.

Evan- donkey. Eliza- narrator. Buddy- Joseph. Juliet-Mary. Misty- Baby Jesus (note the pacifier). Mariah- wise man.

Frank- a very active sheep. I have a ten second video of him zooming around all the other actors saying, "Sheep sheep sheep sheep sheeep. Baaaa!" 

Then the littles got ready for Santa and headed to bed!

Alan took us to look at the amazing lights done by the city of Orem!

On Christmas morning we went over and watched the littles and opened presents ourselves! Mariah made us a beautiful ornament. Mac made us a stipple art piece about private prayer and faith. Eliza and Evan gave us a pencil drawing of Christ praying in Gethsemane by Jorge Coco. Willa gave me some awesome dish towels and cuticle oil. She gave Alan a shirt that says Yard Work on it. Wyatt made me some delicious dairy free cookies. Maybe I was supposed to share them with Alan! Hahahaha!

The dresses came! Griffin is testing the swings that Santa hung in the family room.

We made it safely back home: another soft landing going back to Heartland House and finding everything well. Alan took me on a date to The Cheesecake Factory and the temple.

The vegan cobb salad is worth repeating. And maybe copying! So is the shepherd's pie for Alan.

We have had a couple of days of catching up, which has been nice.

That extra vibrant Cezane painting is actually a TV that Alan hung for us.

Note my new art from Mac and Mariah. I love it!

Then Wyatt came back to Kansas! I took him and Griffin to the book store. We all soaked it in. I bought a beautiful new planner for 2025. Wyatt got a collection of short stories. Griffin considered some manga in Japanese and in English but couldn't decide on anything he wanted enough to buy.

An idea for future reading.

We don't know if we did it right. We keep evaluating and trying to plan for the future. My private faith is that Christ's grace will cover all the things we didn't get right and make all our messes come to a glorious fruition of good things to come if we turn to Him.