We were thrilled to get to have the missionaries over for dinner this Christmastime, because I never thought that would happen in Utah! We had a fun dinner with them, and I'm grateful my kids got to be around them.
We made a lot of treats to share with neighbors and friends! I went to a cookie exchange (we made 6 dozen peppermint patty cookie sandwiches!) and got enough cookies to give plates to all our visiting teaching and home teaching families, and to my visiting teachers, and to our companions! That is nine plates!! Honestly, I don't even know how many cookies we gave out lol!
This dessert making session was for the Neighborhood Night of Sharing. Each of the kids picked out a present to donate and we brought Christmas Brownies to share with everyone.
They had Santa there! Jenna went right up to him and got on his lap to say hello.
Natalie and Caleb enjoyed the experience as well! Especially the part where he gave them a candy cane.
They had a fire with marshmallows to roast. It was a cozy set up!
Seth wanted nothing to do with the strange bearded man. BUT he wanted a candy cane. So they compromised with a high five. =o]
Inside they had lots of toys and treats and friends and very breakable decorations, but we escaped without incident.
We got to do our cherished tradition of a doorbell ditch present drop off. I am kind of embarrassed to say that no one in our ward really needed a box of food and gifts to brighten their Christmas. SO we had to think outside the box and our ward boundaries! But it was a special experience nonetheless. The kids loved picking out just the right things for the family, and then lovingly wrapped each one. Seth wanted to help with EVERYTHING so even with the soothing Christmas music it was pretty stressful lol! But overall I think it went well, and the kids definitely enjoyed it! I hope the family felt loved!!
We had a homeschool Christmas party at our house, which I consider a service project lol! Here are the kids setting up our polar express train set in the basement that morning, since that was the theme.
Kent is doing service this season by coaching Caleb's basketball team! His calling in the primary has definitely enlarged his capacity to deal with groups of five year olds, but he is still pretty exhausted after each practice/game. What a trooper! Caleb LOVES it! So it is worth it to him.
We had a Christmas pajamas pancake breakfast for all of our home teaching and visiting teaching families at our house. It was AWESOME!!! We really do have the coolest people assigned to us!
The pancake man! He did such a great job and everyone had fun!
Not pictured is the two different clothing and supplies drives we participated in for families near us who are in need, and also for refugees who are far away. It was good to go through our things and see what we could do without to give to someone who has nothing.
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