It's beginning to look a little like Christmas

It has been a fairly uneventful week, which has been nice as we are entering into one of the busiest months of the year.  Christmas is such an exciting time, especially for the kids.  Phil said in his letter that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday because he gets to spend the holiday with his family and it's not as expensive as Christmas.  I have to agree, except that Easter is my favorite holiday.  At Easter, we can gather as a family and center our thoughts on the Savior without all of the commercial distraction.  Plus, it's a great reminder that we can be with our family forever.  However, Christmas is still wonderful, and we can make it even better by making an effort to remember our Savior.  His birth and life, and especially the infinite gift of His divine sacrifice.  One way to do that is to find ways to give of ourselves. Luckily there are many opportunities and we don't even have to get very creative.  Our ward is doing several different service projects that we can jump on board with.

Caitlyn started her service projects for the month by setting up all of my Christmas decorations--with a little help from Dallin.  Our house looks beautiful and festive.

Our first Christmas activity was to see the play, "A Christmas Story" at our local theater.  We invited two of Dan's girls and let them figure out whose turn it was.  We ended up taking Hyeji and Yuna.  It was a lot of fun to do something with just two of our granddaughters, but we decided after watching the play that we should try and take the rest of the grandchildren that are old enough to sit through it.  We have that set up for Dec. 20th.

The theater didn't have the best lighting.  We had a choice for this picture.  We could have taken the picture by the tree--it was decorated with Christmas Story appropriate elements, such as a lamp with a leg for the base, or we could try to grab an actor to pose with us.  This cute little boy played the little brother of the lead.  He didn't have as big as a part, but it still gave him plenty of opportunity to shine.  He did a great job.  Above is Hyeji, Yuna, Catharine, and unknown actor.

 Our 2nd Christmas activity was to go to the Christmas Ice Show.  Thankfully they divided the skaters into two groups this year, because the one we went to  was plenty long.  Caitlyn skated 7th.  The show started late, but since she skated early, one of her co-workers that came to watch her, completely missed her number (and she came all the way from West Jordan).  Still, she had a lot of support.  Dallin (of course), and his parents came to watch.

 

Dallin and Caitlyn, and Ori, Robin and Eric 

Ori and Roy and I were there.  Roy ran the spotlight for most of the show.  He's done that now for quite a few years.  It was Caitlyn's job this year since she's now coaching ice skating and is on the team there, but Roy took over for her so she could watch.

Roy with all of Caitlyn's friends that came to watch her--Ori in front

Sara had some surgery this week, so she is home recovering.  We would've taken all her girls to the show, but the rest of them were sick.  It sometimes feels that it's hard to stay healthy.

And last, but definitely not least: When I did the letter last week I didn't have a picture of Todd.  Roy had taken a couple that he didn't give to me.  I had to put in these two pictures because Todd is an important and totally cute member of our family.  Matt, too.  Todd reminds me a lot of Thomas.  He looks the most like Tom of any of my grandchildren, even though he looks a lot like a Vance.  The Vances went to church with us and it was so fun to show them off.  One lady said, "Your grandchildren are so beautiful! and that little boy...!  I had to agree.

Todd, and Matt with Todd