December Catchup

I've been so busy with all the stuff we're doing that I haven't had time to write about any of the stuff we've been doing.  Whew!
We had our annual dinner at The Roof with some friends.  We had a good time as usual.  It's alot of money to pay for a couple slices of ham and some salad, but there's always entertaining conversation and lots of laughs.
The week started out with winter coming in with a fury.  I hardly left the house for the first few days because the roads were so ugly.

I went through a cleaning frenzy in preparation for several parties to be held at our house.  It was a great motivation to work on those unpacking and organizing projects that I've been putting off.  The basement was officially cleared and turned into the skating rink/basketball court.  We bought a carpet remnant for the toy area.  The boys play down there alot more now.  It's become quite the boy playland.
Thursday was our Relief Society Christmas party.  They split all the sisters into groups then they rotated through 5 houses where they had food and a message at each.  Our house was the soup house.  It was fun to have everyone come by the house and get to know more people.  The night ended with everyone gathering at one house for dessert.
Friday we enjoyed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.  Benjamin's parents had invited us to attend with them.  We grabbed a quick dinner at the cafe in the Joseph Smith building then headed to the conference center.  The guest performer was Natalie Cole.  It was a wonderful concert and we had a great time.
Saturday started off with a neighborhood Christmas breakfast at our house.  We invited everyone on our street as sort of a get-to-know you thing.  We had everyone bring a breakfast food to share.  It went really well, we may have to make it our new tradition.
That afternoon my family came over for the annual Fernelius family Christmas party.  The food was all delicious, it was hard to stop eating.  The kids all bring a $1 gift to exchange and the adults bring white elephants.  As usual, everyone came up with some interesting things good for lots of laughs.  I think my sister had the hit of the evening.  She took a t-shirt and be-dazzled the edges and wrote on the front "I went to the Fernelius family Christmas party and all I got was this crappy t-shirt".  I think everyone had a great time and we enjoyed having the family at our house.
Between the parties Benjamin had to make a quick run to pick up his elk mount from the taxidermist.  He couldn't wait to get it on the wall.  Ethan was determined we had to get the elk hung up before the party.  It was nice to have some extra muscles here to help get it in the house and hefted up onto the wall.  I frequently catch the boys gazing up at it (especially Benjamin)  He is pretty proud.  I have to tease him that the first thing we have hung on the walls is the elk.

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering from all the parties.  I was exhausted!  Luckily we are mostly ready for Christmas, just those few last little things that we need to pick up.  This week looks pretty quiet so far.  We decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our ward so we started that on Sunday.
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and staying warm.