Setting Up the Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving is when we always put up the tree. We put up the special yearly ornaments one by one and then usually let the kids put up the rest. This year's special ornament is about our move to Texas. 

Being the first year we are in this house we had to rearrange some things to fit the tree and also figure out where some of the indoor decorations would go. Jason is tasked with hanging the outdoor lights later as we need to go get hooks. We also get out Yukon Cornelious for the annual hide and seek. Here is the living room right now.

The next day we started watching Christmas movies for Family Movie Night every Saturday. It is lovely having the tree up. 

 Later: Here is the outside of the house this year. 

Thanksgiving

We woke up to a stormy day. The clouds over the mountain looked pretty cool.

Jason and the kids went to help pick up trash after the Thanksgiving Day Parade downtown. It was a service project for the stake. I stayed home to start making the meal. 

Can you believe the Immigration and Customs float? Yeah, no one was very excited about it. 

Back at home, Darby and Dad played Ticket to Ride on the iPad and tried to beat the computer. 

Brendan and Darby made tin foil headwear after helping make the stuffing. They got the idea after putting foil on the baking dish.

 

Paige was in charge of watching the meat thermometer since Jason was smoking the turkey this year. 

I had helpers for every dish and the girls made the pie. Jason carved the turkey of course. 

Smoked turkey is pretty good! We still had leftovers but not as much as previous years.

Having kids who like to cook and a husband who is helpful is really great on a day like today. We ate around 5pm and within the hour the kitchen was cleaned, the dishes were done and the leftovers stowed. Now it's time to relax.

Thanksgiving Break

EPISD lets kids have the whole week of Thanksgiving off the kids and I have been enjoying some free time. Jason took some days off but went into work today. 

On Monday we went to a jump park. It turns out that this one was more geared towards little kids. The girls still had fun but Brendan didn't really fit in much. We probably won't be back except with maybe Paige. Jason used his new BBQ to cook us some hotdogs tonight. He is ramping up to BBQ the turkey on Thursday.

For our date Paige wanted to go to Savers, a local thrift store. She found this teddy bear. No, I didn't let her keep it. 

The girls all needed haircuts so we did that yesterday. Paige and Dabry needed a trim as they haven't had them since COVID started. Eva wanted her hair cut short again. She likes it that way. I think she looks adorable. 

Tomorrow, before Thanksgiving dinner, Jason will be taking the kids to the parade and helping pick up any trash afterward. Our stake was tasked with helping out with that. 

Island Upgrade

This is what our kitchen used to look like. This picture is from the listing of the home posted by the previous owners. Here you can see the island. Its a nice island but smaller than our previous one. Only two chairs can sit at it. We have four kids so it wasn't getting used much as a seating area. And I needed more storage in the kitchen. 

Jason made me a shelving unit that fit under the overhand and made the island much more functional for our needs. And he did such a great job. It looks like a built-in. I love it!

 

Cowgirls

Remember those hats that the girls bought at Winterfest? Well, they are kind of obsessed with them. They've been wearing them a lot and trying different outfits to make them look "more Texan". Its pretty cute. Now they are asking for boots. 

 

Tree Lighting

We went to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the beginning of Winterfest, a festival in downtown El Paso that happens during the holidays. This was the first time they had held it in two years due to the pandemic, so everyone was excited to be getting back together again. The mayor and a few other officials spoke. The local news station broadcast it as they plugged in the lights of the enormous tree. It was beautiful and made me think of the Dickens Holiday in Fayetteville though there were no candles and no fireworks. 

The entirety of the downtown park was swathed in lights and we had a great time walking around. 

There was a parade as well as other entertainment on some of the stages. There were food and craft vendors as well. Paige and Darby spent their own money to buy a cowgirl hat. They are excited to be a part of Texas. Haha. 

We didn't stay long enough to see everything but we plan to come back during Winter Break when there are less people. 

Choir Concert

Darby had her first choir performance tonight at the Parade of Choirs, a district-wide event. It was held at a local high school theater and spanned several nights. The Hornedo Middle School Choir was scheduled for tonight. Each choir performed a few songs each. Her choir was the largest we saw that night and they sounded amazing. They sang a song in Japanese called Sakura by Chistopher Matthews. They also sang Across the Universe by the Beatles. It was beautiful and we are so proud of her. 

 

It is Finished!!

We got an email about our student loans tonight. After over ten years of payments and LOTS of paperwork, we qualified for PSLF (public service loan forgiveness) and our balance is now $0. We cracked open some sparkling cider to celebrate. 

 

Primary Program 2021

Today was the Primary Program and these two did great despite only being in the waard a few months. In fact, Paige was so pleased with her herself that after she said her part at the mircophone she raised her arms in a V in celebration. That made everyone laugh.

 This is Darby's last Primary Program since she will be going into Young Women in a little less than two months. Growing up so fast. 

Franklin Race

Jason is at it again. There was a race through the Franklin Mountains near our house and he just had to enter. Those are the mountains he runs through every morning. This race was a 100k (about 65 miles) so it is shorter than his regular races. As always, he printed an elevation map. You can see that the Franklins have some wicked elevation gains.

The race started early this morning. His friend and boss Ed sent me this picture midway through the day. Ed was working one of the aid stations. 

He finished at 3:30 am and then came home. Luckily it is only a 15 minute drive so he could fall promptly asleep. 

Science Fair Project

Darby had a science fair project this year. She chose to test parachute shapes. She cut different but similarly sized shapes out of plastic and then sent a doll over the railing. We videotaped it on my phone and used the slow motion feature to see how long it took to reach the floor. She did several tests of each shape making sure to hold it at the same height and in the same place each time. It turns out that there wasn't a large amount of difference between the shapes (maybe 1 second variation) but it is less than a two story drop. I don't remember which one ultimately was the best but the triangle one did the worst (and poor Skipper went slamming to the ground). 

 

Brains and Buns

We have a sort of Lego version of the Saly Lake Temple. In order to pack it we had to break it apart into chunks and bag them for the move. I realized today that I needed to reassemble it but didn't have the instructions anymore. Brendan was able to do it all without directions. His brain amazes me. 

 It is really not fair that my daughter Darby has three times as much hair as I do and it is beautifully wavy to boot. She wanted a bun for church today and again I was reminded just how thick her hair is.