Things That Have Happened In January

During Christmas Break, our neighbor Charlotte brought us 6 Genius Kits.  If you don't know what a Genius Kit is, you are clearly not a genius.  Just kidding.  You are in good company.  We didn't either, but Charlotte explained that we had to use everything in the kit to create something.  Also, we all had completely matching kits.  Also (although she didn't say this part) there were a lot of things in those kits!  She told us we could take a few weeks and plan and prepare and create.  So, we took one Sunday evening and gave ourselves a 45 minute time limit to use our genius brains and create something amazing in a fraction of the time it takes regular Geniuses.  

I got started a few minutes late, and somehow finished first.  Go figure!  Also, apparently I am not a creative genius, because as soon as I saw the doll face in my kit, I couldn't think of anything else to build.  So, introducing... The Little Princess.  My family all had a good laugh...until I won the contest!!!

Charlotte judging (and, she was actually super impressed with what we came up with, which was funny to us because we really didn't take the time she was hoping we would.)  We did a blind judgement so that she wouldn't be biased.

Maren was also a winner with her Hideout.  We won a tic tac toe game.  And bragging rights.  And we also probably helped clean out a lot of junk from Charlotte's garage, so all three of us were winners!

We have had some fun Young Women activities over zoom.  This was a spa night.  We have also done a cooking night and a teaching how to do hair night.  Covid Creativiness.

Lava Cake we made.

We went to see the Hanchett's new puppy, Mabel.  She is very cute but her and Pepper didn't seem to like each other at all! 

Avery asked and got answered for the Sweetheart's Dance her and her friends are doing.  I don't know how much dancing will actually occur because it is not being done at or by the school.  It is just her friends trying to make the best of their Senior year!  But they will at least dress up and take pictures and have a fun date night!

We took our kids skiing!  The snow was pretty lousy (grass and mud showing through and half of the mountain closed) but we had a great time anyway!  And, I got an awesome deal on the tickets, so we weren't too mad about the conditions.

We did our Owen Service Project early this year.  We made cards to give to the Care Center in Delta where Grandma Losee has been living for the last few years (Nicole's great idea).

This week my Grandma Losee passed away.  She had been going steadily down hill since she broke her hip a few years ago.  We had been praying that she would be able to go peacefully.  We are confident that she had a sweet and happy reunion with Grandpa, Uncle David and Lane as well as her siblings and parents, whom she loved.  She was such a funny, fun grandma!  She loved to sing, laugh and had a strong testimony that she wasn't afraid to share.  I remember playing dress up in her old clothes, making spook alley's in her basement, listening to old records on her little portable record player (Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, specifically).  She always seemed to let us take over the house when we were all there visiting and we had so much fun!  She had endless supplies of breakfast cereal and always had Cheez Whiz to eat with celery.  We ate currents from her bushes in her yard and had weenie roasts out back.  A good chunk of my weekends growing up were spent at my grandparent's farm.  I had an idealic childhood!  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family!  We will miss Grandma!  We love her! 

Christmas, Christmas Break and New Year's!

We had a great week of Christmas!  It actually did feel like time slowed down a little bit, and that was really nice.  We had a couple of fun family zoom meetings and it was great to reconnect with people and see their faces!  We did a Shurtz family talent show one night with my family, and a Nativity reading with Dustin's family.  I'm grateful for technology!  I hope that even after the pandemic is over, that we can continue to connect with far away family using technology. 

We made a trek out to Antelope Island to see the Christmas Star do its thing after 400 years.  That was cool, if not slightly underwhelming, but that's ok!  At least we could say we saw it!

We went up to Jen's to get some gifts and see her snakes.  They have a couple of them and my kids have been dying to get up there to see them.  They didn't disappoint.

On our way home we decided to go see the lights on 25th Street in Ogden that we had been hearing about from my sisters.  They also did not disappoint!  Very pretty!

Don't let Ryan's attire fool you.  It was absolutely freezing!

Nicole and Matt sent us this awesome ornament made from the old carpet of my parent's house (that they surprise replaced earlier in the month).  It's hard to see, but it is a lime green carpet Christmas tree.  

On Christmas Eve, both girls had to work in the afternoon, which was a bummer (but could have been worse-Maren was originally scheduled to work until 9 PM that night!  A Christmas miracle and answer to my prayers occurred when they changed her shift to end at 6:00.  Who makes children work until 9:00 on Christmas Eve??).  We had our traditional aebleskivers in the morning for breakfast, and then after the girls went to work, we took the boys bowling.  I lost to everybody, which made for everybody ending happily (no one likes to lose in my family, so I was happy that my horrible bowling skills could maintain Christmas cheer).

So much delicious food all day!

Bethlehem Dinner that night.  Avery got home from work after Dustin had left with everyone else, so she helped me get everything ready.  It was a lovely evening and dinner.  It is the favorite of us all.

 

This year the kids all slept in the preschool and stayed up late watching movies.  It meant that they slept in until 7:00 the next morning!  A first for us!

We surprised Avery with a Pepper Blanket to take to college!

The kids all pitched in and got Dustin a speaker for when we do outside movies.

The homemade gifts that the kids made for each other were fun.  Avery made Grant a Family Old Maid card game, Maren made Ryan a bike jump, Ryan made Avery a Y Picture Collage to take to college, and Grant made Maren a holder for her lotions and makeup.  These are always some of our favorite gifts and a fun part of Christmas!

A puzzle of our family from Grandpa and Grandma Shurtz.

We cleaned up Christmas just a couple of days later in anticipation of getting our carpets cleaned.  Usually I want to keep it up for a while, but I think this year we felt ready to move forward.  Bring on 2021!  

Grant wound himself up in part of our service chain during clean up.

For New Year's Eve we ate homemade pizza, chocolate fondue, played games and watched some fireworks put on by our neighbor.

After seeing this picture, I decided that maybe one of my New Year's Resolutions should be to clean our car more often...

We had a pretty low-key 2nd week of Christmas Break.  We slept in, relaxed, watched movies and played video games and just generally had a lazy week.  We did take the kids to play mini-golf and to dinner and on the way home, we found this amazing cemetery tree and lights, and had fun with it.

And now, we feel ready for 2021, and a fresh start and hopefully an end to this pandemic!!