Here’s another two week update. Sarah’s dance group had a performance a few weeks ago. Here’s the picture of her team at the performance:
Sarah got pulled over the other day for speeding. UGH!! The funny thing is that her driver’s side window is broken and doesn’t roll down. In fact it is broken enough that it has to be taped closed. The officer saw that and came around to Noah’s passenger side. That window is broken, too so they ultimately had to open the door to talk to her. She was quite embarrassed. She had to text me to get her insurance information. Luckily, she ended up with just a warning. Hopefully she learned her lesson and won’t speed again....
In the last blog post I forgot to mention one thing. While Aaron and I were in Orlando a few weeks ago I got a text from Noah’s young Men leader saying they were going to provide parts of dinner for everyone. Noah got assigned to bring a veggie of some sort for 18-20 people. Well Noah said nothing about it to me before I left and I didn’t hear about it until after I had left. Ugh! I was worried about what Noah was going to do. When I heard I called Noah to see if he knew about it and see what he was going to do. I was also going to tell him we had a few cans of corn he could warm up. However, he surprised me by saying he had already figured it out. He was going to steam some broccoli and put some parmesan cheese over it and bring it. I was impressed. I asked how he was going to cook it and he knew what he needed to do. Good for him! I was worried it was going to not turn out, but I worried for no reason. I was pleasantly surprised!
We got some new missionaries in our area. They stopped by my house last week to introduce themselves. I follow a missionary mommas group on Facebook. I took a quick pictures and posted it so their moms could see they were doing fantastic. They were fun to visit with. They also let me know that they had forgotten to pick up some dishwashing tablets while they went P-Day shopping so I was able to get some for them to use until they were able to get back to the store.
Katie, Daniel’s girlfriend went through the temple this past Saturday. She invited us to go along with her. It was great! We were so glad to go. It was fun to chat with all her family afterward.
I got this text from someone in Daniel’s mission last week. I was so excited to know that someone would be looking out for Elder Mancil:
It was Sarah and Noah’s piano recital last week. Noah let me know about a week before the piano recital that he had signed us up to do a piano duet together. What?!? Luckily with lots of practicing we were able to play our piano duet together and it sounded great. I was freaking out a bit, though. I haven’t had to participate in a piano recital in over 35 years--haha! My hands were shaking while we played together from my nerves. Although it made me really nervous, I was glad for the opportunity to play along with Noah. I had to come straight from work so that is why I am still wearing my scrubs.
Noah also played a few other pieces besides our duet throughout the recital. He did great.
Sarah was teaching her dance class that evening. The recital ended up going faster than the piano teacher thought so Sarah was a few minutes late to the recital since she came straight from dance wearing her dance clothes. However, she made it a bit frazzled, but was able to play her song and did great.
Here’s a picture of Daniel he sent us. He is doing well:
We had a morning off where we were all around. We decided to go and play some Top Golf. I did horribly, but everyone else did well.
The Sunday before Christmas we only had Sacrament Meeting that day. It was filled with musical numbers and youth speakers. Matthew was asked to play. I was nervous because he only had a month to learn a song, but he did okay. He loves playing the piano in church.
Last Saturday Aaron’s friend’s had their annual tech Christmas party. They have this every year and it is fun to attend. Everyone is a foodie so it is delicious. Aaron brought a pan of jalapeño popper macaroni and cheese. It has taken me quite a few years to get to know the people since I don’t work with them and I am quiet. But now it is fun to see them every year.
A few days before Christmas Aaron and I had our annual Wrap party. We always order a pizza from Pizza Hut and turn on a fun show while we wrap everyones presents. It makes it easier to get done with us both working on it! I love it!
My last Walk In Clinic day was Thursday, December 19th. I was sad management decided to close our clinic permanently. I can understand why, but I am still sad about it. It provided a needed service to underprivileged people in the community so it will be missed. It also means that my work hours got cut drastically so I will need to brush off my resume and start looking for a job. I will start in January. Ugh. I really HATE job hunting and starting a new job, but what can you do?! Luckily, nursing is quite broad so there are many areas I can choose from. I just dread going through the whole process, though. I am sure things will work out somehow.
We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house with all my family. I forgot to take a picture of the actual dinner, but here is everyone helping to clean up afterward. It was fun to have everyone together. We did miss having my Dad there, but I am sure he was there in Spirit.
Later that evening I got this text from the bishops wife of Daniel’s area. I am so grateful she was able to take care of Daniel and his companion for Christmas. They even got them some Cornhuskers sweatshirts!!
She asked me everything that we usually put in his stocking at home. She was kind enough to go out and get him all the stuff for his stocking that I had told her. She then asked for his favorite cookie recipe and cooked them for him. It brought me to tears that he was taken care of for his first Christmas away from home. She took some pictures of them opening their stockings and sent them to me, too. I loved it!!!
She even got him his grapefruit, something that has been in his stocking since he was a little kid!!
As for us after dinner and everyone had left we bundled up and went out to look at the Ogden Christmas Village like we do every year. It was great!
We then drove down to the Layton City Lights. We waited for about 30 minutes to drive through to see the lights. They were awesome. We do this every year and it is fun to find the same light displays we see every year. We like the car light tunnel.
We had everyone in the car with us except Daniel.
We also like the penguin sliding down the slide, the polar bear catching the fish, the bear climbing the tree, the helicopter, the train, etc. It is fun to try and find them every year.
We then came home and took our pajama pictures. We only had matching bottoms this year, but it still worked! We sent Daniel the same pair that he got to wear that night, too. Here’s our family picture with a picture of Daniel:
We then played a few games and then read the nativity from the scriptures and talked about it. Then everyone got sent to bed. Santa came shortly after:
Instead of trying to squeeze everyone into Sarah’s small room, they all slept downstairs in Josh and Daniel’s room. So when it was time they came upstairs to check out their loot.
Daniel got to call us that morning so we could open presents together at least that is what we had planned on. Daniel decided he didn’t have that much time so we just talked and watched him open all his presents. After visiting with the bishops family he and his companion came back to their apartment where they had a sleep over with 11 other missionaries. I am glad they were able to have some fun together to celebrate the holidays. Here we are answering Daniel’s call that morning:
He wore his festive Christmas glasses--haha!
Opening presents:
After about 20 minutes Daniel had to get off the call so we got to then open our presents. Sarah:
Noah and Grandma:
In-between turns Sophie would lick Noah’s feet. Ewww! She can be a weird dog sometimes!!
Matthew:
Josh:
Matthew picked up presents for everyone, too. It was really sweet. He even got Sophie some doggie socks. Sophie was not a fan, though. They only lasted about 1 minute before she got them all off her paws.
We were glad Grandma T was able to spend Christmas morning with us!!
Later that evening Aaron cooked a yummy tri tip dinner.
Later that evening Daniel was able to call back. We talked for a long time. Katie, Daniel’s girlfriend, even joined us on the call. It was fun to have her here. Here’s Daniel and one of the missionaries that he hung out with last night:
We all sat around the table to talk to him:
We probably looked a bit goofy, but it was fun to talk:
Here’s a few pictures of Daniel’s Christmas he shared with us:
Dinner:
Twinning is winning. Daniel and his companion have matching Cornhuskers sweatshirt and Doc Martin shoes:
Daniel’s apartment Christmas tree with everyone’s presents:
All the elders hanging out together:
I am so thankful for the birth of Christ and that we are able to celebrate with family and friends.
