Catching up

Snowman made with our one day of massive snowfall. Since then it's been rain- and this poor snowman has been reduced to a soggy lump.

This has been quite a month so far. The first week of December, I was in bed- or kneeling by the side of the bed, or in the recliner, or in whatever position happened to be the non-painful one for the day. I missed a lot that week: volunteering in three kids' classrooms, parent teacher conferences, piano lessons, tithing settlement, volunteering at Festival of Trees, Meals on Wheels, teaching the relief society lesson on Sunday, making dinner.... Thanks to everyone who filled in for me in various ways that week- especially Tim, Mom and Dad! Thankfully, that is

over for now. I'm doing much, much better. I did go to the back specialist on the 7th, and he scheduled a cortisone shot, but I ended up cancelling it because I was so much better.

The 12th was our annual "Christmas in the Grove" stake choir concert. This is one of my favorite things about the Christmas season every year- I love singing with so many talented musicians, with an amazing director and the ability to testify of Christ through song. It is always a wonderful experience. When I found out that we were staying here, the choir was one of my first thoughts- I can keep singing! This year, Rebekah and Josh sang in the youth choir, too. My goal for next year is to get the younger kids convinced to sing in the children's choir!

Monday the 13th was the ukulele concert for Ethan's class- we pulled it off, they were great, and it's over. That's all I have to say about that.

The rest of that week was kind of crazy- three temple trips (one Relief Society for me, baptisms for Tim and the kids, and sealings for Tim and I on our anniversary), practices for the ward Christmas play, dentist appointments for everyone, and preparations for the ward Christmas

program that Sunday. Saturday was the ward Christmas breakfast- the kids performed the Scripture Scouts Christmas play, and did such a great job. What could be better than kids singing about Christ's birth?

Sunday's Christmas program was wonderful, too. Rebekah, Emma and I sang in the choir, Emma sang a duet for the beginning of Away in a Manger, I accompanied a solo, and everything worked!

And school was out!!!

I was a little leery of the whole week off before Christmas, but it has been great. The older the kids get, the more fun this kind of stuff is. We have shopped for stocking presents, visited the library (twice), exercised at the rec center, made sculptures out of pipe cleaners, made a snowman, gone to the movies (Megamind), baked lots and lots of cookies, eaten lots of cookies, delivered treats to neighbors, made animal habitat models out of salt dough (yeah- I don't know what that has to do with Christmas, but it kept the kids busy for a really long time), met Grandma and Grandpa Walker for dinner and a drive through the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights, and Tim took the older kids to the BYU basketball game last night. I love having time to plan things to do each day- no school, no homework, no practices- it's so nice to have a break!