Despite the lack of snow Christmas is definitely here.  We made fudge today and are roasting a beast so we can watch the old cartoon of How the Grinch stole Christmas.  Robyn has been spending the last few hours with many tears and stomping of feet working on a present for her friend.  Those dang beads are not getting on her necklace the way they should.  Jeremy is having a bad back day and kids are taking full advantage of having him prone all day on the couch.  Nothing gets kids talking more than a captive audience.

Today was our Primary program and yesterday was our practice.  All went off without a hitch and Primary today was full of very hopped up, excited kids.  This is Allison's last Primary program - hard for me to believe.  And last night was our ward party.  We had a BBQ and then did line dancing and visited with Santa.  Imagine hordes of kids dancing the macarena and other dances in utter abandon and loving every minute of it.  Even Taylor got into the action.  What impressed me the most is that although Allison retreated off with a friend as she "doesn't do line dancing", Spencer was right in the thick of it having a great time.


 I listened to President Eyring's talk from Priesthood this last conference and it has really been sticking with me.  The idea of trying to have a positive vision in your mind of what your children will grow up to be within the church.  For my girls its pretty easy for me.  For Spencer I have so many qualities where I think "oh, if he keeps going down that route - then that will be the consequence" etc.  Its hard for me to see what all his good qualities can become in the future.  Last night watching him cheerfully help jump into clean up the building helped me catch a bit of that vision.  Its not that I don't love him and think of his good qualities.  I just focus too much on what he has left to learn and qualities that need to disappear.

This week Spencer had Colonial Days where he dressed up and spent the day making lanterns, writing with quills, eating pease porridge and having a great time.

Taylor had a run in with his wheelchair this week at school when he decided to take a nose dive without warning while standing.  Usually he protects himself quite well.  Head wounds bleed quite a lot.  It didn't require stitches as it was a puncture cut.  To keep the pads on his head required him looking quite pathetic for a day.

Allison made it for 30 minutes of school on Monday and then came home.  She spent the day asking why I was doing so much work or coughing violently for minutes on end.  If kids are going to be sick I prefer the out on the couch, just want to cuddle variety.  The 'I'm so bored' kind is not very fun for any of us.  Luckily cough drops kept her going the rest of the week at school.  On Friday I got to go on a field trip with her to see A Christmas Carol.  I love that play.

Friday night we went up to the zoo to see zoo lights.  Walking around in 30 degree weather, seeing a few animals and tons of lights while sipping hot chocolate was pretty fun.  Taylor wearing a shirt, sweatshirt, coat, 2 blankets and a hat looked like a tortoise who periodically peeked out whenever we entered a heated building.  And to top off the night we stopped at SLC's newest store Trader Joe's.  Kids and Jeremy have already gone through most of a big container of hummus.  I think we will be stopping there often.