It was wonderful to have my sister here for a few days.  She helped me with all my Christmas shopping, wrote up a knitting pattern for Allison, went with me to the temple and to my favorite restaurant and even froze with us looking at the lights at Temple Square.  She even put up with a very stinky rabbit sharing her room.



Taylor was not a fan of the cold.  He started smiling and perking up soon as we were back in the car.


People must have been staying home Sunday night eating leftover pie as the place felt super empty which was wonderful for walking around it.  Jeremy got to spend time taking pictures for the church and got a bunch on the church news which he enjoyed.

We have had a few other Christmas festivities this week.  Sunday we decorated our tree and decided it truly is our last year with this tree.  It is currently being held up with fishing line ingeniously tied to the shutters by Jeremy.   It has had too much kid help with it over the years.  Jasper has been in heaven with all these new toys dangling in front of him and we have found a few ornament casualties as he is learning not to touch.


Monday night was our lighting parade where we walked up and down the street with neighbors and then had a fire, treats and hot chocolate at the end.  Spencer was pooh pawing going but he was out there freezing away in a sweat shirt and having a great time.  Robyn disappeared with Jasper and some little kids and we saw her at the end.  Saturday we got to go to the live nativity in Alpine with Jason and Kelly's family.


Spencer and Jeremy ended up having to work and Allison had a babysitting job so we made a girlie trip out of it.  We were the first ones there so there were few lines.  We have always gone at night when everything is lit by fires and lanterns but the lack of crowds and non-freezing temperatures were a great trade off.  Then everyone met back at our house for dinner with the missing parties joining us.  I am trying to be more flexible about family activities as I know I get way up tight about them.  With everyone's schedules we do what we can with everyone and the rest of the time with whoever is able to.


Thursday we had some excitement when I was told by an aide at school that there were shooters at PG High and that it was on lockdown.  Seemed like it took forever till I could get to a phone.  They were in a lockdown for 2 hours because of a hoax by a kid saying that they saw a person with a gun.  200+ policeman, SWAT, homeland security, the works.  Lots of rumors.  Spencer says he wasn't scared at all and finally texted me an "I'm fine" an hour into it.  I am thankful for a seminary teacher who stayed with them in the dark and emailed all the parents to say kids were all safe and locked up.