The Blog Post About Fish

Last Sunday evening we went to the Stake Christmas Concert at our stake center, which was good.

One of Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike's friends got us a puzzle Advent calendar. The kids have enjoyed opening up every little puzzle and completing them on the day they can open them up. They also like to go back and re-complete all of the prior days some times. The puzzles have been very popular, so it was a very nice gift.

Dave and the other leader were going to not be able to make it to Activity dudes, so it was up to Mike to organize and execute it all alone. He got Brother Waters to agree to come to the activity so that there would be 2 adults present. He then invented plans for a Christmas tree pickle ornament out of felt and stuffing. The kids sewed it up and had a fun time. Mike spent pretty much the whole time threading needles and tying threads off. All in all it was successful.

At the same time the girls went to see the Christmas lights. The temple grounds were under construction, so it wasn't very good, so instead they got to see a tour of the conference center instead. If was good, but quick.

At Connect Ed this week the kids did their "You in a Box" speeches, which involves putting three things that represent their past present and future in a box and then talking about them and why they represent your past present and future. Sara drew a picture for Rea, so that was nice.

Grandpa Mike showed us one of his walks on Thursday and so we enjoyed walking down the canal and gathering bamboo. We saw fish in the canal under the ice, dogs (one with a t-shirt on), goats, horses, a pony, crawdads, and lots of birds.

On Thursday evening we went to the trampoline park to belatedly celebrate Gideon's birthday with the Grandparents Mike and Sheila. Gideon says it was super fun and we played games and were really sad when we had to go. We also played a fun Jurassic Park arcade game. After we were done we got pizza and ice cream and that was super fun too.

Sara wants to add that one of her favorite YouTubers recorded a video in a park of the same brand, so that was exciting also.

Friday we took all of the kids on the new walk, and Elsa caught a fish with her bare hands. We also ate a picnic on a cement pad in the middle of the road. It was fun other than the fact that Elsa screamed and wanted to go home about half of the time.

On Saturday morning we had the Ward Christmas Party planned, but there was apparently some gas leak and they had to put it off until the gas company could come and check it out. 

Despite starting late the party was successful. They had it themed like the Polar Express, and we ate food and chatted and had a small program. In the end the kids all made a craft and then got a gift picture of Santa looking at a nativity.

At the end, Rea was lost in the church for a long time (or we couldn't find her anyway), and we ended up looking all around the neighborhood. When we finally found her, she was with the older waters girls and they had been talking in the sacrament preparation room.

We also made Christmas cookies on Saturday Grandma baked them, and all of our kids and the Plastows kids came over and decorated them.

Finally, Sara wants to have it recorded that she made her first scrunchie. It looks pretty good.