Shlepn Seven: January 2010

The Dead of Winter

The young men went camping last night at Lake Fairfax.

It got down to about 25 degrees and Mike, along with his buds, slept under the stars right next to lake.

They woke up pretty much covered in frost from a heavy dew. Dad slept in his hammock and stayed a lot warmer. Most of the YM showed up which was sweet. They decided not to shower before their basketball game. Last week it was extreme haircuts:

this week, extreme grodiness. They played Chantilly and was it ever UGLY! We won in the end, thanks to 2 sweet 3 pointers knocked down by one Spencer Goold. MK's YWs game was another wipeout. But the girls had a lot of fun trying to make sure everyone scored on their team. Later she played in her VYI game. Dad and I had to leave after the 1st quarter for a wedding reception and her team was down 14-6. I was sad to miss the comeback. Her team won 48-34! Go Mary!!

It's January 8, 2010 and the dust has settled from getting Christmas packed up and put away and Laura out the door to London. With all the Christmas prep around here I failed to blog about Thanksgiving. MK made place cards:

We had the Bowens over

and one of Jessica's friends named Amy

plus Paul Shaw and our awesome Vienna Ward Elders. Christmas was one party after another around here. On December 12 we had a ward Christmas breakfast.

I work with these ladies on the activities committee: Stacey Scott, Karen Harrison and Christina Smith:

I helped to plan a little program with musical numbers. The YW sang a sort of painfully slow rendition of jingle bells:

But these little cuties on the flute stole the show:

(Delta Airlines + Heavy Snow = Mega cancellations) But I have to admit the aftermath of the storm was really pretty:

MK helped the Vienna Ward YM to dig out the church and the Borrowmans who had just had a brand new baby girl. MK was so happy to get to miss three days of school because of the snow which made for a super long Christmas break!

Laura and Tom were delayed by a day and a half but Nathan and Steph were delayed by 3 and half days. Dad was outraged at Delta for their ineptitude. Suffice it to say that we won't be flying with them ever again! But they eventually got here and it was a par-tay! Here we are gathered together on Christmas Eve for all manner of Swiss Colony and twice baked potatoes and honey baked ham. Not to mention copious quantities of fudge.

On Christmas morning we slept in until 9:00. Jessica cooked the traditional orange/cinnamon rolls and the sausage and OJ. Our stockings were stuffed with the usual yummy chocolates and chapsticks. Dad always gets hilarious books and I usually laugh so hard I cry which happened about 5 minutes after this pic was taken:

Steph and Nathan scored on some nice quilts and dish towels from Steph's mom:

Not to mention Harry:

got her guitar hero plus lots of gooey stuff:

Mikey got a quilt I made with minkie (softest fabric on the planet):

Laura got stuff for London including a very stylin' umbrella. Tom pictured here:

got lots of clothes but this gift from Jess took the cake:

Jess with her crockpot:

Robbie got the girls flannel pants. And Steph got the girls Christmas socks.

Laura got Dad some BYU socks:

On Sunday the 27th the small party I had planned with a few families from our dinner group about doubled in size when Laura and Tom invited their friends as well. The meatballs were delish as was the cream cheese with that yummy cranberry jalapeno stuff poured on it. We also had shrimp and everybody brought a dish. Bonnie and Ernie Myers, The Copans, The Stevens and The Williams, Melinda Goode and Anna plus G-ma and G-pa D then all the college kids too. Very fun evening. Jessica's friend Sam came and brought her 20 old school books -- The Complete Works of Dickens I think. Sadly no pictures were taken :(
The next day on the 28th Jeff and Krista arrived.

Lucky for them their plane was on schedule. Krista received a Nielson girl bracelet and Jeff scored on a new camera.

With everyone overlapping by only a day we decided to do a big dinner.

So it was Thanksgiving all over again. Tom read "The Hunger Game" (from Jeff and Krista) outloud to me while I was preparing food.

We had G-ma and G-pa over too: Mike decided to be a game show host and do his version of The Newlywed Game. It was a lot of fun to hear what peeps had to say about their spouses. Very early the next morning we dropped N&S off at the airport. Then on new year's eve G-ma D had everyone over for a really nice get together and Aunt Lori's family was there as well. We also went to the Engle's for a cul-de-sac party. It was fun to visit with the neighbors. But by midnight we were all in the got tub to watch the ball drop. Then the VW youth came over after the dance (600+ kids attended) for breakfast and didn't leave until 2:20. It's been crazy around here I tells ya! New Years day was football, football and more football. While J&K were here we went to see the Princess and the Frog.