Party Time!

The Christmas season means big parties!  We enjoyed a few of these events this year, and created a few of our own at home.  The first was our ward Christmas party, which at first seemed like just a lot of work as I volunteered to help out; but really, it turned out to be pretty fun.

This was the skit performed by the Young Men.  That's Chase in the red sheet behind Jon Michael, playing the arms of the Elder getting ready for a day on his mission.  Ha!  The arms blindly performed all of the morning chores from shaving and brushing teeth to eating cereal for breakfast.  Hilarious!!!

Chase made a mess of Jon Michael, but mostly because Jon Michael kept pulling away from things like the toothbrush and shaving cream, instead of leaning in to Chase's reach in order to help him hit the target.  Made it even sillier!

All of these pictures were taken during the Relief Society skit.  We sang a funny LDS version of the 12 Days of Christmas.  My part was day 4, and I was supposed to say "FOUR-ever Cougars!" and hold up my BYU sweatshirt.  And every time I did it, Nathan was supposed to hold up his U of U sweatshirt behind me and try to show me up.  It was a funny idea, but I'm not sure if it worked visually.  Ha!  And, of course, we had our Little Buddy with us up on stage because he doesn't like to be away from me in a large group of people.  He just stood there looking cute!

Why is everyone wearing gray, navy blue, or black to a ward Christmas  party? :)

Candy Cane from Santa

The Primary Children got a visit from Santa!  Avery and Courtney are in this picture in the upper right side of the crowd of children, just below Rich Weiss.

Next was the biggest party of the year for the employees and spouses of Nate's firm, Goodspeed, Merrill, & Benson.  This party has been in the works for months now, and we were so excited!  We started out by having dinner as a group at (why can I never remember the name of this restaurant right next to the Pepsi Center?), and then we all walked over to the Pepsi Center where they had a suite for all of us to watch the Denver Nuggets v. Utah Jazz game.  Yippee!

The Jazz only travel to Denver to play twice a year, and we usually try to go to at least one of the games.  But going with all of these friends for a Christmas party made it especially fun.  We took a lot of heat and trash talk from all of the Nuggets fans in the group (pretty much EVERYONE but us!).  But their remarks and jabs didn't have much bite, especially since the Jazz led for most of the game and actually WON!!!!  Haha!  That hardly ever happens, especially this year, so it was particularly sweet.  It must have been because it was Friday the 13th, a lucky day for us!  Nate also went as far as to bring wrapped gifts for all of his employees, all of which contained Utah Jazz products such as t-shirts, hats, drink holders, etc.  Haha!  Most people were pretty good sports about it and had a lot of fun.  It really couldn't have been a better party.  The best law firm Christmas party I've ever attended, for sure!

Fun at the Pepsi Center in the Goodspeed, Merrill & Benson suite.

Me and My Most Favorite Guy in the world!

One other party we had in December was our Heroes Book Club!  We host this every six weeks, but because this one happened to fall in December, we'll call it our Christmas Heroes Book Club.  We have a great group of kids in this book club...younger than our group in Parker, and including lots of little girls...but a great group of smart, fun kids!  We get lots of participation and excitement every time.  This meeting was about an Albert Einstein biography, and Hayden led a great discussion about the book.  He also facilitated a word search, a demonstration of the refraction of light, and a game of hangman.  Addie provided German Chocolate cupcakes, which were a big hit.  We are so blessed to have these kids as friends!

Cute kids learning about the refraction of light.  Thank you, Albert Einstein (and Hayden)!

It was also a great party preparing for Christmas by sending and receiving gifts in the mail!  In the photos below you can see how much fun we had unpacking the gifts, large and small, that came to us via the Santa in the big brown UPS truck.

One item arrived in a package with lots of Styrofoam padding.  Trey explained that they were talking on their "Styro-phones."  Ha!

Cute boys unloading a box of gifts from Nana to put under the tree!

Finally, a variation on the "Party Time" theme: Potty Time!  I had this brilliant idea that because we would be taking a break from school this month, it would be the perfect time to work on potty training with Trey, a rather overdue task.  Doesn't that sound just so Christmas-y and festive?  I reasoned that it wouldn't be any easier or less tedious at another time of year, so why not go for it?  (Uhhhhh, maybe because it's a maddening exercise, best not mixed with other stressful holiday preparations?????).

The tools: an extra potty seat so I don't have to run upstairs with him every hour to use the one up there, pull-ups, and big boy underwear.  A big deal!

Trey pointing to the very spot on his potty chart where he put his first sticker!  The chart has filled up since then, and we're still working on this process.  A little sickness and a little holiday distraction have delayed us a bit, but we're making progress!

Let's just say at this point, this Potty Party is an ongoing one ... and going ... and going ... and going!  *Sigh!* I love Christmas parties! :-)