Our favorite was the service with song. With some friends we took over 100 cookies and caroled to The Other Side Academy. They enthusiastically joined in to Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer and felt the light we brought that evening. We love that place.
We got our tree early since we only had a few weeks at home before leaving for McCall, but it took us a full week before we actually got around to decorating it.
Tennie drove 'er home!
We went to the Christkindlmarkt at This is the Place Heritage Market. This gets better every year and is the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit. Ceci and I met Em and Bailey and had a great time.
Bailey and Ceci acquired some new hats...
I acquired this little guy...
Our building had a Christmas Carol night with a readers theater version was read. It was really festive and merry.
In addition to this year's ornament, the girls got their own elf (ours hides each day with occasional surprises).
The Waldorf Winter Festival was a huge success with everything going as planned. There were well over 1000 people in attendance and we learned a lot about how we can improve for future events. I didn't get many pictures, but we had soup and breads, activities including candle decorating, candle base decorating, paper snowflakes and tissue stars; there was a lantern walk through the woods with creative paper lanterns the students had made in their classes; the choir and orchestra performance was at the same time (which was a little crazy), and we had three bonfire drums outdoors where people could gather and get warm. Delightful, and I was glad it was over.
We had a ward Night in Bethlehem party (which was amazing) where Tennie sang a Christmas carol in a lovely quartet and a family party where we made ableskiver and exchanged gifts. I got to chaperone on Ceci's field trip to see Oliver, which was so fun. I forgot how loud school buses and sixth graders are!
My friend, Heather Staker, who is a leading educational reformer, came to film Tennie's math class for a video to accompany her new book. She sent me a quick clip from the day:
We made sugar cookies and chocolate, ginger cookies, and got Christmas cards out (barely). We planned and prepped and packed for a two week holiday. All of the food, ski equipment and bags wouldn't fit in one car so we took two (and we were still filled to the brim.) Sometimes I wish we stayed HOME for Christmas, but it has turned out to be the tradition in our little family to go elsewhere to celebrate Jesus' birth. The wonderful part is we are always with family. With skiing as a new hobby for the girls, and a resurrected hobby for Geoff, ski trips may become the new norm. We'll see.
Geoff has been looking forward to this two-week ski trip for months. He got a season pass and planned to go every day, but the day before we planned to leave he got the worst of a series of recent bad headaches, only this one left him moaning in bed, nauseous and wanting quiet and darkness. A migraine? Why so many headaches lately? Because of a soft area on the top of his head that has been extremely tender since he had a concussion a year and a half ago, I suggested we go to the ER. I didn't want to rack up a huge bill, but I also wanted to rule out a tumor or other more serious condition. I told them not to hook up the IV and refused any unnecessary tests. The doctor pulled up the CAT SCAN from the last concussion and showed that Geoff's soft tissues existed then, but he didn't feel they were concerning. He really had nothing more to offer.
Geoff was put in contact with the best concussion specialist at the U, by a friend's connection, who suggested Geoff not take any risk of bumping his head for the next six months to limit brain scarring and damage. He has an appointment to see him in the new year. To say Geoff was disappointed to not be able to ski is a huge understatement. Luckily Brundage refunded his pass. He also saw a practitioner in Salt Lake that I heard of through a mom who was a fellow chaperone on the field trip. This guy thinks he can realign misaligned aspects of Geoff's head, spine and overall body and help his headaches, overall breathing, sleeping and more. We are excited to continue exploring this possibility as well.
On the way to McCall we stopped at the Boise Temple to do family baptisms, a new monthly tradition since Ceci turned 12. We take turns deciding where we'll go out to dinner and then do baptisms. December was tricky to fit in, but we did it!
Here are a few outings since September:
McCall was magical and a winter wonderland. The girls went skiing most days. Adele gets the most-improved award, although Tennie gets a close second. It was powdery and amazing. Ceci misses Geoff as a ski partner, but she enjoyed skiing with everyone else. Geoff did easy hills a few times to help the girls improve, and to satisfy his craving a little bit, but the rest of the time he went to the library to try to work on the final phase of finishing a book on healing he started in France eight years ago.
(Yeah, that is Geoff on the hill. He skied "gently" with the girls a few days.)
A few of the cousins thought it would be fun to jump off the balcony into the snow, "like you guys used to do as kids!" Lots of thrills.
Geoff bought me snowshoes and warm clothing for my birthday and I loved getting out in the snow and feeling the silence of the world only fresh snow can create. I got out almost every day. The rest of the time I stayed at home in the quiet and read and got through a to-do list of things I could do away from home, including catching up on the past few months here. It felt good to slow down and to be productive.
On my 46th birthday we went sledding on a newly discovered hill. As always it was so much fun, and possibly a new birthday tradition when there is snow. The girls made gingerbread houses, we went out for some Mexican food, and watched a movie with snow lightly falling outside and the lights on the tree sparkling. It was a perfect day.
Adele's:
And Tennie's:
A night out in McCall!
Geoff admitted that he wanted Christmas presents on Christmas. We typically don't give gifts to each other. I don't know why, maybe because in our early marriage money was tight and it was a way to save money. But this year Geoff made it clear that he wanted to be unwrapping things on Christmas morning. He told the girls they couldn't ski if they didn't give him a present, and other such threats and manipulations to have lots of surprises under the tree. This was amusing to us girls, and we made sure to shower him with more gifts than the rest of us got combined. He tried to say he was 70% joking all along, but as Nikki observed, he was "100% serious."
Christmas Eve was quiet and cozy. We made ableskiver again, acted out a not-so-reverent nativity and shared some learnings from the year. The girls have had a tradition since they were little to stay up all night together. This has never been a mom-approved tradition. This year, however, they decided they wanted their sleep and our Christmas day was much more pleasant as a result.
After the stockings were explored and the presents opened everyone settled in to a nice, calm day. Ceci and Nikki got into some intense chess games. Both are highly competitive!
Just before Christmas dinner Britt and her boyfriend Hunter came home beaming. Hunter had just proposed! Looks like a wedding in May! It was really fun to get to know Hunter better during our stay in McCall. His calm, kind and patient demeanor will be a great addition to the Davis family.
Ceci and Taeya went snowshoeing along the golf course. There were puzzles, games, movies and making of movies too.
Because we had two cars I decided to drive home on the 28th to have a few days at home to clean up the pieces of the past months neglect. I ran a lot of errands and cleaned up lots of piles and got to a place of maintenance instead of going into the new year trying to catch up. It was nice, although I missed being with everyone in McCall.
Adele skiied a black diamond hill! She was so proud of herself, and we continue to marvel how that girl is unstoppable when she wants something. Tennie had made it to the black diamond hills too, which was her goal. She, too, has an incredible determination to overcome her fears. It is admirable. And Miss Ceci wins the best supporter this year. She cheered and encouraged her sisters every step of the way. She had improved more than they had last year when she and Geoff went skiing twice a week, so she has been great at helping them improve. You can see her at the bottom waiting for Adele.
Part of Adele's determination this year was to be able to ski with the cousins. They are all now skiing the whole mountain together.
On New Year's Eve Brundage has fireworks, so these skiers stayed for the show.
Once home they did a polar bear roll in the snow with their swim suits on! Crazies.
Thanks to the Wells for a great holiday in McCall! And on to 2017!
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