Between Christmas and New Year

The day after Christmas found Sarah visiting urgent care and getting a diagnosis of bronchitis.  She got some prescriptions to help her get through it.  Ryan had to go back to work (meaning he had to go upstairs to his office) so Kirsti and the kids took Steve and me to Grantsville to his sister, Michelle.  On the way, we stopped off in Orem to visit Steve's youngest brother, Jeff, and his wife, Darla who is battling leukemia.  Darla is responding well to the chemo treatments but she is not out of the woods yet.  It was good to see her.  The plan was to have all of Steve's siblings up to Michelle and Mike's Tuesday evening for a get-together but of course, Jeff and Darla couldn't come.  Dave and Dale also didn't make it because Dale recently had knee replacement surgery and was not up to it after her physical therapy appointment.  Maurine is also battling bronchitis and she just didn't feel well enough to come, either.  However, Kirsti and Alice and Ivan had a GREAT visit with Michelle and Mike.  First, they hauled out all the toys that "grandma" Michelle has for her own grandkids.  

Then, we all went down the street to visit the chickens and cows and horses.  They got to ride in Uncle Mike's golf cart there and back.  And, Alice got to help collect eggs.

Kirsti and the kids left mid-afternoon and Steve and I did get to visit with Michelle's son Casey and his wife Bethany that evening.  Wednesday morning, Michelle's other son Jason and his wife Celeste came over to say "hi".  Sarah arrived around 2:00 and we visited until a little after 4:00 when she took us to the airport to fly back to Missouri

Our flight back home was through Las Vegas again.  No hitches along the way, thankfully, although we wore ourselves out walking all the way to the gate in Salt Lake and again in Las Vegas - I think we totaled two miles!  I finished watching Leap Year on the first flight and I watched Secrets of Dumbledore on the way to St. Louis.  Well, I saw all but the last five minutes.  I was watching literally until we reached the gate and we had to deplane.  I have reserved the movie from the library and I will catch the last minutes this coming week.   Our flight was a red-eye with us arriving at 1:30 in the morning.  Bless Beckie for picking us up at that hour.  We slept in until 10:00 on Thursday and spent the rest of the day unpacking, doing laundry, running to the store for milk and prescriptions.  Friday was another catch-up day and also for packing because we left to visit Julina in Indiana Saturday afternoon once we worked our temple baptistry shift.  This time, Sally got to come along.  She loves road trips!  Here she is....Boy, she sure needs a hairut!

We arrived at Julina's around 8:00 last night.  Today has been a very chill day.  We even stayed home and watched virtual church with Alex.  We are not planning to stay up until midnight.  To ring in the new year we will play some games and we have lots of goodies to eat tonight and tomorrow.  Steve and I will return to St. Louis Tuesday morning.

Our trip leading up to Christmas

Our flight to Utah on Tuesday, December 19th, began with a Southwest terminal busting at the seams with young Army recruits on their way home from basic training to visit family for the holidays. SO MANY soldiers!  Happily, Southwest employees were up to the challenge of additional passengers and our check-in and TSA experiences went quite smoothly.  Here is Steve waiting at our gate and you can see four of the twenty-seven soldiers on our flight to Las Vegas. 

It was a completely full flight and, even though we had B seating, after they seated the families and military - which they do after A seating - Steve and I pretty much gave up on the idea of sitting together.  In fact, we just picked the first middle seats we could find that were across the aisle from each other and we settled in for our three hour flight.  I had planned to watch a movie on my phone but, if you will recall, I just got a new phone the day before and, to my surprise, this one had no port for headphones!  Luckily, I had a short book about Jacob Marley in my carry-on back pack so I read the entire thing during the flight.  Plus I took a nap.  Plus I read an entire Missouri Conservationist magazine.  On our short flight from Vegas to Salt Lake City, the flight was much less crowded and I got a window seat.  Steve took the aisle seat with no one in the middle and I snagged Steve's older phone and watched part of Leap Year on the way.  And, as soon as we got to Sarah's, I ordered an adaptor for my new phone and ear buds to be delivered at Kirsti's!

Sarah picked us up from the airport and we spent our first three days with her in Ogden.  Tuesday evening, we went to the Christmas Village in downtown Ogden to look at all the lights and cottage displays from many Ogden businesses.  Here is Sarah in front of the Ogden Nature Center cottage.

Sarah's friend, Haley, met us for dinner and joined us as we walked around admiring ALL THE LIGHTS.  I can't imagine all the work that goes into setting up (and taking down) all the strands of lights on all the trees!

Below is a photo of Steve and me which I just chuckle over because I had just installed a new screen protector on my  new phone the day before.  Only, the chad covering the hole for the front (selfie) camara lens did not automatically fall off and I didn't notice it until I took a couple of very blurry selfies.  It is like I rubbed Vaseline on the lens to get the special effect.

On Wednesday morning, we - Sarah and I - decorated sugar cookies which I baked the night before with some pre-made dough.  Early that afternoon, we took a plate to Sarah's good friend Susan, whom I have wanted to meet for a long time.  Susan recently retired from the Nature Center and she has been a mentor to Sarah's artistic talents.  In fact, she now has more time to be in her downtown Ogden art co-op that she operates with a fellow artist. They create beautiful paintings and other kinds of nature-like art.  Susan specialized in watercolor and her friend in acrylic.  Susan and her husband don't have children and she has adopted Sarah as a daughter.  She is a lovely woman and I am glad she is there to look out for Sarah.  

Thursday we toured the Nature Center - met several co-workers, saw the birds, visited Iggie (the iguana), and checked out the gift shop.  

 

We went to the Big Deals Outlet on Friday morning which has become a ritual whenever we visit Sarah.  It always has really good deals on just about everything (think Goodwill-Amish out of code store-Overstock).  I can always find Kind bars 4 for a dollar as well as other kinds of junk food.  I also found a perfect birthday gift for Steven.  (no photo until May, though)  We also had to visit the Ogden Deseret Industries and I came away with a pair of sweats, two pairs of jeans, a fleece jacket, and a new purse.  SCORE! 

We weren't always galivanting around Ogden while visiting Sarah.  We also stayed home and watched Christmas movies like Muppet Christmas Carol, Lemon Drop Kid, and Eloise at Christmastime.  Sarah has a great living room for movie watching.

Sarah gave up her bedroom for Steve and me and was a delightful hostess.  

Poor Sarah was battling a persistent cough our entire visit and it was bad enough that she could not sing in the choir concert that was scheduled for Friday night at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  Kirsti was supposed to meet us up there and bring us home to Spanish Fork.  Instead, we met her at a Costa Vida in Draper for dinner.  We bid farewell to Sarah for just a few days because she joined us and the Merrills for Christmas day.  But, I get ahead of myself.....

We got to Kirsti and Ryan's Friday evening after the kids were in bed so all we got to meet was Zeke who was kind of unsure of us at first.  But, it only took a few throws of his favorite squeak toy before Steve was his best buddy and, by Saturday morning, I was also his friend. 

 Here he is snuggled up to me as we watched a movie that night.  

He is such a good little dog.  Here is a photo of Ryan trimming his fur and I can't believe how well behaved he was for that!

We spent Saturday morning making goodies:  cream cheese mints and dipping gluten-free pretzels and assorted nuts in chocolate.  Alice loved the dipping and putting on sprinkles.  Here we are after assembling Peanuts Christmas puzzle.  Ivan is in the shot but he did not help with the puzzle.

Sunday morning we attended church.  Here we are in our Sunday best.

Alice and Ivan got to assemble a gingerbread house kit that day.  As you can imagine, being Christmas Eve, there was a LOT of excitement and energy from those two.  

In the evening, we took a little drive to Salem (about 10 minutes away) to see the lights at Salem Pond.  The night was pretty chilly but not as windy as it was the night before when we had hoped to go.  Salem is a little higher elevation than Spanish Fork so the snow flurries that fell on us Saturday morning actually stuck to the ground in Salem.  There was not a lot of snow - we could see grass sticking out - but it added to the ambiance of the evening.  Below is Steve and Ivan waiting to get in the car.at the house...

When we returned home, Alice and Ivan got to open their Christmas pajamas before heading up to bed....

Steve and I slept in Ivan's room on a queen-size air mattress and Ivan slept on his mattress under Alice's loft bed in her room next door.  Christmas morning, it was so fun to her their excited chatter through the walls as they awaited permission to leave their room to go downstairs.  Below are photos of our Christmas morning present-opening experience....

Zeke loved his candy cane shaped rawhide and he loved the Hershey Kiss dog toy that Sally gave to him.

For our Christmas breakfast, Kirsti made stollen, the German holiday bread that Ryan grew up with (his maternal grandmother is 100% German).  She even made a gluten-free loaf!  We ate it with hot chocolate (made with chocolate infused whipped cream stirred into hot milk - so decadent!) and a yummy sweet potato hash with eggs.  Our Christmas "dinner" was simply an assortment of charcuterie boards - savory and sweet - which we ate throughout the day.  YUM!  

 

As mentioned earlier, Sarah drove down for the day and we had a wonderful time with everyone.

After she left for home (to feed her doggies), and the kids were put in bed, we watched Spirited.  I really enjoyed it and the unique take it had on the Ebenezer Scrooge story.  Also during our time at the Merrills, we watched the new animated Grinch several times as well as Muppet Christmas Carol a second time (Alice was allowed to stay up and watch this Saturday night).  And, of course, we watched Scrooge Christmas Eve.  

In the 48 years Steve and I have been married, this was only the second Christmas that we have spent away from our home! (not including our two years on our mission in Phoenix) The first time was in 1991 when we made our epic trip out west to visit my parents in Arizona, to California to go to Disneyland and visit Steve's mom who was serving a mission in Sacramento, to Utah to visit the rest of Steve's family, and then home where baby Kirsti ended up in the hospital in Hayes, Kansas with a fever of unknown origin that caused her to have a seizure as we were driving home!  THAT was an epic trip and probably why we never attempted a Christmas trip for the next thirty two years.

Pre-Christmas Trip Flurry

Steve and I fly to Utah tomorrow morning and we are down to just packing - well, we have a goodie plate that we still need to deliver..... We spent last week trying to fit Christmas making into all the usual - and unusual - weekly activities.  Unusual activities included Steve choosing frames and ordering his very first pair of glasses!  Correction: he did have a pair he got while in the Army but he never wore them.  He won't get them until we get back home.  I promise to take a photo.  Another out of the ordinary activity was my annual mammogram on Monday (it came out clear) and a much needed haircut.  We fed the sister missionaries Wednesday night.  Sally got her teeth cleaned that same day and, since we take her to Open Door for all our vet needs, that means a one hour trip in the morning to drop her off and drive home and another hour in the afternoon to pick her up.  She had some more teeth removed, poor thing.  AND, they accidentally injected a nasal delivery Bordetella dose (rather than spray it up her nose) and that is problematic.  Not only can it cause liver damage but it can cause pain at the injection site so we were sent home with a 20-day dose of medicine to help mitigate the liver problems and some pain meds for her right side where she got the shot.  And, finally, we are switching phone carriers to take advantage of a ridiculously cheap plan for a year.  I got a new phone out of it and, with the low monthly price, I will be able to pay it off in the year with the same price we have currently been paying with our old plan.  So, that process took two trips to the Spectrum store to make that happen.  How I wish all of these activities could have been accomplished in the blink of an eye....

Regular weekly activities were all the elementary strings classes and private lessons although three of the four got caught up in their pre-Christmas flurry and forgot!  Not a problem, though, because it just gave me gifts of time!  We attended our regular temple session Friday afternoon and worked in the temple baptistry Saturday morning.

 My Christmas projects last week were walnut ornaments and aprons for the Southerland kids and three batches of jam to give our wonderful neighbors, the Alarcon's:  a year's worth of blackberry, blueberry, and strawberry jam.  

Our Christmas goodie making was very minimal this year.  We molded cream cheese mints Sunday evening while we talked to daughters.  Steve baked a batch of sugar cookies Monday night while I was working on walnut ornaments and I decorated them Thursday morning.  Steve made fudge on Tuesday (in a pot I inherited from my mother.  It is the perfect size for cooking a batch of fudge and I wonder how many this pot has made in the last 70 years???).  

Our fun pre-Christmas activities were watching One Magic Christmas, Polar Express, the new Miracle on 34th Street and Elf throughout the week - all while doing projects, of course!  Elise drove from Columbia Saturday afternoon and we three enjoyed Historic St. Charles, part 2.  She stayed overnight, attended church with us on Sunday, and joined the Southerlands for a pre-Christmas dinner at our place that afternoon.  She returned to Columbia for three more days of school teaching and the Southerlands came to the Christmas concert our stake put on Sunday evening.  Steve and I both sang in the choir and I had a couple of pieces I had to conduct.  

Steve and Elise waiting for the Southerlands to arrive.....

Beckie couldn't join the family gathering Sunday afternoon but she came over today for lunch leftovers.  She will be staying here at the house with Sally while we are gone.

 

Christmas is coming

Monday, December 4th, we finally got our Christmas tree and put it up.  That might be a Lambson family record for the latest date for doing that.  We bought it at Ted Drewes and got frozen custard afterwards, of course.  My little Christmas tree farm is still a couple of years away from harvesting

Tuesday evening we watched It's A Wonderful Life while I wrapped gifts.  During the day, Steve took Fred to a clinic in the city to get his Covid booster.  In the past, this clinic paid people to get vaccinated for Covid but when Fred asked about that this time, they said they were no longer doing that program.  But, if he wanted to be tested for HIV, he could get a $25 Walmart gift card.  And, so he did.  As well as Steve!  Hey, for a finger prick, who wouldn't turn down a free gift card???  I am happy to report that Steve and Fred are both HIV free.

Wednesday Steve had a dermatology appointment - the office is still closed in Fenton so he had to drive an hour to get to the Wentzville office.  They cut off a bit more of the skin on the back of his neck that had tested cancer positive from the first biopsy.  I had Happy Hookers that morning and I turned in the wheelchair bags, zippered food bags and five knitted hats that I had made in the last two months.  Because of my busier teaching schedule this year, I only attend these meetings every other month.  We didn't have our annual white elephant gift exchange this year for some reason and maybe that was why it was not very well attended?   Steve and I broke away from watching a Christmas movie because I had Prime points that were going to expire so we watched the Barbie movie.  As a young girl who grew up with Barbie, I really enjoyed it.  It was quite funny, in spite of it's political agenda (which was fairly accurate)

Thursday evening, I had a Holly Hills beautification committee meeting and a FaceTime cello lesson in the evening so Steve watched the original Miracle on 34th Street.  

Friday we attended the temple in the afternoon and we watched While You Were Sleeping in the evening.  I am doing Christmas-type projects while watching all of these movies.  My current project are walnut shell ornaments that have several steps.  I will post photos next week when they will be done and ready to give out with goodie plates (hopefully).

Saturday morning, I made a batch of gluten-free old fashioned donuts using my birthday gift - some silicone donut pans.  They turned out very well.  Mid-day, we joined Steven and Tamara in St. Charles.  While I missed having the whole family, it was nice spending time wandering the shops with Steven and Tamara.  That evening, it was our ward Christmas dinner.  The food was great - there was a lovely gluten-free dedicated table - and it was very well organized.   Because we were in St. Charles during our nap time, we didn't get one and I was so weary by bedtime.

Sunday was another full day - Steve and I both gave talks in Sacrament meeting and the ward choir sang Still, Still, Still.  We had our big meal as soon as we got home at 12:30 because Noah's Sheldon All Star Choir concert was at 3:00.  He had a small solo and did so well.  The concert featured music from Christmas movies - so delightful!

Here we are at the post concert reception....

After Noah's concert, which was downtown, Steve and I had our stake choir rehearsal at 4:30 clear down in South County and then we high-tailed it to Ballwin to catch Emily's choir concert at 6:00.  It was also a very lovely concert.

I will close with a photo of the front of our house all decked out for Christmas.  The window wreaths and candles are new this year.  And, a photo of Alex at a shooting range using the weighted denim bags I sewed up for him when we visited after Thanksgiving.  He reports that they worked perfectly.