Santa and Ward Party

Monday night we went to Mariah's house to celebrate Maverick's first birthday. They had delicious homemade ice cream and cake. Maverick covered himself in frosting and was super cute. He is such a chill baby, I feel a bit jealous. Also that night, Jessie and Penny did each other's make up. 

Tuesday night we did our typical visit to the library while the boys were at archery. There were some fun photo props so the girls had to get pictures. The West Acres Library is always quiet so it is a nice escape. Ruby just likes to climb up on all the tables and that can sometimes be frustrating.

Wednesday I was suppose to start our new Elf tradition but totally forgot- not a great start. So I did it while the girls were at school. We are not doing elf on the shelf but our elf- starfire- is traveling to see Jesus and has various scripture inspiring stops each day. For example the first day she was following the star (and she had a starburst trail) and on another day she was cold and was wrapped in a swaddling new blanket for the kids. It's not too much work, the kids seem to like it and it helps them think of the true meaning of Christmas, if only for a minute.

Penny had her showcase for theater and choir on Wednesday. Mariah and her kids came to watch her little play which was nice. It was about a small town that had an internet outage. Penny was a teenager and one of her parts involved her treating a librarian like Google search. It was silly and she did good. Then a couple hours later I had to come back for her choir concert. Tyler was able to come to this. They sung "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" "Onomonopia" "Somewhere in my Memory" and some African song. They did really well and her friend Luna was there and gave her flowers. They were hot pink and you could tell it made her feel special. Annoyingly they sill had another hour of school so dad had to get back home from work and then I had to drive out their again to pick up the girls. At least Ruby slept for most of the drive back home and then there again. 

Wednesday night Lucy had her last official volleyball game. Mariah's whole family came to watch. Lucy and her team won yet again. They really rocked this season. Tyler kept score so I had the task of wrangling Ruby. At one point another toddler that was there took Ruby's hand and tried to pull her around. Ruby was not a fan and made sure to hide from that girl for the rest of the night.  

Friday I picked up groceries early in the morning to try and avoid the Christmas shopping chaos. It sort of worked, I only had to wait 20 minutes...It seems the workers that load the groceries don't start their shift until my pick up time so it took them a bit to get started. That afternoon Mariah was going to come over while Jeff had a Zoom Interview- she didn't want the kids to be noisy and distract him. However, her normal late self did not get here until his interview was over- they had stopped at Costco first- and me and the kids had to leave shortly after she arrived because we had plans to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop. It felt weird and awkward. She ended up staying after we left- Tyler was home working in the basement. Tyler family's and their lack of time management skills can be super annoying. Also annoying was Lucy and Penny squabbling over dumb things most of the drive to the Bass Pro Shop. Steven did not end up coming with us, even though he was suprisingly willing, just because he was worried it might make him late to work. The Santa visit itself went smoothly- only 2 families in front of us. The kids told Santa what they wanted and talked about their favorite cookies. The older kids were slightly awkward about it but they were good sports for Ruby.

After we saw Santa we strolled Bass Pro Shop for a bit and then we went to the Lego Store, I needed a few things. Then I took the girls to Claire's while Ben watched Ruby at the play place there. There were some fun Christmas earrings there that I wanted to get for both me and Lucy but I resisted the temptation because my budget is spent.

That evening, Steven had requested that Ruby come visit him at work so Tyler, Ruby and me went and had Jersey Mike's for dinner. There was this cute girl there that he did not speak to (and apparently he doesn't know her name) who looked like she was intrigued by our presence. I really enjoyed seeing him at work and teasing him and Ruby kept reaching to him and saying "bro!" it was cute. I took a stalker shot of Ruby watching him and I think I weirded out another customer who saw me take the picture.

Saturday we had the church Christmas party in the evening. Lucy brought her friend Claire along and Cherish and her girls met us there as well. The food was just pasta, salad and breadsticks bought from somewhere but I like that they didn't burden anyone with making all the food. Then they had the ward bring various desserts and that was the best part, so many good treats. After the food there was a very short program which I thought was perfect- a Christmas story was read, the primary sang a song, they played a video of various members talking about Jesus and the then they had a few woman sing a song. I think it was a nice night.