December Came and Went

Aahh, my blog...oh how I have missed you! My time at Target has come to an end, and can I just get an Hallelujah from the blog world! Glad I had the opportunity there, as it paid for Christmas and we could continue with our house projects, but I am ready to get back to my regular life at home with the family and back to solely writing for the newspaper instead of trying to juggle two jobs at the same time. Heaven!!

So, you are probably wondering what in the world we have been up to. 

Here's the recap.

On Christmas morning, we woke up to a white winter wonderland...finally. Our first really good snow of the season.

 

We spent the morning opening gifts, then the younger two girls headed out to hit the white stuff. 

I happened to look out the window and saw Megan doing this while it was snowing:

Christmas Day was so much fun spending time as a family and relaxing. 

Kim and Alicia, who are die-hard Dr. Who fans, were thrilled to get a Tardis Lego-like kit from the show - John worked his wonders and found it for them.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the gifts the girls make for each other. We started this a few years ago where they are allotted $5 in supplies and make something for the sister they are in charge of. They spend weeks planning and working on their item, and it's usually the first gift they want to open Christmas morning...LOVE it!!

This year Kim sewed some barbie clothes for Megan, Alicia wrote a Dr. Who story for Kim, Megan decorated the frame surrounding this picture for Natalie and wrote 'I love my sister.'



and Natalie (with Kim's help) sewed this lipstick body pillow for Alicia:

We attended the annual Rimington Family Christmas party where we enjoyed crafts, yummy food, and sharing of gifts. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this guy? 

...and of course I love that gal too. She is growing up too fast. 

The girls and I went to the Festival of Trees while John was on a business trip in Orlando.

While he was there, he went out to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launching of the new Orion spacecraft. He was mere miles from the launch pad, but sadly, as they were preparing for launch, several things went wrong, so all of the spectators left disappointed. The launch happened the next day while John was on the plane back to Utah. 

However, John brought home some paper rockets the girls put together with him while I put up the Christmas tree lights. 

Kimberly and Alicia's parakeets added their chirps of approval during the project. 

I think I have completely failed to do a blog posting of their birds. 

They saved up their money and bought all of the supplies, got the cage put together, then purchased their birds. They have been a fun addition to the family. 

After Christmas, my Meldrum cousins and Uncle Bob stopped by for a visit. 

It was so much fun being with them again. 

In other news for the month, I was assigned a story covering an event down at the capital where the Governor was learning how to code with several students. 

I had no idea it was going to be held in the Gold Room and a gazillion other media hounds were covering the event too. 

Nonetheless, it was a really cool experience as I've never visited with the governor of Utah before, or any other state governor for that matter. I happened to snap this shot before.

Okay, back in November I helped out at the Thanksgiving Feast for Natalie's class:

Now that it is colder, the deer like to visit my neighbors' yard. I love watching them. 

You probably can't see them in the picture, but there are three deer back there. 

Back into December, I got to play this:

My friend and I have been playing Christmas piano/organ duets for the last eight years.

It is absolutely beautiful. I wish we had recorded it for your viewing pleasure, but alas, I didn't even think about that. 

On New Year's Eve we got together with our dear friends, the Oylers, who introduced us to a new game, Seven Wonders. We will definitely be picking up that game because it was so much fun. 

And lastly, we have discovered that Natalie is really, really flexible. 

She did not get that from my side of the family.