Aaron, my not so little littlest brother, got called to the Manchester, England Mission. He started the MTC December 16th at home due to Covid, then heads to somewhere in January. Also because of Covid, his endowment in the Temple had to be extra planned. He could only have 15 people attend the Temple with him. We were blessed enough to be part of that 15, along with Tina, Brant, Jason, Chelsea, Kayla, Sheryl, and of course my mom and dad.
We also had fun hiking, eating, ice blocking, gift exchanging, playing, and talent showing that weekend.
Avenly started piano lessons in the Spring when school shut down. We didn't do much with piano then, but once homeschool began in August, we did regular lessons. She worked really hard to play the piano for her talent.
It's safe to say, Uncle Aaron got lots of uncle time in, and his nieces and nephews never left his side. He will be greatly missed by all those kiddoes (and us), but he is also a great example to all of them. We are proud of him for making the decision to go on a mission and teach about Jesus Christ.
Before anyone left after the fun filled weekend, we all attended church to listen to Aaron speak. He did a great job on his talk, even with his mask hanging down from one ear. It was great!
My parents gave everyone their Christmas gifts at the party. My mom made cute aprons for all the grandkids and gave them mixing spoons and mixing sets. My two oldest could not wait to use their aprons, and they made their cookies that Sunday night after we got home.
Zaylee did not make her dessert that night. Zaylee thought she had a broken leg. She hurt in on the tramp at my parent's house literally minutes before we left. She cradled it the whole way home and into the next day randomly crying because it hurt. I took her to the doctor, and she got an x-ray. Turns out it wasn't broken- probably just bruised. She was definitely a drama queen about it, though.
Between the Bosen family fun and Thanksgiving week, we put our Christmas tree us and Christmas lights up outside. We wanted it all ready when we came home from Utah after Thanksgiving.
I just wanted to share this picture because Zaylee and Trex are becoming the best little friends. They sure love each other.
Thanksgiving
This year for Thanksgiving we went to Molly's house. It was the whole lot of Molly's kids and families. I did not do a thing for Thanksgiving except show up. Molly, Sadie, and Laura fixed a delicious dinner, and it was fun to hang out with everyone. My little nephew, Calvin, is about 7 months younger than Trex. He is a momma's boy, but there was a moment on Thanksgiving Day when he wanted me to hold him. Victory moment! ha ha- Then my Tiny-T got jealous, so the moment didn't last long.
The day after Thanksgiving we visited Grandma and Grandpa Mayo with masks on, of course. It was, and always is, a wonderful time talking to them. They gave us our Christmas presents (matching, family, Christmas socks). Grandpa Mayo also gave the kids little books with pictures he made of his time serving in the Navy because the kids wrote him letters for home school for Veteran's Day. Payson had lots of questions for him, and he really loved learning about Grandpa Mayo's time on the submarine.
We spent the remainder of our short trip at Steve's cabin in Timberlakes. We spent time with Josh's siblings (minus Spencer who was working) some more, as well as, Steve and Deana. The kids loved playing in the snow, and I even enjoyed a hike around in the winter wonderland.
Christmas/December
Every year I try to come up with a activities that somewhat have to do with a Christmas books that we read every day. This year, since I am homeschooling, I made themed days for homeschool. We still read a Christmas book everyday, but instead of just doing one activity, we did a whole homeschool day of activities that had to do with the theme. Some of the themes were Grinch Day, Santa Day, and Polar Express Day. It was a lot of planning on my part, but it was a lot of fun. One of our favorite activities was "Elf Yourself" for Elf Day. I gave the family their Christmas Eve jammies early, so we could take pictures and make the video. (For the record, I wrapped the same jammies for Christmas Eve, so they still had a Christmas Eve present).
We had a unique ward party because of Covid, but I think it was one of the best. We made Gingerbread houses at our own family tables 6 feet apart. The bishopric passed around hot-chocolate and donuts. Pay and I made a mailbox to the Northpole for kids to write letters to Santa. I took a picture, but I think I accidently deleted it. It was a cool mailbox, though! Our house was cool, but as Pay was carrying it to the car, it kind of fell apart and broke all over the parking lot. Oops!
My parents and Elder Bosen came the weekend before Christmas, so my mom could help me with musical numbers for church. We did our annual gingerbread (graham cracker) houses and had a nice dinner on Sunday after church. I made a pavlova wreath that was delicious. (I used monk fruit instead of sugar, and it was still quite sweet).
Steve and Deana came for Christmas. Avenly woke me up at 2 am, 3 am, and finally 6:30 am. Silly Girl! I feel like the morning went by way too fast, but that gave us time to go to the park and take a hike up Exploration Peak. It was a beautiful sunny day on Christmas. I had a lot of fun making Christmas dinner. It was a nice day.
New Year's Eve
The final fun for the year ended nice and late on New Year's Eve. This time Molly came to visit. New Year's Eve day was a fun filled day with Rubio's date (with Trex, who got woken up right before we left), park, church gym, movie, good food, games, and party supplies. The two oldest stayed up until 11:30 because we were having so much fun. Thankfully, they slept in the next morning. We could hear fireworks for awhile after midnight.
Just a small note on 2020- It has been a weird year with Covid and all the other CRAZY stuff that has gone on. I am not completely convinced it was the worst year, though. We grew a lot as a family. Our testimonies were strengthened as we had to dedicate ourselves to having church at home every week for awhile. I hope 2021 will be better for the world, but I know 2020 will be a year no-one forgets. It will be a year to remember for better or worse.
PS- I have a feeling 2021 will have some big changes for our family!
