Highlights of December 2016

Once we got back from our cruise we were already into the Christmas season without being ready. We started decorating the house for Christmas, which meant finding our Christmas decorations. We gave away our tree so for the first time in years we went shopping for a Christmas tree.

The week after we returned was finals week at the university. I had a review session with the class on Monday, the first day of finals, made up the final during the week, and gave the final on Friday. I spent most of Friday and Saturday grading the final and turned in the grades at the beginning of the next week. This ended my teaching career (unless they ask me to teach some time in the future).

Meanwhile, we had the upstairs painted: the master bedroom before Christmas and the other three rooms between Christmas and New Years. We also did a lot of other work, like replacing toilets and lights. This seems to be a never-ending process.

We did have time for several Christmas celebrations. We were invited to the ECE Christmas dinner at the Bluebird. We walked around Logan in the cold looking at gingerbread houses in the stores. We attended the Celebration of Christ at our stake center. This is a multi-faith activity. It starts with hundreds of nativity scenes scattered around the meetinghouse.

From Spain

Miniature

From Africa

There were also musical performances from many of the churches in Logan. It is nice to celebrate Christmas together. I helped the event planner with setting up the sound system for the performances. It included a performance from our neighborhood orchestra. Andrea, Alyssa, Kohler, and Lauren would have been part of this performance if they hadn't moved to Indiana.

Neighborhood orchestra performs

The event included a live nativity outside with several primary children playing the parts of Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Angels, and Wise Men.

Live nativity

They even had animals, such as sheep, and yes, even a camel.

The camel

Our Christmas celebration was very simple. On Christmas Eve our friends Rehan, Suat, and their daughter Jaren came to visit. We were able to tell them about how we celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Day, Sunday, we had a nice Sacrament Meeting with the choir and speakers. We actually got up late and didn't even open presents until after noon. 

We did get out of the valley for at least a day. The daughter of Brent and Lisa Robinson was married and had a reception in Salt Lake. Brent was my counselor in the married student ward. It is hard to believe they have a daughter old enough to get married. It gave us a chance to stop in Layton and at the Container Store in Salt Lake (Diane's favorite) before the reception at Trolly Square.

The new year is upon us so we cleaned out the attics (both are now completely empty) so we can find what we have and decide what to do with it. We have accumulated a lot of things in the past 34 years we have lived in Logan.