Merry Christmas Wishes 2012

My Favorite Version of Jingle Bells

Christmas music is the best!  I love it in all it's varieties.  I have loved singing Christmas songs and carols with my family, school choirs and church choirs.  I have enjoyed putting together Christmas programs and choosing Christmas music for my ward choir when I was the director.  I even "transcribed" a piece of music that we could not find the music for anywhere.  It was an arduous task of listening to the music bit by bit and writing down the notes that I heard for all four parts.  When I was able to actually sing that piece of music with my sisters, it was my favorite Christmas moment of all.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "Jingle Bells."  There are so many versions of Jingle Bells, once I put together my own mix (on cassette tape) of about 10 different tracks of just Jingle Bells.  My favorite version was one by Bing and his son Gary Crosby from my LP (that's a long playing vinyl record) "Happy Holidays with Frank and Bing," called "Jingle Bells in Swing."  Check it out!

Thanksgiving 2012

I love Thanksgiving!  Sometimes I think I love it better than Christmas, that is until Christmas comes.  I love the chance to get together with some of the family who I don't get to see too much throughout the year.  It's a chance to catch up, to laugh, to play, to eat of course, and to reminisce.

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with Anthony's family.  They set a beautiful table, and the food was great. This year Anthony made rolls and stuffing, the rolls turned out pretty good (I don't care that much for stuffing).  Most of the evening was spent playing with babies and looking through ads for black Friday.  The babies got their first taste of solids with mashed sweet potatoes.  Anthony likes to say he was the first to feed Willow - and he fed her with a fork!

 Then on Saturday we got together with my family.  We had a great time eating and playing games and watching old family movies of the Throckmorton Family Christmas parties from 1968-197?

I am so thankful for my family!

Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween, Melissa was in middle school so I didn't think I had to worry about costumes any more.  Wrong!  Jeremy reminded me that they still wear costumes to school all through high school, so we had to come up with a costume for Melissa.  Well, we thought and we fretted and came up with nothing until the night before Halloween.  Finally she agreed to a Hawaiian shirt, lei and straw hat - normal clothes yet still a costume of sorts.

Jeremy (no longer in school, so a costume was not entirely necessary) found his costume idea and couldn't resist making his own costumer this year.  And I still have to come up with costumes for myself every year because Herriman City employees do that (besides, I get a $10 gift card if I dress up to entertain the residents).  I have come up with a new costume every year for six years now, so I figured I could start to recycle and wore the witch outfit mom made me many years ago.

Labor Day Fun

Thanks to Jen for planning a get-together for the McFarlane girls and families.  We had fun with those who could come and missed those who could not.  Here are some snapshots from the day.

(Anthony was there too for a while, unfortunately I didn't get a picture before he had to leave for a show.)

Obama's Promises vs Reality

I kept hearing about the promises Obama made during his first campaign and what he has done since then, that I just had to make this picture of Obama's promises vs. reality.  I don't know if it will matter, but I did it anyway. I don't understand why anyone would vote for him again.  I hope America will get rid of Obama.

Lagoon Again!

Our company summer party this year was at Lagoon, to the children's delight.  This year Melissa was much more brave.  We had already gone to Lagoon on my birthday in June, and she had tried a few new rides and had a lot of fun.  So this time she tried even more rides.

She rode the Rocket, the Jet Star, the Air Race, even the Samurai!!!  But she just couldn't bring herself to ride the Colossus.

We were also able to get half price tickets for any family members who wanted to come.  Some of Anthony's sisters and their kids were able to come and have fun with us.  Jeremy and Melissa were delighted to have cousins to ride with.

(Melissa and two of her aunts.)

We even had a couple of extra tickets to dinner that Jessica and Nate couldn't use, so two of the cousins were able to eat with us.

It wasn't very crowded, so we were able to take some time and go over to Pioneer Village and walk around.  Melissa had never seen any of it.  She was not very impressed, but I was amazed at the things they had on display.  I had a very nice time there.  Her favorite thing was getting ice cream.

Jeremy's 18th Birthday!

Jeremy recently had his 18th birthday.  So I am now the mother of two adults!  We celebrated with a dinner out - he wanted to go to the Chinese Buffet.

They brought him his own little birthday cake and decorated the plate all cute.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!  Welcome to adulthood.

4th of July 2012

We celebrated the 4th of July with our usual tradition of taking a picnic dinner to the Sandy City promenade. Rose and her family met with us to share in the celebration.

We watched the parade - we managed to get some bleacher seats which after a while were fairly shady.  The weather was warm, but there was a light breeze which made the evening very enjoyable.

We enjoyed our dinner and played some games and listed to the concert and basically hung out until the fireworks.

Happy Birthday America!

New Calling

Anthony hasn't been Sunday School President in our ward for very long and I have been in the Young Women's for even less time, yet last week we were asked to meet with a member of the Stake Presidency. Anthony was sure we were there because I was getting a new calling, and I was convinced we were there for something for him.

It turns out that I was right - Anthony was called to be the First Assistant to the High Priest Group Leader which meant he was also being advanced in the priesthood to a High Priest.

He was ordained today, and was pleased that his father was able to come and be the one to ordain him a High Priest. He was then set apart by a member of the Stake Presidency and given a beautiful blessing. It was a very special day.

Melissa's First Trip to the Temple

Melissa turned 12 in April and thus became eligible to enter Young Women and to go to the Temple.  Her first opportunity to do baptisms for the dead came this week when our Young Women's group went for our Tuesday activity.

We went to the Jordan River Temple.  When she was finished, I asked her how she felt.  She said, "When can we do it again?"

We only had two other girls come to do baptisms, but it was the first time for one of those girls too.  It was a special day for all of us.

I'm glad she has a desire to go back to the temple.  What a blessing to be able to go with her for her first time and watch see her doing baptisms in the temple.

Birthday at Lagoon

There was a drawing at work for a free family pass to Lagoon which was good for one of only three days - one of which happened to be my birthday.  I thought how lucky it would be if my name were drawn, then I could take my family to Lagoon for my birthday!  And lucky for me, my name was drawn!

I took the day off work, and Jessica was able to come after she got off work around 1 pm.  We packed a picnic dinner and went to Lagoon on Wednesday - my birthday.  The weather had turned cold and rainy on Monday, but it was supposed to be nicer on Wednesday and around 65°.  I decided to bring a jacket just in case it wasn't quite that warm and for after the sun went down.  The rest of my family wasn't so smart - they wore shorts and t-shirts and refused to bring jackets because "they would be a pain to carry around."  By the end of the day they were a bit chilly.

Well it was a little cooler but lovely weather - around 60° and no rain.  There were also hardly any people there in the middle of  the week.  We were able to enjoy all the good rides with hardly a wait.  Other rides we walked right on.  The longest wait was for the Rocket which all my kids rode, Jeremy went 3 times!

We even rode some of the rides we usually don't have time for, like the merry-go-round and a mini-version of the Tidal Wave called the Kontiki.  We even rode the train - my kids had no idea there was a little zoo at Lagoon.  It was so much fun!

Here are some more of our fun memories.

 

There was a new ride this year called "Air Race" which Jeremy was the only one brave enough to try.  It swung the plane full of people around (upside down) while the whole ride went around.  Too much for me!

 We ate our little picnic dinner at one of the many covered tables provided around the park.

Melissa's favorite ride turned out to be the old wooden roller coaster.  She rode it 4 times!  She got Jeremy and her Dad to go with her (I prefer the Colossus).

Jeremy's favorite ride was the Samurai.

Anthony's favorite ride was definitely NOT the Wicked.  On the corkscrew part his phone dropped out of his pocket!  He had to go to security who found it for him.  They said they have bark chips under there because people lose stuff all the time.  It was shaken up, the sim card was loose, but when he put it back together it was okay!

Jessica took a bunch of pictures with her cell phone too.  Thanks Jessica, these are awesome!

It was wonderful to have my whole family together, not arguing, having a fun time.  What a great birthday!