December

Mountain Goat Joseph

Our friends invited Joseph and Dan to join them in rock climbing at a local climbing gym. This was Joseph's first time, and it turns out he is a natural! 

Sharing Warmth

On December 10th we attended the 9th annual blanket-tying party at the Bennetts. We have loved being involved every year, and it's always a great experience to visit with friends while preparing blankets for local charities. I was so busy that I never took pictures of Aubrey, but she was there too!

Guy's Weekend

Dan and Kara's husband Dave have a special bond, and finally got together to hang out for a weekend in mid-December. Dan visited some facilities for work in Boise, Nampa, and Idaho Falls, and then he and Dave did everything they love to do over the weekend. They watched movies, went bowling, went to a shooting range, ate good food, went swimming and worked out, and watched sports.

On to Utah to see Bailey and Porters

One of the top things on Bailey's Christmas list was a visit from her Dad. So Dan drove from Idaho Falls to Provo and spent several days hanging out with his favorite oldest daughter.  They said Aida at Hale Center Theater, ate at great restaurants, and attended Megan Porter's wedding. There they visited with Grandma and Grandpa Porter, Dave and Mimi, Julie, and Shellee.

Brooke and Carlos were getting married 3 days later! Unfortunately, Dan and Bailey had to fly home before their wedding. 

While out of town for 10 days, Dan facetimed most mornings to join in on our family scripture reading. He got pretty goofy while facetiming, so we took screenshots!

Happy Baptism Day

All our family attended the baptism of Aubrey's friend Jennifer. We were excited for her! Afterward Dan took these pictures of me and Joseph.

Books and Babies

I love my two bookclubs (one in the daytime and one at night). December's bookclub was a dinner at Bennett's house. I got to hold a cute baby for most of the night!

Goodies to Share

The second week of December I baked up a storm so I could make treat plates to share with friends, neighbors, and people I work with in Primary. It was a flurry of sugar, butter, and flour, and I made a huge mess. But I really like holiday baking, especially while watching a Hallmark Christmas movie. Highlights this year were the chocolate marshmallow cookies (always a hit), cinnamon spiced almonds and pecans, white chocolate dipped ginger cookies, and peppermint Rice Krispies with white and dark chocolate. I also made chocolate cookies topped with salted caramel, but they weren't quite as good as the other treats on the plate.

Cozy

And, finally, other than under the Christmas tree, my favorite place to hang out and read Christmas books is next to the fire (while sipping my favorite herbal tea). Heaven.

Remembering Grandma

My Grandma Palmer passed away on November 22, 2017, the day before Thanksgiving.  Her passing was expected as her health had been declining rapidly this last year. 

I knew Grandma very well throughout my youth and saw her quite a bit until we moved to Utah when I was 15. We frequently went to their house on Sunday nights and holidays to visit with her and Grandpa John. I spent the night at her house sometimes, especially when my cousin Tonnis was in town. 

Some things I remember about Grandma:

• She loved to take baths at night and put on her robe and slippers as soon as it was dark (or sometimes even before dark!)
• She had beautiful white hair and a clear complexion. 
• I loved traveling with her to see my cousin Tonnis. When I was 10 I flew on an airplane for the first time to Washington, D.C. When I was 15 we visited them in Kentucky.
• She was a collector and had an impressive collection of owl-themed objects around her house. On Sundays when we visited, my siblings and I would entertain ourselves by counting them (Maybe this is hyperbole caused by the passing of many years, but I think I remember close to 150 owl items). Grandma was always a little annoyed with our owl counting activities and hearing the final tally. She also collected jewelry and had many pretty rings, etc.
• She had exemplary handwriting. Once a teacher, always a teacher! 
• She fed me peaches from Grandpa's garden with cream and sugar and it tasted like heaven.
• She was very interested in my education and goals.
• She like to read the Reader's Digest.
• Every time she talked about how she had to put her mother (Grandma Bailey) into a nursing home due to her dementia, she cried.
• She and I wore the same shoe size by the time I was in middle school and both had incredibly narrow feet. She very kindly gave me her old shoes over the years which were pretty unstylish for a middle schooler to wear. But I was too much of a people pleaser to refuse them.
• As I grew into a tall beanpole, she reminded me frequently to stand up straight. If we were walking together and I was slumping, she would 'lovingly' karate chop me between my shoulder blades to remind me.
• In the morning she always watched The Price is Right and Donahue. At night she and Grandpa would sit in their chairs and watch TV or movies.
• When I was 12 I developed pneumonia over the summer and Grandma took care of me for several weeks (maybe a month?) at her home. I remember sleeping most of the day on her couch and then going to her guest room at night to sleep some more. Whenever I woke up, she gave me my antibiotics, which she called "horse pills" because they were so large, and tried to get me to eat chicken noodle soup.
• She did lots of beautiful hand needlework. I have one of the framed needlwork pieces she made with me in mind - a girl sitting at a piano.
• As she got older and my own family and I visited, her personality and demeanor had really softened and she was very emotional and teary. 
• In the last 11 years that we have lived in Washington, I've visited a number of times to interview/video Grandma and spend time with her and my other relatives. I'm so glad I had those opportunities. One of my favorite memories of Grandma is from when I visited for her birthday almost 2 years ago. We spent time visiting at her home and she showed me all the items she had collected over the years. Then we went shopping at Ross to find her some new white capri pants. We had so much fun and giggled like silly schoolgirls when the only pants we could find had sparkly rhinestones on the rear. The thought of her wearing those pants around the assisted living home was just too much and we laughed so much that we had to find a place to sit down. After we recovered, we went to lunch at her "favorite lunch place" - Pizza Hut. And she got herself a size large meat lover's pizza and ate half of it! It was awesome. That night we met up with my Aunt Lora and Uncle Brent for dinner at the new restaurant in town (Carls Jr.). It makes me really sad inside to realize that both Aunt Lora and Grandma have passed away since that time. 

As Grandma's health declined quickly, my parents and sisters made plans to go to Washington to see her immediately after Thanksgiving, but she didn't make it that long. But, my parents were able to get there shortly after and greatly helped with the arrangements and cleaning out Grandma's home at the assisted living center. 

As soon as our family left out of town after Thanksgiving, I prepared to drive to Moses Lake for her graveside service on Tuesday, November 28th. It was truly wonderful to see my immediate and extended family and so many people I knew from my childhood in Moses Lake. I am so grateful for each of these people, and I have to say that I really enjoyed seeing every one of my relatives. They are a diverse and delightful bunch and I would like to find more opportunities to gather with my cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. And, of course, any day I can hang out with my parents and siblings is a fantastic day!

Dad did a great job conducting the graveside service and Uncle Craig read the life sketch. It was quite cold outside but the forecasted rain held off until just after we left the cemetery. 

Afterward, we all gathered at Michael's the one nice restaurant in town, for a luncheon. 

 Below, Uncle Brent (Grandma's brother), Aunt Holly, Uncle Craig, Mom, Uncle Nyle (Grandma's brother)

Grandma was a complicated person. She had some really great qualities and some not so good qualities. She wasn't terribly warm or nurturing, but I think she improved a little as she got older. She exemplified many admirable things, including striving for education and working to preserve friendships. She was blessed with four amazing kids, all very close together. I'm not sure I will ever entirely understand the enigma which is my Grandma, but I'm grateful for the good memories I have. 

I took some pictures of a poster Aunt Holly had created for Grandma's birthday with photos of her life.  I really want to get digital copies of the scanned pictures.  

This is Grandma and her 3 best friends, who remained her friends throughout her life. I think she is the one on the left. ?

 Grandma in the dress which her mother made for her. The same dress has been passed on now to 3 generations, and photos have been taken of most of the girls in the family in the same dress.

 Grandma Palmer and Grandma Bailey, probably on Mother's Day.

 Grandma and her brothers. If I'm not mistaken, I think they are standing in front of the home my family built in Moses Lake.

I think this from when she was a teacher. I love the cat eye glasses!

I love this picture of Great-Grandma and Grandpa Bailey with their 3 children.

 I think we decided this is Grandma with Grandma Bailey and Grandma Hall? I'll have to double check that. 

 This is one of my favorites. Grandma with her two babies, only 11 months apart. Craig and my mother.

 I think Brent said this is Grandma Infanger holding my mom?

 Grandma graduating. From college? I'm not sure.

 Grandma and her siblings and cousins.

 This is how I remember Grandma Palmer and Grandma Bailey (who by this point had Alzheimers)

 I love this! Doyne and Maurine - 1943

 I'm assuming this is Grandma and Nyle.

November

Missionary Aubrey

Aubrey has had a great experience over the past months to be involved in missionary lessons with an investigator who is 18 years old. They found they have many thing in common, including theater, and she has really enjoyed the chance to be involved in the teaching and mentoring process. The missionaries here are currently able to use their regular facebook accounts to contact investigators, so the two missionaries and Aubrey an the investigator facebook messaged almost daily to check in on things and talk about their scripture reading. It was a cool use of technology!

In these pictures, Aubrey and her friend had played the role of the "sister missionaries" (complete with post-it name tags) and had taught the Elders a discussion. And then they did a taste test of two batches of chocolate chip cookies we had made after church (one was the recipe I have used forever which I love and the other a new recipe which Aubrey likes better.)

Flight

Aubrey participated in the VSAA play mid-December. It was an original production which involved multiple art forms based on Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex on Flight. It was very unique and fun! Aubrey was involved in creating some of the scenes and had multiple roles including one of the narrators.

Every night during the 2 week tech week, parents brought in dinner for the participants. On the first day of the show, Emma's mom coordinated a fancy Italian meal complete with cannoli, fancy tablecloths, fancy folded napkins, and sparkling cider!  Aubrey enjoyed doing the play with two of her good friends, Emma and Maria.

Afterward we took pictures. Seth and Becky saw the play one night and the rest of the family saw it another night (including Brandon, but not Angela, who attended her grandpa's funeral before flying to our house for Thanksgiving).

It's tradition that Joseph always gives Aubrey flowers after her show.

Thanksgiving week

 It was so much fun to have everyone home. We did our best to party every day and enjoy talking and being together. Every morning we gathered for scriptures while we had breakfast. It was so fun to have the older kids join in the discussions!

 One day we did an escape room (except for Angela, who had to take a final online during that time). And we rocked it and got out of the room under the hour time limit!
We started a new tradition and celebrated "Pie Day" on the day before Thanksgiving. We loved it - this spread out some of the work of preparing the meal and allowed us to really enjoy the pies before we indulged in a decadent meal the next day. This year we bought a pumpkin pie and made an apple pie and a chocolate pecan pie.

We divvied up the assignments for food prep for Thanksgiving. Angela made the pie and the mashed potatoes (two types, including one which was spicy and deliciously gourmet, which really pleased my savory-seeking senses). Aubrey made the rolls with me. Bailey and I made the apple crumb pie (we decided AGAIN that pie crust making is a lot of trouble without stellar results). Brandon made the stuffing. I made the cranberry relish, sweet potatoes, salad, etc. Dan peeled the potatoes and helped with random things on Thanksgiving, including cooking the turkey breast. By the way, we discovered something amazing. Our family tends to be more into ham than turkey, so it's a lot of work to make a big turkey, so this year we got a turkey breast from Costco and followed a recipe for cooking it in a crockpot. And everyone agreed that it was the most flavorful, tender turkey ever! And so, so easy. And, we bought a half ham and that was plenty. 

 Joseph was not very happy about the rolls being placed near him.

 We took pictures after dinner with my phone camera, which had gotten really cloudy and indistinct. Thank goodness I got a new phone with a better camera for Christmas! 

Family Day in the Temple

We had the most amazing experience the day after Thanksgiving. Bailey went through the temple to take out her endowments for the first time. While Brandon, Angela, Brandon, and I were with her, Aubrey and Joseph did family names downstairs in the baptistry. Afterward we met up and then went out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. It was a wonderful day celebrating an amazing girl who does everything possible to align her life with the Lord's will.

Then, we drove home and decorated the Christmas tree and officially kicked off Christmas. Dan and I had envisioned us really doing the entire Christmas Eve thing that night, since Brandon and Angela wouldn't  be here with us for Christmas (reading a story by the tree, watching a Christmas movie, having a sleepover in the bonus room), but no one was too enthused about diving headlong into Christmas Eve already, so we compromised by watching "It's a Wonderful Life" together. In the morning, Santa had visited and brought each kid some candy, a family Hulu membership, and some cash with which to go clothes shopping. Lucky kids . . . Santa visited them twice this year! 

Joseph opening the letter and money in his stocking the next morning.

A beautiful welcome to the season

Saturday we dropped off all our adult kids at the airport to return to their homes in Utah and California. We were so sad to see them go! Aubrey was already in downtown Portland,  helping to video the wonderful Portland Choir and Orchestra Christmas concert that our friend Brad Goodwin produces each year in the Newmark Theater.  After the matinee show we drove through the pouring rain to join her for lunch at Pieology Pizza, and then Joseph helped tech the evening show and Dan and I bought tickets to watch the inspiring concert.

College App Completed!

Right around this time Aubrey completed the first of her college applications, to BYU Provo! Finishing all the requirements for the apps has been arduous, but Aubrey would secretly tell you that she has kind of enjoyed the process! In the next few month she finished applications to Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and University of Chicago. 

And that closed out most of November. We were exhausted but happy!