There is always light at the end of the tunnel and thankfully the same was true with 2020. As we come to a close of this tumultuous year, how nice it is that no matter how good or bad a year is, it ends with our Savior and an opportunity to reflect on his life, his example and our own. There were many disappointing things about 2020 but there were also many gifts. We kicked off the year with a visit from friends, then as a family we traveled to the Exumas for Spring break and had a fabulous time. We then followed that up with six weeks of us all being locked down together in our home as the country was doing it's best to try to control Covid. There are far worse ways to spend six weeks than jet skiing in your backyard with your family. In addition, we finally got around to hiring a builder to install an outdoor kitchen for us which I was really excited about, just in time for Gary and Kelly and the boys to come enjoy some outdoor cooking with us as they looked to escape their lockdown in Utah. We moved forward with our annual summer trip to Utah in July, and even returned home as land owners after finally finding a couple lots in Heber that we will look forward to building our dream home on soon. I had the opportunity to return to Utah to drop the boys off at BYU in August, and in Sept Jack and I spent my big 50th birthday enjoying the Florida Keys and Miami beach. Then in October I returned to Utah to spend time with all three of my boys while hoping to get things moving on our house! Needless to say, as Christmas drew closer, I was so excited to end the year the same way as we spent a good portion of it...together. I tried not to let the gloom of Covid negatively impact our holidays which it didn't! Thanks to a bishopric member, I was able to continue the tradition of photos with Santa and thanks to Amazon Prime, we had gifts under our tree. Grandma Roddy made the journey to join us and everyone had a lovely time. The only thing that could have been better was the weather... 60 degrees is chilly but I guess we need a couple cooler days to give us reason to dust off our sweaters.
Once again Christmas was nearing and no thought had been put into a Christmas card photo. Thankfully when Ty's girlfriend was visiting I asked her to snap a couple quick photos. Poor Nova probably wasn't happy about us choosing the one on the right as everyone agreed it wasn't the most flattering photo of him...haha... but I have promised myself that next summer I will be on top of things and will hire a professional, who will make sure we all look great...even Nova!
How grateful I was to Brother Williams who so kindly offered to dress up in his Santa costume on Christmas Eve day and come by so I could take our traditional photo of the kids with Santa! This was the first time in 18 years that I didn't pay for a photo at the mall...and of course in showing respect to Santa we took a photo with the kids wearing 2020's most trendy fashion accessory...the mask.
Later that evening we jumped in the car to go pay Ty a visit at work. While I was happy for him that he had been asked to return to work at Basin over the holidays, I had no idea that would mean he would be working on Christmas Eve. Of course he was thrilled because not only was he getting double pay but he was pretty excited that they were also providing Blaze Pizza. Well we decided what better night than Christmas Eve to head over to the beautifully decorated Disney Springs and pay him a visit. Of course it hadn't rained in days and it decided to rain just as we entered the shopping area. But it was all worth it to see our sweet Ty busy at work on Christmas Eve!
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse...
But leave it to this rascal to be the first one up sniffing out his stocking on Christmas morning...
As the kids get older, especially the boys, Christmas gift ideas get tougher and tougher. But I hate the idea of them waking up to an envelope of money...The Wise Men didn't show up with money so I won't either! Luckily everyone was happy with their gifts. From phones to AirPods to a wake skate and a bunch of other stuff Christmas was a success! Now if only we could wake up to a white Christmas! For now blue will have to do.
I wasn't certain if our new outdoor kitchen would get much use since Jack has never been a griller and while I love to cook, I grew up with a dad and brothers who did all the grilling. But thankfully after over 25 years of marriage and a beautiful 44" grill waiting to be taken for a test drive, Jack has taken a liking to it and has actually become really good at it! So to honor this new found hobby, I had to get him his own personalized apron!
It wouldn't be Christmas dinner if it wasn't a prime rib dinner! And someone showed up to dinner in their robe...lol! Clearly Grandma Roddy was not a fan of having her photo taken in it...
One thing Connor had asked for for Christmas was a chess set! Looks like the family will have a new game to learn!
I guess it's no surprise that I forgot to take the traditional photos of each of the kids with their gifts as a memory of what we've gotten for them each year...my memory really is going...All I want for Christmas next year is my memory... Merry Christmas!
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