Finale

As our project was nearing completion, Brandon got pretty anxious to be done. He just threw himself into it and everything fell into place pretty quickly. I think he realized that if he stayed on schedule he'd have it done before Thanksgiving, and we could eat our meal at a real table, in a real dining room. We had a very simple Thanksgiving, and for that I'm very thankful. After I planned what we were having I noticed that I only picked the foods I like. I told Brandon I was sorry I had forgotten about him, and he said it was OK, we could just spread it out over a few days, so the next day we got to have mashed potatoes. Lark came to visit and it was so nice to be able to offer her a seat and a table to eat at. We fed the missionaries the next week and my parents stayed the night on their way to Vegas, so we're getting the use out of it that we hoped for. I'm not good at inviting people over, but maybe I'll improve.

The following week was jam-packed: First Presidency Christmas devotional, tithing settlement, make a dessert for Relief Society Christmas dinner (Sophie took care of that for me), attend RS dinner with the girls while Brandon got to babysit in the nursery, pass out flyers for ward Christmas party, make 10 3D snowflakes for party (Chloe did 5 and I did 5), help decorate for Christmas party, shop and prepare food for ward Christmas party, attend party [no, I was not on a committee, just got asked by a lot of different organizations to help], make a salad for a funeral. The girls got to go to Music & the Spoken Word, in addition to their weekly YW activity. Brandon and I managed to squeeze a date night in -- our first in a couple months since he needed all the spare time he could get to do stuff on our house.

I took the girls to see "The Nutcracker" at the Covey Center in Provo. Chloe told me she's not a fan of ballet, and neither am I, honestly, but this was a pretty cool production. I kept thinking they must have had a bigger budget than Joy Johnson. The next day I came across an opportunity to go to "Swan Lake" in February, so Sophie and I are going to go see that together.

I want to go back to elaborate on the girls' trip to Music & the Spoken Word. My kids listen to good music. I've always been proud of them, and whenever they get around friends I get a little nervous seeing how easily they could be influenced to listen to stuff that's not so uplifting. But so far so good. They each have their playlists they have created that they listen to while they are working on the computer. Sophie's is full of all kinds of good music, while Chloe's is pretty much Christmas songs. She loves Christmas music -- all year long! One day she discovered the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and sat and listened to them all day long. She was making comments about how fun it is to watch the conductor, so the next day she had to pull some stuff up to show me how much energy he has. It was the very next Sunday they announced the youth would be going to M&SW. Brandon kind of gave an eye roll (he's not exactly a MoTab fan), but I knew it was going to be good for the girls. They were both kind of excited. Sophie came home from the performance telling me all the people she got to see. She was excited because she saw Mack Wilberg (she has a friend whose dream is to become Mack -- one of those rare good influences we celebrate in our lives), and she saw this Ryan guy, but she was frustrated because she never got to see Felix. I just listened to her as she talked, but then later that evening she brought me the program she saved for her scrapbook and was showing me the outline. That's when I saw Felix was Felix Mendelssohn. I got a little chuckle out of that. Chloe may be one of only a few 13 year olds to ever say to their parent, "Don't you just love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?"