Ellie and Eli

Early in the week of Christmas, our niece, Ellie got married in Idaho Falls.

She married a great guy named Eli :)...Ellie and Eli!

There's a ton of pictures here but I won't say a lot.

Uncle Dan is always so kind to greet and pay attention to Ben...

The kids hung out in the visitor's center during the sealing and then we met outside the temple for pictures.

Josh and Eli had an interesting hug sandwich with Hailee caught in the middle...

The luncheon and reception venue was pretty cool...

Of course Ben was busy on his iPad :)

Cute Cousins!

A lot of down time...

Ben fell asleep by the beginning of the reception.  We did a quick "Favorite Things" moment (minus Becky since she was busy elsewhere) while Ben slept in my lap.  We spent quite a bit of time in that position and then Merill came along toward the end and offered to take him for me so I could watch the cake cutting.

We were trying to get on our way to drive home but it took us a while to say goodbye to everyone.  Josh especially was taking his time knowing it would be the last time seeing many of them for two years.

I had a hard time not taking pictures of all of the goodbyes :)

This next sequence of pictures with little Preston were some of my favorite of the night :)

Friends and Family

Sometime in December my workout friends and I gathered at Jennie's house and had a brunch.

Jennie is an amazing cook/baker and really put out a spread for us.

Then she taught us how to make her famous cinnamon rolls!

It was such a lovely morning!

I really enjoy these ladies and all the goodness and joy they bring into my life :)

I finally decided it was time for our family to attend a Johnson Files event!

I booked tickets the morning they were available and kept it a secret from the kids until that night.

We were all pretty excited for the show...

...but then our good friends, the Youngs, walked in and sat down right next to us and we became even more excited!

We seriously had bought tickets right next to each other without knowing it!

It was a Christmas miracle!

I had felt very benevolent when I let the kids sit closer to the middle and Andy and I took the end.  However, when the Youngs joined us I made them all slide down so I could sit next to Katie...

I felt bad about doing that to them until we saw this...

You can't see it in this picture but in the Johnson Files Instagram post you can see Josh in the crowd just to the right of the violinist's shoulder.  Haha!  He would not be visible if I hadn't shoved him down the row further :)

The show was hilarious!

Seriously, such good improv!

We were all laughing so hard!

Matt tried to not let me get a picture of him...

...but I was sneaky!

We had such a fun evening!

Mom and Dad were so kind to watch Ben for us.  He is always happy to spend an evening at the dome :)

 

December Odds and Ends

I loved this scene of Ben in front of the lit Christmas tree with the matryoshka dolls...

Every now and then, driving home, I see awesome clouds above the mountains at the end of our street.  So I drive on by the house and go snap a picture before going home...

Josh's last day at work in the deli at Macey's.

I almost never buy anything at the deli but in honor of this occasion I had Josh dish up some of his favorite salad

This was a fun view one morning after some fresh snow...

We noticed the piles of snow on a couple of the fence panels had drooped but stayed intact.  I did not understand the physics of it but it was pretty cool.  

...and that same morning, the snow hanging off the roof of the shed...

Some good neighbors that Andy has home taught/ministered to for years gave us some cute gnomes that light up!  He got kind of silly with them :)

The Sunday before Christmas I wore a new, festive dress I had bought.  We sat behind a cute family in the ward that we are friends with and realized that three of us looked really similar!  We had to get a picture :)

My Emotional Resilience class booked a time together to do a session at the temple early December.  

Four ended up having to back out last minute but these lovely ladies and I truly enjoyed being in the temple together!  What a joy to be in such a special place with people you love!

 

Josh Says Farewell

Josh spoke in church mid December.

He had a great support group show up.  In addition to those pictured here, my aunt and uncle, Norma and Herm, and their son Wade came.  Ben was in heaven with loved ones all around him in the pews.  He just kept leaning in to every one and giving hugs and reaching out and trying to get everyones attention.

Josh did such an amazing job!

We were all so pleased with how well he did.

I loved how vulnerable and pleasant he was as he spoke.

He seemed happy with how he did also.

 

He had some good friends from improv come and support him as well....

Ahead of time we had planned for Josh to have his friends come over later that next week so that we could keep Sunday to just family.  I wish I had captured some pictures of that event but they had a good time downstairs eating, playing games and talking.

Back to Sunday...grandparents and James came over for a meal.  Jo and T would have come but they had another meeting to get to.

We had purchased bulk Costa Vida the day before and it was perfect for our gathering.

Sibs...

Looks serious...

It was so fun to celebrate Josh and this next step in his life.

 Some super cute pictures of Josh and Ben that my mom captured.

What a wonderful day we had.

Things were starting to get real at this point:)