December 2008

December was filled with fun. 

•  Griff had a Holiday Choral Concert at his school. He accompanied the Choir this year on one song. He did a great job. His Choir teacher was very kind to give him the opportunity and she was pleased. 
• Isaac's class adopted a "Family in Need" for Christmas. So, Isaac spent time choosing a gift and got together with his classmates to wrap and send all of the presents. I love those serving moments. His class also had a fun Holiday party and exchanged $5 books before break. 
• Noah's class took a field trip to a local Retirement Residence. Two kindergarten classes totalling 40 kids, two teachers and a bunch of moms piled into the piano room of the Retirement home to sing holiday songs and present the residents with two beautiful cookie/candy choo choo train centerpieces made by the Kindergartners. It was a sweet fieldtrip with lots of smiles and a fun way to serve the "Grandmas & Grandpas" in our community.
• Griff played a wonderful arrangement of "Joy to The World" in both our home Ward and my Mom's Utah Ward
• Cathy spoke in Sacrament Mtg focusing on our personal journey to Christ's feet as it relates to the Wise Men's journey
• A rockin' Ward Christmas party.
• Elder's Quorum luncheon by Bry and his councilors
• Bryan's office Christmas Party with our homemade tacky Christmas Sweaters. 
• A fun Ward Cookie Decorating Family Night hosted by Bry (EQ) and Alph (Ward Mission Leader)
• Our favorite event of the season...... 12 days of Christmas surprises for our sweet friend Lisa.  

I don't know how we squeezed all of those events in prior to Dec 19th, but it all worked out and it really helped us to focus on the service of the season. 

Our Utah vacation began on Friday, the 19th. 

• A visit in St. George with Bry's sister Nan and her family. It was tons of fun to hang with the Glauser's for a little while. I love Nan's new bedroom set and her bedroom update. She is inspiring and gets soooo much done in a day. We missed seeing Brad and family and Michael but hope to catch up with them soon. 
• Another fun stop in Beaver to visit my Grandmother, Thelma Goodwin. We took her to lunch at a local restaurant appropriately named "The Restaurant." We had fun talking with Great Grandma Thelma and hearing stories of what it was like when she was first married and washed clothes with two big buckets of water and a washboard. Boy do I love my washer and dryer even more after hearing her stories! Grandma T is still sharp as a tack and constantly cracked funny jokes. I love her!
• We arrived in Utah just before the snow started to fall. The snow was powdery and fun to play in. Unfortunately it was too light to make snowmen and snowforts but it made for some great sledding. We used both G & G Holt's driveway and Churchill Jr. High's hill for sledding. I'm happy to report no injuries occurred this year. 
• Utah's events included two lovely dinners for Bry and Cath - The Roof Restaurant (a gift from Rand & Linnea) & our traditional La Caille dinner. Both were yummy but I can't believe how amazing the chef is at La Caille. The combined flavors of the everything from appetizers to desserts were exquisite. 
• Lots of movies
• A little skiing
• Lunch with Grandma Twitchell at Olive Garden
• Christmas Eve with the Holt family including a fun nativity story and gift exchange
• Holt afternoon in snowmobiling in Huntsville 
• Two fun Christmas celebrations - one with our little family and Bry's parents and the other with Grandma Twitchell (my mom), Stacie (my sister) and Jaiden (my niece). 

Thank you to G & G Holt for being wonderful hosts while we stayed in their home during such a busy time of year, to Jeff & Jenna for a fun family day at their home in Huntsville and to

my Mom for hosting a great after Christmas party.

Our entire trip was a little weighed down by the revelation that Bry's identity was stolen. He went into an AT&T store to purchase a new Iphone just before leaving for Utah and finding out someone created a fake ID with his ss#, address & using that information to access our good credit scores to purchase an Iphone and an AT&T service contract. Of course they quit paying the contract and stole the phone, and AT&T turned the info over to a collection agency. Luckily we found all of this out on our own before it was permanently on our credit report. From that moment on we've been engaged in a desperate attempt to correct the situation. I'm grateful to our Heavenly Father for helping us to stay diligent through repeated run-ins with AT&T. After many escalations, we finally found Eric at AT&T that was willing to research the details with us and have it declared fraud.

 Now, more work will continue on our part as we file a police report and send certified letters to the FBI, SS Administration and our credit reporting agencies to initiate a 7 yr lock on Bry's credit report. Shame on the yucky dishonest people that do this kind of stuff. It stinks!

Now we're home and heading out to use our new fishing poles to try fishing at the Lafayette Reservoir. We're excited to spend the time with our boys and hope to catch a couple fish too. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody! My Christmas cards will be New Year's cards this year and hopefully I'll get those out soon.

Jesus is the Christ. 

We are grateful to our Father in Heaven for

sending His son to Earth. We are forever indebted to our Savior for his suffering, sacrifice and resurrection. 

We are committed to following Him, serving & loving our

 fellow man with all of our hearts, might, mind and strength. Christ lives. We pray that we will all Follow His Star and return to the presence of our Savior, Jesus the Christ.