Christmas

Minus the pesky stomach bug I ended up with, Christmas day was great for everyone.

 Miriam's pile this year.

 Winnie's. She obviously likes unicorns and Shimmer and Shine.

 Ana's pile.

 Rebekah's.

 Ana opening up her mermaid tail blanket.

 Miriam sporting hers.

 Seth helping Winnie get her feet clear to the bottom of her mermaid tail blanket.

Bekah helping Winnie be completely engulfed in hers.

After presents and breakfast, I went to our bedroom and hung out there for the rest of the day. We watched Rogue One together (me upstairs; the rest of the family downstairs), Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis came over to check out the girls' presents, and everyone (except me) went back over to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for schnitzel leftovers.

Christmas Eve

After taking it easy the morning of Christmas Eve, we went over to the church for the annual Hendricks family Christmas party. We had good food and good fun.

 Ana playing nine square.

 Miriam playing nine square.

 Rebekah as the queen of nine square.

 Winnie making bracelets from pipe cleaners.

Ana the innkeeper informing Joseph that there isn't room. 

Rebekah the shepherd worshiping the baby. 

 Miriam the wise woman.

 Winnie the sheep.

 Winnie being a very small and melted snowman after singing "Once There Was a Snowman."

Miriam being a scared goofball when she sees Santa (Grandpa Dennis) come into the room. 

 Miriam on Santa's lap.

 Winnie on Santa's lap.

 Ana on Santa's lap.

 The closest Rebekah would get to Santa.

Grandma Hendricks on Santa's lap. She was a good sport.

We then went to Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis' house to exchange presents with family, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for schnitzel, a nativity movie, pajamas and "Stille Nacht."

 Winnie and Miriam helping Grandpa with the schnitzel.

 Bekah reading and Ana playing ukulele.

Miriam whispering in Oakley's ear during the nativity movie. 

Miriam opening pajamas. This year the kids decided to open presents according to their birthdays in the calendar year. So Miriam got to open hers pretty early in the rounds.

Ana with her pajamas; Bekah opening hers.

 Winnie opening her pajamas last of all.

Lincoln Court

We performed Christmas songs for the fifth year in a row at Lincoln Court on December 23. Here's the breakdown of who did what:

• Andrea played piano, ukulele and sang.
• Ana played piano and sang.
• Bekah played French horn, trumpet, flute and sang.
• Miriam played piano, chimes and sang.
• Uncle Kent (not pictured) played sax.
• Winnie was cute.
• Seth hauled equipment back out to the van and paid for dinner.

 Bekah singing the alto part and Ana singing the soprano part of a few hymns.

Bekah and Andrea playing ukes and singing. 

A sad, melty snowman on the piano while Andrea plays. 

Rebekah playing flute. 

 Rebekah playing French horn while Andrea accompanies on the piano.

 Andrea holding the mic for Miriam. Miriam playing chimes. Winnie supervising.

Rebekah playing trumpet. 

Our family taking over the corner of the dining room. 

 Cute Winnie.

Packing up for the night.

Miriam's grinch program and the AR assembly

The elementary school combined a few activities into one big bonanza of an assembly before Christmas break. Miriam and several other fourth graders got to participate in a telling of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Then all the kids who had earned at least 100 AR points were honored. (Winnie was in the 100 point club; Miriam was in the 200 point club.) Then the kids sang along to a bunch of Christmas songs. Then Santa came to visit Fairview. The whole thing was loud and fun.

 Miriam as "the quotation who." She did a great job.

Miriam with her classmates on stage. 

Winnie (her class was allowed to wear pajamas and watch The Polar Express that day) sings along to Christmas songs. 

Miriam enthusiastically sings with her class.

Ward Christmas party

We love our ward family, and we love attending ward festivities. So we all looked forward to our annual ward Christmas party.

Bekah wasn't able to come (she had a basketball game she had to go to with the rest of the pep band), but Ana got to help set up and take down with the rest of the Young Women. As a member of the bishopric, Seth got to emcee, and I got to help the Primary kids participate in the nativity.

 Ana putting out napkins for the dinner.

The Santa spot I got ready. Everyone take a moment to appreciate the blackboard art. I am not an artist. Nor do I have pretty handwriting. That took me more time than I'd like to admit. But it did turn out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. 

 Miriam and Winnie opted to be angels this year.

 Grandpa Dennis was Santa. Grandma Susan helped him get set up.

Ana on my shoulders helping take down paper snowflakes. 

Ana's blanket

Ana, Bekah and I determined at the beginning of 2019 that we would earn our Young Womanhood Recognition before the end of the year. We spent many Sunday mornings in my bedroom reading scriptures and discussing them together, setting goals and talking about our progress.

All three of us made it in time and earned our medallions before the program was phased out for the new Children and Youth program. It took a lot of time and dedication on the girls' parts.

One of the things that required some of that "time and dedication" was 10 hours of service that Ana wanted to perform. She helped with a few ward things, then went with Rebekah to the Salvation Army to sort food. She needed a few more hours of service, so we looked on justserve.org for another opportunity. She saw that the Shelley Fire Department asked for blankets to be donated and thought that would be a good way to round out her 10 hours.

We looked through my fabric, found a few pieces, and I helped Ana measure the pieces before she cut and sewed them together. Then we drove to Shelley and tried to find someone to give the blanket to. We couldn't find anyone, but we found an unlocked door, so we left the blanket with a note.

 Ana and her blanket. The elephant fabric on the back was left over from the crib bedding my mom made before Bekah was born. Both Bekah and Ana used it.

Ana writing her note. 

Ana set the blanket down and posed just long enough for a picture. She was worried about getting into trouble being in this big room with lots of expensive vehicles and equipment without supervision.