2022 Blue Jeans Week 52

Wrapping up the last week of 2022 with Christmas day to New Year's Eve.  It was a good week.  Very relaxing.  On Christmas Day we got to serve at a soup kitchen which was very rewarding.  We have never done that before on Christmas Day.  We enjoyed playing lots of games that we got for Christmas and went to the city to see some lights and out to eat.  Pretty low key New Year's Eve.  We were all in bed before midnight.  We are just so exciting :)  Take a look at our last week of 2022...

Christmas Day--their gifts to each other.  Mr J got cereal and Miss E got chocolate.  

Christmas Day before heading to church.  We sang in the choir and Ben spoke. It was a beautiful and very full service.  Perfect for Christmas.  Miss E sporting her new dress she got for Christmas. 

Christmas Day for lunch we helped serve at a soup kitchen.  It is the same one we always help with, but this year since Christmas was on a Sunday they decided to serve, and it was very, very busy.  Mr J and Miss E were in charge of drinks.

Ben was in charge of serving the pie.  Yummy!  It was a great experience for us to do this on Christmas Day. 

Day after Christmas Ben had off and we spent the whole day playing our new games we got.  Lots of fun!

On the Tuesday after Christmas we went to see the new Avatar movie in 3D with our friends.  We all loved it!

We actually had a white Christmas this year!  Miss E and I enjoyed walking in the snow on the trails this week.

Since we were out of town for Thanksgiving and didn't get to bring home any leftovers on the plane, we decided to do our own Thanksgiving.  On the 28th we cooked all day and made all the good things and invited some friends over to help us eat it all.  So yummy!!!

Played lots of games this week.  These two decided to play right by the front door in the sun.

Headed up to the city for some fun on Friday.  Went out to eat at the Black Bear Diner.  Yummy!

Went to the Giving Machines and donated some awesome things.  Love this!

Had tickets to a fun lights display.

The light tunnel...I think Ben is yawning. :)  It was a long day but fun!

My last cake for the year.  This is my December cake we had on New Year's Eve.  It is the birthday cake recipe from the Milk Bar bakery in NYC.  It was really yummy!

New Year's Eve!  We took this about 11:40 p.m. and then headed to bed.  We had played games, ate yummy food and watched a movie, and we were all ready to head to bed.  Happy New Year!  Here's to a great 2023!!

Thanks for being with us on our journey this year!  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's and are looking forward to 2023!  See you next week!

 

2022 Blue Jeans Week 51

Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas!  Ours was different this year with half our kids not home--a first for us, but it was also wonderful.  We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and His love for us, and we are so grateful we can celebrate Him and remember Him. We had a wonderful week.  Take a look...

Got our cheese balls all done for friend and neighbor gifts, and got them delivered.  

Got our last Christmas puzzle done. This one is a fun one.

Had our traditional December bonfire and smores.  It was cold, but the fire was so delightful :)

Went to look at some fun lights.  

Miss E has taken up knitting and made this awesome octopus!

We had some crazy, insanely cold weather---below zero temps with a strong north wind and wind chill temps of -35.  It was a very, VERY cold few days, and we kept our wood burning stove on for 3 days straight.  Burr!  Mr J was extra cold, so Miss E wrapped him up in pretty much every blanket we had downstairs.  So grateful we have heat and a fireplace!  

This December we focused on some classic Christmas movies.  White Christmas and Holiday Inn.  They are completely different, and it was fun to watch them and compare.  

Had Ben's work Christmas party.  Great group of people that he works with!!! So grateful for them!

Friday night is pizza night.  Mr J and Miss E were in charge of the pizzas tonight.  So yummy!

Christmas Eve---Had our yummy meal, and then sang lots of Christmas songs.  We were missing Mr and Mrs A and Mr JC and Mrs OC, but we had some wonderful friends, and my parents to celebrate with so that was awesome.  We had both piano and violin accompaniment which was beautiful!

The kids opted for a Nativity puppet show again this year instead of acting out the nativity story.  They were too old to do the acting out they said, but not too old to put on a puppet show :)  It was awesome!

Christmas Eve pajamas!  

Mr and Mrs A in their new Christmas pajamas with Mr A's family dog at his family's.  Mr JC and Mrs OC are on a cruise for Christmas with his family, so we are looking forward to seeing pictures of them when they get back. We missed having these 4 this Christmas, but when kids get married, you have to share holidays with the in-laws.  I am trying to be a good sharer :)  Looking forward to next year!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!  So much to be thankful for!  Looking for good things in 2023!!  Thanks for joining us here!!!

2022 Blue Jeans Week 50

Last week's pictures.  Band Christmas concerts, Miss E flies home, more Christmas cookies and other fun things.  Take a look....

Christmas cookies this week were gingerbread cups, and Mr J made this very impressive filled one...Reminded us of the sorting hat from Harry Potter or a funky Santa's hat.

Mr J's Christmas band concert was this week.  Our last Christmas band concert.  It was good!

Got our 2nd Christmas puzzle done this week.  We all decided we did not like this one at all :) Might need to get some new Christmas puzzles next year!

Lots of snow in Utah this week.  Mrs OC and Mr JC took Miss E sledding and they made some cool snow architecture.  

Cooking in the kitchen in my new apron.  Love it!

Date night this week was wrapping Christmas presents while Mr J was out of the house at a ballgame.  Got them all done.  We are ready for Christmas!

Love our tree!

Miss E made is safely home this week after her finals.  She gets to be home for 3 weeks, and we are so excited.  It will be a smaller and quieter Christmas this year as our married kids will be at their in-laws.  We have to share.  First Christmas we will not have all our kids home. Going to be different.  Glad Miss E is home safely, and we were able to attend a basketball game with her and listen to Mr J play in the pepband on his last day of school for this year.  He has about 3 weeks of break too, so nice breaks for everyone! Mr J rockin his saxophone in the pep band this past week.  

 Hope you all have a blessed and Merry Christmas!  Hope you are safe and healthy and happy wherever you are.  Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

2022 Blue Jeans Week 49

Catching up again... this was 2 weeks ago.  December is flying by with Christmas coming up this next weekend!  Looking forward to a relaxing week as we come up to Christmas.  All my to do lists are done so going to enjoy this week!

I looked through my recipes and tagged Christmas cookies to make all throughout the month.  These are chocolate peppermint blossoms and so yummy!

Miss E and some of her friends attended the Christmas Devotional in downtown Salt Lake City at the Conference Center.  A great way to start the month!

Making our traditional paper snowflakes to decorate our windows with, and Ben decided he was going to iron them to make them flatter.  I thought it seemed kind of funny, but it did work :)

Our snowflake creations in the kitchen window.

Delivered homebound books for the library this week. 

Went to lunch with this cute friend this week. 

Got out our 3 Christmas puzzles and put together the first one this week. 

Decided I was going to do a 12 days of Christmas gifts for my parents this year.  I chose scripture passages and little stories and then found simple gifts that represented them.  I hope they enjoy it!

One evening this week we walked around our town square to see the Christmas lights.  Loved the big snowman!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are healthy and happy and safe wherever you are.  Have a wonderful week!

2022 Blue Jeans Week 48

A little late getting this week posted, but better late than never.  Got home from our Thanksgiving trip and got the house decorated.  Christmas here we come!  Take a look at our week...

Getting our 12 foot Christmas tree put up is always a process.  It is so beautiful all decorated though!

Ben and Mr J worked hard on getting the outside lights done.  Always love that!

Mr J made some amazingly huge rolls for dinner last week.  They are from here, and normally would not be that large, but we let them rise a little long, but they were delicious!

Game we played one evening by the Christmas tree was Low down.  Always fun to play by the tree.

Did a library run this week.  Was needing some new books!

And got my November cake in the last day of the month!  This is a biscoff pumpkin pecan cake, and it was so yummy!

Friday night pizza night.  There were just the 2 of us as Mr J was at a basketball game, but we still made 3 pizzas.  You can never can have too much pizza, right?

Saturday Mr J had an all day band practice to get ready for his district band concert that night.  The concert was amazing!  Now he auditions for state band.  Fingers crossed!  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are safe and healthy and happy!  Have a great week!