Sharing and Caring Family

Once again, the 6 Clarks hosted the Eagle Crest neighborhood Christmas get together.  We love to do this because it means spending time with our neighbors while sharing what we have with others.  We get together, visit with Santa, eat doughnuts and chocolate milk, and donate items to a chosen charity instead of giving neighbor gifts.  This year we did it at the Suncrest Clubhouse so it was very easy!

This year we chose to donate to The Christmas Box House.  When I worked at Primary Children's Hospital with Safe and Healthy Families, I gained a huge appreciation for this organization.
We had a great turn-out and lots of donations!  That following Saturday, our family drove to the Christmas Box House and dropped off the items.  We got a little tour of the place and the director was very kind to talk to the kids about the children who stay there.  By the time she was done talking we were wiping tears because we felt so bad for these poor kids who have been maltreated.  She really touched our hearts.  She made us promise that on Christmas morning, we would take a moment and think about how happy those kids would be when they saw that they had been given presents because of us.

On Sunday, Bishop Dame asked Millie to talk in Sacrament about our experience.  She did amazing and everyone was so inspired and touched.  She asked people to come to the Ward Christmas party and help make blankets for the kids at The Chirstmas Box House.  I hope our children don't ever forget this experience and always take time to be "a caring and sharing family."  This is what sweet Will asks for in his prayers.

Merry Christmas!

I didn't manage to send out cards this year.  I lost my addresses when my laptop crashed and among all of the other stuff I've been doing, I had zero time to track them down. Oh well, I'm over it.

Here's a video we made and sent out along with our email card:

file://localhost/Users/mrsamclark/Desktop/JibJab_Order_4369232_Movie.mpg

Piano

I don't know if I mentioned this in a post from her last piano recital, but I'm happy to say that Millie has turned a corner!!!  She is learning and playing so much better now that she doesn't fight it.  She will never admit that she likes to play, but I can tell that she is enjoying it a little bit.  She even asked for some new piano books for Christmas - gasp!
Her recital was at a Elderly Care Center in Murray, she played 3 Christmas songs very nicely.

Her awesome teacher Jill

I am proud of her and how well she does under pressure - no performance anxiety.  Good job sweets.

O Christmas Tree

This is the 6th year we have gone to the great little tree farm in Highland to pick-out our Christmas tree.  This time, we had been running errands all morning and we were all so hungry so the selecting part went really quick.  Nobody was picky about it.   It was much smaller than what we usually get {fit on top of the Murano}. Even so, when we got it home and all lit and decorated...it was perfect.  Love this family tradition!

This is the one!

Timber!

Off to Taco Time pronto!

Lights

The Monday after Thanksgiving, the 6 of us went to Temple Square for FHE.   We like to go early in the season because 1: It is not crowded, and 2: It is not freezing.  We started off with Chik-Fil-A because we love that place and it is near a Trax station.  Of course we rode Trax because the kids still think it is really cool.  

We spent a couple of hours at the Square admiring the Temple, the lights, the nativity, the Visitor's Center, and the Tabernacle.  We actually took some time and talked about the building of the Temple, some of the scripture stories, and the pioneers.  It's so nice having the kids a little older because they are interested and understanding and have questions and great conversations.  It was a great experience and absolutely beautiful.  I remember feeling so overwhelmed with happiness and how good life is.  

The kids got to hear all about our wedding day in the SLC Temple and also about our wedding reception and dinner when we went to the Joseph Smith Building.  We even took them into the exact room and reminisced.  It's hard to believe it has been 15 years!

Empire Room at the JSB

Something else that made me really happy was seeing the progress at City Creek, downtown's new shopping district which opens in about 3 months.  I saw the Nordstrom sign through the window and it made me smile.  Oh how I've missed shopping at Crossroads!

A fantastic evening for sure.  In fact, we have booked hotel rooms at the Little America Hotel for next week so we can go back again and shop and eat too!

We love Gargoza!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving {and a day after Black Friday}, we wanted to get out and do something with the cousins before they had to fly back home.  There wasn't enough to snow to snowmobile, there were too many little ones to go ice skating, we had already gone bowling, and didn't want to go to a movie.  Luckily, Millie remembered seeing a bunch of people tubing when we were driving up Parley's canyon a few days earlier.  She suggested we go tubing.

So, we scrounged together all of the snow gear we could muster up and headed to Gargoza Park! Thanks to Grandma the kids all had awesome new hats to wear.  We spent the next 2 hours on the awesome tube hill.  There was something for everyone.  We got there just as the sun was setting...and while it was chilly...it was so much fun that the kids didn't even notice.  The bigger kids were off on their own.  The grown-ups took shifts with the younger ones between the warm yurt with hot cocoa and playing outside.

We decided that going here was going to be a new tradition for our family.  It was an evening we won't soon forget.

S and W with their new mohawk hats

Alix

Going up the hill on a standing escalator

Quinny loved that part!  Of course her new hat had kitten ears

Weeeee!  Alix, Quin, Bode going down the small hill

BS pulling them around

They have a carousel thing that takes you around and around and around

Millie, Ellie, Caitlyn

Alix and Cambree

One of the best things was that a huge group could go down the big hills together!

Thanksgiving

Silly Grandpa thought it was really funny to make this pumpkin a real "Tom Turkey!"
In this pic it's hard to see, but look where the stem is :)

Thanksgiving was fantastic - not only the day, but the entire weekend.  We headed up to the cabin Wednesday evening and met up with everybody.  Nate's girls had just landed from Minnesota and we were so thrilled to see them and spend the holiday with them.  G-pa & G-ma had the place so cozy and decked out...it was very welcoming.  And they had finished the 2 new Murphy beds so everyone had a nice bed to sleep in.  Of course the kids were wired and it took forever before they finally went to sleep.  The women stayed up making as many preparations as possible for the feast the next day.

Thursday morning the kids were anxious to go outside.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough snow to go snowmobiling and sledding, but they had fun rolling in it and making a darling snowman family:  

Millie, Sambo, Ellie, Quin, Caitlyn, Will, Alix, Cambree

 While the grown-ups cut, sliced, diced, sautee'd, roasted, mashed, stirred, chopped, mixed, whipped, poured, and set tables - the kids stayed busy playing Pilgrim Memory game, Turkey Bingo, and Pin the Feather on the Turkey.

Can you spot BS?  Yep he's in the background taking a nap amongst all of the chaos!

Looks like he woke up to be the Bingo caller

Caitlyn and Millie helped me with the kid's drinks and the favors.  These are little Black Cherry Shasta soda cans.

"Goodies to Gobble"
Gummie Bears and Sixlets for the kidlets

Chocolate covered Cinnamon Bears and Orange Sticks for the Adults

They did a great job with the place settings too!

Will's precious Turkey Leg!  He belongs at Disneyland with that thing!


The kids table.  Uncle Denny and Aunt Marcia joined us with their clan for dinner. 

  After the feast and some lounging around, we all walked to the other cabin for DESSERT!  Aunt Marcia and her crew had a fabulous spread of pies, cakes, and ice creams!  YUM.  It was great to be all together at the cabin again!

At 10:30 that night, BS and I set out for Black Friday shopping.  Somehow Caitlyn, Mills, and Ellie talked us into letting them come with us.  Mostly the girls would walk around the store for a bit then get back in the car and listen to music while they waited for us in the massive check-out lines.  They did get some cat naps in between stores.  We went to Walmart and the Outlets in Park City, then down Parley's canyon to Walmart and Target in Fort Union, then to Fashion Place Mall and Toys R Us in Murray.  We got home at 5:00 am!  But boy did we save $$$$!  Here they are at Toys R Us at 4 am:

 Friday was Uncle Kirk's birthday so we went to Fat Cats in Ogden for some bowling!  There was a balloon guy there that made some cool stuff.   Fun times!