The End

 I’ve been blogging for a long time. 18 years. Now I’m done. My kids are grown and I don’t want to tell their stories. I’m a mother and a grandmother so my story will never be seperate from their stories. So I’m going back to my old style of journaling. It’s been fun and I’m glad I did it.  Now I’m glad to be done. It was a good era💕

Christmas Town

We had a fun day. A nice dinner and a smooth drive home.

It was a Christmasy weekend🎄❤️

 

Getaway

Rob and I are on a little overnight getaway. We went to the Richmond Temple this morning and then headed over to Williamsburg.

We didnt know it but on Friday nights in December they have a yule log lighting. That was a super fun surprise!

It was a nice day💕

 

 I'm preparing the Relief Society lesson for Sunday.  The talk for this week is Dallin H. Oaks talk on the Kingdom's of Glory. Several times during my preparations I have felt the quiet whispers of the Holy Ghost testifying to me of God's love for His children, of our purpose on Earth, and of the truthfulness of the divine and glorious plan of salvation. I am beyond grateful, and I want to always remember Him. 

Last night around 9pm we had a knock on our door, it was Clark Davis and his dad.  They were delivering Christmas treats and we were the lucky recipients. Yumm!

Tonight, I have book club at our house. I am making soup and bread and then we will have chocolates.  An easy dessert and fitting for our book selection A Christmas Candy Killing. I'm looking forward to hosting. 

Our darling Ezra got his official diagnosis.  He is autistic. I don't think anyone was surprised and now he will be able to get lots of interventions.  He is a bright and gentle boy.  He also has sooooo much energy, will run away at any opportunity, loves to swim and is quite athletic, loves to paint, (on paper or the wall equally), has lots of characteristics of autism, and also lots of indications that he is bright and capable. We love that boy so much and I am glad he was born into our family, into the Crawley family, to Hannah and Sawyer as parents.  He will get a lot of love and support and help from all those people who care about him and want him to succeed. 

Grace and the bf (who I did not like) broke up.  She is coming to the end of semester one of college and has done well. I am looking forward to seeing her at Christmas and to having her come home for a short time after the next semester.  

One week from today I fly to Utah.  I can't wait to see everyone and to spend some time there. It is the best part for me. I'll be there for almost 2 weeks, which is enough time to see everyone, to do fun things, and to just hang out.  Rob will come a week later, and we will get to enjoy time with our whole family in the same state! Christmas is going to be fun!

Today is Nana's birthday. It was fun to see her a few weeks ago.  Nana is a lovely MIL, a beloved mother, and an amazing grandmother.  Not everyone can say that they are friends with their mother-in-law but I am. Rob is very close to both of his parents and it's nice that we can have a fun time together. 

Relief Society was assigned to organize the ward Christmas party this year.  We decided on "Back to Bethlehem" as our theme.  Tiffannie is an amazing lady.  She's our RS President and I love her.  She is a home schooling mom of 6 daughters, a believer in spending a lot of time outside, very creative, and patient.  It's fun to be her counselor, fun because she's competent and nice and the buck doesn't stop with me. I try to be as helpful and enthusiastic as I can. She had her girls make all the decorations over the last month including this amazing paper mache camel!

So Thursday we went shopping for food.  Friday she spent the day decorating, but I was at work.  Luckily Manuela was able to go. Saturday we finished decorating in the morning and then went back to do food prep a couple hours before the party.  The event went great. There were lots of activities for everyone to enjoy (Rob and I were in charge of the dreidel game and we had M&M's for tokens which the kids loved) , we had enough food (always my fear), the primary and youth did a nice job on the short program, and everyone enjoyed the evening.  Most people dressed in period costumes and lots of people helped with clean up. 

Jewish women cover their hair.  I wish Christian women did too.  I'd happily wear a scarf every day. Not a wig though, that seems itchy. I am hair impaired. Seriously it is such a challenge for me. When I was little I had little soft curls that my mom arranged nicely on head (based on the photos I have).  Then when I got a little older I entered the braid era.  That lasted for most of elementary school.  I'd either wear braids or a just long and raggedy down my back "style". I think it was around 5th or 6th grade that I noticed that girls were "doing their hair". I did not participate in that.  I don't know why. I never thought to ask mom to take me for a hair cut.  I was a teenager in the 80's and didn't have big hair. I didn't know how to do it, didn't want to spend the time on it, and basically washed it, brushed it and on special occasions (like to go to church on Sunday) I'd use a curling iron on it.  My hair was long and straight (by straight I mean kind of wavy and full) my whole growing up.  When Mark and I married I cut it short. Then grew it out.  When I was divorced I got what dad called my "man hating hair cut" and I've worn it that way most of the time since, although every few years I decide to grow it. Then I am unhappy with it because it looks like:

witch Hazel, minus the witch hat.  And I cut it again.  I can think of one day in my life when I thought my hair looked great, that was on Hannah's wedding. (Dani did it for me). The rest of the time I am either neutral or I don't like it.  But the head covering solves that. Also a beanie, which you can wear outside, in the winter. Sadly I also have a big head so hats don't sit well. One of Hannah's talents is to wear a hat cutely. Not mine, which is sad.  I'm not as sad about that as I am in my inability to sing nicely but both cause me occasional grief. 

Ironically I have 5 daughters and didn't really know how to do their hair either. They figured it out and all have nice hair now, which seems like a life pattern.  Parents try but ultimately you have to find your own way.  Everyone has to know for themselves; or have ugly hair. Ethan has wild hair, but has life figured out pretty well for a 21 year old man. So there's that. 

Our cute little primary children 💕
 

Clayton was also in charge of his ward party and last month J asked me, or I was telling her I'm not sure, about ours, and she told him. And viola, a theme is shared. Their party went great and Coco was the cutest little lamb in the stable!

Gracie went to a bachelorette party in Utah this weekend and the Crawleys babysat Mr. Lincoln. She had fun and they didn't want to give him back so win/win. 

Sunday was a cold day in Idaho.  Ezra is in nursery and traditionally in December the rising Sunbeams will go to primary for singing time to "practice". Hannah's ward has a lot of children, 13 Sunbeams and almost as many rising from nursery.  They went to singing time yesterday and somehow Ezzie escaped and ran outside and got locked out, in the snow.  He was crying out there and luckily (or by the grace of God) a stranger was walking by and heard him & brought him in to the chapel where Sawyer was. Hannah and Sawyer were very upset (as.they.should.be) and the primary presidency was very apologetic (AS.THEY.SHOULD.BE). Erza is an eloper. You can not take your eye off of him for one second. He bolts and doesn't really know better.   The number one cause of death for children on the spectrum is from being hit by a car.  They run, they run into the street, and things go poorly.  I was very upset to hear about that. I worry about him. Hannah and Sawyer are working with the primary to come up with a good plan, they are very concerned.  

Taco and I like to watch TV in bed

We had the sisters and elders over for dinner and to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was fast Sunday so I made extras knowing everyone would be hungry. I made pioneer woman lasagna, chicken fettuccini, Caesar salad ( my favorite recipe, from a bag), rolls, banana bread and German chocolate cake. We have enough left over that I won't be cooking for a few days!

After dinner we played wolf pack then "santa, cookie, candy, elf, tree" which is "taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza" but Christmas themed) while we waited for the broadcast to start. 

The broadcast was really good.  I loved the talks. I like Tracy Browning. She gives really good talks.  Elder Gong gave a wonderful address. He talked about the Christmas Carol story and how everyone always remembers Scrooge as his miserly, grumpy, selfish self but rarely thinks to remember that it's a story of redemption. Scrooge became a changed man. He became, in the end, as joyful and as good as any man. It is good to see each other as who we are becoming now, not just who we were. President Nelson's Christmas message was beautiful. The music was powerful, and the whole evening was enlivening and joyful.

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge.

 "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.”  

I was chatting with the girls last night, and got to read a couple of stories to them. Im grateful for facetime. Coco looked like a Fancy Nancy/Kirsten the American Girl hybrid. I asked her to take a picture and send it to me. I sure love those cute girlies💕

Lana also sent a cute picture today! Love it! 

Tonight I went to book club at Michelle’s. We had a fun evening, she made a yummy stew and the book was good!

Next month its my turn to host.

November is almost over. With its close my month of no complaints will be ending as well…not that I’ve been saving up a huge list or anything but I will say that this is me heading to work on the cold, dark, mornings of late No-complaint-vember. (I happily acclimated to our “brutal” Orlando winters and acclimating back to winter is proving a little challenging.)

 Its not snowing in MD but the winter weather is here and I am not accustomed to it. 

This one is though and he’s a nice little bed heater.