The most wonderful time of the year.

Sunday, Dec. 8

Tay, Nae, and Evie came over to make homemade candy.

We made toffee and peppermint patties... yum! 

This process moves along a lot quicker with so many helpers.

We had good success that evening {thank heavens}... more on my candy failures later in this post.

Monday, Dec. 9

The Giving Machines

I must say that this was the most magical night for me.

It was a bit spontaneous - Mar had mentioned it the night before, but we hadn't made any set plans. When I remembered mid-afternoon that we had talked about going, I gave Bill a quick call to confirm he could get home at a decent time, then I purchased parking online. I don't get downtown much, so I was hoping I had selected a parking location wisely.

Mar's friend Tori planned to come with us, and once Bill got home, we headed downtown.

Virtually no traffic.

Parking location was perfect.

No lines at the Giving Machines.

We made our selections and snapped a few pictures.

We purchased chickens, a sheep, blankets, meals... it was fun to give in this unique way.

I

 Afterwards we went to dinner {at a forgettable restaurant} on the 16th Street Mall - months ago I had won a bake-off at my work, and the prize was $75 in gift cards to a group of bars and restaurants, and this was one of them. The food filled our bellies, and we didn't pay a cent for it, so I can't complain too much. The lights along the mall were beautiful, and there were very few people out and about. It almost felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. That is my favorite way to enjoy downtown.

After dinner we took a short walk to see the Mile High Tree.

I believe this is new to Denver this year - a 110 ft. digital Christmas tree.

Synchronized to music, you can walk inside of it.

We almost had it to ourselves... minus the couple lying on the ground smack dab in the middle haha.

It was the best way to see the city, and was such a perfect evening.

All through the month I made countless batches of candy.

I totally flailed, over and over.

I dumped at least 7 lbs of butter (+ sugar + almonds) in the garbage because I could not get my toffee to work. I tried several different recipes, watched countless youtube videos, and read numerous how-to posts. AAAUUUUGGGGHHH!

On top of my toffee fiascos, my Big Hunks turned out too soft, and several batches of caramel turned out too soft, even when I would extend the cook time several minutes.

Let it be known that I was very discouraged, but at the same time compelled to prove to myself (and everyone else) that I CAN make yummy candy.

In the end, I handed out my flailed attempts to friends and neighbors.

It was average. Some was sugary or soft. Not my finest result.

I will not be making candy to give in the future, only for my family to enjoy.

And I don't think I will ever attempt toffee again.

I revamped my sparkling cider labels, and we distributed them among additional friends and neighbors. 

 I've decided that I do these neighbor gifts because that's been our tradition.

I think I'm ready to let it go. I love giving to others, but I have felt - more this year than ever - that it might make others feel that they need to reciprocate the kindness when they hadn't planned to. I think next year I will just send cards. This year I under-ordered those, too.

I've flailed in every area (except selecting a parking location in Denver... I was winning that night).

Saturday, Dec 14

Ward Christmas Party

It was nice.

Santa came first,

then we had breakfast-for-dinner,

then enjoyed a lovely program of stories and music.

Mar got to lead everyone in the final song of the evening.

Thursday, Dec 19

Bill and I spontaneously decided to go to an 11:45pm showing of Star Wars.

Mar stayed home and went to bed because she was working in the temple the next morning.

We loved the show and thought it was a fitting ending for the 42-year saga.

I was NINE when I saw the first Star Wars. Crazy.

Friday, Dec. 20

I went to the temple and got to have Mar working in the session I was on.

I love that Mar loves the temple.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.

I'm excited to spend a couple days with my family, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Reason.

Merry Christmas!

Broken hearts.

Shi and Kody only stayed for a couple of days over the Thankgiving holiday because Shilo needed to make it back to UT so she could drive with a friend to a funeral in San Diego, CA.

It was for her good friend Peyton's husband.

(Some other posts with Peyton here, here, and here.)

This was a picture I had snapped on their graduation day:

These are a couple of pictures Peyton had posted in early Nov this year:

Travis was killed on Nov. 21 - mi padre's 80th birthday.

Here's a snippet of the news story:

Shilo and her friends attended the funeral

(Shilo clocked an unearthly amount of hours in the car in a few days time).

It was so sweet of them to attend to support their friend.

Our hearts are broken for Peyton, her family, and Travis' family.

It's a reminder that we never know how long we have with the people we love.

Take me back to November.

Friday, Nov. 15

Mar and I {and our fave Stewart ladies} met for dinner, then attended CVHS's musical Chicago.

I had never seen the musical OR the movie, so was interested to see what it was all about. This was "the high school version," and I'm still not exactly sure what that means. :-)

Pretty much a story about adultery, murder, lying... and getting away with it. Hmmmm... nice morals for impressionable youth, amiright? I'll just say I'm glad we didn't take Bill, and I'm glad my daughter didn't have a starring role with all the hot pants and booty shaking going on.

It was done well, and I'll leave it at that.

Oh, Seminary.

It's so so good, but so so exhausting.

On this particular morning the activity was a success. Phew!

Saturday, Nov. 23

Bill and I went to the Castle Rock Star Lighting.

It was our first time, and it was pretty much as I expected:

lots of people, lots of drinking (mainly of beverages containing alcohol),lots of milling about, and cold. IF we were to go again, I'd bring a thermos of hot cocoa, and wouldn't bother going very early. We DID manage a decent parking spot, thank heavens, as we saw many people walking from far distances to attend.

We ran into our next-door-neighbors, but failed to find the booth sponsored by the Church.

We eventually ended up by a strip mall near where we parked our car. We could see the star AND the fireworks, then had a speedy exit plan to avoid the crowds and traffic. It worked like a charm.

Britt and her family drove in on Monday, the 25th. They had initially planned to drive on Tuesday, but a huge storm had been forecasted for that day. We were so glad they made the decision to come early, as Tuesday was crazy bad weather.

Tuesday, Nov. 26

The cousins got together for slime-making, dress-up, and general playtime.

Bill and I had purchased a few (7?...8?...) costumes on clearance at Sam's Club after Halloween for such a time as this. The kids really liked them, so I'll call that a Gigi/Little Billy success.

Shilo and Kody came in on Wednesday. 

It wasn't a great weather day, but better than Tuesday.

Bill and Austin spatchcocked the turkeys in preparation for smoking them the next day.

Thursday, Nov. 28
Thanksgiving

We started the day off right by going to see Frozen II. We had tried to see it on Tuesday at the Castle Rock theater, but it was closed due to the snowy weather. When I went to get tickets for Thanksgiving Day, the Castle Rock theater was sold out, so I purchased them at the Arapahoe Crossing theater... with reclining seats. Turns out it was a tender mercy. It was literally perfect with our littles. L could walk around without getting in the way of others, which he freely did. Had we been at the Castle Rock theater (traditional tight stadium seating), it would have been a nightmare much more difficult. Plus this theater had an awesome backdrop to take pics by.

By the end of the show, V was louding singing along "Into the Unknown...."  It was awesome.

Once we got home, we went into full dinner prep mode.

Those smoked turkeys were amazing.

 

This was our first attempt at a "kid's table"... I'd call that a success, too!

The meal was delicious and the company was perfect.
The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have Lex, Jase, and M with us too.
Lex's doctor had advised her not to travel so close to her due date
(she just texted today to say she's dilated to a 4!)


Friday, Nov. 29
Bill and Mar both worked an AM shift in the temple.

The rest of us focused on mixing, rolling, and baking gingerbread for the
Syddall Fam 1st Biennial Gingerbread House Contest.

Then everyone went out to shop for any specifics they might need to make their house a winner.
Then it was time to assemble and decorate. There was a $50 Amazon gift card on the line.
This was so fun.

The results:

So, we had a little glitch with our voting system - we gave everyone an individual vote, and we should have had each house entry have only one vote. With our flawed voting system (and a 5 point bonus given for the house that Scarlett voted for - and it wasn't her mom and dad's), Tay and Nae came out on top. All of the houses were super impressive, so Bill and I decided that EVERYONE deserved a prize. EVERYONE'S A WINNER. Yay!

Late that night Bill, Mar, Shi, Kody and I went to check out the Castle Rock lights.
Shi and Kody were going home the next day (Saturday), so we were soaking up all the time we could with them.

Saturday, Nov. 30
We visited at Tay and Nae's house, shopped a bit, and Austin took missionary pics for Mar.

We had a brief half-birthday celebration for Scarlett.

And last-minute playtime for these cute kids.
Cousins are the best.

Austin, Britt, and fam headed out Sunday morning.
I loved spending time with my family.
It was, quite literally, the best of times.