At the barn.

Oh my. So much to catch up on.
I'll start with Christmas and New Years at the barn.
The 2018 Syddall Family Extravaganza.
Primarily a pictorial, with limited commentary
(hah... let's see if I can do it).

December 24th
Bill, Mar and I headed to Wyoming on Christmas Eve. We were meeting up with Shi and Kody for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, then the rest of the fam would be coming in on the 26th.

We were packed to the brim. Bill and Kody loved that they could wash off the cars in the nice warm garage once we arrived.

Mar started things off by jumping on the tramp.

My mom had sent up a little tree with Shi and Kody that she wanted to have kept at the barn, so it served nicely for our Christmas tree. We had a few British ornaments of Shilo's that we had brought to give to her, so they were our sole decorations (other than the crystal angel my mom had left on the tree). It was perfect.

We played games, put together a puzzle, and enjoyed a yummy dinner of {Costco} lasagna.

Then we opened our Christmas Eve gifts.

December 25th

Santa gifts.

After a nice, relaxing Christmas morning, 

and a yummy breakfast,

we headed out to test the snow.

Yep, it was cold.

Later that day we went to the theater {also the bowling alley} in Afton to see Aquaman. It was either that or Mary Poppins Returns, which Bill, Mar and I had already seen. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the show ;-)

The theater/bowling alley just happens to be right across the street from this beautiful structure:

We had to stop to snap a {blurry - my bad} selfie in front of the festively decorated

world's largest elk horn arch.

It was such a fun day.

December 26th

The rest of the family joined us after traveling from Parker and Castle Rock, CO (Jason and Lex had spent Christmas at our house), and Eagle Mountain, UT. We were so excited to have everyone together!!

We had our traditional Christmas brisket, creamed carrots, and roasted potato dinner.

Afterwards we had a gift exchange and the grandkids opened their gifts from Little Billy and Gigi.

December 27th

Lots and lots of game playing.

And we attended a session at the Afton, Wyoming Temple.

December 28th

Sledding with the littles.

They may {or may not} have enjoyed it.
And more game playing.

Later that day MeeMaw and PawPaw (Great Grandma and Grandpa Goldsberry), and Matt,{+Christian, Larkin, and Lincoln} joined us at the barn.

Our favorite photographer, Austin, scouted out places and times to snap some family pics. Then we all got ready and ventured into the freezing cold afternoon in hopes of getting some beautiful photos.

 (Scarlett had a mini meltdown right as pictures were getting started, so Little Billy helped out by practicing her photo smile with her. Seriously... this couldn't be cuter!)

Austin nailed it.

We had a yummy roast dinner.

I got some major snuggle time with my boy M.

The next morning we had scones -- a Goldsberry Family barn tradition.

We ate the equivalent of 8 loaves of bread, haha. Top that {wink}.

Matt brought up his snowmobiles (Marty came later that day with another one). The snow was perfect for some great rides.

I had to snap a pic of this sweet girl taking an impromptu nap...

We had a fun white elephant exchange that evening, then Mar and Tay performed {the Christmas version of} Hallelujah for us.

Then we celebrated Tay and Nae's 7th Anniversary with cake and ice cream.

December 30th

Austin, Britt and fam headed home.

We attended church at a local ward.

More snowmobiling, more game playing, more relaxing.

December 31st

For as long as I can remember, my mom would point out a building in town and tell me that my grandfather built it. She had worked at a cafe/soda shop (the Valleon) in the building as a teenager. I had never been inside, so thought it would be fun to have lunch at the diner there.

The food was great, and it was such a fun thing to do. My dad had never even been inside before.

I'm totally going back.

We got in some last minute snowmobiling.

Then got ready to ring in the New Year.

Marty and his girlfriend Katy.

I had to get this pic of Mar... since this is THE YEAR.

The year she becomes an adult.

The year she graduates from high school.

The year she {most likely} gets a mission call.

She's got some good things happening in 2019.

A few people hit the hay early (WHAT?)... MeeMaw and PawPaw, Marty, and Katy. The rest of us played lots of games, visited, and ate ourselves silly waiting for the proverbial Mountain-Standard-Time ball drop.

When it finally arrived, we toasted, celebrated gently (Emmett was sleeping in the next room), then went to bed. Except for Little Billy, who decided to stay up to watch The Incredibles 2 (crazy guy).

January 1st

The next morning peeps headed out.

We cleaned up the barn and got ready to leave, too.

Bill and Mar headed back to CO, Lex, Emmett and I were driving to UT so Lex {and I} could attend the baby shower of Hailey, one of her best friends, the next weekend.

Before we left, MeeMaw got some snuggle time, too.

It was such a great time together.

"Things like this I want to save." (Little Billy)

Sing, Choirs of Angels.

Mar's Christmas concert was on Tuesday.

She told me that day that she had emailed her middle school choir teacher and invited her to attend.

Wow. That girl has some initiative (she didn't get it from me haha). And, Mar informed me, her middle school choir teacher {Mrs. Alexander} was planning to come.

Mar had also mentioned here and there that she was on track to get a solo or two.

Awesome.

The other neat thing about this concert is that choir alumni are invited to attend, and each choir sings a selection that is repeated EVERY YEAR which the alumni are invited onto the stage to sing along with the current choir. Did that make sense? (I'm having a hard time making sense lately, especially when I'm trying to cram a lot  - including keeping up with the blog - into a limited space of time.) I missed this concert last year due to wedding prep, so it was kinda new to me, even though I remember Mar trying to explain it to me last year.

Anyway, Mar DID have a few solo parts, and I recorded nearly every selection, so in an effort to simplify things I will try to narrow things down. Just as a reminder... Mar currently participates in THREE choirs at school.

RED HOT
(Choir #1)

This is an all-girls jazz choir. They have been invited to participate in CMEA in January, which is a big deal. I believe they will be performing Black Horse and a Cherry Tree (which I think I have already posted from the last concert), and possibly some/most of the pieces they performed at this concert. I'll just share my favorite :-)

Crazy in Love (Mar has a scat solo)

Aaannnndd the alumni piece

(last year Red Hot was a mixed jazz choir, and this year they have a men-only jazz choir that only meets once a week...thus the dudes)
I'll Be Home For Christmas

Versailles

(Choir #2)
Women's Choir

Gaudete! (Mar has a solo)

And the alumni piece (posting because I think this is such a cute song)

Go Where I Send Thee

Voices of the Pride

(Choir #3 - "Voices" or "VOP" for short)
Mixed Choir

March of the Kings

The alumni piece... nice and short - because nothing says Christmas like
Carol of the Bells

I was actually quite surprised at how many alumni come back to sing at this concert, and it was a little weird to think that Mar will be an alum next year. IF she hasn't left for a mission yet, she may very well be singing in next year's concert.

And who did Bill and I sit by?

Mrs. A.
It was so sweet of her to come.

The last time Mar and Mrs. A. had a picture together was the end of Mar's 8th grade year.

Circa 2015

I can't believe the first half of Mar's senior year is over.
That was fast.
As it were unto us a dream.

Speaking of time passing quickly, Happy Anniversary to this cute couple.

#LightTheWorld

I have a ton of catch up, so I'm throwing a lot in this one little post. You can skim, if you'd like.

Friday, Nov 30

I had two of my beloved friends, Marci and Lindsey, over for a girls afternoon of tea (herbal, of course), scones, clotted cream (made by yours truly), lemon curd, and raspberry preserves. We watched Mamma Mia 2, since neither of them had seen it. These two cute sisters grew up next to neighbors from England, so they love a good proper English tea (I called mine an American English tea haha). It was a lovely mid-day reprieve and was SO. FUN. 

Our dear friends, the Leaks, were leaving the next morning for the MTC to begin their 18 month mission to the Philippines. We had unfortunately missed their farewell because we were dropping kids at the airport, and I wanted to send them off knowing we loved them and would miss them. I gathered a couple of my favorite families together (the Weeds and the Stewarts, who were feeding the missionaries that evening, so invited them along, which was perfect), and we sang God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again, followed by "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah for Israel!"
It was sweet. #LightTheWorld

 Afterwards, we hurried back to Castle Rock to attend a fun live nativity our friends, The Caubles, were doing with the neighborhood kids. It, too, was sweet. #LightTheWorld

 Friday was a good day.

Saturday, Dec 1
Bill, Lex, Emmet and I went downtown for the Parade of Lights.

The last time we were at the Parade of Lights was to watch Britt perform with her dance school. It's a darn shame we haven't gone since. Thanks, Lex, for the suggestion!

Circa 2004

Circa 2004

Emmett got an adorable new hat for such a time as this. Actually, it's M that's adorable... he would make any ol' hat look cute!

Mar had something else going on that night, so Bill, Lex, M and I made the drive downtown. Once we arrived, I realized that I had left my coat at home (WHAT?? So typical of me lately). Luckily, I had brought a scarf, hat, and gloves, so I survived the chilly night.

It was a fun evening, and since we bowed out a tad early, it was an easy, low(ish)-traffic drive home.

Thursday, December 6
My sister J's Birthday. She would have been 42.
I thought about her a lot.
(Also probably why I loved the video we showed the last day of seminary... Hallelujah. More on that later in the post.)

Mauri had ThesCon, so was in downtown Denver Thursday thru Saturday.
What is ThesCon you ask? Short for the Colorado High School Thespian Convention. A fun three days of high school shows, acting/singing/dance/etc workshops, and evaluations of individual events. Mar loved it, of course. She also had the opportunity to answer some gospel questions from her 3 roommates and show them the video of The First Vision. #LightTheWorld

Lex, M and I went shopping that evening. M took a test ride sit of this little beauty. He wasn't quite sure what to think about it.

If this little Bubby doesn't #LightTheWorld, I don't know what does.

Friday, December 7

Bill and I attended this fun show in Parker

It was great to spend 90 minutes just laughing. The pre-show comedian was a hoot, too.

Saturday, December 8

Finally a couple of pictures of Mar... just chillin' with M and Jack.

Jack the dog, not Jack the boyfriend (who is no longer the boyfriend, btw).

That night Bill and I offered to take care of M overnight so Lex could catch up on some sleep.

We pretty much kept him in the basement and snoozed with him on the couch. We'll call it an official Gigi and Little Billy sleepover haha. #LightTheWorld

Tuesday, December 11

Seminary Assessment day.

Our Stake decided to do the assessment online for the first time. I thought it was the coolest thing - the students received their score immediately, and we, the teachers, could print out a fantastic report that showed what percentage of the class answered each question correctly. That gave us an opportunity to reemphasize the areas that more students struggled in as we reviewed the test the following day. A couple of the kids couldn't access the online test for one reason or another, so we had a few take a paper test. I love how the Church is using technology these days.

And I love these kids. #LightTheWorld

Friday, December 14
The last day of seminary for the semester.

We combined with the other sophomore class and made waffles for breakfast, then each teacher took a few minutes for a spiritual Christmas-centered thought. For our portion of the morning, we showed this video (even though it was technically created for Easter, it fit perfectly with our message)



and then we asked Mar if she would play and sing the Christmas version of the popular song Hallelujah.

I love that she is always so willing to share her talents. #LightTheWorld


That evening was our ward Christmas party, A Night in Bethlehem.
The decorations were darling, and each family was asked to bring a blanket and a basket for dinner. I thought this was a fabulous way to serve dinner to a ward.

The youth were in charge of the program, which included reading from the scriptures and singing hymns. It was perfect.

Mar held one of her YW leaders' new baby... and put her to sleep. We chuckled a tiny bit about the position of her hand, which her mama said she naturally does fairly frequently haha.

And, like every good ward Christmas party, Santa showed up after the closing prayer.

This is a great group of kids from our ward (except for Mar's friend Jake, aka The Grinch, who is in another ward, but asked Mar to pick him up from the school in the middle of our ward party because he didn't have a car. Um... yeah... a likely story).

 Ahhhhh... my baby sitting on Santa's lap again. So sweet.

Aaaannnddd my other baby sitting on Santa's lap. Suh-weet.

Sunday, December 16

The Syddall's 1st Neighbor Christmas Social.

It was a bit last minute, but something I had thought about for quite a while. We wanted to get to know some of our neighbors a little better, and thought this would be a fun way to do it.

Saturday morning I printed up some quick invites and Bill handed them out.

We made cookies and other yummy food,

and had 6 of the 15 families invited show up.

I'd call that a #LightTheWorld success.
Most of the adults stayed in our tiny kitchen even though the rest of the house was clean and ready.  I'll admit I may have been missing my beloved Parker home kitchen for a few moments. It was so fun to visit with and get to know some of our neighbors better.

We handed out our quick-n-trusty sparkling ciders as a take-home gift.
All I had to do was tweak the year (the last time we did these must have been 2014), print, then tape.

I also put together some homemade Christmas candy bags for our ministering families and other friends. Just try'na #LightTheWorld, that's all. I can't even begin to tell you about my candy-making disasters this year (I had at least 4 batches that went straight to the trash can = at least 4 lbs. of butter + sugar + chocolate + almonds + peanuts). Not only did I waste a boatload of time, I was literally throwing muh money in the garbage.

I make candy at Christmas because it reminds me of my grandma, my family, and my childhood. And because I love to eat it, which I could clearly do without.
I may just defer to the sparkling cider from here on out.

 My Christmas shopping and wrapping is done {sigh of relief}.

We are taking a trip to Wyoming for the Syddall Family Extravaganza. I'm so excited (the whole fam will be there), but still have a lot to do to be ready. I'm hoping to get a family picture, so will be sending New Year cards instead of Christmas cards this year... watch for them!