Jan 5, 2025
Dear Gracie,
Happy Sabbath! Today was our first week with church at noon. Teenagers loved it. I prefer 10:30, as did the one year old Richards twins behind us, who were missing their naps. But we got to cuddle them for a while, until they both just preferred being with their mom. Dad had to leave for Mississippi early in the morning, so we're without him for a couple days. I had Emma with me in Primary, for the first week with our new class. I'm actually co-teaching with Dad, and we have my class from last year plus the other half of the kids that age. It had been split before, but because there are so many Primary kids needing classrooms, they joined our age (the 6-turning-7 year olds) back together. We have 15 kids, and all except one are active, though today we only had 10 there (plus the grandpa of our sweet autistic boy). Our classroom was full, but it wasn't chaotic, as I feared it might be. It will be an adventure this year, for sure!
On Monday, it was our Stake's turn to provide music for the Giving Machine in McKinney, and back in November Sis. Reese asked our family if we could sing carols for 30 minutes. Well, plans changed and Dad ended up being in Utah, Benson was at his Winter Camp, and Scott and Kaitlyn were already back in Utah too, so I asked Joseph's family if they could join us, and thankfully they could! When we arrived, there was maybe one person there who was not a volunteer, so I was glad we wouldn't have much of an audience, but as we sang, more and more people showed up to use the machines, until there were about 20 non volunteers. We were just singing the Christmas hymns acapella (Michael was so cute holding his own hymn book very seriously with the rest of us), but I think it turned out nicely. After singing and then using the giving machines, we walked down the street and had pizza together. It was really a great way to end our Christmas activities.
On Tuesday (New Year's Eve!) we (as you know) got to spend a lot of time with you on your call. It was fun watching the fireworks there, looking into your secret cupboard, and playing the letter game with you. It's amazing that you got to meet up with G&G Danielson in Hamburg! The bombed out church and the wave roof building looked so interesting. Dad got home early in the morning, and Benson got back from his camp at about noon. (He had a pretty good trip, except for the storms one day, which forced everyone to shelter in place for five hours. Benson was in a small woodshop with a lot of other people, but he said they played card games and made the best of the situation. His things didn't get wet, because he had put his tent on a platform.) The Havenars invited us over for fireworks in the evening, starting at about 7 pm. If you've never gone to their house, it's directly across the street from Lavon Lake, so we set them off in the road and they went up over the water. It was fun to watch the fireworks all around the lake, too. The night was a bit chilly, but we had hot chocolate and a fire to keep us warm. We visited until about 10 and came back home to warm up and watch Harry Potter. (The kids are trying to get through all eight movies during the break.) They didn't want to stop the movie at midnight, so we just wished each other a happy new year, and I went to bed while everyone else finished the movie.
On Wednesday, everyone slept in and we totally forgot about the Rose Parade until the next day! And actually, two of the kids said, "What's the Rose Parade?" So I guess that tradition is not a notable one over here any more. We wished Timmy Happy Birthday (he's 8!), cleaned up the Christmas decorations, and then we drove Tessa out to Brei's house, and Dad, Emma, Caytie, Benson and I went to Rockwall to play disc golf. The weather was pretty good and it wasn't overly muddy. It was really nice to be outside walking around. We had Mod Pizza for dinner.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the lovely mushy days where you can't keep track of anything. Benson had a couple percussion lessons with Jeffrey Porter. Tessa finished her online drivers permit test, so now we can gather all the paperwork and set up her appointment. Caytie finally got bored enough to work on her art, and we cleaned out her room and the coat closet. Emma gathered all her things to prepare to go back to Idaho. We had the missionaries over for dinner. (They're the same ones that were here when you left! They like to keep track of how you're doing.) I had piano students show up, as they were supposed to, but I had forgotten. Thankfully we hadn't gone anywhere at that time and I was able to hurry and put on real clothes to give them their lessons. Dad mowed the lawn and put all the stuff out for bulk pick up. The weather dropped from 50 degrees on Saturday to 28 degrees currently (Sunday evening), with a really, really cold wind. We found our Christmas tree had blown into the street after church today, so we stuck it between some things so it would stay until the bulk trash gets picked up. Hopefully it works.
Funny story-- we have been getting ready to start school on Monday, but today I got a message from a piano family asking if we had lessons on Monday since there was no school. I checked, and sure enough, Monday is a teacher development day, so the kids don't go back until Tuesday! I didn't tell them until we were on the way to church. I asked if they were ready for school on Monday, and they all said, "NO!!!" I said, "Well, that's okay--you can stay home and go back on Tuesday!" I am really glad we figured it out before seminary on Monday morning, which is supposed to be really cold. Everyone's excited about their "bonus" day off. (Well, Emma and I are still getting up early to head to the airport for her journey back to BYUI.)
We love you, Gracie! I hope you have the best day, week, January, and year that you've had yet! And even on the days that don't feel like the best (because there are a lot), you can look for and count the little blessings, because there are always some somewhere.
Love,
Mom
76 degrees while performing outside? Yes, please. But those 30 degree days?? Yikes.
Fireworks (I promise ☺)
Grandma and Grandpa Danielson visiting Gracie in Hamburg!!
Disc golf on a crowded course. It was a lovely first-day-of-the-year afternoon, though!
). We went for a walk together and then went to the AT&T store to get a new phone for me, but the salesperson said I should wait until the new phones are released early next year, because I'd get a better trade-in deal. So that gift is on hold. We went out for lunch at Texas Steakhouse and used a gift card we'd received, and it was soooooo good! I had a school district meeting in the afternoon, then we had a light dinner and a Nothing Bundt Cakes chocolate peppermint chunk cake (soooooo good!), and went to a ward choir practice (where I received music for a musical number the young men would be singing on Sunday). The best present of the day was talking with you, and seeing that you made it safely to GERMANY! I love to be able to see you on my map (and it was super fun to wake up at 5 am and see you in Paris on your layover!), and video calls are a wonderful thing. My momma heart was put at ease.
) We went out to eat dinner at Cotton Patch Café to celebrate.
