Things I want to remember from our 2015 Christmas trip...

1. Maddy: "I can say a good prayer!" and she does...including, "Bless Mommy to lose weight."
2. Seeing my mother prepare 24-7 for her RS lesson. I now know where I get my obsessive, over-the-top, perfectionism.
3. Making chocolate chip cookies with Will and Maddy. Aye yi, yi. The beater turned on when it was up in the air and the dough splattering everywhere. That was OK 'cause Brittany cleaned up the floor.
4. Joshua: photobombing. Every time I would aim to shoot a picture, at the exact moment I wanted to click, this little naked boy's face would pop up right in front of my camera.
5. Joshua: calling his daddy, "Honey" because that is what his mommy calls him.
6. Family Home Evening with Linda's family: Will would conduct as if he was a bishop, using the exact terminology as in sacrament meetings and calling on his parents using their entire names. At the end, Josh stood up next to him and mimicked everything he said. I will remember that Dave was giving this very spiritual lesson (for the 3rd week in a row according to Will) on baptism...primarily for Will and keeping a straight face while Will licked the entire inside of both hands. what I will remember most, though is when everyone, including Will and Maddy, bore their testimonies.
7. Christmas at Linda's with the Johnson family, my mom, and Mike and I. No one was on their I-phone or computers...during the lunch or conversations afterward. We truly enjoyed each other with full attention. The children ate unattended with no problems, then they played for hours with play dough so peacefully.
8. The New Year's Eve Party at Linda's. Wow, she had everything all planned to entertain the kids. I was so impressed. We had her brother-in-law over there, whose wife fixed a Puerto Rican feast.
9. Watching the Rose Bowl Parade at my Mom's house. That was a tradition I always enjoyed.
10. How long the commercial times were on New Years Day games. Dave had a commercial-free app and during commercials, the TV just had a screen showing till after the commercials.
11. Playing games with the kids. Chutes and Ladders with Will and ??, Trouble with Hannah and Abigail.
12. Will's baptism. I was worried that it would not be special because it was a Stake Baptism and no one was on the program from our family, but it was special. The Stake Primary had interviewed each of the children and introduced them up front. Will was the last one to be introduced and when he was almost up to the podium it became obvious he discovered the projector and he was studying the wiring and when she called his name he was not there. Where was he? He had ducked down below the rail to follow the wiring and see where it was connected. It was very apropos that the thing he is best at was "electronics". After the baptism of Will by his father, the family members were ushered into a separate room for Will's confirmation where everyone wrote their testimonies or a message to Will on 3 x 5 cards while he was dressing.  After the confirmation, the Primary president got up and shared two special stories about Will, and every grandparent was invited up to bear their testimony to Will. It was very special. Family pictures afterward, then we all went out to eat. On Sunday, Will was called up to the front to recognize him. He walked up so reverently with fold arms, then saw Mike and I and waved. After the recognition, he continued to walk to his seat reverently after a brief leap down 3 steps. That's my Will.
13. The Vocabulary Word of the Week. Linda has a chalk board in the kitchen with the vocabulary word of the week. We tried out the word 'eager' by using it in a sentence and they recognized the word. The next week it was 'tedious'. So impressed by her diligence in educating her children!
14. Finding Josh. If you didn't watch him, he not only was up the stairs and outside, or he was hiding in a closet.
15. Poor little Ally falling down the stairs.
16. Emma sharing her gift, by letting all the girls color it. Maddy sharing her gift by letting all the kids play with her play dough.
17. Going to the LDS History Museum. Wow. I was so impressed by the Joseph Smith Museum down stairs, but the Art Show upstairs with pictures of Jesus was awesome. There was an art room for children upstairs and downstairs there were many interactive items for children to do to help them understand the translating of the Book of Mormon. I particularly liked the translation booth where you wrote what was said with a model of a quill pen (having to fill it with ink) all the while remembering what was said. It then calculated how long it would take you to translate the Book of Mormon vs. how long it actually took. I also liked the type-setting section where you had to put the type-setting letters reversed and in reverse order. I love that place.
18. Going music shopping with Linda.We played music and went through many pieces. Afterward, Linda and I sat down to practice directing the pieces. I am so happy she has this opportunity to direct. She is so teachable. I hope she can take college courses to take her further, but I showed her many things from my college courses and she got them.
19. As always, curling up with novels. These trips are always a joy to actually take time to read fiction. I love it. I actually got extra time because of the snow.
20. Watching a show about my mom's family and listening to the recordings of when we were children with my mom.
21. Watching "Once I was a Beehive" with Linda's family. Watching Silent Night with Mom.
22. Playing Telestrations with Janet, Linda, Susan, Errolyn.
23. Josh sitting on my lap mimicking everything I do. I blew my nose and of course I always wipe each nostril with my finger in the Kleenex when I'm done. He looked at me, looked around, then stuck his finger in his nose.
24. Don't ever drive a pick up truck in the snow. Every one I saw did not have enough weight in the back and swerved all over the road when they hit ice or snow.
25. Maddy running out with tears when we were leaving.