Christmas Season Kickoff

 We took advantage of Mom's time here to enjoy the start of Christmasing.  Dec 1 was Anne's annual Suzuki concert at Temple Square, adding City Creek Center to the line-up as well.

 We picked up our favorite German deli sandwich makings for dinner while we were there, and then walked around to see the lights.

 The next day was a school choir concert (Spencer locked his knees during practice, so was home woozy the rest of the day)

 We also had fun doing a little shopping, soaking up more warm weather, and just being together.

It was SOOOO nice to have her here--almost a year to the day from when she last came for Jane's (VERY delayed) birth.  She seems to have limitless patience for the flurry of noise, chaos, questions, games, and activity.  It's so worth the half hour of heaving sobs on the way home from the airport when she leaves :(.
And, as if it's not hard enough to say goodbye, I came home to MICE!!!! **NO PICTURES***--not that there wasn't opportunity; I just didn't want to contaminate the camera!! There is so much construction going on in the fields around our neighborhood, that we've heard of neighbors finding them for months, and were so grateful to be spared.  We miss Cosmo more than ever! To boot, I was planning a surprise party for Emily that Friday, and wanted to be rid of them by then!! Some friends introduced us to sticky traps this go-round, and they ended up being very successful---under the oven, in the storage room, in the garage; I keep thinking we have them all, and then a trap in the garage finds another! BLECK!! Just talking about them makes me queasy!--I was in a pretty awful mood for a day or two--though as I greeted our YW president that night at activities, and told her after she said it'd been a long day, "Well, you can be grateful you're not dealing w/ mice on top of it all," and she replied, "I DO HAVE MICE!!" Shared burdens really do make them lighter ;).

Due to a Relief Society Dinner, cubscouts, piano, and violin, we didn't even eat together on Emily's birthday, but she did open her presents that morning over Cocoa Pebbles, and get to wear the party hat at piano.  We also went to decorate her locker, only to find her friends had already plastered it w/ notes and well-wishes :).  Emily's Surprise party the next day was not exactly a surprise, but it WAS a smashing success w/ great friends turning out, fun dinner w/ just her and Mom and Dad to Dragon Hill (Chinese) while Maddie and friend set up.  We had her birthday (chicken pillow/lime tart) dinner Sunday since the week was a wreck trying to find 2 minutes to eat together--she opened presents early the morning of her birthday (also Grandpa Priday's 100th!!), and then had a weekend of celebrating :).

We also had our annual Duncan Christmas party of decorating Gingerbread houses! We listened to the Christmas devotional in the background :).

 And when our 9th attempt at family pictures fell through (don't ask), the boys and I took some free tickets to the BYU Basketball game--played in SLC @ Energy Solutions! We had a blast!! I forgot how much fun college crowds can be!!--and HOW MUCH I LOVE TO SING "RISE AND SHOUT"!!!

As if the mice weren't enough of an interruption, we also had the WEEKLONG chore of switching cellphone providers!! For as advanced as technology is, it is ridiculous how complicated something that SHOULD be so simple can be!! Crazy headache, but we DID succeed, and at least the kids (down to Emily) are excited to finally be connected to the outside world.
We recycled all of our babyfood jars into 40 mini-snowglobes (like the carameled apples: first, and probably last time we enjoy that project!) and delivered those w/ a little caroling and lights-finding last night.

A week after Emily's birthday, we celebrated Jane's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We had yummy fresh gingerbread cake w/ whipped cream, and homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner :).  We LOVE having sweet Janey!! She is still practicing taking steps, making sounds, and gently exploring anything she can get her hands on.  She loves to say "BAA" to her nursery sheep (and all other animals), talks on the phone, brushes her hair, drops her head to cuddle, laughs and smiles and waves, and regularly makes our day.