Finalizing things here before we head to Maryland.

Last week was a doozy.  This week was better.  Mike got his grades from the semester.  He got straight A's!  I'm gonna brag for a second too.  His teacher sent out an email saying that he was disappointed in some of the final results and that Mike and three other students did the best and then he posted Mike's answers for the rest of the class to see how he expected their answers to be in the future.  It's actually quite funny because Mike told me multiple times while he worked on the final that he really wasn't giving good answers he didn't think he would do very well on the final.  He has been so helpful this week.  I volunteered at Eli's class party last Friday and Isaac's this Friday.  I was able to get Christmas shopping done and and take Piper to a four hour long doctor's appointment all because Mike was home.  It's been so nice. He has been working for our business every day, all day and I have been working off and on, mostly helping with the sanding, staining, and shipping.  I have had things to do for my calling and baking for a cookie exchange at scouts, and other random things that needed to be done.  

On Monday I baked a bunch of sugar cookies and we invited just a few friends over for a hot chocolate bar and cookie decorating party.  Let me just say, I am the worst cookie maker ever.  Seriously.  My cookies looked like biscuits.  I've never been a great baker.   

Last Friday we read  one of our Christmas books called Bear Stays Up and then we let the boys sleep near the Christmas tree.  They thought it was a great idea but none of them slept well that night.  Piper thought she was going to get to sleep down with them and was disappointed when I made her say goodnight and sleep in her bed.  

As mentioned, Mike has been working hard on nativities, silhouettes, and temples this week.  The Manti temple took him about 12 or 15 hours.  I just gave him feedback--helped him decide what things to include in the temple and then I helped stain it.  The Idaho Falls temple took about 8 hours.  I helped with the clean up and it wasn't too bad and then stained that one as well.  My job was the easy one.  Thankfully, now that the temples are done, when someone orders that temple again, we won't have to put in that many hours, just the hours of cutting and then the clean up.

Today the boys had two basketball games.  Last week they had three and it consumed our entire day.  Today we had one early in the morning and then later in the day.  Both boys won their games and both boys made improvements.  Will got some good rebounds and even stole the ball once and he was super proud of himself.  All the coaches and parents cheered for him and he was so happy.  Then after the game the coach told the kids that Will was by far the best defender of the day and made a big deal about Will's performance.  He felt so happy and I really was so grateful that everyone cheered for him and made him feel good, especially since the last thing he said to me before he walked into the gym was, "Now you get to see how bad I am at this, Mom."  It makes me sad that he feels so self-conscience about it.  I told him that he just needs to have confidence and do his best and he did so I think it was a pretty successful experience for him.  He only got to play about three minutes last week and this week they kept him in for an entire quarter so that is good.  Isaac also made a lot of improvements.  Last week he was kind of stiff and uncertain but this week he got right in there and blocked and rebounded and dribbled.  He's doing better and better.  I think for their second games ever in their entire life, they are doing great.  After the games they went right back outside to practice some more.  Mike spent a good hour out in the cold with them practicing drills and they all came in happy and ready for hot chocolate.  They really love playing basketball.

Tonight we were supposed to have our Christ-Centered Christmas dinner.  We invited two families but then they all got sick!  We are sick too (Eli and I are sick at least) so it ended up being better for me to not have to stress about making this special night happen.  I am disappointed that it isn't going to happen now but we bought them presents and we will take them their presents to church tomorrow.  It is my favorite of our Christmas traditions so again, I'm disappointed but also, I'm relieved to not have to stress about it.

We are packing up and heading to Maryland on Monday.  I am so looking forward to spending the holidays with Mike's family.  I need a break from all the stress of this past month and I'm just excited to spend time with the family and rest.