Christmas Day Dec. 25, 2021

 What a wonderful Christmas we had this year! Everyone received gifts they loved and we were blessed beyond measure. Not pictured is the amazing electric fireplace Richard gave me to use in our freezing cold bedroom. He nailed it!

Leading up to Christmas 2021

John flew home safely on December 17th! Richard picked him up from the airport on his way back from Waterloo and drove him straight to our ward Christmas party. The next day Jeremy, Sarah, and Ben went to see Spiderman No Way Home in the theater while John hung out with Dad, Sam, and I. On Sunday the 19th we performed a quartet in church with Richard on sax, Alina on clarinet, Jeremy on cello, and Sarah on flute.

On December 20, Sam and Ben had a piano recital at Rieman Music in Urbandale. They did an incredible job!

On the evening of December 22, Ben broke his right hand after hitting the concrete floor in the basement as part of a game with Sam. President Morales had give our stake a goal to have everyone index 500 names (except the Primary which had a goal of 100) and our whole family did it! Except John who was at college but even he did some indexing :) Richard had promised everyone a fantastic dinner if we reached our goal, so we all went to eat Hibachi in Ames. Yum!

On December 23 we decorated Gingerbread houses. Don't they look awesome?!

On Christmas Eve morning we took our family to see Encanto, courtesy of Grandma and Papa Tolbert!

For years we have had the tradition of having the missionaries over on Christmas Eve for dinner, acting out the nativity, and sharing a stocking with gifts for the missionaries, sibling gifts, and a Christmas Eve present. This year our missionaries were Elder Kelly and Elder Mikesel. I tried making some new wise men costumes which you will see below. This year Sarah drew/painted a meaningful picture for everyone and Sam made origami for all his siblings. Before bed we read 'The Night Before Christmas" by Jan Brett. What a wonderful day leading up to Christmas!

John December 2021

John's first half of hi senior year has been hard with 6 classes! He's still smiling and really enjoyed going to Los Hermanos with my parents on his way to the airport to come home for Christmas!

Sarah Dec 2021

Sarah has had a busy December! She's been attending after school improve two days a week, been going to flute and flute group classes, got an award at ACHS for academic excellence, had her band concert on the 13th, interviewed at HyVee on the 16th, had a flute recital at Grandview University on the 18th, went to see Spiderman No Way Home with Ben and Jeremy that evening, attended The Sound of Music to support Ingrid Oakley, went to a flute white elephant party, went to the Hintz's white elephant party, and played with many friends!

Ben's 7th Grade Band Concert Dec 2, 2021

 Ben has been playing percussion this year and recently joined the jazz band where he plays the piano. I was thrilled with his performance where he played Timpani, Bells, and Bass drum. The conductor suggested we get ice cream after the performance so we headed to Orange Leaf!

Thanksgiving with the Tolberts in North Carolina November, 2021

This year for Thanksgiving we drove to Pinnacle, NC to be with Papa & Grandma, and Jeremy & April & Joshua & Leah. Because they are all living in one house while Jeremy and April build, we stayed in a nearby Air BnB. The food was great, the land was beautiful, the kids had fun playing together, we enjoyed exploring the old cabin, and we loved being with family!