2nd Week of December

We had our last activity days for 2024 on December 9th and last activity day ever for 5 of our girls. Of course, we wanted to have some Christmas fun with them and even though we had an extra 15 minutes that day, we still didn't have enough time to play our games, as usual. Snack time just takes up a lot of time, but we feel they need something since they're coming straight from school (at least most of them are).

Our little "Christmas tree" with a gift we put together for each girl. They had two wooden ornaments (one with a picture of them inside it), a Kit Kat candy bar, a packet of hot chocolate, and a candy cane.

We used the young women's room that's attached to the kitchen. All set up for snacks and crafts.

Some of our craft items and a game of Bingo that we never got to play.

Our group of girls all ready for a delicious snack.

Working on the crafts. I was so busy that I never got a picture of anyone, not even my girls, with their finished crafts. They made wreaths out of pipe cleaners and paper angels with nice paper.

Charlotte is getting the creative bug just like her big sister, Nikki. She made a Christmas pop up card for her dad, and I think she did a great job with it.

She loved making this so much, that she made more cards just like it for kids at school.

Our Relief Society Christmas dinner was on Tuesday the 10th. We had it at the Life Tributes Center again in downtown. I was asked to make 2 loaves of cranberry bread (that is basically artisan bread with nuts and cranberries added). I once again did a practice loaf beforehand, and it is very tasty! I brought them to the center early when I came to help set up. They had already decorated by the time I got there since I had gone to help Alice's class that morning with a Christmas art project. So, I helped them put together the chocolate mousse dessert cups. I also saw that they had the butter in dishes in the refrigerator. I said we need to get those on the table right now so they will be soft and spreadable by the time we eat dinner 5 hours later. I took it upon myself to do just that. I hate having hard butter when you're trying to spread it on a roll or bread. The butter was a little hard by dinner time, but it was still spreadable.

My boys did not sign up to help serve this year, which kind of surprised me because they had fun with it last year. It was mostly young women that came this time. First, we had our dinner and then they read a story called "Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect" where the pages were displayed on a screen. Then a man who was the son of one of the ward members came and played his violin and viola for us. He was amazing! We felt like we were at a professional concert. Afterwards, they passed out a gift of a framed picture of trees (to go with the story) that quoted a scripture "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me". It made for a great dinner night! 

I was given a chocolate bar for helping with the activity. I have never heard of this brand of chocolate before, but it was good. And that's the picture gift that was given to everyone. They had different colored frames, and I chose white.

On Wednesday the 11th, I finally got Charlotte in to see an eye doctor to check on her eyes. She had not been seen by anyone since before we moved, which was spring of 2022. I mostly held off because she was not good at wearing her glasses at school or for reading like she was supposed to. I didn't want to take her in and have them give her a new prescription and possibly frames if she wasn't going to wear them, but she did finally start wearing them at school this year. The simple eye test that they did at the wellness exam suggested that her eyes might be getting better because they said she had better sight than a year ago. Well, I decided to take her into an eye doctor after that to see if she would still need them. After we took her in, we found that her eyesight is actually a little worse. They were able to scan her glasses with a machine to see what prescription she has. She is far sighted and has astigmatism. The doctor said she should wear her glasses all of the time and that she should wear an eye patch over her left eye once a day for an hour to help strengthen her right eye. She also needs a new prescription. The right eye needs a stronger prescription, and the left eye needs a weaker prescription. The prescription may change again after she strengthens her eye. He said to do the eye patch every day for 3 months. After that, just once a month. I was able to order some cloth eye patches that slide over the top of her glasses and cover the side, so we won't have to use the sticky band aid type. She's been very good at remembering to do it herself.

I took pictures of her trying on glasses for new frames so she could see what she looked like. These are the new pair she ordered.

She didn't like the idea of having to wear her glasses all of the time now, but she has gotten used to it and actually likes to wear them. We still haven't received her new glasses yet because the office was closed from Christmas to New Years. She will likely get them later this week or next week.