2023 Started With a Bang

January is off to an eventful start. We have had some experiences I wish I could freeze--going to the ice castles and seeing Little Mermaid. We have also been able to spend time with so much family.

The Ice Castles in Midway, UT— Monday, January 16, 2023

Our tickets to the Ice Castles weren’t canceled this time! Yippee!! Jessica, Chris, and George joined us. We drove up Provo canyon in quite the blizzard. I had never been to the ice castles before. We were dressed in full-on snow gear and I highly recommend dressing warm. We had an amazing time! I’m having a hard time describing the atmosphere. It was simply magical. We even saw a bride and groom getting photos taken. There were classy lights, several outside heaters, reindeer, massive and tall ice castles, slides and tunnels, and signs explaining things. One of the signs said something like, “in one day, 10,000 icicles were used.” Another said, “there are over 25 tons of ice used.” 

The kids went down the slides on repeat. Crawling through ice tunnels was popular too. This event was perfect for them. Jessica knows me well and purposefully captured the kids eating their packed sack dinners. We stayed away from the churro and hot chocolate food trucks. Tickets to the castles are a bit expensive. (I have a coupon code if you’re looking at going.) Because of the amount of snow we’ve had this year, the Ice Castles were able to open early. They may stay open longer than usual too, but we’ll see. The ice castles turn colorful when it’s dark and we were able to see some of the colors which were cool. I don’t know if I’ll ever forget Chris’ comment, “Grandma got run over by a reindeer.” Ask him about it. What an experience. The kids were worn out! After our original tickets were canceled, I debated rebooking. Thank goodness I did! The pictures below capture pure joy. James' face is proof.

Dallin and Alysee’s Wedding in Payson, UT— Thursday, January 12, 2023

Most of Andrew's siblings came into town for Dallin and Alysee’s special day. Grannie even got permission to leave her mission in Chicago to come. The Payson temple is gorgeous and the sealing room was large! The sealing was short but tender and sweet. Dallin and Alysee cried and many others. The luncheon and wedding reception were in Provo. The food, company, and entertainment were great. I participated in a skit about Alysee with her other aunts. My line was, “My name’s Alysee Ditto, happy I will be, my name’s Alysee Ditto, a mother me! Babies, babies, everywhere, give me a dozen, I won’t care!” 

We enjoyed seeing so much extended family. I was able to chat with lots of Ditto cousins I haven’t seen in too long. Andrew and several of his brothers snuck out of the reception a little early to watch the BYU vs. Gonzaga basketball game. It was an exhausting day. We were gone for over 12 hours and got home at 9:30pm. Dallin and Alysee are an excellent match and couple and we had a good time celebrating them! Debbie stayed with us and Blayre’s family did for a couple of nights as well. Our nephew, Carter was baptized at our stake center while everyone was together. We packed in many other things too— the aquarium, the BYU bookstore, etc. I slept well after that busy weekend! I even slept in— what!

The Little Mermaid at Hale Center Theater in Sandy, UT— Saturday, January 7, 2023

I have heard rave reviews from many people about the production, “The Little Mermaid.” Of course, I wanted to go and bring the kids! The Hale Center Theater even did some special showings for children ages 3 and up. Cha-Ching! Tickets were basically sold out, so I spent many days searching for some on KSL. I snagged tickets when I had the chance.

The show lived up to the hype. Everything was incredible! After the opening scene, James worriedly asked me, “mom is it over already?” He didn’t want it to be the end. Watching the kids' expressions during the show was my favorite. James’ mouth was open for a large chunk of the show like he couldn’t believe it. One of Izzy’s first comments to me was, “Mom, mermaids don’t have legs. Why does Ariel have legs?” 

We got a couple of extra tickets for the show. We invited one of the kids' friends in our ward to join— Derek. I think Ursula was a bit scary for him. Grandma Denning also came with 10 minutes' notice. We got one more ticket than we thought. The music, sets, and costumes, were better than you can imagine.

January has been eventful in fun ways and unexpected/stressful ways too. More on that later. 

Holiday Season

Our Christmas decor is boxed up and back to gathering dust in the basement. We had an eventful holiday season.

We drove by Christmas lights and ate doughnuts. The kids devoured the doughnuts in record time. My jaw dropped at one of the houses. I guess the Piano Guys recorded a music video there. I can see why. Wow. I don’t think their neighbors in the cul-de-sac are thrilled about the traffic… they had a sign hanging from their porch telling people to keep their windows up and the volume down. The lights are timed to music and were spectacular. The line of cars to see the lights was manageable because it was snowy. I didn't know how well the kids would do sitting in the car for so long. They wanted more lights and we made 4 stops. Shout out to Best Buy for providing an emergency potty just in the nick of time. A distraught 3-yr old barely made it.

We kept the advent calendar and book tradition alive. The kids live for this! Each night, they open a wrapped Christmas book under the tree and enjoy a piece of chocolate while listening. This year James belly laughed at the chapter book, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” 

We took the kids on the “North Pole Express” train ride in Heber City. They got bells from the N. Pole, we sang Christmas songs on the train, hot chocolate and Suss cookies were served, and the kids met Santa. Those cookies made my night. My sweet husband even let me eat his cookie. The kids had endless questions for the elves. I'm glad I was persistent to get us tickets to this sold-out event.  I think our kids were the perfect ages. I don't see this being an annual tradition because it costs a pretty penny and my kids are growing up too fast.

Our neighborhood forgoes neighbor gifts. Instead, we buy toys for a local elementary school with needs. When you drop off the toys, Santa is there waiting with candy canes.

We continued our dollar store gift buying. The kids got to open these presents from each other on Christmas Eve. 

On Christmas Eve, we got Chinese takeout and rented the movie, “Lyle Lyle Crocodile.” Both the kids wanted seconds of Chinese food and James-- the bottomless pit--, even requested thirds. 

We had Christmas dinner at Jessica’s house. She is a fantastic hostess and also had her in-laws over. We sang Christmas carols, decorated cookies, and more. Jessica even had a hot chocolate bar. Oh and Chris made brisket. It was a top-notch meal and celebration. 

I was in charge of our ward Christmas program. This was a lot of work and I’m glad it’s over. There are many things you don’t think about that go into the program. The choir performed 2 songs (they practice in our home). We sang, “Were You There?” And “Can This Be the Child.” There was a beautiful piano duet of the song, “I Believe in Christ.” There was also a violin/viola duet of “Away in a Manger.”  I enjoyed picking music! The program ended with a piano solo by the best pianist I’ve heard (she has 3 master’s degrees), “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” Luckily, I have my mom. I used an old Christmas program she had written and we tweaked it a bit. I had a practice at my house with those in the program. There were 5 readers. So many people in my ward thanked me and stopped me after church. It went well! My parent’s even tuned in from Brazil and my grandma also watched which meant a lot to me. After, I dashed off to accompany Jessica in her ward Christmas program.

We found the best sledding hill! It has been snowing soooo much here! Andrew said it's the most he's ever seen in Utah. Izzy and I enjoyed racing against Andrew and James. 

I chose themed wrapping paper again. Isabelle had pink unicorn wrapping paper and James had superhero paper.

Someone did “The 12 Days of Christmas for Us.” I’ll admit, this kind of embarrassed me. I thought they did it because I gave an emotional testimony recently about what a challenging year it has been. I later learned that others in the neighborhood also received the "12 days of Christmas" which made me feel better. We got a piece of a nativity set each night. It was nice of this family to show us love and much to my chagrin, we didn’t catch them. I have never been more tempted to buy a fancy doorbell with a camera and even looked into it. 

Santa brought James got a battery-powered car to drive and Isabelle got a giant sandbox. The sandbox is massive. 250 pounds only fills part of it. The kids have been entertained for hours.

I made a google sheet and planned events for my family. I did a lot of hosting. Jill, Rob, and Daisy flew in after Christmas. We met my grandma at "The Crack Shack" for dinner one night. Another day I went with my sisters and grandma to see the movie, "The Fabelmans." The boys watched "Avatar" and I was relieved I didn't have to sit through that. Of course, we went thrifting at DI. We played games galore and Jill gave me an early birthday present, a great and easy game called "Just One." We had our sibling gift exchange one night and got matching jammies, had pizza, and our kids dressed up for the nativity. To add to the excitement, Covid made a grand entrance. Ugh.

James and Daisy are BFF's

Nana and Papa sent a package that was so generous. The grandkids got world cup shirts and monkeys.

We celebrated our 10-year anniversary! We did something I have always wanted to do. We went to a different restaurant for each course. We stopped at Salsa Leedos for an appetizer. We had street tacos and of course chips and salsa. We made our way to Texas Roadhouse. The wait was too long, so we put our names on the waitlist and headed to do sealings at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. We returned to Texas Roadhouse and it hit the spot. Steak and rolls. We ended the night at Leatherby's ice cream. We were quite full at this point, but still managed to split Traci's peanut butter cup sundae. We were so grateful that Jess and Chris babysat. It took a few days for our food comas to wear off. 

We had tickets to go to the Ice Castles in Midway on New Year's Eve. Due to the weather, they canceled our tickets which was a bummer. We're looking forward to going another time. Instead, we went to the aquarium and grabbed dinner with my family. The aquarium had a 4:00 New Years' Eve countdown and James was thrilled about the confetti. He collected some and its remnants are all over the car. Yippee. Loveland Living Aquarium had a promotion going and our tickets were already so expensive we learned they could count towards an annual pass. We got a pass. We live so close and our kids really liked the aquarium this time. I hope we use our new pass lots.

 

Izzy was upset it was raining.

It’s no secret that 2022 was trying. My word for 2022 is loss. I lost a baby and my parents in a sense. At one point, I felt pretty maxed out. In addition to infertility/healing from a miscarriage, I suddenly had terrible hives and was dealing with behavioral problems at school. This much I know. I need Jesus and have felt him more than ever in my life. My life and plans have not gone how I wanted them to in 2022, but I know things will work out. Here's to 2023!