With New Year's Day being on a Sunday, the Hadfield family bowled on New Year's Eve.  We went to an alley in Lehi that is fairly new.  It was a lot of fun.  We played two games, and even though I did alright both times, my consistency paid off and I .... won? took second? ugh, I need to blog more frequently.... anyway, I did really well with the combined score over both games :)  After bowling, we had pizza at Laurie's.  We didn't stay terribly long because we had to make it back to Provo where Curtis and Jackie were putting on a small recital of music by Franz Liszt.

Since this wasn't a recital put on for school, we could stall waiting for us and then waiting for Melody's car to arrive...and then find the room :)  It was the first time I'd gotten to hear Jackie play in person.  She's amazing :)  So, apparently 2011 marked the 200th birthday of the Hungarian-born composer.  Jackie just returned from a mission to Hungary, and there have been celebrations of all sorts all year.  She really wanted to put on one, so on the last day of the year, she and Curtis were able to perform some of Liszt's music for friends and family.  It was very good, and very cute :)  Matt and I both expected Curtis to pull out a ring... but he disappointed us :)

Later that evening, we attended a party at our friends Joe and Susan's house.  We played games, ate yummy food, and caught up with friends.  Because we're old and boring (and I had to finish sharing time stuff for Sunday), we left early.  At home, I created an awesome CTR shield for primary, and we watched The Big Bang Theory (love that show!).  We heard some fireworks go off and figured it must be midnight, but when we checked the clock, it was 12:30am.  Our neighbors fail. :)

Right, so on New Year's Day, being Sunday, we had church.  I was in charge of sharing time, and since January had 5 weeks, we decided to do an introduction to theme on the first week.  (In case you're wondering, the theme for 2012 is Choose the Right :))  My idea was short in terms of time it ended up taking, but the kids had fun, and I bonded with one of the boys in senior primary over it :)

First, I talked about what it means to choose the right and why we should do it.  Then I pulled out my shield, and we talked about the function of a shield (protection).  Then we made the connection that choosing the right protects us from temptation and sin.  To demonstrate, I had one child hold the shield while I shot "temptation" darts (nerf darts :)) at them.  I had the other kids tell me some temptations they might be faced with, and those were what they had to "choose the right" to protect themselves from.  They thought it was awesome.  Matt also thoroughly enjoyed telling people I shot the kids in primary :)

This year, Christmas fell on Sunday.  What more appropriate day, right? But I must admit, I felt a bit Catholic going to an hour of church on Sunday... tee hee.

Christmas was low-key for us because we had no money, so Matt and I didn't do presents for each other.  The only gifts we did were the obligatory ones (family gift exchanges), parents, and grandparents.  Grandparents got lucky I found something cute to make on Pinterest ;)

However, while we did our Black Friday shopping (on Saturday - that was when the sales we wanted were active, super nice!) we also went to Petco, so our 'kids' got stockings of goodies this year.

I'm back! And now it is time to finish up December's posts so we can move onto January!

We unfortunately missed the Biggs/Christiansen party on Dec. 3rd.  Matt was sick and I didn't want to go on my own.  It was nice, however, that we had Christmas parties all throughout the month.  We only had one double-booking, which was on Dec. 10, 2011.

That was the Hadfield party.  It was supposed to be a breakfast, but it ended up closer to lunchtime.  The food was tasty and we got to chat with family.  Unfortunately, our visit was cut short because we had to be back in Payson to set up for the ward party around 2pm. (The party itself was at 6pm).  It was still nice we were able to go and actually get to eat before leaving ;)  Afterward, we headed home and back to the church to set up.

Matt and I were asked to be on the Christmas Party Committee for the ward party.  The bishopric wanted to re-focus on the real meaning of Christmas, so there was no Santa Claus.  Matt and I were in charge of the program, and we did a reading of the Santa Whispered, Teach the Children story.  It turned out really well.

For those not familiar, it's a story where the narrator encounters Santa on Christmas Eve, and he is sad.  He asks the narrator to teach the children the true meaning of Christmas, and goes through different symbols of Christmas and how they relate to Christ.  In our telling, Santa was the final symbol.  We also interspersed some music into the program.  It was good times.  Everyone enjoyed it and it turned out well.