Daddy Daughter Weekend

 Our ward has a tradition of having a daddy daughter dance. We hadn't had one for a while and so when it came up this year, Allen was excited to let Jill know. She was as excited about it and decided to come down to Calgary for it. It was so fun to see how excited Allen was about it. 

When she arrived on Saturday we all went shopping. Jill has some gift cards she hadn't used so she tried to get them all used up. She found some great things: shoes for spin class that hook to the bikes as well as some beautiful clothes from Uniqlo. 

After shopping, Allen and Jill went to the party. Allen said, as usual, Jill was the life of the party - leading girls in lots of fun line dances and other songs. 

After that, of course, they went to a movie. Over the years, they've often done that after Peirce and I go to bed. Peirce and I aren't the night owls Allen and Jill are! 

It was really nice to visit with her this weekend. 

Weekend With Percy

 Peirce and Michael really love to travel. Earlier this fall they went to Ireland for a couple weeks. This week they went to San Diego for a concert! While they were gone, we got to hang out with Percy. He is such a cutie. We love him. We especially love how worn out Bentley gets when Percy is here. They play almost non-stop!

Shuko

 Shuko stayed with our family for a month. She was in her 30s and had worked in Japan at an orphanage! I was always touched by how careful and kind she was. 

After living with us, she found an apartment in the SW. She hopes to get a job working as a nanny. 

Miyu

One of the things that has really added to our family is having English students stay with us. As a family, we have many wonderful memories as well as crazy stories from these experiences.

After many years of not having a student stay with us, we decided this year to open up our home again. Miyu arrived from Japan on January 21. She is outgoing and friendly and not afraid to jump in and try taking the bus without a dry run! Years ago, whenever we had a student stay with us, we'd go with them on the bus to show them how it was done and draw detailed maps. They'd always get lost the first few days. Not anymore though. Google maps is a great help! 

Her birthday was a couple days after she arrived so we had a cake and presents, of course. Happy birthday Miyu! 

Christmas 2024

Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Our 2024 Christmas was busy and rewarding. 

We don't really do a good job of decorating for many holidays around our house - but we definitely do a little more for Christmas Our tree had a designer approach....all silver and white (beads and tinsel, but alarmingly, no Christmas balls!) I really liked it. It was all Allen's idea but I happily went along. I loved having it up and sitting by the tree to read each day. The Christmas gifts were wrapped in paper that matched the theme as well. Allen is so clever!

All the fun started on December 22 when Jill and Chase arrived from Edmonton. Peirce and Michael also came over and there was a big sleepover in the family room (bigger people means bigger sleepovers!) It was so fun to have them here and my heart was especially happy to see everyone get along so well. Grandma Jensen also came and spent a number of days with us, which added a lot of fun to our time together. A friend of ours, Meredith, also spent time with us over the holidays.

Christmas Sunday at church was a fantastic musical program. There were a lot of songs I had never heard and our ward's little choir easily took up the challenge of the complicated music. It was really nice to all go to church togethr. I didn't want to pressure Peirce into attending and so I told to Peirce him it would be fine either way. After talking it over with Michael, happily, they decided they would attend with us. Peirce said that the first time someone said something stupid to him though he was going to march out. There was no need for that. Everyone was so happy to see him and to meet Michael. Again, a heart warming experience. 

My dirty little secret about Christmas is that Allen does most of the shopping to get us ready for Christmas. In turn, I try to do most of the cooking....although everyone helped a lot. Saturday night when everyone arrived, we had our traditional Chinese Food night. On Christmas Eve, we had a six course meal! Sunday was the regular turkey dinner and on Boxing Day we enjoyed a pot luck with friends at the church. 

On Christmas Day, we went to a movie: The Boys in the Boat. I read that book years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the movie as well (although, I still say the book was better). Our friend, Meredith came with us to the movie. I even decided to use the word "swing" from the book for my word of the year. More on that later.

Jill, Chase, Peirce and I volunteered to usher at Storybook Theatre. We got to see One Christmas Carol....which was a version of the story told by one actor playing ALL the parts. It was really something else. That takes some talent!

Allen took on the challenge from our Stake President to make sure the social needs of people we knew were met. It meant that he invited family friend over for dinner on Christmas Day, organized a Boxing Day pot luck, a young families dinner (lots of kids and lots of fun and lots of noise!) and an empty nesters pot luck. Phew!! It was a lot of socializing. LOL 

On New Year's Eve, Jill and Chase invited their friends, the Holoboffs over. We had breakfast supper and then played games. The Holoboffs are really great. We were really happy to spend the evening with the cool kids! LOL 

Being together and having everyone enjoy being together is really what made our Christmas great. We have a wonderful family.