Hyde Park Highlights

Happy New Year!!!  I agree with Jenn - this year has flown by! I truly have no idea where it went...
Christmas was pleasant, cozy, quiet and truly wonderful. We had a slow morning, waiting for Emma to come upstairs. Thank you all for your very kind, thoughtful gifts! We were terribly spoiled and are so grateful.  We were delighted when the Mannings came around lunch time, and Thomas and Victoria came a little later. The Bellistons were thrilled with the Wackee Six game they got, so we had to play several rounds of that before the end of the day! We enjoyed watching Wesley on his new bike. He wasn't sure whether or not he liked sledding down our hill outside. It was quite an emotional thing for me to have music again in our home! Lauren played and Thomas and Emma and Dad sang around the piano. What a refreshing Christmas Day! We finished off the day watching "It's a Wonderful Life," which is such a great show.

(We tried to insert a video here, but it didn't work. We will try to get that figured out and get it posted sometime...)

It's a blessing that Thomas has his birthday right after Christmas, because that brought Harts from Idaho and Bellistons from Provo! We missed the Flakes and Nilssons terribly for a fettucini alfredo lunch, complete with ice cream cakes made especially for Thomas by Emma.  All of the Bellistons (Joe's and T's families) left in the afternoon, but Harts stayed and played for a couple of days. Elise helped me re-hang family photos, for which I was extremely grateful.

Dad and I are back to just us and Chester at home. Dad finished organizing his stuff in the office and we hung the large world map he bought. We delivered more Christmas bread, attended a wedding reception for Brad Ashcroft, and Dad went to a YSA multi-stake New Year's dance on Saturday.

My dad seemed to quite enjoy the pictures and videos that we sent for the 12 days of Christmas. Thank you for your contributions - I really appreciate it! I plan to stay in more frequent contact with him in the coming year.

We are making plans for what to put on our Vision Boards :) This coming year promises to be a great one! I'm excited to see what it brings... Any predictions??!!