December to Remember

December started off with the Ridgeline Fall Sports Ospy's.  Britton lettered in Cross Country and was recognized for being Academic All-State as well.

Jenna was at dance and wasn't able to attend. The cross country coaches always give out some bobble head awards to about 15 or 20 individuals on the team for various things, but with over 100 kids I wasn't really expecting anything for Britton or Jenna but decided to stay just in case. To our surprise they both received awards. Britton was awarded the "Sir Smiles -a- lot" award and Jenna received the "Quiet Strength" award. I think they were pleased to have been recognized by the coaches. Britton was able to get his before he had to run out the door to a Rhapsody performance, and I got Jenna's trophy for her. 

December was pretty crazy around our house. The boys were coming off 2 weeks of travel and then went right into the anticipation of Christmas coupled with a highly sugared environment. Pretty much every night in December another family would drop off some Christmas goodies which were immediately devoured by the boys who were the first ones to the door each night. It was a bad combination but one I felt absolutely powerless to control. We saw a lot of smiles. . .

. . .and a lot of scowls from the boys during the month. They had a hard time regulating their emotions throughout the holiday season so it was pretty exhausting for the rest of us in the house.

Jameson and AJ enjoyed the Genesis Christmas party the first Saturday in December. This year they had face painting and the boys were both decided to be "The Grinch".

They both had a very specific wish list for Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Jameson played Jr. Riverhawk basketball and did a great job! He scored several points for his team throughout the season.

On December 13th Britton enlisted Adam and mine's help to chaperone a Christmas Dance at the high school. It wasn't a date dance, it was as fundraiser for Riverhawk Christmas.  I was happy that neither Britton nor Jenna acted too cool to come over and get a picture with us.

Britton was very busy putting together Riverhawk Christmas. The Exec council was in charge and set about raising money to help families in the school boundaries. Britton started going to businesses for donations back in October and was very instrumental in putting together all of the fundraisers. They had a lofty goal of raising $10,000. If the students reached the goal all 3 male Exec Officers would shave their head during the final assembly on December 20th.  Here is the huge poster in the commons area of the school tracking their progress mid December.

On December 16th we had our annual "Jerusalem Supper". The boys look forward to it for the candlelight and grape juice, but hopefully they also learned more about the true meaning of Christmas.

At our ward Christmas party this year the Bishop pulled me aside and extended a calling for me to serve as a Young Women adviser for the girls in 10-12 grades. (Jenna's group) I was very surprised as I didn't see it coming at all. The next Tuesday the first activity just happened to be the annual youth trek to Temple Square during Christmas. It was nice to see all of the lights one more time before the construction begins just after Christmas.

Some of the youth were all lined up for a picture in front of the temple when Elder and Sister Uchtdorf just happened to walk by. They were gracious enough to come back and get in the picture with them.

Jenna's ballroom Christmas showcase was on the Dec 19th. Grandma and Grandpa were happy they were here to see the show.

Going into the final week before Christmas Britton wasn't sure if the students at Ridgeline would reach their $10,000 goal so we didn't know until the day before if Britton's head would be shaved. In the end they not only met their goal they surpassed it by a LOT. The school raised over $15,000! Wow!

Britton's last moments with hair at the assembly on December 20th.

There it goes!

Britton getting some haircare tips from Grandpa P.

"Bald Britton", "Hairless Hegeman" and "Shaved Simon" (Hegeman and Simon are Adam and Collin's last names respectively and that last little tuft of Adam's hair in the front was shaved off after this picture).

Jenna and Grandma P.

Korinne really wanted to see it so we checked her out of the middle school for a few minutes to be there.

The next few days were busy for the Exec Officers because they had to buy everything and get it delivered to the 14 families who would receive the Christmas help. Fortunately they were able to buy a lot of gift cards, food and pay some utility bills so it wasn't as bad as it could of been.  They used our freezer and Grandma and Grandpa's fridge and freezer for some of the food for the Christmas dinners.

 On Monday the 23rd they left a big pile on 14 different doorsteps and ran for dear life to hide. They had a few run-ins and adventures along the way. At one house there was an eviction notice on the door and the house was empty. They went to a neighbor to ask about the family and fortunately one of them knew where the family went and took them to a trailer in a trailer park. The family had a lot of kids so Britton was really glad they were able to find them. The last of the money was used to pay January utility bills helping some families get by for one more month.  It was a lot of work, but Britton loved every minute of it. The local Newspaper ran a story about it in the paper and printed a picture of the Executive Council with the headline:

"Ridgeline High students raise over $15K for holidays"

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa P's house for our traditional Reubens. Other than the delicious food the rest of the night was kind of a bust. The boys were overstimulated and out of control. It was our last Christmas Eve all together before Britton leaves on his mission, but its probably the one we would all like to forget. Ha. Yeah, someday we will laugh about it. . .

Just after 6 a.m. the next morning the kids were ready to come down the stairs.

This was the closest we could get to family Christmas picture.

Later that morning Korinne, Jenna, Grandma and I went to see "Little Women" at the movie theater while Adam started the rolls for Christmas dinner. Mmmm, it was all delicious!

And the Christmas jello this year didn't disappoint. It was one of our favorites. Adam picks a different recipe every year but never keeps track of any of them. This one was definitely worth making again, however. Christmas is the only time we ever have jello and Adam's special "Christmas jello" is probably the only tradition we've been able to keep throughout the years.

During the break the boys enjoyed making cookies with Grandma P.

And just before the end of the hear AJ went in for his first "real" haircut.

He didn't love sitting still for a long time, but he loved the results.

Thanksgiving

Just a few days after we returned from our cruise we left again to drive back to St. George for Thanksgiving and then on to Las Vegas for Britton's soccer tournament.  The weather reports were not good for travel and I can honestly say that if Britton's team wasn't depending on him for the tournament we would have canceled the trip altogether!

It was a white knuckle drive through Sardine Canyon. There were several cars off the road and conditions were absolutely terrible. I was very thankful to make it through without incident. We were ahead of most of the traffic on Wednesday so after we made it through Sardine it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.

Bethany hosted Thanksgiving dinner at her home in St. George.

Britton, Korinne and Jenna playing cards with cousins.

There is never a shortage of people when the family gets together!

Traditional Thanksgiving food picture. 😀

Adam with 2 of his brothers, Stephen and Micah.

Dessert!

We originally thought that I would just take Britton to the tournament in Vegas and Adam would stay in St. George with the kids for the weekend, but after only 1 day in St. George it was obvious that AJ was too overwhelmed to stay with the big crowds so we changed our plans. Adam and I took Jameson ,AJ and Britton with us to the tournament (Jameson doesn't do well without either parent around) and the 5 of us spent 3 nights at a hotel about 2 blocks off the Vegas strip for a VERY COLD and WINDY soccer tournament.

Did I mention it was cold? Yeah, it was.

Britton's club soccer team is really good, but once we saw the schedule we knew it was going to be an uphill battle. They were placed in the Gold division and were playing teams that were ranked #6 in the entire country!

We were pretty excited when they won their first game on Friday morning.

Britton in action.

It was cold, but the boys still swam every day we were there. Thank goodness for the swimming pool!

Britton's team lost their next 3 games, but they played some really tough teams so I think they were happy with their tournament.

Most of the boys on the team have been playing together for over 10 years so it was the end of an era for them. Britton was brought in just this last year so we were the newbies to the team.

On Saturday Adam and I left Britton with the boys in the hotel for about an hour while we walked down the strip to see the fountain show in front of the Bellagio. Adam had never been to Vegas so it was all new to him. I have been to Vegas a few times with the K-1 crew, but we don't spend very much time on the strip when we go. I will say that the one advantage to going when it is super cold is that all of the show girls walking around were definitely more covered up! I appreciated that!

The New York Hotel

It was a longer walk than we thought and we almost turned back because we were worried about leaving the boys for so long (they were having a tough time), but we made it.  Adam had zero expectations so I think he was pleasantly surprised and the scale and scope of the show. 

Bellagio Fountain Show

 Britton's last game was late Saturday night.  I stayed back at the hotel with the boys for that one. It was cold and dark and the boys just couldn't sit through any more games.  With the cruise being the week before it was just too overwhelming for them to be out of their environment and comfort zones for so long. They really struggled and were either fighting, crying, or complaining. We were anxious to be on our way so we got up bright and early Sunday morning and hit the road. We made it to St. George to pick up the girls and go to a Sacrament meeting and then we started for home.  Jameson and AJ are very talented at making sure that long car rides are absolutely miserable for everyone and they definitely didn't disappoint this time around.  Needless to say I don't think there will be any more car trips for the foreseeable future!