On Tuesday of this week, Mariah's choir at the elementary school had a quick Christmas concert after school.  It was lovely and you could tell when watching Mariah, that she has a great time singing!



Wednesday was Kevin's birthday!  It was also the last day of school (a half-day), so Kevin took a half-day off of work, too, and we all headed out to the bowling alley!

Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came, too!

The funny thing was that Grandpa Skinner and Maria were passing through town on their way to California, so they stopped on by at the bowling alley, too!

We all had a lot of fun.  We had a free pass for ten people for two hours of bowling that Megan and Sarah won last year in the Fun Shot.  So, we really bowled ourselves out.  We seem to only go about once a year.  It's what our dad likes to do on his birthday.  It's a fun tradition!  Dad can even bowl strikes with a toddler in his arms!

Back at home he opened presents . . .

And got mobbed (with love) by his kids!  He's got his quiver full of them.

On Thursday, it was Megan's birthday!!  She started out the day by making everyone a pancake breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, and orange juice.

Yes, that seemed backward to us, too -- but she LIKES making pancakes and waffles!  It was what she wanted to do!  It was really yummy, too!  Yum, yum.  I like that way of celebrating. . .

No school and there was a BYU women's basketball game at the Marriott Center . . . so we went!!  With a few friends.

It was tons of fun and we only lost Bethany once and Benjamin not at all!  Kevin was there, too.  He was taking this picture.  Savannah was at work.  (She worked 26 hours last week!  It is busy the week before Christmas at a toy store!)

 It was a fun thing to do on a birthday!

Later I took Megan and one of her friends out for ice cream and that night we went over to Gazdik's for dinner and presents.  We also had cake and homemade ice cream!  It was a great birthday.  We love that spunky girl.  She is now a teenager!  I am thankful for that ten-foot-tall cougar in the background -- he makes it look like she is still little!  :)  She is just a little too good at this teenager stuff!  Watch out world!

So then we had a day off . . . Yay for December 23rd!  (Actually, we used this day to make 150 cookies and deliver them to church leaders and teachers.  Which sounds like awful work and drudgery, but it wasn't.  Weird, I know!  It is fun to see the kids deliver and thank their teachers and wish people a Merry Christmas!)

On Christmas Eve we went over to Gazdik's for the traditional candlelight dinner.  This year we had clam chowder, orange rolls, ham, and heavenly potatoes.  Yum, yum!  Afterward, we dressed everyone up and reenacted the nativity.

 Then we played the bells.  Finally, we got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa!  Everyone looked so good in their new clothes!

 As a most special present, Grandma gave Benjamin a tricot quilt!  We all did a little bit of stitching, but Grandma taught us how and organized it all and did most of the work.  It turned out beautiful and I am sure it will become a favorite of Master Ben!  (The picture in the middle is a drawing of Captain Moroni with the Title of Liberty.  It's very cool!)

And that brings us to . . .

 CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

Where we opened lots of presents, ate French toast, opened more presents and were generally excited and giddy all morning!

We had church at 11:30, which was just about perfect and it was lovely to see all our friends and neighbors there and see them having a Merry Christmas, too!  Later we had a big turkey dinner with the Gazdiks, this time at our house.  It was very nice and we ended the day being grateful for all the things we have, but most of all for the gift of our Savior and all that He has done for us.

We hope you had a Merry Christmas, too!





This was the last week of Mapleton basketball for Kevin, Sarah, and Megan.  Their last game was Tuesday and they fought hard.  They played really well.  Megan plays in the guard position and is FAST.  She’s great at stopping the ball when the other team thinks they’re going to hurtle down the court.  They have to be quick, too, or she’ll steal that ball back for her team!  Sarah plays in the forward position and is a force to be reckoned with.  She blocks out, grabs rebounds, posts up with the shot, and makes great passes for assists.  They are both playing great ball!  They lost by only a couple of points on Tuesday, but it was a great game!  What a great season with a lot of team progress and some great coaches!



Calianne and Cheyenne have become huge fans of the tv show, “Winx,” in which a group of young ladies in spectacularly inappropriate clothing transform to fairies and save lots of planets from a very evil guy.  The twins rush home from school each day to see if the new episode has recorded.  Bethany is caught up in the excitement, as well, and has even learned the word “episode,” which may be the most I can say for the show’s educational opportunities!

One day this week, after Kevin walked in the door from work, Calianne rushed up to him to say, “Dad!  Next time the pixies are going to fight and they are just little! [insert lots of details that don’t make any sense to someone who hasn’t watched the show . . .] It is going to be so funny!”she finished in true rapture.  Kevin just stared at her, speechless.  I really wish you could have seen the bewildered look on his face.  I helped him out, “Won’t that be great?” I prompted him.  He recovered admirably, “Wow!  Yes, Cali!  That will be great!”  It was great.  I enjoy watching them enjoy things! 

On Friday Savannah got to go with some members of her Chinese class to an overnight at BYU’s Aspen Grove Lodge.  They met up with Chinese students (by this I mean students studying Chinese) from other high schools in the area and learned about the Chinese Flagship program at BYU.  They learned a lot about Chinese culture and had a lot of fun.  Savannah sure had fun!

On Saturday, we attended a piano recital featuring the five Skinners:


Can you believe I have this many piano students?  Anyway, they all did great!  Savannah played her own version of “Carol of the Bells,” Sarah played, “Jessica’s Theme from The Man From Snowy River,” Mariah played, “Do you Hear what I Hear?,”  Cheyenne played “Up on the Housetop,” and Calianne played “Silent Night.”  I’m impressed that I told you all that from memory!  It was a night of beautiful piano music and I was very glad that we have at least one violin student who made it possible for us not to bring Bethany and Benjamin!  Yay for Megan, too!

I have one more thing to tell you.  On Saturday I took the younger kids to the dollar store to buy gifts for each other, as is traditional in our family.  Calianne has been asking me since we got the tree up, “When are we going to buy presents for our sisters?”  She asked me at least every other day.   She is also the one who began asking me the week before Thanksgiving when we would put up our tree . . . and asked me at least every other day.  She is the motivating force for all the Christmas activities around here, it would seem!    It’s so fun.  She loves Christmas!

Guess what???  Savannah got her braces off!

This is actually a picture of her at her Christmas choir concert this week, but doesn’t she look beautiful?  She is so happy to have them off!  She sang in this concert on Thursday night.  It was fantastic.  The music was so pretty and all the choirs did a terrific job. She is in the front on this stunning photo, but I don’t know if you’ll be able to spot her!

The day before she went with the choirs for a day in Salt Lake City where they sang at different places including the Cathedral of the Madeline and at the Assembly Hall on temple square.  She left the house at 7am and didn’t get back until 8:30 that night.  Then the next morning they had to be at school at 7am again to prepare for Thursday night’s concert.  She had a lot of fun and danced with the boys off stage, but she is still feeling a bit wiped out from all the hoopla.  She worked Saturday for almost eight hours, too!  Tonight she is working on making up all the math assignments that didn’t get done last week.  She needs some Calgon. . . or maybe just a week with no concerts will do the trick!

Sarah also had a choir concert this week.  The junior high’s concert was on Friday night.  Sarah technically does not have choir until next semester, but the choir teacher has been meeting with the girls’ choir once a week so they were able to sing in a few songs with the main choirs on Friday night.  It was a wonderful concert, too, and Sarah looked lovely.


So, we listened to lots of choral music this week.  We also, of course, played a lot of basketball.  Besides the four practices that Kevin and I had between our two teams, I also got to attend a little bit of the two games that Kevin, Sarah, and Megan played in Mapleton this week.  They were pretty tired at their Wednesday night game, but the game they played Saturday morning was really good.  They won by about 15 points against a team that had beaten them pretty soundly at the beginning of the season.  Pay backs! 

The girls also had another fun activity on Friday night.  Grandma Gazdik invited all the girls over for a Christmas craft night and sleep-over.  Fun, huh?  Kevin and I kept Bethany and Ben so they could actually get some things done.  They made ornaments and cinnamon rolls and watched a Christmas movie.  They took a small break for Sarah’s concert and were up early to watch Sarah and Megan play basketball the next morning, but overall they had a great time.

Also, Mariah was star of the week in her classroom!

Which meant that she got to make this cool poster and everyone got to learn some interesting things about her, like that she loves Jimmer Fredette, even though they really already knew that.  She also finished memorizing all the Articles of Faith in activity days and got her cool charm bracelet with the numbers 1-13 on it.  Yay, Mariah!

Here we have Ben doing one of his favorite things – plugging things in, watching them turn on, unplugging things, watching them turn off.  I know that I should actually have plug covers in every outlet and not allow him to play with electrical appliances.  But really, do you think a plug cover would do anything other than just slow him down?  We have our freezer downstairs plugged into a surge protector.  Ben plugged in the old lamp we have downstairs into the same surge protector.  Then he enjoys flipping the lighted switch for the surge protector on and off and watching the lamp go on and off.  He did this repeatedly while I was downstairs cleaning out the spoiled food from the freezer.  Apparently he had played that game before!

Basketball practice started this week for Springville Recreation teams.  That meant that Kevin, Megan, and Sarah had two games this week in Mapleton and a practice for their new Springville team.  The team I’m coaching with Mariah on it, also had our first practice this week.  Basketball season is in full swing!  Kevin, Megan, and Sarah had a great week in Mapleton.  I didn’t get to see the games, but apparently, our girls are turning into quite good players!  Yay!
On Friday of this week was our ward Christmas party.  The food was good and the company was great and the entertainment was tender.  Our primary did a retelling of the nativity.  Calianne and Cheyenne had narrator parts and Mariah got to be Mary.  Here is a picture of everyone on stage:

Mariah won’t let me post a picture of her being Mary and since she was right in front of Cali and Chey while they did their narrator parts, I can’t post pictures of them, either!  So, instead, you get to look at this picture, and say, “Yep.  That’s a ward Christmas party!”
On Thursday, we had bookclub at my neighbor’s house.  She had extra sugar cookies and frosting, so she invited my children over to help her finish them up.  Yay!  We are very good at helping neighbors finish up sugary things.
We got our Christmas tree on Saturday, but Calianne was sick with the stomach flu.    Poor girl!  She was so sick.  She couldn’t even drink Ginger Ale without throwing it right back up.  She is such a cheerful little soul, though, even when she is sick, she tries to stay cheerful.  So, we couldn’t decorate the tree without Cali!  Fortunately, she was feeling better by Sunday evening, so we picked the ornaments up off the floor where they had been played with and scattered and put them up on the tree where they belong (and where we hope they will stay!).

Now we are ready for the Christmas season!  Merry Christmas everyone!