On the Third Week of December

Our Mansfield Thiots
Happy Anniversary to Ricky & Becky today.  That was such a beautiful and cold day 12 years ago when they were married in the Salt Lake Temple.  Congratulations!  Ricky got to drive in his first snow storm of the season.  He had been dreaming of a white Christmas, but on Tuesday, he really saw what it is like.  West Texas often gets more weather than we do and I was sure glad when he was back home safely.  I'm glad for Ricky's winters in Idaho that taught him to be a very careful driver in snowy weather.  We don't get many chances to practice here.  The Girls had their last day of school for 2016 on Friday.  They are officially on Winter Break as they call it here and not to disappoint, the weather has surely been showing off it's winter temperatures. Saturday a blue northern came to town, and low and behold, we dropped from 75 degrees to the low 20's. That is a BIG drop for us.  But it does feel more like Christmas when it gets cold!

Our Charlottesville Granges
A few weeks ago, Penny's school class had sign ups for the Class Talent Show.  Penny was so excited and signed up to dance to the Sugar Plum Fairy music from the Nutcracker Ballet.  She's been very excited and been choreographing her dance herself.  Tatia was a bit nervous for her as Penny has only had 2 six week classes of preschool ballet.  Penny felt plenty trained and prepared and Tatia said she did wonderful.  Tatia said her mother heart could not have been any prouder of that little girl with courage to perform.  Go Penny!  Saturday night, Penny and Tatia attended the Nutcacker Ballet together for their first time.  They were both enchanted and can't wait to go again! Maxwell had his Christmas program on Thursday and sung his little heart right out.  Jingle Bells was his favorite and he loved getting to jingle the bells while he sang. Oscar has enjoyed attending the programs and has been needing a little extra snuggling time as he has a crummy cold.

Our Carmichael Thiots
Keelie's Activity Day girls had a talent show this week and I was so proud of Keelie for playing Once There Was A Snowman on the piano.  She has the greatest Activity Day teacher and Primary teacher who she adores.  What a fun evening it was for Keelie! Callum is enjoying being on Winter Break too.  He is just dreaming of going skiing with his Daddy and Graypa over the Christmas Holiday.  Last Sunday night, was tithing settlement and Callum wanted to wear his new suit to attend.  What a handsome young man you are Callum.  You looked so grown up. The Newest Star Wars movie came out this weekend and Charlie couldn't wait to go.  He really enjoyed it.

Our LA Thiots
It's been a very good week having Pierce back in town and something wonderful happened this week. For the past couple of years, Pierce and Stacy have been dreaming of making a game out of his Instagram Account photos of Will it Beard. This is a game you can play on your i-phone and it is finished and available for a free download at your favorite AP store. It's this little character wearing a beard who moves around trying to avoid the feared razor and gets to pick up things to try on his beard.  You've simply got to see if for yourself.   Callum may be his  number 1 fan as he loves playing it.  Graypa promised to down load it on  my phone so I too can play.  I can hardly wait. Pierce and Stacy have figured out the funnest sleeping arangments for Adelaide and Jackson.  It's a loft which will be Adelaides bed when Jackson is ready to move into the crib.  How cool is that?  I love it!

Our DownTown Thiots
What a fun time we had last night at the Texas Thiot's Christmas Party.  Sky and Kara hosted the party and we had a great time.  We enjoyed a chicken dinner and a yummy coconut cake for dessert. Then the gift exchange which everyone ended with big smiles on their faces.  What fun to be together.  One of my favorite parts was watching Skyler set up our old Christmas train under his beautiful Christmas tree.  He had asked me about borrowing it a few weeks ago, and this was our first chance to deliver it to him.  I bet Bransen the cat will love it???  It's an amazing view out the windows of thier home. It's amazing to see all the Christmas lights of downtown.  Dick said, and I agree, that we would never sleep if we lived there as we would be looking out the windows all night long.  Thanks for hosting the party Down Town Thiots!!!

We Plano Thiots
Last Saturday morning, Dick and I attended our Annual Christmas Planning Meeting.  It's a fun time when we make our list, check it twice, try to remember whose been naughty of nice and finalize any Christmas plans that need doing.  It was extra fun this year as we had been thinking of some fun ideas.  We talked about Christmas Activities we wanted to do and we've been loving participating in the #Light the World ideas the church has shared with us.  What a beautiful way to focus on Christmas as we get to participate in things our Savior taught us while he was here.
Tuesday evening Dick had his District Committee Meeting and we provided the refreshments afterwards.  My friend Gemie and I made cobblers and served them alamode.  YUMMY!  The only bad part was, I purchased a big container of ice cream which was frozen SOLID, which made for very difficult scooping.  oops, lesson learned.   We still have a week left and it's going to be wonderful. About 3 years ago, a new choir formed in the Dallas area.  It's called the Millennial Choir and they are amazing.  They have a children's chorus for as young as 3 year olds up to the Grand choir of grown up.  It's a fabulous group and Dick and I were able to attend their Christmas Concert titled Good Will To Men on Friday night.  It was truly a wonderful experience to be there.  We saw friends there who we hadn't seen in years which was a bonus to an already great evening.  Thanks for inviting me Dick.

Saturday afternoon we attended the Celebration of Gary Robert Goodfellow's life.  Gary and Dick have been friends since High School Days.  Gary was taken home much too early.  What an amazing service his family provided.  His wife Leslie spoke about 10 wonderful qualities that Gary possessed and it was such a sweet way to remember and celebrate that good man.  It seems like funerals for friends is getting more and more frequent. I guess that is one of the worst parts of getting older.
After our Christmas party Saturday night, we stopped by Dick's cousins home and dropped off their Christmas PJ's. They weren't able to come to Thanksgiving this year to get them, so it was extra fun to go by their home.  Rhonda was busy baking cookies and their home smelled like heaven. Beautiful tree, beautiful family.  We loved the hugs and fun moments we spent with them.  On the way home, we drove by Dick's Grandmother's home and we loved seeing all the pretty Christmas lights. This has been quite a week.  Oh how I love this time of the year.  Have a Very Merry Week Before Christmas. SLY Robynn

On the Second Week of December...

Our Mansfield Thiots
This was the second and last weekend of Bethlehem Revisited in Waxahachie, Texas.    We started going for Brooklyn's first Christmas and have tried to go each year.  Some years the weather has cancelled it or other things have made it impossible to attend, but each time we've gone we have loved it.  This year there were over 3, 000 people who attended on Saturday night.  That is a lot of people in that small town of Bethlehem, just like it must have been over 2,000 years ago, where it was so crowded that their was not any room in the Inn.  The temperature was in the high 40's and it made for an extra special evening to have it chilly as we were bundled up and hung on tightly to each other.  Addison loved the sheep and thought she remembered the same ones from other years. They were such happy sheep and oh so soft.  Brooklyn met some chickens who she fell in love with. The sweet lady who was watching them, let her hold one and she loved it.  Harper was wishing she was taller as she had a tough time seeing things.  Graypa or her Daddy loved having her on their shoulders to help her see better and feel that Christmas spirit.  It was a wonderful evening that I will not forget.
Becky's girl friends got togther for "My Favorite Things" night.  What fun!

Our Charlottesville Granges
The time in Charlottesville has been going extra fast this week.  It's been filled with appointments, visitors, giving helping hand service, making extra meals, phone calls, encouraging notes, some shopping and even a movie.  Remember when Tatia and Jake had a babysitting group where several families would drop off children and then they would enjoy them for a few hours, then the next weekend, you could drop your children off at another familiy.  It ended up growing into a big group and this year they have joined with one other family and trade. It seems to be working much better. Penny and Max and Oscar all love their new friends who are so close in age.  Jake's mom and aunt have been in town off and on.  It's been so fun to have them there and they've been a big help on a busy week.  Jackie and Linda took Penny and Max to see Disney's newest movie Moana on Friday afternoon.  They liked it but it wasn't their favorite movie.  Lots of good memories this week!

Our Carmichael Thiots
Saturday morning Charlie and the kids woke up early and packed up their ski equipment, bundled up with every warm piece of clothing they own and headed to the ski resort.  The weather report predicted snow, but in fact it was rain which made for some icy conditions.  Charlie took a fall and bruised his knee pretty bad, but that did not slow up the events of the day.  Callum and Keelie love skiing and their new skis they got at the end of last winter worked great.  They can hardly wait to use them again in Utah with hopefully better ski conditions.  Friday night was a lovely one when they got to attend a live Nativity.  It was a wonderful evening and the Christmas Spirit was strong.  Keelie is in the mood for play dough and is hoping to make her own nativity with dough.  So after church today, she is going to make a batch.  She found a recipe and wrote it on her white board and she is excited.  What fun!!!!

Our LA Thiots
Stacy got home and she and her little ones started to get sick.  Pierce was off in London working on another project that came about because of his last one, (I'll share the link and you can peek at the end).  Stacy was a trooper and got everyone feeling better.  Pierce returned on Thursday and they have a gorgeous Christmas Tree that Adelaide LOVES Decorating and redecorating.  She has quite a talent of seeing just where the ornaments need to be on the lower section of the tree.  Jackson loves looking at the lights and Adelaide is teaching him the Christmas story with her little nativity set. She loves to put the angel on top of the stable and listen to it sing and sing and sing.  It's been a little cool this week in LA.  They 've had to turn on the furnace at night.  Christmas is coming! https://youtu.be/5dDJEC_d3Uw

Our Downtown Thiots
We wanted Sky and Kara to come to Bethlehem with us last night.  Kara's youngest nephew was celebrating his 7th birthday and they were invited to his celebration.  They are pretty lucky to have both families so close by, but it makes it a little tricky trying to share yourself with two groups who love you so much.  I need to be better at planning further ahead.  They did have time for a trip to the Zoo in the morning and they loved seeing the cheetah twins cozied up next to each other trying to keep warm.  They are beautiful animals that Adelaide and Harper LOVED seeing when we were at the zoo last week.  Sky and Kara had a fun afternoon last weekend walking through Neiman Marcus. It's a very nice department store who spares nothing in decorating for Christmas.  Reminds me of some of the Hallmark movies where they are the decorators for Christmas.  They loved it were but so glad to come home to their house with their gorgeous tree filled with homemade decorations.

We Plano Thiots
Dick has had a busy work week but has made time to help us get our Christmas tree up.  I had this crazy idea of having our tree sitting in this galvanized tub I have, but in order to fit, it had to have a hole cut in the bottom for the tree pole to fit into. Dick found a drill bit that was the perfect size and cut the hole.  I love how it looks and it makes me smile.  We put the lights on the tree and decided that is where we would stop this year.  Lights only.  Max told me, "Grammy, your tree is naked."  He is right, but there is something about the simplicity this year that is truly calming to my spirit.  My home has my favorite nativities and I love the sweet spirit they bring at Christmas.
Wednesday night was a great night. It started on Tuesday when I attempted to build 15 graham cracker houses.  I was on the phone with my dad while I was carefully cutting crackers.  I loved having him help me.   My activity day girls came Wednesday night  and we decorated gingerbread houses together.  It was so fun to watch these girls work their magic.  After the houses were done, we went into the Music room and had a lovely Gingerbread program.  We had two flute solos, a violin solo, two beautiful Christmas songs sung to us and then some group singing too.  It was wonderful. I love those sweet girls.  It was fun to do it at my house.
Dick and I have been working on getting our Christmas letter and card in the mail.  I had the funnest thing happen on Friday when I picked up the mail.  I got one from my sister Laurie and I couldn't believe we had both picked the same card.  It made me smile.  Sam's must have thousands of choices and we both found the cutest one and ordered it.  It does have different people, but just as cute. I loved it!

Saturday morning Dick and I had our annual Christmas Planning Meeting.  Talk about fun.  We were going to meet for lunch to have it, but we both woke up early and decided to hold it early.  We made some fun plans now we just need to pull them off.  I love Christmas time.  While looking for something on line, I came across a photo of a lady who had decorated her porch for Christmas.  I decided to update my BEACH motif in the back yard with a Christmas look.  I went to the Trift store looking for something to inspire me.  I found 3 place mats that were cute and my sister Lani had turned place mats into pillows before. I bought them and did the same magic trick.  THey had a frumpy looking centerpiece and I put it into a wreath I had and I love it.  It makes me smile and today it is supposed to be warm enough to go out and sit in my rocker and enjoy it.  I hope you've had a good week Lighting the World.  Here's the link, it's never too late to start.  https://www.mormon.org
Sure love you, Robynn

On the First Week of December....

Our Mansfield Thiots
Last Saturday night was Addison's Daddy Daughter Date Night with Ricky.  They went and ate sushi and talked science.  What fun!  Brooklyn had an amazing field trip this week.  Becky won the lottery and was lucky enough to get to go with her.  They had to be at the school and board the bus at 6:15 AM on Wednesday morning.  I pictured them on a school bus, but oh no, it was a chartered bus that took them to Austin for the day. What fun memories they made together that will last forever! Ricky got Addison and Harper off to school but one of the other fun parts of the day was the part that Harper needed to be picked up from Preschool at 11:00.  Guess who won the lottery and won that job?  ME!!! I loved getting to meet her teacher and some of her friends and scoop her up and take her to the ZOO!  Yes, Uncle Skyler planned the funnest trip for us to meet him at the Zoo and Stacy and her kids came too.  Add even more fun to the event with Stacy's mom, her cousin Alley and Alley's two kids joining us. Harper and Adelaide loved running around the zoo together, feeding the giraffes, meeting our new baby elephant named AJ and every other bit of fun imaginable.  I loved every minute!

Our Charlottesville Granges

What a delightful surprise to have Jake's mom come to town for this week. She and her sister flew in from Washington to attend the temple with Aunt Linda's daughter, Drew who was going for her first time.  Jake got to go with them too, but Tatia had a Stake Training meeting that she felt like she needed to attend so she arranged for a babysitter for her kids and went to the meeting.  I'm glad Jackie/Gigi will get to stay for a few more days.  She is such a fun Grandma and a good helper for Tatia! Penny brought home her first list of sight words this week and is rocking the world of site words.  She's bringing home books too and is loving the world of reading.  Oscar had his 20 month check up this week. His doctor said he is just PERFECT!  I agree!

I loved this turkey's Keelie made on Thanksgiving!

Our Carmichael Thiots
Charlie was approached by a different bank who was interested in swiping him from his current job. He interviewed with them early in the week and was not quite as impressed with them as they were with him.  I don't think he will be making a swap any time soon. We got to face time with Charlie when we were doing a bit of Christmas shopping to make sure we made some good choices.  So fun. We are counting down the days until we will meet Charlie's family in Salt Lake for the Christmas Holiday.  I haven't been home for Christmas for years and when Charlie's kids wanted to go skiing, it seemed like a perfect chance to meet them there.  Eighteen days Keelie!  Keelie and Callum both had dentist appointments this week, just like Penny and Max and Adelaide.  This must be national dentist week.

Our LA Thiots
It was tough to say goodbye to our LA Thiots on Saturday morning.  Pierce had gone home on Monday and has spent part of the week in London.  Stacy and the kids got to stay until Saturday. They took an adventure to Houston on Thursday and Friday to visit their favorite dentist who is also Stacy's sister Jordan's great husband.  Adelaide had her first check up and did great.  She had a 360 degree xray which showed she was indeed blessed with all her permanent teeth.  That's a bit of a concern in our family where some of us are missing teeth.  Go Adelaide!!!! Stacy texted us about 9:00 last night saying they were HOME in LA!!! It's always nice to go away but even better to be home.  Thanks for coming LA Thiots!

Our Downtown Thiots
Sky and Kara were the first to discover the changing of the colors.  They took a hike last weekend and posted a beautiful photo of how the leaves looked in their neighborhood.  I loved it.  On Tuesday, Kara's stool in her class room bucked her off and she was in need of a new one.  Dick and I had a fun evening on Tuesday searching for a stool to surprise her with.  We ended up having to show her to make sure it met her needs.  It was fun e-mailing back and forth and eliminating this one and that one. What fun to do something nice for that gal we love dearly.  Wednesday, Sky had a fun idea of meeting up at the Zoo with Stacy and her kiddos.  It was the perfect zoo day and we all had a great time.

We Plano Thiots

 It has happened, the city of Plano has finally checked it's calendar and discovered that it is time to change colors of their leaves on their trees.  And, it is GLORIOUS!!! I don't remember a year when our trees have looked so beautiful.  Driving down the streets of town, it is sure to put a smile on your face.  I've been smiling all week long.
Dick and I had a fun Friday night at the Ward Christmas Party.  I was asked to be on the food committee which was delightful planning and preparing for the dinner.  Carla Morrell was the chairman and she is so well organized that it makes it so fun to do things with her.  We had a turkey dinner with cheesy potatoes and yummy green beans and rolls.  A desert buffet afterwards was gorgeous and delicious too.
The High Priests were in charge of the Turkeys and they deep fried them.  Our church parking lot had many fryers and lots of men who were having a great time. It smelled soooo good and the turkeys tasted awesome too. Dick got to be the cheesy potato server. He had many requests for seconds as they were that good.
Saturday morning Dick had his emergency preparedness 1st Saturday training and then his Ham Radio Class to follow.  I was glad he was able to sneak out early so we could head to Arlington to pick up our car that Stacy had driven to Houston.  It was fun sharing a car for a couple of days.  I loved riding the train home from the zoo on Wednesday.  You always meet some interesting folks waiting to board the train and riding on it too.
Saturday night the Boy Scout District committee past chairman hosted a Christmas Open House that was lovely.  He and his wife know how to decorate and how to prepare beautiful and delicious treats.  They asked everyone to bring a new, unwrapped toy and Dick teased him that they were doing their shopping for their grandchildren that way.  We may think of that next year, (Just Kidding).  They are donating them to Toys for Tots.
After the Open House we drove to Carrollton to the Creche display.  It was AMAZING!  Dick even found a nativity from Finland that became an instant favorite.  When we arrived the choir was singing and you could join in and sing along.  That chapel was filled to the brim with nativities, poinsettias, and Christmas Spirit abounded.  I wish I could have taken everyone I loved with me.  I'm glad I had Dick with me. It was surely a treat.  And if that wasn't enough, he took me to Costa Vida for dinner afterwards.  They just opened one in Frisco and it was yummy.
After reading the Thiot Times, you may have a slight idea why my house still isn't decked for Christmas and why I am exhausted.  I'm hoping to rest up today, on this the Sabbath Day, the Day of rest and be ready to kick into high gear tomorrow.  I love you all so much and hope you enjoy this new week too and look for ways you can bring Christmas Light to others. SLY Robynn