well played, december

do you ever listen to neil diamond and wonder if you will be anywhere near his level of genius with words? to be able to use words like "brang" and have it sound delightful and proper? i listen to neil all the time and oftentimes i'll walk back into the kitchen from whatever tasks i've just accomplished to find my laptop shut and a child or spouse looking shame-faced. thomas actually never looks shame-faced. he always say that he was trying to have a deep and meaningful conversation with a child and the music was too loud. likely story. 

another likely story is how this month got away from me again with no posts! 

it's probably because i was so on the ball with my christmas cards this year. i had them ordered and addressed the first week of december. 

i actually felt really on the ball for most of the month but because of my christmas card efficiency, this post will have little pontificating, just photo dumping and captioning.

we met santa! his wife was also posed but she didn't make the cut. if i was mrs. claus i'd be out of the north pole and looking for a new group of magical, imaginary people that actually appreciated me. i hear the scientologists have a few openings.

piano recital. on time and well played. pun! the negotiation for reagan was wearing a tie with jeans. he was the one pushing for jeans in a formal setting. not everyone can pull that look off. the jeans cannot be sloppy. a tie is not all redeeming though it does accomplish much in elevating a more casual outfit. if the jeans or sloppy or the shirt is wrinkled, the outfit just conveys an feeling of grocery store bag boy. i think we excuted well. a very mix and match look with a pop of yellow on the tie. 

as far as scarlett's outfit, i've found that one really lights out piece can make a regular skirt and shirt combo special occasion level of dress. elegant chewbacca vest is what we'll call it.

scarlett has mastered artful layering and mixing leopard and polka dots as a neutral. 

thomas's christmas gift from his mother came and it was fantastic. 

on pizza night i found this ultra thick pepperoni and i ate it. 

we had stake conference and WE WERE ON TIME and very well behaved for the first hour. stake conference should be one hour. 

winter hats

matchy matchy. i feel the key to matching outfits is to make the younger person's outfit resemble the older person's and not the other way around.

bob's burgers is on netflix and perfectly demonstrates my internal monologue and blythe's external monologue.

i tried to participate in the Church's light the world campaign but i wasn't really feeling it as much as i wanted to. one day i really prayed to know how to serve. i discovered that the secret to praying for service opportunities isn't necessarily to find them but to change our heart to be willing to help. the service that i prayed to perform this month was staring me in the face but my attitude and my fear of being taken advantage of kept me from recognizing the need and from stepping up sooner. i'm too quick to assume that someone didn't plan well or whatnot instead of thinking that the Lord has something for me to do whether i think it merits my efforts or not. the test may be my reaction rather than fulfilling the need. and here's the kicker, the service i performed was a minuscule part of my day. next to nothing. i changed the course of my day for about 15 minutes. but i felt better ALL DAY because i had heeded a prompting and humbled myself to follow through. 

i'm  constantly learning how often the Lord has given me so much happiness if i'll just humble myself and do rather than be prideful and not get involved.