Sweet 16 - Lucy's Birthday

What do you do to celebrate a 16th Birthday on a Sunday during a pandemic?

We started her birthday celebration on Friday and invited her friends to meet us near Waterton on Chief Mountain Highway to take some friend pictures. I asked Taneal Olsen to do Lucy's hair. We totally lucked out on weather in January - sunny, 3 C / 37 F with no wind. It was actually -6C in Cardston when we left home, but it was warmer in Waterton. It was still chilly, but as good as it can get in January.

Her friends looked so cute as they met us up there. Dana Schaffer, Kamree's mom, was our photographer. Friends that came: Taylor Heninger, Kamree Schaffer, Brooke Hardy, Skylie Holland, Allie Leishman, Hallie Pilling, Alyssa Bevans, Raygan Norton

On Saturday Lucy had a few friends over to hang out by our fire. The current pandemic restrictions are that you can have gatherings outside with only 10 people. Another weather blessing for a short time by the fire - it could have been so much colder or snowier.

On Sunday, we had sticky buns, bacon and chocolate milk for birthday breakfast. 

Then we got to watch Hanna give a talk in her Spanish ward. She did such a good job. This is definitely one of the blessings of the pandemic is that everything is on broadcast on zoom so we can watch things like this.

We grilled steak and had twice baked potatoes and skor cake for Lucy's birthday dinner with Grandpa & Grandma.

Hanna gets to call on birthdays, so waited until Hanna could call to open presents. 

Lucy's theme of birthday gifts was shirts - from me, Jill and Grandma Carol. We also gave her a backpack.

Happy birthday to Lucy - on to driving and dating!!!

 

January 2021

January events:

- Grandpa and Grandma Nunn celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Gatherings of any kind are prohibited because of the pandemic, so we had a drive by celebration. We were under a wind warning that day (of course Alberta had wind), so we had them sit on a porch at Mel and Kim Weston's house and people drove by to say hi. When we told Grandma the idea she said she was digesting the idea and then she pretty much said no, we are okay, we don't need that. Grandpa was for it, and we decided to do it anyway. 17 cars came with their friends - they felt loved. It was the perfect amount.

- New puppy Stella (from Heather Schmitke with the goal of training her as a cowdog)

-Lucy came upstairs ready for church in her new dress she had gotten for Christmas and she said, "Who am I?" Definitely Hanna's look alike.

-Restaurants aren't allowed to have people come in to eat, but they can do pick up, so we ordered dinner and drove to Twin Butte to a cute little restaurant and ordered Mexican food and drove to a look out and parked next to Grandma and Grandpa and rolled down our windows and ate dinner together. 

New car (new to us, Bonnie the blue Ford Escape. We sold Hanna's black pontiac grand prix and bought the escape instead. We will drive it until she gets back)

 

New Year's Eve 2020

For our New Year's Eve celebration, we went on a moonlight hike to Cameron Lake in Waterton. We are still under pandemic lockdown so any gatherings are prohibited. So we just hiked at the same time as the Hardys (Kendall, Jewel, Ava, Mia, Brooke & Dane) and Erica Burt. No gathering. 

It was such a nice night, although we went early in the evening and so the moon didn't actually make it up over the mountain until we were finished, so on the way up to the lake we just used flashlights. On the way back we just used night vision and could see pretty good.

We had hot chocolate to celebrate the end of the year.

It was so fun to talk to people, and it really was a nice night. We stayed plenty warm since we were bundled up and hiking.

Lucy wished she was at a New Year's Eve Youth Dance, but since there are no activities these days, it was a good substitute activity.

 Let's hope 2021 is an improvement over 2020!

Christmas Day

Christmas was different this year because of the restrictions from the pandemic, but I still felt really grateful, most especially for my family and the love from the Savior.

Carly left a note and cookies for Santa. 

Hanna messaged me and asked if we could wait until 8 am and then she could join us to open presents through video chat. So we still got to go around the family have each person open a present, youngest to oldest. Jill and Larsen got to join us after they opened presents with the Perkins in Wyoming. 

I loved all of the gifts that were given and received. But mostly I love my family and look forward to the Christmas that we can be together again.

We had a Christmas miracle and the wind died down today and we went outside to ice skate on our lake. 

Then we talked to Hanna and Jill again. 

We had dinner at Grandpa & Grandma's - only a small, short gathering. 

We talked to Jill and Hanna one more time as we opened our tree gifts together. While we were talking to them, one of the recent converts that Hanna and her companions are still working with called, and we got to listen to her speak Spanish and talk to him. That was a little Christmas gift to end the day. 

Christmas as a Misionera

 We got to talk to Hanna 4 times this week. First on Sunday night because it was Kaylynn's birthday. Then on Monday for her P-day. Then she joined our Christmas Eve Nunn zoom program. Then we got to talk to her 3 times on Christmas Day. Since they are in lockdown from the pandemic, they can't go to anyone's homes for dinner or any other Christmas visiting. So they were just home all day, so we got to talk to her much of the day. Then they did go on a drive to see Christmas lights.

Sarah asked Hanna to bear her testimony on Christmas Eve. "So just being able to put on my nametag every morning and seeing the name Jesu Cristo on my chest right under my name has made a huge difference on my life because every time I go to say something or act or even the way I carry myself - I actually wrote on the back of my nametag, what would Jesus do, because I literally have his name on my heart."

During our Christmas night call when we were opening our tree gifts, one of their friends, a recent convert,  called the missionaries and so we got to listen to them talk to him in Spanish and laugh and talk to him for several minutes. It was so awesome.

Christmas Eve 2020

 Christmas Eve was so windy - like ground blizzard windy. So we didn't play outside.

We did a few Christmas treat deliveries with Austin driving us in the truck. Luckily we didn't get stuck in anyone's driveway.

Everyone needs goggles to deliver Christmas treats to neighbors.

We had "everyone make an appetizer" dinner.  

Even though we couldn't gather together, we did get to gather on zoom - Sarah's family, Les's family, Grandpa & Grandma, Jill & Larsen, and even Hanna and her mission companions got to join us.

Sarah & her family had a few musical numbers. Our family did sign language to Feliz Navidad (as we mirrored a YouTube video that we found a couple days ago). The young Nunns shared a poem and slideshow about their ranch this year. Julia had also written a Christmas poem about a college student and a hot firefighter so we joked about the handsome firefighter the rest of the night. 

Jill and Larsen shared a Christmas testimony thought. Jill talked about the song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and how it talks about being in despair (which is fitting for this year) and then heard the bells and knew that God is there. Larsen talked about his favorite scriptures of the Christmas story - Luke 2:8-10 when the angels spoke to the shepherds and told them to fear not and they were bringing joy. 

Sarah asked Hanna to share her testimony also since she got to join us. Hanna talked about seeing the light of Christ in other people. She also talked about how important it is to put on her name tag everyday with her name next to Jesu Cristo as she is a representative of Him everyday. It brought tears  to our eyes to hear her. So thankful for her service as a missionary.

Grandma shared several Christmas memories and Grandpa shared some closing thoughts. We love them and mock them. I'm sure our kids will mock us too, oh wait, they already do.

We are about to play a zoom game and Santa Claus knocked on our door. What a surprise. He wanted to talk to Katie to see what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she wanted a sled and light up shoes. She was so excited when Santa said that he loves light up shoes. Then he told Julia he would bring her a smokin' hot firefighter. As Santa was headed out the door to continue delivering his gifts, Katie said, "I love you." There's nothing like kids and the magic of Christmas.

After the family party ended, Santa stopped at the Sommerfeldts to wish those kids a Merry Christmas. While he was talking to them, his red Santa pants fell down. It was so funny. Tammy had tears she was laughing so hard. After Santa left, Zane kept saying that he couldn't believe Santa's pants fell down. Santa said he either needs to gain a few pounds or get a belt.

Our kids opened their Christmas Eve pajamas - from near and far.