December 2024

We actually finished our Christmas shopping last month, but we couldn't post pictures until now so we didn't spoil the Surprise!

Every year Linda creates a "Waite Family Calendar" It takes many, many hours but she patiently deals with all the ins and outs of the Calendar Program. 

First she has to decide on a theme - she makes it different every year. This year it is "Let's Make Something Yummy" & "The Secret Ingredient is Always Love".  She solicited each family for a couple of  their favorite easy recipes. Then she begins creating on her laptop. Once that is done, she prints out the number of copies needed. Next comes collating, hole punching & stapling until they are ready to be gifted out for Christmas. 

Everyone loves them and each year they are always excited to see what Linda has created and more importantly, what picture she used for each person.

This year each family's Christmas box included . . . .

a Mini Donut Maker, a box of Christmas candy, the 2025 Waite Family Calendar, and a little Christmas tin containing an Amazon gift card for each person, a personalized Ornament for each grandchild & a candy cane for each person. 

We have been working on another little "project" for our kids

When we replaced our fence a couple of years ago, Steve saved a few of the boards - they came in handy and were just perfect for this "project". Steve cut them to size and then sanded them down

Next, Linda got to work . . . .

first she created a template then she gathered all her supplies - Apron, Paint, paint palette, brushes & blow dryer. After two days she had completed enough "Winter Snowman" decorations for each of our kids.  

Sunday 12/1

Tonight, The Star Stake had their annual Christmas Concert. As she did last year, Linda played in the orchestra again, accompanying the beautiful choir and soloists. 

They played ten tunes. The music was very advanced, but Linda hung in there and practiced hard to learn the music. She rearranged parts of the music to better fit her ability level and was able to perform with them tonight.  

Friday 12/6

Here it is December . . . it must be time to decorate !

Steve "braved" the cold and put some lights up today. They may not be as fancy as the "professionals" are, but we like how they are unique to our house and how festive they always look.

Saturday 12/7

Tonight was our annual Ward Christmas Activity

Linda baked two Breakfast Casseroles and made twenty-five fruit cups . . . the highlight being getting the seeds out of the pomegranate! We, along with several others were late arriving due to our casseroles needing more time to cook. They called for 50 minutes but actually took about 75. It turned out fine. They adjusted things and had the program first, so we missed that. We had an amazing turn-out of over a hundred people. After the program they did a sing-a-long, dinner, another sing-a-long and Santa! It was a nice evening. Each family got to take home a star ornament off the tree.

Thursday 12/12

We have been trying to get our tree "put together" this week

We began on Monday and finally finished today. Due to some new medication side-effects Linda hasn't been feeling great so we have just been taking our time.

Monday - we brought the box in and began sorting all the pieces. Because our tree stand rotates, we had to figure out how far from the wall it needed to be. We tried a new system for putting the lights on the tree. We added the lights to each row as we set the branches in place instead of waiting until all the branches were in place. As you can see in the middle right picture, we ran out of lights (a couple of the strings quit working this year). We ran to Bi-Mart and picked up some more lights.

Tuesday - we added the new lights and began putting on the strings of gold, glass beads - that seemed to be enough for Tuesday.

Wednesday - We finished the beads and added a few ornaments

Thursday - We added the rest of the ornaments and now it is done, for this year. We opted to bypass the gold tinsel this year and just stick with the beads, but Linda doesn't like it as well because the beads don't stand out like the tinsel does. Oh well, it still turned out very pretty. FYI, Linda is feeling better now!

Monday 12/16

It Happened Today ! !

It was snowing big flakes when we got up this morning . . .

Soon those BIG flakes weren't so big . . .

and then . . . they stopped . . . and the rain began.

 It wasn't long before there wasn't any snow, anymore !

Tonight, we attended our Empty Nesters FHE

We shared memories of our childhood Christmases

At the end of our gathering, three of the single ladies handed out some homemade gifts to everyone. One had made a variety of jams, one made some cranberry honey butter and one made loaves of sourdough bread. What a treat!

Wednesday 12/18

A FUN surprise tonight !!

The Young men/women went Christmas Caroling tonight for their weekly activity. We were privileged to have them stop at our house. They sang a couple of carols, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and then waved and shouted out "Merry Christmas" . . . We shouted right back !!

Thursday 12/19

It's Thursday evening, just put dinner on our plates and . . . .

Steve discovers water on the floor!

After further investigation, nothing was broken... the connection from the garbage disposal came loose. It did, however, give us the opportunity to clean out all the pipes and under-the-sink space. It was obvious to us that this cleaning project was much needed . . .  It looks really nice now !

Sunday 12/22

After a very nice Christmas program at church we delivered goodie boxes to our ministering families

Linda, Benji, Elda, Dave & Nate

They included homemade cookies, candy canes, Hot Chocolate packets, a Christmas Story and a Nativity tree. When we arrived at our friend, Elda's, house, her ministering brothers and another ministering sister were there.

Tonight, Matt's family came out for a visit. We ended up playing a fun round of "Christmas Pictionary".

Matt - Gingerbread house, Debbi - Poinsettia, Jen - Santa's Sleigh Linda - Christmas Card, Sienna - Rudolf, Steve - Plate of Christmas Cookies

Monday 12/23

Debbi's friends loved the Snowman decoration we sent her so . . . .

When she came home for a few days, we asked her if she wanted to make some for her friends. She said "sure" and today we got busy and made them. One each for her roommates and one for her friend Tiffany. We think they all turned out very cute. Each one is uniquely designed with favorite colors and one even has a hidden Mickey Mouse in the falling snow - so fun !

It has been a good day !!

Pre Christmas Day with Debbi

Debbi will be leaving tomorrow so we decided to celebrate with her TODAY !

We started the day out by cutting Debbi's hair... took off about 6".

Next we spent about 4 hours painting Snowmen

We watched the Christmas movie, Klaus while dinner was cooking

We had a nice Christmas Dinner with Ham, Scallop Potatoes, Vegetable, Rolls & Sparkling Cider

After dinner, we opened a few gifts then  . . . 

Delivered one last Goodie box and drove around looking at all the beautiful lights.

We ended the day by watching another Christmas movie, Noelle.

Tuesday 12/24 - Christmas Eve

We have loved having Debbi here for a few days. While she was here we were able to visit with several families.

Picking up, dropping off, Debbi at the Boise airport, Debbi's uncle Dave, Ron & Cheryl Fuller, Cousin Heather Ogden & family, Matt's family and Marilyn & her son, Jeff, Parker out in Parma, Idaho

Wednesday 12/25

Matt's family & us, Linda beginning to work on the Jigsaw puzzle Steve got her, all our fun gifts under the tree, Steve's gel cushion from Linda and our new wireless phone chargers.

We had a good day today.

Our day started out very quiet. After a breakfast of Ham & Cheese omelets, bacon, and cinnamon rolls, we opened a few gifts. We gradually received phone calls from our kids and finished off the day with a delicious Christmas dinner at Matt's house.

Saturday 12/28

Puzzle Time !

Linda began piecing together her new Jigsaw puzzle on Christmas Day and finished it today. It took the same amount of time as it did to put our tree up, lol

The picture on the box showed the typical jigsaw puzzle piece as an example, however..... these were VERY, very ODD SHAPED. For starters, just because a piece had a straight edge, did not mean it was an edge piece and the pieces did not line up with each other - it was the craziest puzzle Linda has ever done !

Monday 12/30

The holiday season is coming to an end . . . .

Today we took down our Christmas decorations. - No more festive outdoor lights and no more sparkly, rotating Christmas tree. . .  It came down a lot faster than it went up !

Every year Linda creates a New Year's Letter. 

 Today we were able to finish it up and send it off.

We send out between 35 & 40 via USPS to friends from our Bend years and family, then another 50+ go via email to all of our nieces and nephews. 

Tuesday 12/31 - New Year's Eve

Happy New Year from New York and Boise, Idaho

We were not impressed with the NY Eve Celebration coverage this year but we still managed to enjoy ringing in the new year and the fireworks in our neighborhood.

2024 has been a challenging year for our family, but we made it through and we are all ready for a fresh start !   Welcome 2025 . . . Here's to a year filled with love, joy, and special memories.  Happy New Year to all !!