Trimming the Tree 2018

This annual tradition is one of my favorites.  I love the memories that arise as the boys pull out the ornaments they've collected and created over the years.  It was particularly sweet this year, knowing we'd be putting our tree up next year before Zac was home from school for the semester.  It's his year for the angel next year, so if you come over, we may be angel-less until just before Christmas!

The Bits: December 1st Through December 31st

December came and went in a flash, but here are the Bits I was able to capture!

We kicked off the Christmas season by attending the Festival of the Nativities at our church.  Luke, Josh and Tommy spent some time in the Children's Room, and hilariously crashed the Culvers' lovely nativity picture.  Good thing our friends, and Heavenly Father, have a sense of humor!  These boys crack me up!!!

Seeing all of the unique and varied depictions of that Holy Night always reminds me of the unique and varied lives that have been touched by that sweet, great event.

Tommy, Adam and Luke and some FREEZING fishing!

On a warm(ish) Saturday I decided I was sick of the dirty windows and put my people to work.  What a difference the clean windows make!

Ben and his XC boys watching Nike Cross Nationals.  It was so funny to listen to them as the race was (quickly) run.

Look who wants Ben....

Josh and his first attempt at the macaron for a French class project, not so pretty but pretty delicious. 

"Frippery.  F-R-I-P-P-E-R-Y; frippery."  And with that, Josh advanced with 5 others to represent MRMS at the District Spelling Bee!  Go Josh!

Pink mountains majesty at sunrise.

Josh's 8th Grade Winter Concert was so good!  At the beginning I said to myself, "I am not going to take video of this concert so I can just enjoy the music."  And then Josh had not just one, but TWO solos.  He had mentioned one of them to me months ago, but didn't remind me.  So I have no video.  So sad!  Bravo to these 8th grade musicians!

Tommy got to represent his class in the 3rd grade Spelling Bee, and was so disappointed when he didn't win, but he did a great job and we are really proud of him and his stellar spelling skills!

Not broken, but "mangled" is what the doctor said I did to my hand after a stupid fall after tripping while walking to the school to pick up Tommy.  The Lego hand on my dominant side was not fun to have for 3 weeks in the heart of one of the busiest months of our year, but keeping it protected and unused helped it to heal quickly and it is feeling 90% better (now, in mid-January).

I love to see my boys at the Denver Temple!  I heard from a couple of different people what a tender and funny moment it was that while they were doing baptisms, Ben was in the water, finishing up baptizing Zac, when the the recorder said, "Thank you, Brother Conlin (to Ben), and baptizing next is Brother Conlin (Zac), who will be baptizing...(pausing and looking like he wanted to be sure he was reading the paper correctly)...Brother Conlin (Josh)." 

True love.

Adam and the boys went to a neighborhood "cookies and caroling night," while I stayed home and helped a friend.  The first house they visited no one was home; the second, a man opened the door, waved, closed the door and turned off the porch light; the third, a woman shouted at them to go away from an upstairs window; and finally, at the fourth, the woman was so excited and made her whole family come to listen.  So funny!!  They had a lot of good laughs, and got a little taste of what missionary life will be like.

The Lego hand goes Costco shopping.

It was a wonderful night listening to the Rampart choirs make beautiful music at their winter concert, including Zac and Ben's choir, Singsations!  I love listening to these boys and seeing how music lights them up.

Congratulations, Zac!  That's acceptance 2 out of 3 applications he submitted.  We are proud of Zac, even if he doesn't want to go to UCCS at all and we just made him choose one CO school to apply to, just in case he needed to be in-state for some reason.  It's good to be wanted and accepted.

Holiday lunching with some of my favorite friends!  Kelli won a free brunch for 4 at Urban Egg, so Kristen, Angie and I got to benefit from her good luck, and Diane, Alexia and I had fun catching up and lamenting our upcoming graduates at Till.

Josh made 4th chair alto sax in the All-State Honor Band that will perform at University of Colorado at Boulder in January.  So exciting and SO proud of Josh!!

Winter Sunset.

Warming up to sing in the choir for the Christmas program at church.

An awesome note from an awesome science teacher.  I love this 6th grade tradition at our middle school.  It really matters to the kids and I've seen how these letters have lit up each of our boys when they received it.

Zac and Ben gave Nate and Ian these tees for their birthdays this year, so they got Zac the Flash tee.  What adorable boys!

Winter Sunrise.

Luke's first 6th grade band concert!  Luke has had a lot of fun learning and growing with these kids, and they did a great job.

We took a ride on the Polar Express for the ward Christmas party, and had a great time.  The party committee did an awesome job!

Tommy and Luke didn't care much that it was a sloppy gingerbread house, since their main objective was actually to eat as much of the candy and frosting as possible.

Zac has had a great time participating in Rampart's student station, KRAM, this year.  It doesn't hurt that it gives him extra time to hang with Ian and Nathan, his two closest friends, who are in the class with him.

Visiting the lovely Christmas lights at The Broadmoor.

The annual sleep by the tree!

The Conlin Chaos on Christmas Sunday.

We've enjoyed being a part of our Iron Chef dinner group so much!  From center, clockwise: Stacey and Chris Culver (with Ole Braithwaite), Tyler and Danielle Braithwaite, Danielle's mom who was visiting, John and Ashley Sellers, me and Adam, Lorenzo and Melissa Orton, and Sparkle and Nestor Echeverria.  Just missing Tauna and Chris Wilkinson, who were out of town.

The snow was so perfect: it looked like snow-shaped confetti had fallen from the sky.

The Spreadsheet Wizard in his natural habitat....  So thankful for Adam's skills and his willingness to use them to help me in building a new Primary roster.

Nothing says "Winter Vacation" like a visit or two to the movie theater.  This year it was Mary Poppins Returns and Aquaman.  Both were great!

A beautiful song written by a beautiful friend, sung beautifully by 3 of my beautiful boys!