December Newsletter & Slideshow

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December 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY: December was a blessed month and we enjoyed the lights, the sounds, the food, the gifts, being together as a family, and most of all the celebration of the birth of our Savior & Redeemer, Jesus Christ. On the 6th, we headed out for the annual the Homestead Museum Christmas. It was cold, and busy, but we all had a great time & the kids were cute with Santa :) On the 7th, we all got up and went to the church to clean for the morning and enjoyed doing some service. That evening was the ward Christmas party and we ate yummy food & visited with wonderful people. We loved watching all our olders perform at their Christmas concerts! Grandma & Grandpa even stayed overnight in Cedar so they could watch McKinley in her orchestra concert and Ireland in her band concert. Kezi also had a Christmas performance at school and sang some great songs in English & Spanish. On the 14th, Heidi, McKinley & Ireland went skiing and it was a cold, blustery day, but we had a great time! We were all grateful when all the assignments were turned in and we were able to write down our Christmas break bucket list and movie list :) The snow didn’t cooperate very well with some of our plans like snowman-building, but we did make gingerbread houses, deliver our “We wish you a Merry Swiss Miss” with a song to our neighbors, go to the park in St. George, go on the overlook trail at the top of Kolob, have lots of friends over, read our Christmas book every night, and watch lots of Christmas movies. Christmas Eve, late, Tiarra & Nicle came over & played games & had pie & eggnog. Christmas Day we woke up and watched some Christ-centered church movies and songs, ate breakfast and dove in :) We had to move kind of fast because we had to start getting ready to go to Richfield at noon. But we enjoyed our gifts and being together. We had dinner at Aunt Kim’s (and got to visit via facetime with Sedona in Alaska!) and slept at Grandma’s Christmas night. The next day we headed to SLC and spent a few days at Aunt Trisha’s. Uncle Joseph bought the family a gun and some bows! While in SLC we also got to go downtown and see the lights and go to the Family History Museum, which we loved going to again (the olders & daddy hadn’t been yet). On the way home, we stopped at Cabelas & bought another gun with Aunt Kim’s gift card & we met the Bensons there & visited a bit.  Another thing we did on the Christmas break was buy a bunk bed for the littles! Mom spray-painted it and we got it put up in their room & it’s so cute - they love it! New Years’ Eve was spent watching Frozen 2 in the theater, watching movies and playing games. :) Oh, and we had an EPIC Yahtzee game over the Christmas break that we’re PRETTY sure Link was messing with us :) Jason got FOUR Yahtzees in one game & Ireland got THREE in the same game! And Kezia got one. Crazy! Our renters, Brookelynn and Ivana, left this month. We’re sad to see them go, we had one last dinner with them and enjoyed our conversations. The older girls were all about playing Monopoly Deal this month (dad got it for his White Elephant). They’ve played at least 7 games so far!

JASON : Jason enjoyed a couple weeks off this month & we loved having him home! He was good about doing some honey-dos (help with the bunk bed, doing caulking, looking at financial stuff, taking down Christmas, etc) and he got to watch some of this action movies - Wolverine and Bumblebee. Jason & Heidi also got to hit the gym a couple times and that was fun :) For Christmas, Jason got a bunch of action movies, a detail trimmer, a squatty potty :), some canary island socks, and some wireless earphones.

HEIDI: December is always a wonderful, and very busy time for Heidi :) She never quite can get all her creating and shopping done by the end of November. This year, she decided to make home-made calendars for everyone in our family - even Oaklyn. And she could only work on them when everyone was gone, so that was tricky, but thankfully she got them done it time! (and then proceeded to forget to hand them out on Christmas day). She also transferred cassette tapes for Grandma’s gift and it was a lot of fun to hear from when mom was a 6-week old baby on up to when she was 11 years old :) She also uploaded a bunch of old videos for the Tews, and some for the Hamiltons as well. Oh, and she did the end-of-year slideshow for 2019, and that took some time, too :)  For Christmas, Heidi got a robot vacuum, which she’s really excited about :) Also, a Jane Austen book, and some nail polish things for the girls and her to use. She also got a back roller from Kezi :) Heidi enjoyed helping (with Trisha) getting Cindy set up for online dating :)


McKINLEY:
-YAY McKinley! She completed her Personal Progress and was the last Young Women to complete it in our ward! We are so proud of all her hard work. In sacrament meeting she thanked all who helped her and shared about her experience “linking” our family together by helping GG scan photos and newsletters. Her medallion looks gorgeous on her!
-McKinley’s Christmas concert was fabulous and she was in a special quartet with Irene, Jacie, and Derek, all the best in their instrument. They did a fabulous job and had amazing applause. Grandma & Grandpa Devenish & Courtney and Micaela also came.
- For Christmas, McKinley got Link earrings, chapstick, a cello mug, a little wallet for her phone to put her tile in, a $75 gift card to Ross for clothes, a music scarf, some socks that look like shoes, hair rollers, a music box that she can make her own music for, and the rest of the Brandon Mull books, including the latest Dragonwatch book. Ireland bought her black pants. Grandma Devenish bought her a nice dress. Kezia bought her Krave cereal :) Oh, and mom made a personalized calendar for her :)
-Mom & McKinley hit the Ross in SLC and found some cute pants, workout pants, and a couple shirts.
-McKinley really enjoyed our trip to the Family History Museum and already wants to go back :)
-This was the first time McKinley was able to go to a youth dance - on New Years Eve. The funny part is that after McKinley, Micaela and Karmiyah got all dolled up (at 10pm - the dance started at 9) mom accidentally dropped her and her friends off at a church instead of the SUU seminary building. McKinley called 30 minutes later informing mom that they were at a young adult dance - age 18-30 :) Mom promptly came and brought them to the right place, but we all got a good laugh. McKinley enjoyed the 2nd dance a lot more ;)

IRELAND:
-Ireland’s Christmas band concert was a lot of fun to go to! Grandma & Grandpa Devenish and Mahina also came. She did a great job!
-Ireland got to go to the Nutcracker with the YW and she was amazing at the talent and how hard it would be to stand on your toes for that long!
-Ireland wanted to go skiing with Mahina & Paloma, but it was so expensive for the holidays, so they decided to go ice skating instead and were there for like 4 hours!
-We had a fun Young Women’s Christmas party at Jenna Davies’ home and played Christmas charades, drank hot cocoa, did pictionary, and a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun!
-For Christmas, Ireland got Link earrings, chapstick, an Ireland mug, a personalized calendar from mom,  a little wallet for her phone to put her tile in, an Ireland poster, pecans, a dress & jean jacket, a futon mattress pad, the Michael Vey series, and ski goggles with a certificate for a ski day with Mahina. From Noelle, she got a little lighted fountain for her room and some stuff for her purse. She was excited about the gun & bow from Uncle Joseph, too :)

KEZIA:
-Kezia continues to run with mom on Tuesdays and is good about braving the cold! Sometimes it’s 20 degrees but she is a tough one!
-Kezia was counting down the days till she could switch from her studs to dangle earrings and December 10th was the day! She, of course, wore the chinchilla earrings that Aunt Cindy got her for her birthday and, of course, looked adorable in them :)
-Some fun things Kezia has done at school in December: a yearbook coloring contest, making piniatas, their Christmas concert wearing PJs, singing songs and playing their recorders, and doing a white elephant gift exchange. She put a butterfly necklace in and got a scrunchies out. For our family white elephant, she got cute erasers :)
-Kezia made some Christmas earrings for herself and her friend Elizabeth & her teacher, Mrs. Van.
-Kezia was so excited to get a letter from a lady in Australia. Her name is Terri Good and she loved the post mom put on FB with Kezia as Anne of Green Gables, so she sent her an AOGG Christmas card and address book. It was so sweet and Kezia has written her back!
-We are so proud of Kezia, she got her Faith in God award and was recognized in primary and got a candy bar. Brother Watson (former 70) commented to Heidi how wonderful it was that she was the only one in primary that knew all her articles of faith!
-For Christmas, Kezia got Link earrings, chapstick, a chinchilla mug, a personalized calendar from mom, poloroid film, a sphero ball (little golf-sized ball that you can program with your phone), 2 spanish books from Raina Telgemeier, tons of chinchilla stuff (chinchilla shirt, toys for the chins, a keychain, new dust bath & house, etc), and art set. From McKinley, she got a $15 xbox card, which she used to buy a car racing game. And a dress from Grandma Devenish.
-Kezia had a not-so-fun, PTSD experience one morning when she walked in for breakfast and started screaming. An ant was on her and had bitten her on the side stomach multiple times and it itched and hurt :(
-Kezia got some weeks off ballet for Christmas break, but is excited to go back and get ready for her performance in March. Now, we just have to sell those tickets!

LINK:
Another year come and gone with an empty stocking, our sweet boy. Know we tried to make others’ lives better and ease burdens in your honor and memory. We love your our sweet boy and know you were spending Christmas with the Birthday Boy Himself.

NOELLE:
-Noelle is sometimes sneaky about getting her little sister in trouble. One day she came to mom & said Oaklyn was in her room watching Dora & had locked the door. Turns out Noelle had told Oaklyn to go watch Dora and then locked the door :(
-One day mom was on her computer & Noelle came and started fixing her hair. She started reciting what mom has her recite every morning when she fixes her hair: “I am beautiful. I am smart. I am kind. I love one another.” and she added “I will teach as Jesus teached the little children” :)
-One of Noelle’s favorite words lately: “Oh, come on!” when she has to do almost anything, or when something isn’t working out.
-We were walking around temple square looking at the lights. It was a pretty cold night. Mom was determined to get a picture by the reflection pond & told everyone “come on, get in!” Noelle turned & ran the other way. We were upset and frustrated, but found out after discussion that she had thought mom was telling everyone to get in - not the picture - but the pond! No wonder she ran :)
-For Christmas, Noelle got a Leappad 2 (it came in a Hello Kitty case and Noelle was a bit disappointed thinking it was just a little purse. Her reaction when she opened it “NO WAY!”), a lego mug, a monkey fingerling toy,  a Toy Story 4 character set, fort building set, a personalized calendar from mom, and a Nerf gun! Kezia got Noelle a train set and a harmonica for Christmas. She got an art set from the white elephant. And she got a bow & arrows from Uncle Joseph. And LOTS of candy from her stocking and the bag at Aunt Trisha’s. 
-When we went to see Frozen 2, Kezia convinced Noelle to dress up at Anna! Complete with braids. She was so cute!
-Noelle stayed up till 11pm on New Years’ Eve!

OAKLYN:
-A pretty funny sacrament story. Mom whispered to Oaklyn “what does the water remind us of?” Oaklyn replied “Jesus’ blood.” Mom whispered “what does the bread remind us of?” Oaklyn thought for a second & replied “peanut butter and jelly.”
-Oaklyn loves the number 3, of course, since she’s 3. But sometimes it goes too far. One time we went for Walmart pickup & someone was parked in the #3 spot where we usually park. Meltdown time!
-Oaklyn keeps locking doors! Mom & dad’s door, the bathroom door, bedroom doors, etc. Oaklyn left the water on outside overnight & mom went to turn it off and Oaklyn locked mom out of the house while she was gone!
-Oaklyn still loves going to gym daycare and Grifols. She usually makes a craft at gym daycare & one time it was windy & mom told her to hold onto it. She said “yeah! Or it will wind away!”
-Oaklyn was very fond of her advent calendar this year. In fact, she loved it so much, she decided she would eat EVERYONE else’s chocolate from their advent calendars, too! :(
-This year was the first year Oaklyn was good with going to Santa. She even talked to him! A genuine honest-to-goodness Santa also came to gym daycare & Oaklyn was so happy to see him :)
-Oaklyn likes to say “what the heck of the world?”
-One day Oaklyn came out of the bathroom with wet hair. Mom asked how it got wet and apparently she dipped it in the toilet! Yuck!
-Mom has a Christmas shirt and Oaklyn knows what it says. Whenever mom wears it, Oaklyn points to it and says “You serious Clark?” It’s so adorable & funny :)
-For Christmas, Oaklyn got a personalized calendar from mom, a Minnie Mouse mug, moon sand, pretend microwave, blender (that actually blends!), & mixer, a baby that gets sick, a lego/table/chair gift,  a stamp set, Marbles, and a tiny camera from Uncle Joseph. She had so much fun opening gifts this year and was so excited for Christmas!
-Oaklyn decided to go against the grain and go to bed early on New Years, like 6pm!