This week was a busy one at the Lyman house. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and on Saturday we had the Lyman family gift exchange since this weekend was the only weekend Monica would be in town from Denver. To top the activities off we also had a small birthday party for Carrie.
On Thursday we had a wonderful time with everyone that could come for Thanksgiving. Karina, Tim, Taylor, Lexi, and Jacob came from the Sorensen family. Monica and Aria were here from Denver. Grandma Cheri was here. Annette and Bill Ross came down from Logan, and Sara and Ryan Gardner came with their three kids McKenzie, Shelby, and Ty. Kevin and Ashley came a little later in the day to join us top round out the group.
We had a wonderful time together and enjoyed each others company. We played football, ate lots of food, played boardgames, and generally had a good time. The kids all seemed thrilled to have so many people around and many options for playmates. After the evening was over Mya and Olivia went to Logan to spend the night with the Sorensens.
On Friday all the girls went shopping… and they got an early start. I stayed home with Aria, Madie, and Kennedy and we had a good time hanging out. Grandpa Lyman joined later in the day and we spent a good time at the park. After the girls went down for naps (they ended up not sleeping very long or at all) I started a painting project to paint the kitchen for Carrie’s birthday present. I was able to finish up all the major painting in time to show it off to Carrie when she came home from shopping later that evening! It was a good suprise for Carrie and she was excited. Mya had a sweat comment to make about my painting job. I had not finished any of the trim work on the project and when Mya inspected the painting she immediately noticed that I had “missed a few spots” She turned to me and said, “Dad, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I think you missed a few spots.” I thought it was so thoughtful of here to try and not hurt my feelings because she thought I had done such a poor job. I let her know that I appreciated her telling me and that we’d finish up soon enough.
Saturday we converted the house from Fall/Thanksgiving decor to officially in the Christmas spirit in preparation for the Lyman Christmas Party. We pulled the Christmas boxes out (all 7 of them with at least 1 box missing in action). The missing box has our dancing Frosty the Snowman figure and Mya was the first to notice that Frosty was no where to be found. We watched the BYU vs. Utah football game (BYU pulled out a win just barely). We exchanged gifts, did the white elephant gifts, and had a wonderful time again. Games, food, and football were the big activities. Another highlight was singing Christmas carols together around the piano.
Mike