Christmas 2025

We spent Christmas by ourselves this year. Not to worry, since we had plans to drive up to Utah after Christmas. It was simple and relatively quiet. It was nice to have all the stressful things like recitals and church stuff out of the way and be able to just focus on having a good time as a family. I tried not to go overboard with the gifts this year, but of course the kids got plenty of gifts anyway. And this was only one of three Christmas's--the other two were waiting for us in Utah!

Ian's Christmas list

Santa came!

Elisa picked out this silly wearable turtle pillow for Ian. I had to make a few repairs on it not long after and it is a bit big on him, but he sure was happy to get it!

Elisa opening her stocking--lots of goodies in there for her!

I made sure that Erik got a stocking full of goodies too!

Gabe got exactly what he asked for!

Yet another Super Mario game. The boys always seem to be wanting the latest; they all seem the same game to me.

Journals and Super Mario pens for Ian.

After opening gifts, we got to work on Christmas dinner. I bought prime rib, and Erik prepared and smoked it. He made acini fruit salad and the horseradish sauce to go with the prime rib. I threw some rolls in the oven and slapped a garden salad together. So, I guess Erik did most of the work for our Christmas dinner. It sure was yummy!

Prime rib, ready to be smoked!

Christmas Piano Recital 2025

Here is my post for the Christmas Piano recital for 2025.  I struggled to come up with a location that wasn't the Riverton Piano store, so I decided to just have it at my house, after asking my piano families if they'd rather drive to Riverton Pianos and have no treats or be bit squished in my house with treats. It was unanimous--they were all okay with being a little squished in my house. It really was a concern that we'd be uncomfortable, but I had one student bail out the night before (so minus one family) and another family offer to bring lots of chairs, so it worked out just fine. I was even going to move my piano to make room for more seats, but I ended up not even having to do that.

The recital went alright. It was held in the evening, which I'm not sure I'm a fan of. I was flustered and nervous by the time it started so I probably wasn't the best MC, not that I am on my best days. I learned the piano solo for Sleigh Ride (by Leroy Anderson, yep the original piano solo) in the months leading up to the recital, and thought it would be fun to by some of the percussion instruments. That song is all about the percussion! I found them on Amazon--I ordered sleigh bells, wood blocks, and even a whip crack. Later on, I thought it would be fun if my students joined in playing some sleigh bells of their own, so I ordered some small, inexpensive sleigh bells. We practiced as a family several times and just used the recording to figure out when to use the instruments I bought--no music needed!

The kids played just okay. Most of them performed better in their lessons, so I'm not sure what went on there. Even I played worse than I practiced. Yikes. I messed up way more than I ever did, yet the place that I typically had trouble with I nailed--go figure. The one exception that night was the piano and violin duet. It was the favorite of the evening, and the girls played better at the recital than they did for their performance the next day at the church sacrament Christmas program. Ian and his friend James also played their same duet for the Christmas program the next day and thankfully pulled it off perfectly. 

The nice thing about having recitals at my house verses the recital hall in Riverton Pianos is that we can have treats afterwards! I ordered a hot drink carafe and a 100 pack of disposable hot chocolate cups for the hot chocolate bar, so I am well-stocked for any future hot chocolate bars! I asked the families to bring a treat to share and did they ever!  So many yummy treats! In addition to the hot chocolate carafe and Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix I had out, I had made some real homemade hot chocolate, which all who partook agreed it was the best hot chocolate ever. 

Here are some pictures and videos of the evening. The most important thing about recitals is for people to get together and have fun! 

The invitation I sent out.

https://youtube.com/shorts/yJghqFXLF3g

Elisa playing Winter Wonderland

The only video that would upload on blogger--Elisa's solo, Winter Wonderland. I was happy that she was willing to play in the recital this year!

https://youtube.com/shorts/yJghqFXLF3g

Elisa playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

https://youtube.com/shorts/K-gq_ige15I

Ian Playing Holly Jolly Christmas

https://youtube.com/shorts/9_JFzIGsaws

Ian playing Hark, the Herald Angels Sing 

https://youtube.com/shorts/dPGdolKPtUs

Ian and his friend James playing Joy to the World duet

Lydia, my most advanced student, playing her Mazurka piece

Mary, Did You Know? - Lydia & Cosette Mosley - December 20,2024 - YouTube

The favorite number of the evening

Piano Recital Mosley's Nelson's - December 20,2024

Don't listen too closely to my playing, but it is fun to watch the kid's faces as they concentrated on playing their sleigh bells. Well, not really theirs since I had them turn them back in to me.

https://youtu.be/7-IkA07AZXA

Sleigh Ride piano solo by Leroy Anderson--I played better in this recording.  

Treat time! The kids always look forward to treats after the recital!

December Church Activities

There are lots of fun church activities in December for the youth. Since I am now a youth leader, I get to see what they're doing, if not plan and participate in the activities as well. 

Dec. 10

We did a gingerbread decorating contest for our combined activity Tuesday night. The kids were randomly paired off. I made the frosting bags before the activity, someone else pre-made the graham cracker houses, and everyone brought their own treats for decorating with. Some of these pictures I took, and some were sent to me. The kids had a great time decorating, there were a lot of kids that showed up so overall it was a very successful activity:

First place for Cosette and Elisa!

Gabe and Camrie's creation. 

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Dec. 14 Here are pictures from the ward Christmas party. It was fine. There was an ugly sweater contest, but none of us won. Erik wore his silly cow sweater we found at Walmart that had a pocket for a wine bottle. He tried putting a Martinelli's sparkling cider bottle in the pocket, but it was too heavy. The party had the usual--crafts, meeting "Santa", dinner, and some musical numbers. Thankfully, I didn't have to do anything for the program this year. There was also a short nativity play that Ian's primary class put on. It was costumed, but Ian only wore half the costume I sent him with. I guess he didn't want to wear the beard. Unfortunately, we couldn't hardly hear most of the kid's-and Ian's-- line when they went up to the microphone. Oh well, they were all cute regardless. I liked the hot chocolate song that the choir sang, I've never heard it before but it's a fun song. 

Ian enjoys doing crafts

Some pictures with Santa. Elisa was off with her friend Lily, so we weren't able to get a family picture.

 

The hot chocolate song

Ian's nativity play

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Here is the organ intro (plus some of first verse) that I slaved away on, and then the night before the Christmas Sunday meeting, I decided (aka chickened out) against doing it. Oh well. Maybe the next Christmas I'll be brave enough to play it. I played the organ for the Christmas meeting, and it stressed me out a lot, but it went pretty well. The video was too large to post here, so here's the Youtube link:

https://youtu.be/NlRpD7v6uy8

The program for Christmas Sunday sacrament service. I wish I had a recording of the piano/organ duet, but no one ever thinks to get one. Ian and James did well on their duet.

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December 17

We had a little bit of money left in the YW budget for one final fun activity of the year: Top Golf. It was fun, I guess. I don't really like golfing though; I thought bowling would be a better activity. We were able to use Gabe and Erik's passes so Elisa and I could get in for free. That freed up some money so that we could buy some donut holes and nachos for the girls. 

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Random December Happenings

 

Dec. 1

I got both Ian and Elisa gemstone advent calendars, albeit different ones. I don't know which one was better, I think they were equally good.

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This year's Christmas card!

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Dec. 22

Erik and I went to see the Nutcracker ballet performance after church. It was really good; except I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a live orchestra.

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Dec. 13

I randomly decided to pierce my own ears for the third time. It didn't hurt at all, and it was easy! When Elisa saw me doing mine, she decided to copy me and pierced her own ears right then and there! Silly girl. Hers turned out great, although we had to make one minor adjustment a day or two later since the earring wasn't sitting quite right. Mine, however, needed to come out because they were too low for my liking. I fortunately didn't have them in long enough to even create a scar, but since then I have not re-pierced them. Maybe some other day!

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Dec. 8-16 I made a bonus cutout since I had an extra board. No one in the house was supportive of me making a new one except for Ian, therefore, I let him decide was I was going to paint. Unsurprisingly, he picked out Mario. I found a reference on the internet of Mario holding presents. I thought it was perfect so I used it. It was so much easier this time around to just copy from a single reference, instead of having to figure out my own composition like my Halloween cutout painting and my Thanksgiving one. However, I did add the 1-up mushroom on the bottom for stability, but that wasn't too hard.  I think it turned out pretty good. I wasn't happy with the red paint I used, I don't know if it was old or what, but it did not want to apply evenly but after many coats, I managed to get the red somewhat smooth. The presents were the most involved section, so I painted them first, and the shoes last.

I like to take pictures of my progress; it helps identify any problem areas that my eyes overlook.

Ready to be cut out!

All finished!

Displayed outside

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Dec. 17

Elisa's in leu of a holiday band concert, Elisa played in a group and then a duet at Elevate coffee. I had to teach so I wasn't able to go, but Erik was. Isn't she cute? She did a good job.

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Dec. 19
We got tickets to see Gentri in concert at the same place Erik's Millennial Choir performs. Erik had to work late, so instead of taking separate cars, I hitched a ride with some ward members that were going. I had to hurry and get ready really fast; they were going out to dinner before the show. Alas, the restaurant they picked was Applebee's. Yuck. I ordered a southwest chicken salad, and it was so salty that I was thirsty the rest of the evening, despite drinking several glasses of water at the restaurant. But it was nice of them to take me. It was a little awkward waiting around with them until Erik arrived, I tried not to feel and act too much like an outsider. The concert was great. Gentri consists of some amazing singers. I really enjoyed the concert. Erik took some videos:

Gentri put on a really good concert!

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Dec. 23

Elisa and Ian made the most awesome, epic fort ever. I let them have it up for a day or two, but then it had to come down. They had lights and fans and almost every soft object they could find from their room in there!

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Dec. 27

I decided to paint my mom a last-minute Christmas gift. I glued white glitter on the snow and snowflakes and placed it in a frame. She seemed to like it,

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Dec. 30

Erik flew to Kansas for his cousin David's funeral