Ward Christmas Party

In the last few months, our ward has welcomed about 5 new families from Samoa and Hawaii. So the Bishop decided to have a Luau for the Christmas Party. And I have to say it was one of the best ones I have been to.

As you can see from the boys picture with Santa, the Santa was fabulous as well. All that hair is real by the way. I guess he is the son of an older couple in our ward who has been a little down lately and his parents thought this might be nice for him. He was great and looked real! Van has improved from last years crying to this years stunned silence.

The activities committee out did themselves with the decorations. Real palm frons (don't know if that is how you spell that), luckily we live in AZ, and they even dug a pit and roasted a whole pig. By the time I got around to the food it was gone, but I am sure it looked awesome. We had music and dancing provided by the families. The MC for the night even showed the kids how to crack a coconut and get the milk out and shred the coconut. He even managed to get the Bishopric up on stage and teach them the Hakka. The evening ended with us all going outside to see the MC do a fire dance. It was actually cold and windy so it took awhile to lite the stick. He tried to do it old school by rubbing sticks together but it wouldn't work. It was a lot of fun and by the time it ended and we got the kids bathed, it was 930pm.

As for the turn out for the party, I have been in our Ward for 6 years and I think I know everyone, but last night I didn't know half the people there. It was great that many people invited friends and non-members. My only complaint is that they ate most of the food before I could get any. I had to steal some of the pig off of my friend. I am going to try and upload a video of our Bishop's secretary doing the Hakka with some young men. It will make you think twice about saying no to him when you asks you to say the prayer in Sacrament Meeting. Ha Ha! And of course you can see Ian going through my purse looking for more candy canes. That kid is a candy freak. But I love him.

Washing Machine Blues!

I was not ment to live in the age before washing machines, and now I find myself without one. Here is my story. We bought a new washer and dryer just under 2 years ago after our washer flooded our laundry room and kitchen days after we had our new wood floors put in. Well, about a month ago the washer kept giving me an unfamiliar code on the digital monitor when it was done. When I would go to put them in the dryer they would be still dripping wet. I would then put it on for an additional drain and spin. This would only happen if I was washing jeans and darks. Well it started to do it with every load. I finally decided to run a load and check to see what it was doing. Well, I found out that it was skipping over the washing and rinse cycle completely. So I called to have it looked at. A guy came out the Saturday after Thanksgiving and told us we need a whole new basket. He ordered the parts, that would be shipped to us, and would come back today to fix it. I rationed out clothes we would need up through today and went to my friend Shanell's and did some laundry. He was suppose to show up between 8am and Noon because it is my turn this week for carpool. So I sat around all morning waiting for him but needed to go to the grocery store. Well, noon came and went and he hadn't shown yet. I called to have someone pick up the kids for me because he called at about 1:30 and said he was on his way. When he got here I asked what happened to before noon? He got the times mixed up and thought I was from 1pm to 5pm. No big deal! I am easy going. So he starts to work on it and as he pulls out one of the big plastic parts, it is cracked and that won't work. So, now I have to wait till Monday at the earliest for someone and the new part for it to be fixed. My visiting teacher suggested I put the clothes in the tub and start scrubbing! It is a good thing we are friends, the humor is gone in this situation. So I spent a few hours at the in - laws doing some laundry and then tomorrow back to Shanell's for some more. It is great to have a friend that is there for you. She is going to watch Van and do my laundry while I go and get my hair done. Can't beat a friend like that. And I never thought I would be this needy!