December 2023 - Swingle Reunion at Bear Lake

We went to the new Vineyard temple open house together. It was beautiful. We especially loved all the stained glass cherry blossoms and the large painting of Bridal Veil Falls.

Tad and Liam finished their Jr Jazz season and loved it. Liam has been waiting for YEARS to play Jr Jazz like his older siblings!

For Christmas, Tad asked Santa for light saber, remote control car, Jack in the Box, snow globe, and a box of candy canes :). He got a light saber...Liam asked for a real Mario go kart thanks to the Amazon catalog. We reminded him that Santa doesn't make cars (just toys) so instead he asked for a pilot dashboard toy.

We went to the Young Living Country Christmas and were sad that they no longer have a live nativity, Christmas village, live animals, or Mrs. Claus handing out cookies and reading Christmas stories. Also, the Santa was really creepy and kept persistently and uncomfortably asking Chelsea, Alexa, and I to sit on his lap. No thank you.

We were so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Sweeny here for Christmas! They took each of the kids shopping for their own gifts, which they loved. We played lots of card games and did lots of puzzles and Duolingo together. We gifted nativities to two families in our neighborhood for Christmas pixie this year. Each day we would give them a piece of the nativity, a treat, and a scripture about that nativity character. Liam took the surprise deliveries very seriously and dressed like a ninja. Tyler accidentally tripped and dropped nativity-Joseph on the way to deliver him but Kyle glued him back together. Tyler and Tad took our family nativity reenactment on Christmas Eve to a new level with face-painted beards.

For Christmas, Alexa got a new softball bat, Nancy Drew books, Hooky #3 (a book), Animal Crossing, fox squishmallow, cargo pants, a hair curler and a crimper, a big fuzzy blanket, lip gloss. She is officially a pre-teen girl! She even made us a shopping list this year. She also made everyone gifts this year in her ceramics class. My favorite was the beautiful nativity she made Kyle and I.

Tyler got a digital camera, Hardy Boys books, a new switch game, a gameboy mug, and I don't remember what else :).

Tad got light sabers, a pocket microscope, an origami kit, Mad Libs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Switch, and a kiwi crate subscription.

Liam got a pilot dashboard, banana stuffie, Pigeon books, Minecraft for the Switch, and a kiwi crate subscription.

Nathan got a toy kitchen, a toy farm set, and Bluey books.

Audrey got some new baby rattles and board books.

Kyle got me season tickets to Hale Theater and I got him season tickets to this summer's USANA concert series.

Wayne the Elf from the movie Prep and Landing brought the kids a giant panda bear.

Shauna and Darrell organized a really nice 100th Birthday party for Grandma and Grandpa Ludlow (Dan and Luene). We laughed that we ordered a cake from Costco and they spelled my name Jenny Sweengling. Unfortunately, Tad ran into Audrey while playing with a chair cart at the party and her teeth went straight through her lip. It was such a wide cut that I thought she would need stitches and ran her to Urgent Care, but they said to just glue it.

We went up to Bear Lake for a Swingle Family Reunion right after Christmas. The kids loved playing with cousins, the adults played lots of card games, and everyone loved sledding and snowmobiling. The house was so nice and had lots of space for everyone. It also had NBA Jam, ping pong, billiards, air hockey, and foosball.