Wrapping Up 2016

Dear Loved Ones,

As you know, we are VERY behind in sending out the newsletter.  Not to make excuses, but our church schedule changed in January, which has made it difficult to continue writing it on a weekly basis.  I'd like to get back in the habit of sending it monthly, but I have a lot of months to catch up on!

Well, there's nothing to do but plow forward, so, picking up where we left off, here's how we finished out 2016:

Christmas vacation began on December 19, and it was filled with pretty much the regular stuff.  We cleaned the house, Margie continued her entrepreneurship class, Lyn got together with her partner to work on science fair stuff, Dan had a dentist appointment to follow up on his tooth injury.  All pretty basic stuff.

On Christmas Eve, we got started on a very special project:

Can you tell what it is?

Does the diagram in the bottom right give you a clue?

On Christmas morning we opened presents and had a nice brunch, for which our nephew Brenden joined us.  In the afternoon, we went to church, which was just a small service of hymn singing.  Our bigger program had been the week before--that's how Mormon's roll!

Then some friends came over and we finished our big project!  

It's a gingerbread TARDIS!  Well, not gingerbread--shortbread, actually, that Margie dyed bright blue.  We used fondant to add the texture, then filled in the windows with frosting.  The police sign was chocolate, which our friend Molly artfully wrote on.

Getting the corners square was the hardest part.

It took many hands!

And a lot of breath holding!

But we finally did it!  Pictured in the back row: Dan, Brenden, and Mike and Molly Hill.

When we finished, what else? Of course we watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special.  A bit untraditional, yes, but a perfect Christmas for us!

The following week, life continued as usual.  The kids enjoyed their time off of school, Margie went back to work, and Dan began building his next set--A Lion in Winter--for The Arlington Players.

On New Year's Eve, the kids went to a church dance and Dan and Margie went to a grown-up party at the home of some LTA friends.  It was bittersweet, as we were missing so many of our friends who had passed this year, but it was good to ring in the new year together.

Now on to 2017!!