Wedding Gifts

Tonight I went up to Bountiful for Mel and Christian's grand opening of their wedding presents that had piled up from their Amazon registry. It was Christmas morning again, but only presents for the newlyweds. First they went through cards, then wrapped gifts and gifts in bags, and then they got ready to go through the Amazon boxes. 

They got a system going where Amiee opened boxes and handed them over, Christian opened and read the names, Mel and I took notes on their spreadsheet of who gave what so they can send out thank you notes, and Eric broke down the boxes and collected the trash. 

It was fun to be at their house again. Their dog Yumi is really cute and sweet and she wanted my attention which was new to me. She and I were tight all evening. Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine all came with me, and they hardly said hi to Mel and Christian when we got there, they just took off their shoes and went straight down to the basement to play with Rachel and Amelia. They were playing games and running around. Later Rachel was making the kids stuff on their 3D printer - a little spinning helicopter thing, and some small brachiosaurus' for Peter and Katharine.

The kids did come up near the end to play with Mel and Christian. 

So we just got back from that. Corey stayed home to work, Abi stayed home - she's still feeling sick. Though she also cleaned the house, which was nice to come home to. Lily Sophi and Natalie all had a "wine night" with some neighborhood friends. They drank sparkling apple cider, but they used fancy goblets, so they called it a wine night and had a fancy dinner for themselves. They had a charcuterie night a month or so ago, and they're trying to get together once a month for a dinner. I'll update later with a pic of that if they send me one.

Peter got two gifts today. Earlier today I took him to the store to buy something with his Christmas cash ($20) and birthday cash ($10) that he got from Grandpa Wayne last month. He chose two Spiderman Legos.

This morning I woke up to use the bathroom, and when I came out, an almost full moon was right in our bedroom window and it made me jump. Wow! 

I went into the bathroom groggy, but then I was wide awake and went downstairs to stare at the moon as it set over the valley. I went back to bed, but it was nice to have that moment of quiet before the day began. I liked this quote that I read later today in Simple Abundance. 

"Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the youthful simplicities." 

- Women's Home Companion, Dec 1935

We are at the end of January, and I just wrote out my gratitude for this last day of the month. I did it every day! I remember having a great January last year as I focused on Gratitude and simplicity, and then February got the best of me and my momentum slowed down. I'm hoping to keep it going more this year! I'm reading the Book of Mormon and looking for references to gratitude in there, and so far that has been a wonderful experience too. 

And I'm finding insights on gratitude in the podcasts I listen to (minute 25:05) where he shares a quote by President Eyring's talk "Remeberance and Gratitude") -  and the magazine articles I study as well! I hope to keep this going all year and to learn and gain more insights about and develop more gratitude.