A few months ago a friend from church organized a little group of moms and daughters to attend the Nutcracker. Last night was the much anticipated ballet. We saw a professional touring cast perform in a beautiful ninety-six year-old theater. Phoebe, Sophie, and I all loved it. I think Sophie's favorite part may have been getting to sit next to her friend Gemma, who appears in a few of these pictures.
We spent Saturday afternoon trimming hedges (Bryan) and cleaning up the debris (the rest of us). Then we put up Christmas lights. The kids were so excited about the lights, but less excited about actually putting them up. So Bryan and I had an audience while we decorated our yard with lights.
I just picked Peter, Cooper, and Phoebe up from a karaoke night with most of the youth in our ward. They all gathered in the basement of one of the families and sang their hearts out. It took thirty minutes from when I arrived to when I finally was able to get them to leave because they insisted there were more songs they needed to sing. Right at the end someone started You Are Not Alone from Dear Evan Hansen. Most of the kids stood in a half circle around the screen, holding hands, and singing words of encouragement to each other.
Tonight I'm thankful for a small ward and a good group of friends for my kids.
Our Saturday in New York City is best shared through the pictures that we took. An unexpected bonus of giving some of the kids access to phones (Peter has his own, Cooper has one for seminary, Phoebe can borrow one for babysitting) is that there are now several photographers. We let them all bring their phones into the city, just in case we got separated.
Cooper snapped the skyline as we drove in and the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Peter got this selfie with the temple as we were leaving.
Yesterday I took dinner to a family in our ward that has been sick for several weeks, passing germs from one family member to the next. I heard about their plight on Sunday and asked if I could bring them something to help, dinner or treats, anything. They said yes and we set a time for food to be delivered.
I made a double-batch of our dinner, but I was careful to make the pan for us gluten free so I could eat it. Late in the game I decided to make bread for them, which meant I would be late to drop off the food. I built our dinner while theirs was cooking and left it on the island so I could put the hot pan on the stove when I pulled it out.
Peter and Sophie and Topher all wanted to go with me to take the food. I was busy making sure everyone had shoes and jackets, knowing that we were running late. I grabbed the hot bread with oven mitts and set it in the car. Then, still wearing the mitts, I grabbed the tray with the tinfoil covered dinner and set it at Peter's feet so it wouldn't slide around.
Sophie carried in the bread while I took the dinner. We set it on their stovetop and I peeled back the lid as I explained what I'd made. It didn't look quite right and I suggested that maybe it had cooled and would benefit from being warmed up a bit. They thanked us and chatted as we walked out.
About three minutes after we left their house I had a sudden realization about why the dinner didn't look the way it should. I called Phoebe to confirm my suspicion. I asked her where the foil covered pan was, on the island or the stove. It was on the stove. That meant I had just delivered an uncooked, gluten free dinner and left the fully cooked, gluten full dinner at home. I hung up with Phoebe and called the family immediately. I explained in a rush what had happened and apologized several times. The individual ingredients were all cooked (it was chicken broccoli rice casserole, nothing was raw), but it wasn't warm and ready to eat. I think they were okay with it, but I was so frustrated and embarrassed that I'd done that.
When we got home I served the warm dinner that we had left behind to my family while I ate leftover sloppy joe meat that I found in the fridge. Delivering the wrong dinner was not cool, not being able to eat the one that we kept definitely made it worse.
This adventure was not funny at all yesterday. It's kind of funny today. I'm hoping it will be even funnier tomorrow. And I really hope that future attempts at service go better than this one did.
On Saturday morning we woke up before 6am, pulled on warm church clothes, packed casual clothes, and gathered together in the van. Then we drove an hour and a half into Manhattan to attend the temple. Our ward Young Men and Young Women had an appointment to do baptisms for the dead and this was the first opportunity Phoebe has had to go. The Manhattan Temple has a unique design. It's directly across from Julliard and Lincoln Center. The temple itself takes up the first two floors of the building and a regular church meetinghouse is on the third floor. Usually Bryan goes in with the big kids and I stay with the little kids, but this time we swapped. Bryan hung out with Topher and Sophie in the church directly above the temple while I accompanied Peter, Cooper, and Phoebe into the temple.
I helped guide Phoebe as she went in and figured out where she needed to be and what she needed to do. Then, once she was settled and waiting, I was given the job of helping hand towels to people as they came out of the font. There were three Priests (young men between the ages of 16 and 18) in attendance, so they were given the opportunity to perform the baptisms. Peter was given the final turn. He had never baptized anyone before. The Bishop stood near the font, gently giving directions to Peter and encouraging him when he got flustered. It was a sacred experience for me to watch him learn how to perform this ordinance. Phoebe and Cooper were in his group that he baptized, I was so thankful that the Bishop had organized it that way. I'm so thankful for temples and that Peter was willing to step outside his comfort zone and perform some of the baptisms. And I'm thankful that Peter, Cooper, and Phoebe were all willing to spend their Saturday morning serving others.
After we finished in the temple we changed clothes and spent time in the city. The rest of the day was really fun, but that time together in the temple was certainly the highlight.
Why is it that the moment I say I'm going to ride the bike, someone else decides they need to ride it too?
