The Christmas Joke!

Matthew Macdonald's Surprise for Mackynzie Parry

"Oh my gosh! What a dork."

"It is a huge picture of himself."

"What am I going to do with this?" said Mackynzie

The Macdonald cousins draw names for Christmas and Mackynzie was so hoping that Matthew would pick her name.  She was expecting something really exciting this year from him.  Matt called me to ask what Mack wanted and I suggested a picture of himself.  He got so excited about it and we had a good laugh over the phone about it.  I have to say, I loved the picture he picked it was a huge 8x10 formal picture!  We all had a great chuckle about that picture on Christmas morning.  Good one Matthew.  We love you like the twin you were suppose to be with Mackynzie.  If ever there were two people so similar it is those two.  When Mack and Matt are together the family all just listens in amazement.  We can't tell if they are like an old bickering married couple or just laughing the days away.  Matt and Mack really do have a special bond.

Skiing at Snowbird when it is 12 degrees Outside and a Blizzard!

The day was great.  It snowed the entire day, but we had a blast.  It was so fun to get out together and enjoy the snow.  At first, Kayla and Mackynzie weren't sure this was going to be fun.  I guess being so use to those sunny days in California they were worried about freezing in the blizzard.  However, once we got Kayla her required helmet (required by me and that was a huge ordeal.) We were off to the slopes.  I wanted Mack to wear a helmet but she wasn't even close to warming up to the idea. So, I gave up control and let her go without.  I figured she is as tall as I am and she can make her own decision about that one.  

It was pretty comical to watch the girls put on all their gear that was so foreign to them.  Mack kept saying "I need help, I need help".  I had to sit back and laugh for a minute as we were trying to keep snow out of the car we borrowed from Sean's dad and layering the girls up with warm clothing, putting on boots that were impossible for Mackynzie to place her foot in.  It never seemed this difficult before.  Oh the drama of teenagers!!  Don't get me wrong I loved every minute of it. 

What would you wear when it was 12 degrees?

 I am pretty sure I didn't want an inch of my skin to show when it was that cold.  Mack on the other hand is still young enough to care if she looks fabulous. I just wanted to be warm.

This is a video of Kayla skiing down Big Emma!  She was doing great for her second time skiing!  We had a great day together. Kayla loved it and stayed pretty warm for being so cold outside.

Kayla's Holiday Class Party

Since I have always been the room parent every year for Kayla's different classes, I usually would plan the Winter Holiday Party.  Every year in the past I have done cute individual gingerbread houses for the entire class and they have a ball with putting all kinds of candy and goodies on the houses.  

However, this year San Elijo Elementary has a very strict food policy.  We were not allowed to use any candy or sweets in planning any party this year.  So I turned to my wonderful friend Jillene Rios who helped me come up with a great activity in place of the gingerbread houses.    

Jillene is an art teacher so she has tons of creative ideas.  We decided on making cute journals.  We would use shaving cream, paint and art paper.  She said it was a really easy project and it was.  But she didn't tell me how messy it was!  Jillene loves a good mess.....and she is quick at helping all the kids.  I had recruited Mackynzie as my helper, because Jillene had to leave in the middle of the project.  I was so grateful Mack ended up being there.  I really needed her help to get it all done.  We had only about one more group of kids to handle after Jillene left and we missed her.  Jillene was way faster at handling all the little kids and the mess that was involved, but Mack and I managed and we all had a fabulous time.  Plus, the journals turned out darling and were a great hit with the kids.

Wonderful Mackynzie helping out her mom!  I had an apron for Mackynzie but she thought she would be okay.  She realized after the activity that the apron would have been a good idea.  

Making the covers for the journals.

We managed and Mack's comment was, "Boy, I am not meant to be a teacher!"  We both laughed and agreed that it takes a special person to be a teacher.  How grateful I am for Kayla's teacher this year.  Mrs. McCarthy has been amazing and really works hard for her class.

Kayla's class had a book exchange.

Which book should I choose???

Yeah!  We now have two weeks of freedom.  I love it when the kids are on break, all we do is play.  We should have a fun time.

SPIRIT DAY: Dress Like it is Snowing!

San Elijo Elementary School Spirit Day was: "to dress like it is snowing".  Living in sunny California doesn't give a great many chances to dress up in a hat and scarf.   So, Kayla was excited to participate.  We were getting ready with all the snow gear because we were leaving for Utah a few days after spirit day.  She had her choice of many things to wear to school.  We had pulled out and purchased all kinds of warm stuff because we heard Utah was FREEZING.  In Utah Kayla would get the real thing, with massive amounts of snow to play in.  This was just a little teaser for the real snow that was coming.  

Mack's Massive Bruise

The bumps and bruises of basketball!

Mackynzie showing off her bruise from her last game.  

Mack loves basketball!  She is so happy to have the opportunity to play.  Last night San Marcos High played their rival team and won.  It was 42 to 32.  Pretty exciting stuff, they had never beat Mission Hills before in girl's basketball.  This was an exhibition game because they are no longer in the same league.  In the past two weeks Mack has played four games a week.  This week we have three games and after that we will have the normal two games a week for the season.  It takes up a lot of time, but she is loving it.

Mackynzie Makes News!

Mack made it in the PAPER

Mackynzie Parry made it into the newspaper for her basketball!  She was the top scorer at this game.  Her grandparents were in town for about a week and came to watch three of her games over the holiday weekend.  They loved watching her and loved cheering "Way to go Mack!"  She is a sophomore playing on the varsity team.  Mackynzie is really getting good and believing she is a ball player. She is fast and tries her hardest. This year she is a lot taller, which is helping her to make so many of her shots.  Lots of her relatives were so supportive to come and see her play in the Grossmount tournament.  It was a long drive and took some major effort to get there.  We appreciated the effort.  I know Mack loved being able to show off her skills. She loves attention!

Matthew Macdonald supporting Mack in her game!  

Mackynzie taking a shot that makes it.

Another shot that made all her fans go wild.

Grammie and Papa Macdonald, Lisa Holt, Liz and Matt Macdonald, Kelsi and Trent were all present to behold her talent at this game.  They were in town for Thanksgiving and this was one of the many fun activities on the list of things to do.  Thanks again for coming guys.

The Joy of Vera Leeper

Visiting Aunt Vera 

We have been so blessed by getting to know Aunt Vera.  We have been visiting with her for several years now. She is about to turn 95 years old on February 1, 2009.  This last year she was moved into an elderly care facility.  She had been living alone for many years and was doing quite well.  However, more time passed and it became apparent that she needed to be in a place where people could watch out for her at all times.  We got to know Aunt Vera by taking her shopping and going to lunch.  She is a crack up and we love her.  She is Sean's Grandmother's sister.  She is the last one alive in that family and she has blessed our lives.   

Right before she was moved into the facility.  It was a hard day or two for our family.  We popped in to see Vera and she was not doing well at all.  We had not heard from her in a few days.  She would always call us and leave the best messages. She would always be so uplifting to us and tell us how wonderful we were.  Who doesn't love that!  Anyway, the day we popped in we took her some scones and doughnuts from her favorite bakery.  Ron Leeper let us in the house and took us to her room.  It was just Mackynzie, Kayla and me.  Vera was sleeping.  Ron woke her up and she was so tired and completely lifeless.  We had never seen Vera like that before.  We talked with her for about two minutes and she fell back asleep.

As we left there were tears in our eyes and we could not hide the emotions that were flooding our thoughts.  Vera lived next to the ocean.  So we got in the car and pulled into a parking lot near the ocean.  Kayla said, "Vera doesn't look like herself, she looks like she is going to die" and she started balling.  We each took a few minutes and said what we loved about Vera.  I remember Mackynzie saying, "I think Vera has lived these last two years just for us.  So we could meet her and have her apart of our lives."  It is so true.  We have been blessed to be apart of her life and hear her great stories.  We are so pleased that after the move into the new care facility she has regained strength and we can continue to have her presence in our lives. 

This is at Vera's care facility and Mackynzie and Kayla are singing to her!

There is not a better way to feel such complete joy then to serve another. Just look at Mackynzie and Kayla's faces.  They love Vera's sweet spirit and love bringing her a bit of joy.  I believe in this picture they were singing the new Taylor Swift song to her. Then they did some Christmas carols.  She kept asking for more songs.  Vera loved it.

Mackynzie also decided to played the piano for her.  It hadn't been tuned for years, but no one seemed to mind!

Sean Parry, Vera Leeper, Kayla Parry and Karyn Parry

Vera loves Sean.  They can sit and laugh together forever.

The girls and I were thinking about what we could get Vera this Christmas.  She has only a small space for her belongings and really at this stage of life what can you get her.  As we were shopping for cousin gifts we were in the Build-A-Bear store.  We started seeing all these cute bears and I thought of Vera.  So, the girls picked out a bear, kissed the heart that goes inside it. Then we worked on a custom recording to place in the bears paw that would play:  From Kayla's voice, "Vera, we love you."  Mackynzie's voice, "We appreciate you in our life." Karyn's voice, " and we are glad you are part of our family." and Mackynize's voice, "Love, Sean, Karyn, Mackynzie and Kayla."  That little message was redone so many times as we giggled in the store trying to make it perfect.  It can be played 2000 times and we thought Vera would enjoy it.  The girls filled the bear with stuffing, picked out clothes for her and gave her the name Angel Parry.  

The Girls giving Angel Parry to Vera.

The Escondido Christmas Celebration

Kayla's Big Debut

Kayla was able to participate in the Christmas Celebration that was presented by the Escondido and Escondido South Stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Kayla sang in the Children's Choir.  She did a wonderful job. It was so exciting to see her up on stage.  Mackynzie was suppose to be in the Chorus this evening, however there was a conflict with basketball.  She was pretty torn up about not being able to perform with Kayla.  They had both been preparing for this for the last two months.  It was a great experience!  They both loved the practices and have been looking forward to this performance for a while now. Emily Schaumann directed them along with some others from the production team.  We missed seeing Mackynzie in the actual performance, but she got some great experience from the entire process - all those long Sunday practices.  

Kayla was a joy to watch and the whole program went well.  This was a great missionary opportunity.  It was held at the Escondido Arts Center, which held a lot of people.  Kayla had a fun time performing.  Great job Kayla!

This is in the girls dressing room back stage.

Hannah Sanders (Kayla's new friend) and Kayla Parry

The Children's Choir and Chorus (minus Mackynzie)

At the end of the performance.

Kayla was pretty pleased with the outcome!