Monday we got our COVID booster vaccines! For a while, only those who worked in high risk jobs or those with immune needs could get the booster. Last week, Governor Cox encouraged everyone to get their booster because many areas in Utah are high risk right now. We’re grateful we could get the booster before the holidays! Our arms were barely sore, but Mark’s armpit was sore a few days after! His family taught us that your lymph nodes can become swollen when fighting off viruses. It was a strange reaction! We both felt well other than that!
Monday we were also able to take dinner to our friends. The wife, who is the second counselor in my presidency, has a kidney stone and we wanted to help them. The craziest thing is that my first counselor text me on Monday to say she had a kidney stone too! Such a crazy coincidence. We were planning to meet in person this week to plan out teachers for 2022, so we’ll likely be doing a lot of planning through texting in the next little bit while they go through procedures and recovering.
Tuesday, I was asked to help with primary activities for the older girls. Mark helped with the boys’ activity last week so it was fun that I got to go this time! The girls played a bunch of fun thanksgiving games.
Wednesday, all the real holiday fun started!! Early in the morning, I mixed up roll dough. While I was working, Mark rolled out the rolls and put them in the oven. After a quick lunch, we drove to Blackfoot to be with Mark’s family. Mark was able to help his little brother change some tires before dinner. We brought a chocolate mousse pie and rolls, then we made roasted carrots there. The carrots were burnt on the outside and raw on the inside because the oven temperature was high for the cooking turkey… oh well. They weren’t too bad, but will hopefully be better next time. It was nice to have time to relax and visit there! We drove home later that evening.
Wednesday morning, after a quick workout, I spent the whole morning baking and cooking. I made a caramel apple tart and a green bean salad. I just saw this salad recipe on The Kitchen on Saturday and was excited to try it! It’s inspired by green bean casserole, but it’s much healthier! Mark helped me get started and then went to donate plasma while I finished everything up.
At 1:00 we had dinner with my parents and my sister Tiffany and her family. One of her daughter’s had covid a couple weeks ago so we were especially grateful everyone was healthy and well enough to be together! After dinner, we went for a walk, ate pie, then watched The Blindside.
At home, Mark and I watched the National Dog Show. It’s one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. I just love seeing all the different breeds and learning what they were bred to do. Mark was so awesome to figure out how to get a free trial of YouTube TV so we could record it and watch it later. Here’s a picture of Flynn “cheering” for the Havanese.
Friday morning at 7:00, I picked up Tiffany and her three oldest daughters. We went to Kohl’s and had so much fun together. After that, we went back to my parents’ for a post-Thanksgiving Zumba workout which was also a lot of fun.
That afternoon, I went fishing at first dam with my dad and a niece and nephew. My Dad was so nice to buy me a fishing license for my Christmas present! Most of the fish we caught were small so we released some. We caught quite a few though! Mark and I cooked up a couple for dinner that night (using the new pans I got at Kohl’s that morning!)!
Flynn even got a little taste of unseasoned fish which he gobbled up!!
Friday, we also put up our Christmas tree!! It’s the tallest tree we’ve had and it’s just so beautiful! We really lucked out that the two trees we found in the forest were both great! Friday night we decorated the tree and the apartment while watching the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas and eating left over pie. This time of year is beautiful and magical. I want to soak in every moment because, while I want Christmas to come, I know it always comes and goes too quickly!
On Saturday, Mark went hunting with Dr. Conover. They didn’t see any pheasants, but it gave me a good chance to wrap up Mark’s presents while watching a cheesy Christmas romance movie. So fun!! It was a wonderful vacation. It’s going to be hard to go back to work on Monday, but there are so many fun Christmas activities to look forward to!
Oh, and our niece, Whitney, made a tiny hat for Flynn! It was so cute but he liked it better as a chew toy. He didn’t want to give it back to us!
Our Story: The Bell Family 