Pretty wonderful!

We had a lot of wonderful experiences this weekend.  It was a couple of crazy, crazy days, but some that we will definitely never forget.  Most wonderful of all was the opportunity that we had Saturday afternoon to personally meet Elder Nelson of the quorum of the twelve apostles.  

funny how we all coordinated, not on purpose

Chris's dad has been serving as first counselor in the stake presidency in the Lewisville stake for a few years now.  Elder Nelson came to speak in their stake and on Saturday afternoon there was a meet and greet for the stake presidency and their families.  I'm not going to lie, it was a short meeting.  We said hi, shook his hand, and got a picture with him, then he had to be on his way.  But in that short time I definitely received a witness that he is an apostle of God.  When I asked Madison if she felt the Holy Ghost she said "no, I was just shy, and hungry."  Oh well, at least hopefully she will remember the experience.  

Then on Sunday we attended Stake Conference with Chris's family to hear Chris's dad give his final talk as a member of the stake presidency.  He was released from the stake presidency on Sunday because they are moving to Arkansas.  Anyway, we were also able to hear Elder Nelson speak.  It was a wonderful talk.  I've heard apostles speak outside of General Conference a couple of times, and I always enjoy how much more relaxed they are in the less formal setting.  Elder Nelson had a lot of fun stories to share about raising his 10 kids: 9 girls and 1 boy, wow!  Amazingly enough Colton made it through the entire 2 hour meeting.  That in and of itself is miraculous.  

Chris got to sit up front with his mom for part of the meeting and he took some paparazzi shots after it was over :)

After church we had our annual Wise family Christmas dinner, gingerbread decorating, Christmas story reading, and fishing party.  

graham cracker/gingerbread train

prizes!

decorating with Aunt Ashley

she slept in those antlers last night

Jaxon's turn

cutest reindeer ever!

four tiny reindeer!

Madison also had her piano recital this weekend.  She did wonderfully!  She played "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and, excuse me for bragging on my kid, but she totally rocked it!  She was one of about 3 kids who had their whole song memorized AND the youngest kid to play her own song!  Plus she was so stinkin' adorable up there!

after her recital

We also went to some really fun Christmas parties this weekend.  We have some pretty great friends who throw some pretty wonderful parties.  Friday night was the annual white elephant party.  The theme was 50's so Chris and I got all dressed up!  Our outfits weren't perfect to the time period, but it was as good as it got without spending any money and it was fun to dress up!

50's attire

The Saturday night (after we met Elder Nelson and Madison played her recital) we went to an Ugly Sweater party!  It was so fun to see all the ugly sweaters people wore.  We took the easy route and just bought a cheap turtle neck and XXXL sweatshirt from Walmart because the thrift stores were picked over. In fact, Walmart was pretty picked over, too.  When I went to pick out our stuff there were at least 2 other women who I KNOW were looking for ugly sweaters, too!  

rockin' the turtle neck.  I don't think I've owned one of these for at least a decade

mmmm, xxxxl 

Jon and Chris these guys were crakin' me up

And finally, as if the weekend couldn't get any more full, Saturday morning I ran a 5K.  Nothing fancy and no I didn't win or anything, but I can definitely say I'm getting smarter at my runs and my times are improving.  

at home after the race, it was only 35 degrees that morning, I didn't want Chris to have to wait in the cold with all the kids just to watch me finish a 5K 

We also had Chris's work party last Thursday night.  So that's 3 parties in 3 days.  Pretty sure I just used up Madison's college savings on babysitters :)  We went to bed at 10 last night.  Whew.