A {Mostly} Predictable Christmas

Happy New Year, my friends!    I just dropped Ellie off at the MTC earlier today (and I will post about that later), but first I need a little distraction from my complicated feelings and wanted to do a little recap of our Christmas.   If you've been following along with this blog for very long, you can likely predict that the excitement level of this post will be somewhat low and the content fairly predictable, but I figure if you're still following along with this blog 17 years after I started it, you know what you're getting!  Haha! 

I already posted about our Christmas cards this year, but here is a glimpse of the the other Christmas cards I designed AND had printed (yes, I'm that obsessed).   The top ones were for Cami, who had a pretty crazy Christmas season of Garrett working nights most of the month, combined with a lot of sickness that knocked them out for a while (and required a couple of scary ER visits for poor Oliver with a case of the croup).    She knew there was no way they were getting out before Christmas, so we just embraced the New Year theme! 

I also designed and printed my Mom's cards. I felt a little badly that there were no photos of her with any other grandkids to include, but, to be fair, I asked everyone before throwing in the pictures of my family.  No one else had any to offer, so it is what it is, and my sister, H, and I  are already on a quest to do better this year  taking pictures with the other families when they come to town.  

Christmastime at our house always includes making a lot of goodies, but this year we decided to jump into the whole "neighbor gift" tradition that is very much a thing here in Utah.   We brought goodies to friends in other places, but with our ward being so compact here in Utah, it's much more of a widespread tradition and it's fun to see the creative gifts and treats that people came up with.   We opted for white chocolate toffee popcorn--a recipe I got from my friend, Lona, in PA.  It was easy enough to make in large quantities and we packaged it up cute and made about 25 deliveries on Christmas Eve. 

It was fun to spend an evening with my nieces, Lauren (at BYU-ID) and McKenzie (at BYU), before bringing them to the airport to head home for Christmas break.  They knew it was their last chance to see Ellie for 18ish months, so they enjoyed their time together! 

We almost dispensed with the Christmas Eve pajama tradition this year, but after some persuasive arguments from a couple of the kids, we pulled it together very last minute.  

I think everyone really ended up liking their Snuggies and I will be hard-pressed to dispense with this tradition before Ellie is home, so we will be keeping the tradition alive for another couple years at least! 

We couldn't find baby-size Snuggies, so we sent Lucie and Oliver pajamas in matching colors at least.    Garrett is a big fan of his, while Cami finds hers a little too toasty to wear much. 

To be fair, I can't wear mine to bed for the same reason, but I do enjoy wearing mine in the evenings and especially when I first wake up in the morning when the house is colder.   

I do have to admit that Christmas pajama photos are pretty fun and we've had a lot of epic ones over the years.  This one ranks up there with some of the best!  

After pajama opening, we did our traditional Christmas Eve devotional with songs and scriptures. My Mom, Heather, and Nate joined us for this part of the night.   You can find a printable version of the devotional books we use here.  We usually read all the scriptures and sing just the first verses  of the songs, then Glen finishes off the night with showing us this video and him testifying about how we can let Christ into our lives better. 

On Christmas morning, we made and enjoyed this delicious breakfast....

Emma made a gluten free version of our favorite Orange Breakfast Bread, I made bacon, and Adam and Glen made eggs and got the berries ready.  It was all delicious and I daresay we looked pretty cute eating our Christmas breakfast in our Snuggies!  

Later we opened presents, during which I took almost no photos.  But I did capture the beautiful Scandinavian heart baskets Emma made for us and we smiled seeing this sweet picture of Lucie, so happy that she got the only thing she wanted from Santa...some pink sparkly shoes!  

What else did we do?  

Ellie and I did some shoveling, since Glen is still recovering from his recent appendectomy.   Adam hit up some Christmas parties wearing this epic outfit. 

Speaking of epic outfits....Adam's BYU friend group were all looking pretty snazzy at this party!  

Oh, and this part of the post is all out of order, but I had to throw in something slightly unexpected for you.  This was a glimpse of our Christmas Eve dinner, ordered to-go from Cheesecake Factory.   It may look like alcoholic beverages on our table for the occasion, but, rest assured....

It was just a non-alcoholic butterscotch beer taste testing we decided to try!   It was our first time having butterscotch beer (besides the butterbeer from Universal Studios Harry Potter World).  I think it was pretty unanimous that it was all a bit too sweet for us to buy on any regular occasion, but #1 (the one we'd gotten from Costco) was the one we liked the best. 

 So there you have it...our very boring, but wonderful Christmas festivities.   These days I don't even want non-boring.   Having our college kids home, a missionary in the house, and my Mom, brother, and sister here was perfect.  The only thing that would have made it more perfect, was if Cami, Garrett, Lucie, and Oliver could have been here too, but we had {most of} them for Thanksgiving, so we will be grateful for that!  

Happy New Year!  

Ellie is a Missionary!

On December 15th Ellie gave her missionary farewell talk at church before she heads off to the MTC next week.  

She gave a beautiful talk and we had a good group of friends and family that came for the occasion.  

At the end, she bore her testimony in Spanish (such that it is at this point).  Afterward, we had an open house at our home, where we spent time with friends and family and served some of our favorite Christmas goodies.    (browned butter rice krispie treats, Grandma's cracker toffee, my {sort of} famous rocky road fudge, mint swirl fudge {a new recipe}, fruit, veggie tray, our family's favorite mediterranean dip, deviled eggs, crackers, cheese, and some fun soda {at Ellie's request})

I was terrible at taking pictures that day, but here we are with some of our good friends from Virginia who came. 

And one with one of our Thailand HXP girls, Sarah.

A few of the other people who came were the Durhams (shown above), Palmers (shown above), Bennetts, my 95-year-old Nana (shown above), my Uncle Buddy and Aunt Debra (shown with Nana), Glen's brother's family, the Rohrers (our neighbors), my sister and Mom, Rachel (Ellie's HXP trip leader from Malawi),  Bryn and Charley (more friends from an HXP trip), and a few other people I can't recall at the moment.

We very much enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with family and old friends and celebrate Ellie as she goes off into the world to be a part of a great work!   Later that week, we attended the temple together...

And on December 22nd, she was set apart as a full-time missionary.   

It's been an amazing experience having a missionary in our home for Christmas...

Her Christmas haul was filled with practical gifts, like shoes, dresses, a bag, and such that she will use on her mission....

As per tradition, we have a Christmas ornament we add to our tree for each of our missionaries for every Christmas they are serving.  It is tradition that these cute little ornaments are for the first year they are serving and we have a completely different ornament we get for their second Christmases.  We figured it was only fitting that Ellie have a Christmasy version of the ornament, since she started her mission two days before Christmas! 

 

Left to right they represent Cami who served in France Lyon, Emma during COVID in Salt Lake West, Adam in Portland, and Ellie heading to Ventura.    The height differences between them make us giggle and I love knowing that our collection is complete now!  

Hurrah for the love, service, and sacrifice that these missionaries make to bring the light of Christ wherever they go!   It truly is a great work that we are thrilled for her to be a part of...

 

...though I'm really really really dreading the goodbye in a few days when we drop her off at the MTC.  💗

Our Christmas Cards

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FRIENDS!  It's been a crazy few weeks getting ready for Christmas AND getting Ellie ready for her mission (which just began this week), but it's time, once again, to reveal this year's version of the Christmas card and newsletter! 

I keep thinking that at some point I'll get tired of Christmas cards and all the work they entail, but that day has not come yet.   Not only do I like hearing from long lost friends and relatives through snail mail, but I absolutely love the whole process of sending and creating them.  This year I was excited to have a photo of our whole family together, something that is rare in this missionary era of our family, where we go entire years with kids out in the field.   We bent over backward to get this photo together in the less than 24 hours we had all together after Adam arrived home from his mission and before the B family started heading back to Alabama (you can read more about here). 

I designed the Christmas cards on Canva this year and had them printed at a local print shop.  I've been trying to be better about supporting local businesses, and I like the more reasonable pricing too!    

Here's the back:  

 I've noticed that Christmas newsletters have been falling by the wayside of late, with probably fewer than one in ten of the cards we receive containing one, but I, in all my nerdiness, still love creating them.  Sometimes I worry that they're TMI and perhaps contain a bit too much of the rosy posy of our lives, but I love it anyway.  

Here is ours from this year, in all its hand-drawn glory.  I finished it up while Glen was in the hospital getting his appendix out and had them printed at a different local print-shop that I recently discovered.   I felt very much like a geek sending these out, but, when it comes to Christmas cards, I am pretty geeky, so it is what it is.   

 

 So there you have it...the 2024 version of our Christmas card and newsletter.     And here's a glimpse of the cards we've received as of today.   I imagine that we'll fill up the door next week and spill our collection onto the office door. 

See here for past years' Christmas cards and newsletters.  

Hope you have had a happy and blessed Christmas!  Thanks for following along with our adventures here on the blog! 
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The Current Happenings

 So what's been happening lately?  

You know besides having a houseful of people for Thanksgiving...

having a miserable stomach bug on either side of  Thanksgiving  that raged through everyone but Ellie and Glen...

sending off a missionary in two weeks....

and you know the minor task of  getting ready for Christmas...

oh yeah...just an emergency appendectomy for Glen CAUSED by the colonoscopy he'd had the day before.    Apparently it's a very rare side effect, but one that his doctor acknowledged as the likely cause of his appendicitis.   So to sum up, that was him fasting/purging on Monday, his colonoscopy on Tuesday, sending Cami and crew back home and appendicitis symptoms on Wednesday, and emergency surgery on Thursday.  

In other words, he is exhausted and in pain, but thankfully recovering well.  

Now back to our regularly scheduled Christmas chaos and ugly festive sweaters.

My Baby is Leaving Soon!

 This blog has been around since Ellie was 2-years-old, which means that all of you, dear blog readers, have been able to see more glimpses of her growing up years than any of my other kids.  She is now about to head out on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I'm going through a bit of a mid-life crisis acknowledging that I'm sending my baby out into the world for the next 18-months!  Of course, I'm thrilled that she's made this decision to serve a mission, but I'm also just kind of sad realizing that this raising kids stage of my life  is pretty much over.   

Don't get me wrong, after nearly 30 years of hands-on parenting, I feel peaceful that this progression is the natural course of life and I'm proud of who my kids are and the paths that they are on, but I have to admit that I do miss the little people they once were.  Call me nostalgic, I guess.  So today, I'm just going to post pictures of Ellie, because I'm going to miss her in a couple weeks.

Here she is in the missionary photo shoot my sister, Heather, took of her:  

My niece, McKenzie, came along too and was a good photo stylist!  I was grateful for her and for Heather for taking the pictures and saving us a bundle of moola! 

The other day I sent her down to the storage room to find something and before long she was trying on my wedding dress!   I wasn't that much older than her when  I got married and it made me feel kind of old, to be totally honest.   I've got a family full of full-grown adults now!  

  Ellie hadn't had her hair cut in over a year and really wanted to get it freshened up before she left on her mission, so here are her BEFORE pics....

and her AFTER pics....

For the record, yes, it is normal for us G girls to go a year or more without getting our hair done. I am low-maintenance and I think all of my girls take after me in that department.  

Speaking of low-maintenance, Ellie has been doing lots of thrifting lately, to get her mission wardrobe in place.  I don't really love shopping, so I've been grateful for siblings that have been willing to thrift with her.  

I've enjoyed finding little fashion shoots like this on the camera roll!  :)

She's ALMOST done with her shopping now and she has begun the process of STARTING TO PACK, which is making it feel extra real that she's leaving soon. 

We stopped by to visit my Nana the other day, so Ellie could say goodbye before taking off on her mission.  It was a good day for Nana, who is suffering with late-onset dementia, and  we were thrilled that she remembered all of us and was excited to see us. 

Ellie ate up her time with Lucie and Oliver while they were here for Thanksgiving...

It was a sad goodbye for her when Cam and kids had to head home...

And pretty soon we'll have our own happy/sad goodbye, but here is a picture of her with a pear-shaped potato to make us smile in the meantime...

With that I'll just sign off with a reminder to myself that this right here is what I dreamed about 30 years ago.   I can do this!