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!  

Your Mom is Weird

Letter written to our missionary:  4/17/23

************************
Hello dear missionary of mine!  
How's life in  the land of Ports and Dams?   How fun that I still get to make  Dam jokes with you even in your new area.   You probably thought you would get to escape those eventually, but...NOT YET! 

I'm fully aware that my obsession with beavers/dams probably puts me squarely in the "weird category", but I'm okay with that.  At least I'm not also obsessed with sending stupid little 4x6 pieces of thick paper in the mail, because that would be truly weird.  

Oh wait.  Never mind.

I do also send doughnuts to your cousins who have birthdays...

Maybe that makes me slightly more normal...

I also seem to have an issue with dogs following me home...

For approximately the 5th time since moving to Utah, we met a loose dog on our morning walk and had it follow us all the way home.     He had no tag/collar on, so we posted on the community FB page and pretty quickly found the owner to Maverick.  He was a pretty sweet guy, but we laughed that this never once happened while we lived in VA or PA, but somehow it happens on a semi-regular basis here in UT!   Maybe we smell extra meaty or something now.  

I also can't stop looking for "matching" pictures to show Cami after she sends me a  picture of Lucie.  She sent me this one to show how Lucie was wiping her hands in her hair like a napkin, so I found one of Cami doing the same thing...then found one of me doing the same thing.  In other words, apparently messy eating runs in the family!  

I guess it might be  slightly weird that I've started looking for "wishing rocks" to show your little cousins after I read them a cute picture book during Spring Break about different types of rocks you can find.   It gave me Adam vibes to be walking along the trail with a pocket full of rocks...and to now have a pile of rocks on my windowsill for whatever future date we might see the King Boys again. 

On Sunday, we decided to channel our inner Adam even further and took an afternoon drive to Bear River Bird Refuge.   It was a lovely day and I had fun using the Merlin App (an amazing discovery) to help us identify some of  the different birds. 

We saw American avocets...

A snowy egret (we didn't need the app for this one)...

An American coot...

A yellow-headed blackbird...

 American white pelicans...

A white faced ibis...

And some hungry Gooldicus Birdicus... {there were too many bugs to eat our picnic outside}.  We definitely need to take you there when you get home.  You would love this place!  

Also, on a different, but related note...Spring is kind of here and I've stopped crying every morning when I see the weather forecast...I also am enjoying post-dinner walks a few times a week.   {PS  I only joined BeReal to be friends with your sisters and the three of them are literally the ONLY friends I have on there (not that they post very often or anything).   Someone else tries to add me and they are instantly and cruelly denied! I will probably let you be my friend in 15ish months or so though, so don't worry.}

In case you're wondering why I only said Spring was "kind-of here"...

There are still way too many cold days in the mix for my taste...not that I'm complaining too much.  I am definitely reveling in the sunshine and not having to wear my woolen outerwear every day for now, but, heaven help me,  if it snows on my birthday, there won't  be enough beavers in the world to justify the  torrent of dams that will flow forth from my mouth. 

Sorry. 

I guess I better go read my scriptures  or something {I'M ON MORONI 9, SO ONE MORE DAY!!!}.   Or maybe send a few postcards.  Or think of a spiritual thought to end with...

Here's a quote in President Nelson's GC talk that stood out to me:  

"The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers."

It made me think of you and the other missionaries out there making the world a better place and it made me thoughtful about what I could do to be a better peacemaker.  

I hope you have an amazing week!  We can't wait to talk with you tomorrow! 

LOVE YOU!!!!
Love,
Mom

 




 

April 2021 UPDATES!

Here's a glimpse at April 2021 for our family!   It was a busy month!  

1--We finished our Spring Break trip to the northeast  with our first ever trek to Martha's Vineyard!

The Gingerbread Cottage Village on Martha's Vineyard totally stole my heart.  CUTEST HOUSES EVER!!! 

This pink one was our favorite! 

We also visited an Alpaca Farm, which was an absolutely delightful way to spend an afternoon!

And what's a trip to an island in the Northeast, without a trek to a lighthouse or two?   

2--Glen got a job....in Utah.   Actually I think he officially was offered it back at the end of March, but he started working remotely this month.   We are excited to be closer to most of our kids, but we have very mixed feelings about moving to Utah.  

3--We got out-of-town visitors!   Pete / Mika and family and Kristina and family came for Easter and brought lots of energy, laughter, and fun to our house!   We loved taking them to see the sites and introducing them to Pennsylvania (even if it was right before we moved)!  It was an absolutely delightful trip and we LOVED this glimpse of normalcy amongst all the craziness the last year has brought. 

4--We babysat regularly for our sweet neighbors, the Richards,  while their mom and dad got ready for their impending move to Utah (a few weeks before ours). We absolutely loved the giggles and happy conversations they brought into our home during the time we were neighbors.  I 100% feel that they were one of the reasons we needed to live in Pennsylvania.  

5--Glen went on a big fishing trip to North Carolina with his friend, Ryan.  It was planned for LAST April, but COVID canceled it and he was thrilled to make it happen this year.  They deemed it a successful trip (as you can see by the pictures)!  

6--We got vaccinated!    I'll be the first to admit that we were a little hesitant about getting the COVID vaccine at first.  It seemed too rushed and I wasn't keen on being a living science experiment, but ultimately we felt like it was the right thing to do for our family.   All of us except one of our adult children (who shall remain unnamed here on the blog) ended up getting it.   I have no regrets.   

7--We found out that we're going to be grandparents in December!!!  We are so incredibly excited for Cami and Garrett! 

8--We went on a house hunting trip to Utah and bought a house!  (this is the view off our back porch)

More excitement to come...