Month: December 2021

On Friday we dropped Lydia off at Anabelle’s house so Brittany could take them to ballroom, and then we headed to Salt Lake with the rest of the kids and Mary’s friend, Eloise.

There we met up with Tom and Suzanne so we could all enjoy the interactive Van Gogh exhibit. It was amazing (even though I spent much of it trying to get Ammon not to touch the walls, which were actually screens!)

On Thursday we had a great play date with Courtney and Wyatt after ballet. Courtney brought over Costa Vida soup which we ate with avocado toast and some lavender moon mylk. Clarissa and Wyatt were hilariously listening to every kind of fart sound Alexa can make. (She can make a lot, apparently.) For a three-year old and four-year old, nothing could have been funnier. While Courtney and I visited, a continual stream of laughter flowed in the background.

After Courtney and Wyatt left, I loaded Clarissa in the car to pick up siblings and drop everyone off for the Qualtrics Christmas party. The line to see Olaf was very long and Mary was crying with cold by the time she came home. But they look happy in the picture!

Then I rushed Lydia over to her ballroom rehearsal. I am back-blogging so I don’t remember what happened after that. Oh, Mary took a long salt bath to warm up after her ordeal! And I think I folded a lot of laundry and tidied, as usual.

After I fell down the driveway at the beginning of the week my shoulders and arms have been really sore. So after dropping the kids off, doing all the laundry, tidying every room, and wrapping half of the Christmas presents, I drove myself to the spa and got an 80 minute massage. It felt like a huge relief in the moment, although right now everything still feels sore. I hope it’s better in the morning.

Amy invited us to join her kids to celebrate their full vaccination at the arcade, so we did that after school. I conscripted Abe to come along to help keep track of the little kids. He miraculously finished his work in time to be completely done by the time we left! I don’t know if Abe or Ammon had more fun, but Ammon was the only one who pouted and cried when it was time to leave.

One of the arcade games was a Ninja Turtle game. Pizza was a big feature of the game and it made Abe and me crave pizza, so we took he kids to Via 313 after. It’s a new pizza place in Orem, and wow. It’s our new favorite.

After eating delicious pizza (and, to be fair, quite a bit of beet salad, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and baked artichokes) we decided to give our bodies an extra whammy by driving through Krispy Kreme. Here’s to heart attacks before we turn 70! It was very yummy.

Now the kids are all listening to Abe read Harry Potter while I blog. Some people in the ward just caroled at our door, and I have a mug of reishi hot cocoa next to me while I snuggle in my holiday gnome sheets. It was a good, calorie laden day. I really hope my arm gets better so I can work off some of these calories tomorrow.

This morning Anamae was not feeling well, so neither of the girls had harp lessons. That gave me time to finally pick up Basil, bathe Basil, do some groceries, drop off some soup to Anamae, actually work with Clarissa on writing, help Clarissa practice her harp, and read to Clarissa. Clarissa and I did some puzzles together too.

And the very, very best part of the morning was when Abe came out and announced he had a little time to play with Clarissa and me! We all did puzzles and played a candy matching card game together. Basil kept wanting to snuggle everyone which was problematic for the card game, but fun because he smelled good (re: paragraph one).

In the evening the kids had their ballroom dance dress rehearsal which stressed the h-e-l-l out of me. There was a five-video-long hair tutorial I was supposed to follow for each girl’s hair. I just said no way and sent the girls with locks flowing.

We also had dinner with the Harmons. That was so special because we haven’t seen these dear friends in forever. Like, Blair was pregnant last time and now her youngest is almost…two. Granted, we got together soon before the pandemic started, so we lost a year when we were all locked down. But why it’s been almost two years just baffled us all I think. We love them a lot.

On Monday Lydia had to stay home because of her school’s policy on vomit. We had a lovely day together! After I did laundry and mopped the floor I started feeling a little under the weather myself, so I flopped down on the couch near Lydia and we binge watched the most recent season of the Great British Baking Show together. I cried when Lizzie got kicked off and was baffled and upset when Jurgen left. Lydia is a wonderful binge-watching buddy. We had a great time.

In the morning I also swung by Trader Joe’s and found some felted bead garlands for the kids to decorate with. Here is Clarissa posing with hers.

Clarissa snapped this photo in the morning. Why, I do not know.

In the morning Abe and I slept in the most we have in a while. The kids had gotten us up all night long with various things. Poor Lydia spent a lot of the night puking, and other kids had accidents and nightmares. By the morning we were grateful Basil was boarded so Abe could sleep in and I could lie in bed reading a book until 10 am. (It was The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and it was delightful.)

Later in the afternoon we took everyone but Lydia to the park. Abe enjoyed swinging with Clarissa. I just enjoyed being there with my family. It was a lovely afternoon.

In the afternoon Mary baked delicious candy cane cookies. We all watched The Great British Baking Show and munched her cookies while watching.

At the end of the day Abe and I kept exclaiming to each other how much we deeply enjoyed this do-very-little day. It was so, so wonderful. Can we have a lot more of these, please?

Abe got his booster Friday and spent a lot of Friday night shivering in bed with night sweats and chills. But he still managed to look so great in this picture I took while we were chatting Saturday morning.

In the early afternoon we joined the Kahlers at the living nativity display in Alpine. They are some of our favorite people, and bonus–we got to see Megan and Emily and Megan’s mom, Sharon, too. Love them all. And the nativity was very cute. Although the line was long, the weather was great so we just spent that time chatting happily away.

After the nativity we drove to Salt Lake to try to get into the Christkindlemarkt, which is now overrun. After waiting twenty minutes to get in, we turned around and headed home. We dropped the youngest three off at home with Eliza before heading back to Salt Lake with Lydia and Michaelann. We calculate we could have probably driven to California on Saturday with as much time as we spent driving!

But it was so worth it. At the concert they played my favorite violin concerto (the Mendelssohn) and another beloved piece, the Brahms symphony number 3. So beautiful.

On Friday I am pretty sure Clarissa took the picture below.

In the evening Abe and Chris went to the float spa and dinner. Abe reported that they had a great time together, even though Chris wasn’t wild about floating.

I watched the new Olaf shorts with everyone (three times) and then we all watched The Great British Baking Show together. It was very pleasant until bedtime, when I got short tempered because I was extremely, extremely tired and was facing bedtime resistance on all sides.

Abe came home and did his usual “You are not a bad person even if you yelled at our kids” speech. I always find it comforting but this time fell asleep halfway through. He delivered it well, though, as always.

On Thursday I finished writing our first Christmas letter in ten years. !!!

I sent it to every friend and/or family member I could find in my email account. But I’m sure I missed some, which makes me sad. I have loved getting responses and feeling like I am in touch with dear people from different stages of life. It’s been so connective and wonderful. I not even wait ten years to do the next one.

Anyway, here it is, even though the formatting is wonky because it didn’t translate well into the blog and I am not taking time to fix it.

Hello Family and Friends!
We haven’t sent out holiday cards in a decade, and this year looks like it might have the same cardless ending as years past. To avert that dismal prospect, we are taking a cue from some of our favorite greeting senders and going the paperless route this year. This is mostly a matter of convenience for us. You get updates and a picture (from last year), we might get a few exciting replies, and we get to check holiday greetings off of our to-do list for the first time in ten years.
Check!
Kids
Our most favorite people! Lydia: 10; Mary: 9; Ammon: 6; Clarissa: 4. We are grateful that they are all deeply kind individuals. Even though the noise level and chaos leave us ragged, we cherish each day we have with them. If you know them, you love them too.
2021 ReviewJanuary: LOTS of ice fishing, karaoke and board games at home. Abe enjoyed skiing with friends.February: Canyonland National Park, Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park. Mary and Lydia learned to ski. We all snowshoed. Abe learned to cross country ski (thank you Daniel Olson!). Lily took an online course from Richard Rohr. We also flew kites on the salt flats. Oh, and we got a dog. His name is Basil and his favorite food is pizza.March:Kanab, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Coral Sand Dunes State Park.  Got our first round of shots. Basil graduated from puppy school. Ammon and Mary both learned to ride bikes without training wheels. Baked an olive oil cake to honor Meghan Markle. Lots of karaoke. Leprechauns peed in our toilets again.April: Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands again! Capitol Reef National Park, Goblin Valley State Park. Got completely vaccinated. Easter week visit from Clark, Swathi, Soren and Meera. The Easter Bunny went nuts in our yard and house. With the help of Jen, Courtney, Matt and Chris we escaped an Egyption tomb. Abe also biked Slickrock and pulled our van out of the mud with his friend, Liem.  May: Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix. Abe’s grandfather passed away, and so we spent time in Denver with Karin, Jere and extended family. While there we took side trips to the Garden of the Gods and the unsinkable Molly Brown’s house. Loved her wallpaper.This month included lots of kite flying and kite mishaps. Thanks to Matt and Eli for helping rescue our kite! Abe and Lily also pretended to be retirees for one weekend in Phoenix. June: Bear Lake, camping in South Fork, Las Vegas. Girls trip to Vegas, Darais Family Olympic Games (organized for the second year in a row by Lydia), and a week-long visit from our dear friend, Jean. Abe and our neighbor friend,Todd, also took our kids camping in South Fork Canyon. Hiked Silver Lake in the Alpine Loop as a family. Orem Summer Days with Eli. Mini-Golf with the Vandagriffs.
Activities: Ice skating lessons, soccer (Abe coached!), volleyball, ballet, over thirty swim lessons, ballroom dance camp, harp lessons, piano lessons and extra math lessons. We got up at the crack of dawn to hike the Y half a dozen times with the kids. Abe took Mary to a Jazz game. Oh, and we sold our old house. Thanks, Moroni for fixing it up! And thanks, Tom, for selling it!
July: Glacier National Park, Goblin Valley and Florida. We joinedClark, Swathi, Soren, Meera, Sruthi and Mani in Glacier National Park. Highlights included seeing a grizzly on Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiking the magical Avalanche Lake Trail, and swimming in glacial Lake MacDonald. 
We also adored our hothothot Goblin Valley trip with Baps and Bapa!
In Florida we rode an airboat through the Everglades, saw dolphins and Hemingway’s house in the Keys, explored Miami, and went to four theme parks. We also contracted Delta.
August: Covid. We lost almost the whole month to quarantines. When we were out of quarantine we fit in a Uintas hiking/fishing day. En route we drove through multiple herds of sheep.
September: Kolob Canyon, Chicago. We backpacked as a family in Kolob Canyon and fell in love with that trail. (We did not fall in love with wag bags.) 
Mary, Lily, and Lydia had the best weekend ever in Chicago!! 
Mary also slayed it at the Encore piano competition where she took third place. We also saw The Secret Garden at the Sandy Hale Theater and snuck out on tennis dates. The kids enrolled in music lessons, ballet, tumbling, tennis, ballroom dance, and singing lessons. 
October: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Greece. We spent the whole month traveling and saw too much to list. Ammon’s kindergarten teacher did not approve. 
We also saw Wicked for Ammon’s birthday. 
We managed to trick-or-treat in Salt Lake the day after we flew home. Our girls were all cacti and Ammon was a cowboy. 
November: Stayed put. Attended mediation to appease Ammon’s kindergarten teacher.
Saw Hunchback at the Orem Hale, Frozen at the Eccles, and Pink Martini at Abravanel. Loved them all. 
We also had our second annual Harry Potter Feast!  Apart from the feast, we’ve eaten a LOT of meals with loved ones. Our pants feel suspiciously snug.Clarissa started harp lessons. And, thanks to Clark and Swathi, Abe and Lily discovered their newest love, the float spa. Come float with us!
December: We are scared of it. But we are looking forward to visiting Clark, Swathi, Soren and Meera in Tacoma. We hope you ping us back and let us know when we can get together another month!

2021 Audiobooks we are dying to share

• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlives by David Eagleman
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• Mythos by Stephen Fry
• Troy by Stephen Fry
• Greenlights  by Matthew McConaughey
• Second Nature by Michael Pollan

2021 books we adored*

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
• In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Thanks, Amy!)
• An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor
• How to do Nothing by Jenny O’Dell (Cheat from 2020–but Lily thinks about this one all the time)
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Also from 2020 but thought about all year. Thanks, Michaelann!)
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

*Please hit “reply” and share your lists of must-read books with us, too!
Favorite Music of 2021

• Rhiannon Giddens, especially At the Purchaser’s Option from Freedom Highway (Thanks, Hilary!)
• The Wellerman by Nathan Evans
• The Tallis Scholars Sing Palestrina
• Underdog by Alicia Keys
• In the Heights soundtrack (We associate it with hiking the Y!)
• Mama Mia soundtrack
• Choker by 21 Pilots
• Anything by Yo-Yo Ma or Pink Martini

StruggleLily continues to struggle with weight, anxiety, civility, self-absorption and a tangle of insecurities surrounding motherhood. She doesn’t use her time efficiently and could be a lot more frugal. Lydia reminds Lily regularly to clean up her language. Lily sees a therapist.Abe loves his job at Qualtrics but struggles with managing his work stress. He also survived an existential crisis that faded at the beginning of the year. His passion is sitting with people in pain and he daydreams of one day joining the clergy. Abe sees a therapist.Basil struggles with barking at strangers, coming when called, and peeing on himself. He probably needs a therapist.

Hope, Love and FaithWe find hope in the everyday joy of our marriage and watching our children develop into individuals who frequently practice principles of introspection, apology and forgiveness. We have loved every experience in our new church and serve as hosts for local church meetings. Because fifty percent of our congregation identifies as LGBTQIA+, we are privileged to have the opportunity to hear their experiences. We are grateful to be part of a community that validates, comforts, and sits with the experiences of the dispossessed. We have faith that exchanging performative action for heartfelt action will help us live lives with more integrity and less regret.
BenedictionMay your holiday season be filled with peace, joy, and an abundance of stillness. If you receive this email, know that we hold you specifically in love. We are grateful you allow us orbit in your life despite our obvious flaws, undoubtedly obnoxious personality defects, and periods of severe neglect. You make our world brighter, fuller, and more hopeful. We are lucky to call you friends and family. 
Peace,
The Daraises