Fatigued from my end of quarter, I slept in until 10:40. At that point, stumbled to my desk. I think Lily was reading in bed. And then to our surprise, the kids presented Lily and me with breakfast in bed! It wasn’t just thoughtful, it was also delicious! They made avocado toast, pancakes with applesauce, an egg, cereal and fruit. I took mine at my desk and loved every bite. Lily had hers in bed and also loved hers. Thank you kiddos, that was so sweet!!
I then spent a lot of time on things like the budget, and installing our new doorbell, while Lily read some books to finish up her 50th book for 2022. Then in the evening, we spent two hours reviewing blog posts from 2022. We had so many amazing moments, trips and memories and it was so fun to relive them! Then, we played a ton of games with the kids. We let everyone stay up until midnight, including Clarissa! Here are pictures and a video of our games and midnight fun!
Today we finally finished the super hard holographic 1,000 piece puzzle that Suzanne gave us. We are loving our puzzle/game table so much!
We’ve been wanting to finish the puzzle so we could play some games with the kids on our new table. Once we finished, we played Lost Cities with our kids. Everyone loved it!
In the evening, we went to the Vandagriffs’ house for a night of singing Christmas songs. Jessie and Morgan invited a bunch of friends, and she had over a dozen Christmas carol books from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that also featured art from that museum. It had a lot of well-known carols as well as ones I’m not as familiar with. Singing really gave me the Christmas spirit, and it was also fun to chat with their friends and eat their snacks (especially the cranberry wassail and Moosewood mushroom soup). We all had a great time and told the Vandagriffs that we’d love to do it again next year! Lydia and Mary joined the singers while Ammon and Clarissa ran around the house playing with other kids. It was a fun evening!
I’ve heard, “Bring A Torch, Jeannette, Isabella” before, however, I completely rediscovered it tonight and it is now my new favorite Christmas song.
Back at home, we put the younger kids down and we played San Juan with Lydia and Mary. We all love that game! Thank you again to the Olsens for lending us both Lost Cities, and San Juan!
Mary loves having pen pals. Here is a letter she recently wrote to her friend Ellie Co
Also, Lily and I had a great time at Daniel and Amanda’s playing games and eating their delicious baked goods. It was some much needed fun after a stressful end-of-quarter day for me.
Today we went to the Darais family party when I finished work. It was really fun to see everybody. Lydia played the harp and even though she struggled at the end of the piece, she played beautifully overall and she got an enthusiastic applause from the audience. Dinner was a yummy potato bar and ham. At the end of the event, Andrea distributed a thumb drive that Mark helped organize that had writings and artwork from grandma and grandpa Darais. What a treasure. All in all, it was a great time. The kids had tons of fun playing and Clarissa really enjoyed coloring at the coloring table. When she lost her drawings at the end of the party, Adam kindly went searching for them and found them!
Ammon helped ring a bell and lead the group in singing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. Ammon is so outgoing. Adrianne told me that right when she walked in the door, Ammon asked her, “can I spell something for you? T-h-e-space-c-a-t-space-r-a-n” She thought he was very very cute.My dad gave the family update.
Lydia’s harp performance
Back at home Mary was in a very bouncy mood, and we got a great slow-motion video of her jumping face first to her bed, but YouTube doesn’t show the slow-motion unfortunately.
Today I worked and Lily worked hard getting the house nice after all the Christmas activity. In the evening the Vandagriffs came over and we all had a great time hanging out together. The kids played together and the adults talked about schooling, politics and psychology. The kids were so cute all lined up around the table! We love that family!
Yesterday it was really fun to have Christmas Day at our home. And today it was really fun to go and visit family. First we visited my grandma Forsyth in Ogden. She’s a bit sick again with a UTI, but she was in cheerful spirits and we had a really good time visiting.
Then we all went to my mom and Jay’s house for lunch. Victor, Melody and their kids were there which was so fun because I hadn’t seen them in forever. Jere was also there, as were David and Olivia (who just got back from Fiji) and their adorable baby Ozzy. We had so much fun holding Ozzy and playing with him!
After a delicious meal, my mom passed out gifts to everyone as she does every year (thanks mom!) and then we hit the road for our next stop, my dad and Suzanne’s.
They had their new home decorated so beautifully for Christmas. I should have taken more pictures! But I did take one picture of a painting my Aunt Christina made in High School that they are hanging on their wall. I love the painting so much and it also made me remember how much I love and miss Christina.
At home, Lily went to sleep early as she was feeling tired and battling a headache for the past couple hours. I decompressed over a puzzle and then worked a little on my computer. What a fun time of year it is!
Lily and I went to bed late as we were prepping for Christmas, but Lily was up early prepping for brunch. I have felt very tired lately and I stumbled out of bed at 7:45, managed a shower and made my way upstairs. My dad, Suzanne and Jere had already arrived (not wanting to hold of the present opening). First we all walked Basil around the block and then we got to the present opening.
I love Mary in this hat!
After we all opened presents, Lily and I finished prepping brunch while everyone enjoyed watching “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made” which my dad and Suzanne suggested. It was so funny!
At one point Mary disappeared for multiple hours to play with her art studio lego set that my dad and Suzanne gave her. My dad and Suzanne picked up Georgia and then we all had brunch together.
Brunch was amazing. We had avocado toast, grapefruit salad, popovers, chia pudding, and sausage.
Ammon loved his iron-man costume!
After brunch, my dad and Suzanne took off and Jere stuck around. I also took Georgia home when she started to feel like she needed rest. When I got back, Jere helped me clean up and then we puzzled together which was so much fun. After puzzling, it was time for round two. Lily was already in the kitchen prepping dinner and so I helped.
For dinner, my mom and Jay joined the party. We had spoon beef from Harmons, turkey, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, salad with squash and pomegranate and cranberry sauce. It was delicious!
Here Ammon is wearing the water backpack the Georgia got for him.
When everyone left, Lily and I did our final clean-up and we relaxed while watching “Knives Out: Glass Onion”. It was delightful!
We started the day by going to a candle light service at the Community of Christ church in Salt Lake. It was a beautiful service and it was really nice to socialize afterwards. Here is a video of the part of the service with candles:
Then we went shopping for groceries and went home to make a salmon dinner. Georgia wasn’t feeling great so she did not join us, but we had a really nice time eating as a family.
At night we put all the kids down. Ammon and Clarissa were very excited and had trouble falling asleep. Finally Clarissa fell asleep in the below position.
Ammon also fell asleep with his legs off of his bed. It was all quite amusing.
Once the kids were finally down, Lily and I got to work making preparations for tomorrow. We had fun setting the table, and got some pictures of our beloved table Christmas scene.
Lily assembled the stockings.
And she finalized the presents.
I helped clean and I also snapped some photos of some of our Christmas decor.
Lily decided to make some peppermint marshmallow, mint-chip, chocolate cookies. When they were done she announced they were the best cookies she has ever made. They were delicious!
Lily truly is the Christmas Queen (sorry Mariah Carey!) and she has done so much to make this season magical for our whole family!
I got today off of work. I still worked some on a deal we are trying to close before the end of the year, but it did not disrupt my day too much.
This year we have really enjoyed the routine of reading a Christmas story, singing a Christmas song and letting the kids each open up one present during each day leading up to Christmas. I think Basil enjoyed it too!
In the late afternoon, Lily took Lydia out on a mother-daughter date. They went shopping for Christmas and also ate at Aubergene.
I spent the late afternoon and evening putting together Mary and Clarissa’s Christmas desks. It was a Christmas wish for each of them and they were so happy went they were finished. I love that they are next to each other so they can chat while they color!
I caught a video of Clarissa saying, “”I swear, I really want to be in my desk the whole day”
I worked from home again today and we started the day with the kids opening another gift. Clarissa got a set of three Jane Goodall themed Barbie explorers. Basil has destroyed one of them already :(.
In the morning, Lily went out with her friends, Charity and Mikayla. They went to lunch and the Springville art museum. Lily came home raving about what an incredible time she had with her friends. Here are some pictures from the art museum:
In the afternoon, Amy’s kids came over and played with our kids. They had a blast! Emerson made Lydia the sweetest Christmas card that complimented Lydia in many ways and affirmed their friendship. Emerson also had all the kids so entertained by telling them funning things while they played with clay. I caught some of it on video:
At the end of the playdate, we got to meet Merrill, which was such a delight! We’ve gotten to know Amy so well, and this was our first chance to get to know her husband. It was so fun getting to know him! He was warm and gracious and even watched our kids perform their instruments. What a treat to meet him!
After meeting Merrill, I finished up my work. While the kids were playing, Lydia got a video of Clarissa and Ammon singing and dancing to Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You”.
When I finished work, we had dinner and enjoyed the Christmas ambiance.
At the end of the day, Lily and I went on a walk to drop off a gift to the Vandagriffs. Morgan was there and we had a great time chatting with him for a bit. We talked about our wonderful City Manager who was unjustly let go recently. He was such a great City Manager. Our main reference point was that when Lily reports dangerous sidewalk cracks, he has it fixed within 24 hours and calls Lily personally to let her know. He also personally called Lily to address her concerns when the house was shaking. He told us it was munition testing in Tooele. He did the research and got back to us.
On the way home, Lily and I talked about what our favorite part of Christmas-time has been this year. We both agreed that all the rich experiences with friends has been especially delightful this year.
At home we put the kids to bed and enjoyed watching “White Lotus”. It was sooo nice to just crash and watch TV together.
