Month: December 2022

Today we had so much fun with various friends and Family. Georgia and Eli were both over during the day time and that was a lot of fun for everyone:

Later in the day we had Emerson and MichaelAnn over for dinner. The kids had a great time with Emerson while Lily and I chatted with MichaelAnn. We enjoyed her company so much! She’s going through a tough time, which we were sad to hear about, but we know she will get through it because she is so strong and wise and graceful. The kids made clay creations with Emerson and left the craft room in surprisingly good shape when they were done (yay!). When Amy came to pick up Emerson, it was fun to hear that her book she’s writing is almost complete. Most of the hard work is all complete! That has been a big elongated project for Amy, and we are so happy that she has made it to this point with all of her hard work and diligence paying off.

After our guests left, Lily and I cleaned and put the kids down. Then I puzzled while Lily wrapped a bunch of Christmas gifts. Afterwards we relaxed a moment together and enjoyed the beautiful Christmas scene in our living room:

Lydia and Mary have been doing a lot of cookie baking lately. Lily said that Lydia and Mary have been making so many great cookies, that she doesn’t feel the need to make any herself, even though she originally planned to. Today, Lydia made the heart cookies as well as a great chocolate chip cookie. Yesterday she made a checkerboard chocolate and sugar square cookie (also in the below picture) and Mary made a sugar cookie. All of them turned out amazingly delicious.

After work, I ran a bunch of errands. I fixed Georgia’s Alexa, picked up our mended couch pillows, and dropped off a prescription for Augmentin for Lydia (thank goodness Harmon’s had it, everyone else is sold out). It’s for Lydia’s infected finger. Amoxicillin didn’t take care of it unfortunately.

In the evening, Lily took Lydia to and from a party for Olivia Marshall, and she did a lot of music practice with the kids. I did some cleaning and then had a blast playing legos with Ammon. We were two ninja siblings that defeated a penguin, a dragon, snake fighters, a zhombie and a skeleton to retrieve treasure and ancient weapons. In the end, the villains turned nice and everyone became friends.

I had a rough night of sleep last night, so a cozy stay-in day was just my speed.

Lily (who also didn’t get much sleep), got up way before me and exercised, and then really enjoyed reading, napping and watching Lily & Dash from the daybed.

As soon as I woke up, the younger kids got very excited because they weren’t allowed to open their one present until I woke up. First Lily read a book about a giant Christmas tree in the woods that was inhabited by woodland creatures. They decorated the tree so Santa would find them, and find them he did! Then we all sang joy to the world and Ammon and Clarissa opened a present each. Clarissa was thrilled to open a Barbie. Lily and I have mixed feelings about Barbie, but Clarissa gets so excited when she sees them at friends’ houses and she has really been wanting one. Lily has been giving Clarissa good coaching around body image, and we could tell those chats have paid off when I commented to Clarissa that her Barbie was very beautiful, and she said, “but I’m beautifuller!”

Ammon got another lego set and I enjoyed repeating yesterday and building the set with him.

Then, I worked some at my computer, listened to church, ran Basil, and helped clean the kitchen. Mary and Lydia each baked cookies (I assume from their new desserts cookbook Lily gave them for Christmas). The cookies turned out fantastic, and they did good work cleaning up afterwards.

Then we all had dinner and did Karaoke afterwards. It was so fun! Here are some videos!

“Puppies are forever” by Sia:

This morning I slept in, and when I got up, Lily read Las Posadas to the family, and led us in singing a Christmas song. Afterward, she allowed the kids to open one Christmas gift each if they chose. Ammon opened Legos, Clarissa opened clay (which she played with all day), and Lydia and Mary opened a desert cookbook for them to share. I had a lot of fun helping Ammon build his Lego set of a horse trailer and SUV.

Then Lily and I worked out. Afterwards, we cleaned the house and I set up our new puzzle table (yay!). Ammon and Clarissa were very cute as they helped me set up the table.

We also noticed that Basil seems to have enjoyed his toy chicken….

In the evening, Lily picked up Indian food and we had the Sonntags over for dinner. They are such a sweet family and they radiate such a calm gentle peace. We had a great time talking about Katherine’s new book and job, a drawing that Bob gave to us related to his recent learnings about annual feast festivals, and life updates. It was such a good evening with them! Ammon loved playing with their kids Rainier, and Auden, and sent them home with a bag of gifts (his toys). It was a lovely evening!

Coincidentally, I have two photos about Bappa today.

This morning I made oatmeal for myself and put chopped apples, pecans, raisins and molasses in it. I thought of my dad, because when I was growing up, he often made us breakfast, and oatmeal like I described was a go to for him (he would either serve oatmeal with raisins, coconut flakes and molasses, or oatmeal with chopped apples and brown sugar if I remember right). I sent him the picture in the morning to reminisce. It turned out he started the day with oatmeal today too!

Then later in the day, my cousin Adam (who is going through old photos for a family Christmas display) sent me this picture of my dad out of the blue. Isn’t it great!

And speaking of adorable, I love this gift Mary wrapped for her friend. I think the note is hilarious!

In the evening, we went to see, “A Christmas Story” at the Scera. Our friends Eli Kahler, and Ed Eyestone were in it and they both did such a good job. We were touched by the nostalgia, beauty and humor of the story, and now we all want to watch the movie! Below are some scenes that Lily captured.

Today Lydia performed in her class play, “A Christmas Carol”. I think she excited to be done because rehearsals were boring for her. Good job Lydia!

I had an insane day at work and got home around 5:40 feeling completely depleted and wound-up. Chris was in-town and stopped by to visit and pick up his mail. It was so fun to see him. I grilled salmon and Lily made a salad and we had a great time chatting. Then we all puzzled together. I was so stressed at work, that I fully expected to not be much fun to be with. But Lily and I enjoyed Chris’ company so much that the laughter flowed for all of us. By the end of the evening, I could barely believe how much fun I was able to have given the stressed state I started the evening in. Chris’ big heart and dry sense of humor make him truly fun to be around. And we made great progress on the puzzle!

I have been working on a large proposal for months, and it culminated in an executive presentation today that I led. Afterwards I treated myself to a two-hour massage. It took every minute of that massage to get me back to a good stress level.

I felt good when I got home and even had the energy to have a snow-ball fight with the kids. They already started playing in the snow before I got home, but I joined them when I arrived.

Also, we’ve been enjoying being cozy as a family in the beautiful Christmas atmosphere that Lily has created. Lily has also had so much fun making stacks of presents for the kids and others (I recently commented, and she agreed, that they excite her as much as they excite the kids). It’s fun to be able to display them now that all the kids know the truth about Santa.

I think Clarissa had a happy day because she was INSANELY energetic in the evening. She talked my ear off for an hour about imaginary boats she was building in Africa. There were different boats for different holiday experiences, and there was cotton candy, prizes for kids, rides etc. When I put her down to bed, I said she could talk to me, or listen to Amazon story time (she calls it “Ammon-zon story time). She chose to talk to me, but after 10 minutes of her energetically talking (and not seaming to lose steam), and me struggling not to fall asleep, I let her transition to Ammon-zon story time. She is such a cutie!

Lydia submitted the following videos to her harp teacher as part of preparation for her competition in the Spring. Lydia is getting so good and I post these her to capture where she is on her harp journey at the moment.

For Christmas-Around-The-World Lily got KFC because our understanding is that is a common Christmas meal in Japan.

It was yummy!

Today Lydia and Mary had a fun play-date with the Easton-Flakes.

In the evening, we had leftovers from our fondue night yesterday. It was delicious (again)!

Lily spent much of the day at Foothill creating buttons for battle of the books. And there were so many buttons to create (over 1,000 I think) that she brought home the button press and continued working at home. I did some buttons too, but nothing like what Lily put out. She was on a mission! She also needed to arrange the participants into different teams and try to make it so everyone would be happy with their team. It was complicated!

This evening I saw Mary quietly writing or drawing next to the Christmas tree. I thought it made a very sweet scene:

I slept in again today as an antidote to my recent exertion and stresses and it felt luxurious. Once I got going, I blogged, ate lunch, did dishes and helped Georgia with her printer. Lily spent the morning taking care of all the Christmas gifts for family and friends. Clarissa was very cute playing dress-up.

When I got back from Georgia’s Lily and I took Basil running together. We always have so much fun paling around. After that, I went to church, and heard a great sermon from Tyler about being each-others’ salvation, and Lily went to Harmon’s and started preparing for our fondue tonight. Also, Lily baked a bunch of cookies to give to her friends for Christmas. When I got home, I grilled sausage, and helped with the final preparations for our dinner party with the Marshall’s.

At the Marshalls, we had the most wonderful time. We LOVED their new house, which has huge windows, a giant pantry and garage, a beautiful kitchen and bathrooms, big open gorgeous spaces and the list goes on. We are so happy for them in their new awesome home. It was so fun to chat with them over dinner. The fondue was delicious, and I ate immense amounts of food.

After the cheese fondue, the adults and the older kids all helped to cut out paper circles which will become buttons for Battle of the Books at Foothill elementary. It’s so fun to chat with Derek, Chelsea, and their kids that time just flew while we were cutting.

After finishing cutting circles, we all had chocolate fondue which the Marshalls prepared. It was DELICIOUS, as were the oatmeal cookies that Olivia made.

Everyone had a great time, and we left feeling full with both food and friendship. We love the Marshalls!

At home, Lily cleaned the kitchen while I fixed our sink pipes in the upstairs bathroom from the Orbeez that Mary put down the drain. I showed her what they looked like in the drain and I think she knows not to do that again.

Speaking of Mary, I was admiring the art all around her bed when I tucked her in. I love our kids!