Author: lilydarais

On Sunday I snuck out of the house a little before 8am to go see my friend, Courtney, sing in church. It was my first time in an LDS chapel since leaving, and I was so thankful that I did not feel one iota triggered. It felt nice, communal, and familiar. And it turns out one of Lydia’s friends is in that ward. She came over and said hi, and I gave her a hug.

Courtney sang SO beautifully. I wish I could have taken a video. It was so moving to hear her sing. And it was fun to visit with her a little bit before people started filing in for church.

After her song was over I went to Harmons, picked up bread, and stopped by my mom’s for a visit. She was not feeling well but took some bread and a hug. Mom, I am so sorry for all you are going through. You really do not deserve to be suffering. You are such a wonderful woman and mother, and I love you!

After I saw my mom I came home. Abe and I tidied, vacuumed, mopped, and got ready for a brunch with my friend, Stephanie. Stephanie also works at Qualtrics and is Abe’s friend too, so he joined us. We had avocado toast, ricotta toast with homemade applesauce, and some yogurt and muesli.

Stephanie has what I would call a prophetic voice. She is bubbly, bright, and full of life and light. And her mind is, quite frankly, amazing. I loved discussing issues with her and hearing her frank and incisive (and somehow lively and hopeful) analysis of current issues. I hope she starts a podcast or something because I think her ideas need some sort of public platform.

Stephanie is also a professional graphic designer and an artist, so after we were done eating she helped figure out some design issues in my basement.

And as Stephanie was stepping out of the door, Tyler from Community of Christ was stepping in for home church. No one but Tyler came, but we ended up having the greatest evening with him. He had time to kill before his meeting at a church in Provo, so we had him over for dinner. We made more of the same toasts from brunch, roasted some sweet potatoes for a spinach, sweet potato, pecan and gorgonzola salad, and made a lentil soup. Tyler is a foodie and we had fun talking about our favorite cookbook authors and recipes together.

After Tyler left, we cleaned up. Well, actually, Abe cleaned everything. I collapsed after such a long, full day and Abe cleaned while I lay on the couch. I think I might have read a book or two to Ammon and or Clarissa but it is a blur. After he was done cleaning Abe read Harry Potter to everyone and tucked people in for bed. We finished off by watching Ted Lasso together and loved every second of that. Such a fantastic show!

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.