Author: lilydarais

Today I baked cookies, folded some laundry, and back-blogged a LOT. I have plans still to bike, do more laundry, tidy the house before Christmas Eve, and if possible do some gift deliveries and errands, but it is 6:11 pm so I will have to hustle. If I get some pictures at some point, I will throw them on this post. But as of this sentence, I am caught up on the blog. Hallelujah!!!

**added later** We drove to Salt Lake to drop something off to our friends, the Sonntags, and also Abe’s parents. I also stopped into Whole Foods before we all drove to see this house in the Avenues:

I also went grocery shopping and picked up some fabric at Joanne’s. In the evening we went outside to see Saturn and Jupiter, which were both visible. I had Gustav Holst’s Jupiter playing inside with the door open so we could both see and listen. I wonder if that song got played a LOT that night all over the world.

Our old neighbors are related to our new neighbors, and they came over and set up a telescope in our yard. We went out to take a look, and that was neat. But I actually have some hard feelings towards the ex- neighbors that set up the telescope (unrelated to the telescope), so after seeing them I went inside to decompress. Abe, as usual, is the kindest and hardest-to-offend person on the planet, so he helped me through those emotions afterward. He is so emotionally generous, even when people are at their gruffest. I wish I could be more like him.

On Tuesday Abe and I started the day by doing five rounds of the five hundred workout. As painful as that workout is, I love doing it with Abe. We listen to Matisyahu, and Abe calls out all sorts of encouragement as I slowly make my way through the movements.

Afteward I played a little with Clarissa and was so tired and snappy while cleaning the kitchen that Abe gave me a foot massage and told me I needed a nap, which I gratefully took. I assume I did some laundry and tidied the house afterward, but I honestly can’t remember what I did even though I am typing this less than a day after.

Oh, at one point I did teach Mary how to sew. First I brought out my sewing machine and figured out it is broken, and then I taught her how to sew by hand. She and Lydia spent a lot of the day sewing together. Mary made the first half of a pillow as a Christmas present for Ammon, and Lydia made him a pair of elf slippers! Abe and I were totally amazed. (Ammon was slightly annoyed. Lydia kept interrupting his play to instruct him to close his eyes and kept trying the slippers on him for size. She wanted to make sure they would be perfect.)

We also took the kids on a walk around the block in the evening. It was freezing cold and Lydia kept announcing her face was going to fall off, but we made it a mile. Clarissa was exhausted but Abe carried her on his shoulders and I think she stopped protesting perhaps because she was so stunned by the cold. Then we came inside and the kids watched Inside Out while I made pumpkin chia, buckwheat, and whole wheat flax waffles and split pea soup. For dessert we had some blackberry fool that Mary made after reading A Fine Dessert.

Then Lydia and Mary put Ammon down while Abe put Clarissa down and I binge watched Dash and Lily. It was adorable!

On Sunday we did Zoom church with the Community of Christ. If left to myself, I would be done with religion right now–and I would probably be missing out. I usually bake or cook while Abe and the girls tune in, and I listen while I do my own activities. I absolutely love everything I hear, and I feel so uplifted, inspired, and spiritually fed from the talks, messages, songs, and prayers. I also love the CoC’s tradition of praying for a different country every day by name, and the way that it makes religion peaceful, connective, and socially and politically meaningful. It’s a beautiful church, and I’m thrilled Abe has found a home there.

Abe and I couldn’t believe that on their big financial Sunday they announced that unless donors specifically requested otherwise, all tithes were being donated directly to Honduras. We actually laughed really hard at home because this would literally never happen in an LDS church and we were shocked. But after the shock wore off, we felt thrilled and relieved to be in a church that prioritizes caring for the underserved over building its one hundred billion dollar stock market portfolio– and a luxury shopping mall on the side. Oops–still slightly bitter about that money I wasted on LDS tithing, I guess. Eep.

In the afternoon I tidied the kitchen while Abe took the kids outside to play snow baseball. Right when they were done and sitting around the fire drinking hot cocoa the Kahlers came over to carol to us. We invited them to join us for homemade cardamom rolls, cocoa and some singing around the fire, and that was really fun.

After they left I tuned into my Mormon Stories podcast.

I go in waves in my ability/desire to tune into Mormon Stories because too much listening is like too much news–at some point, I have to stop because I might actually pull all my hair out if I continue listening. But since my Thrive friends had been talking about the interview with one of the SLC Housewives, I got onto the Mormon Stories train again and listened to the Housewives interview (which was fantastic! I related to Heather on so many levels, except for the fact that I am soooo much slower and socially awkward than she is. Also, I’m not wealthy and I am terrified of parties. But other than that, she sounded like a soul sister!). I also listened to the Zelph on the Shelf interviews and watched this amazing poem which was referenced in the interview.

In the evening the LDS bishop and his family came over to carol to us on our doorstep. Ammon was adorable. The minute he opened the door and they handed us cookies he yelped, “Oh! We need to give you something!”–before zipping straight for our cardamom rolls and then racing back to the door to pass them all out. I was so impressed by his hospitable instincts.

Here is Ammon dancing. I love watching him dance!

On Saturday after doing the 500 workout, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, and it was so pleasant to read bedtime stories to the girls in their clean room. (It had gotten to the point where it was hard to walk in their room, so this felt like a huge relief.)

On Friday morning we made semla, Swedish cardamom rolls.

Then in the evening we drove to Salt Lake and did an outdoor scavenger hunt that Sarah and Cam arranged. It was so fun! The kids loved looking for interesting things on people’s lawns and posing for pictures. We took a ton of pictures for the hunt, but I’ll just post one or two here.

On Thursday Ammon and Clarissa had to wear Christmas hats and clothes for their preschool program, so I had the girls dress up in matching clothes and then took pictures of all the kids in the front. I was basically shouting at Clarissa over and over to smile while she danced around and did everything silly except smile. Finally I did get a good shot–for what, I don’t know. We never do Christmas cards, but at least I have a last minute photo that could become one hypothetically.

We also recorded Lydia’s harp recital piece in the morning. Later in the week Abe made a hard rule that Lydia had to do her 70 minutes of harp practice by noon five days a week without me nagging her, and he told her that if she doesn’t do this we will sell her new harp. That made all the difference in the world because as soon as Lydia feels fully responsible for her instrument, she does everything she needs to on her own. I don’t know how the dynamic ever shifts out of that mode, but this day and the day before were dominated by trying to get Lydia to practice her harp. It was really emotionally difficult for her and me, and I am so grateful Abe figured out a good solution.

Here is a video of Lydia playing that her teacher requested:

Honestly Lydia’s harp practice made this day kind of a blur. It was really, really rough and I am so glad this day is done.

Lydia has been reading Holocaust memoirs and asked me to get another one today, so after I brought it home she curled up with her new book and read it all.

Meanwhile the other kids were playing dress-up upstairs.

I cooked a Hannukah dinner tonight, and while we ate we watched YouTube videos about the story of Hannukah.