Today I was very busy working and getting things in a good place before my trip with Lily tomorrow.
Lily and the kids had a play-date with Amy and her kids. For the play-date, Lily put out an incredible cheeseboard etc spread which was absolutely delicious.
I also caught a picture of Lily reading with Ammon later in the evening.
Today I slept in and blogged while Lily put major effort into cleaning the house in preparation for us to leave and my dad and Suzanne to babysit the kids here. Then I helped her while we listened to church together. Brittany Mangleson gave a great sermon lamenting the recent shooting, and inspiring me to focus on peace and what matters most this season.
Then Lily worked out while I did more odds and ends, and then we drove to my mom’s house for our Thanksgiving dinner with her. She had a wonderful spread of steelhead trout, prime rib, salad, green beans, yams, rolls and mashed potatoes with gravy. For desert she had rhubarb and peach pie with ice cream. David and Olivia were leaving as we arrived (we were running late), but it was fun to see them. It was so fun to chat with my mom, Jay, and Jere and the food was so good. We chatted about a book Jere has been reading about the era of the Spanish Armada and we also talked about how gravity does not exist (but the curvature of spacetime does), which is one of my favorite topics. We got on the topic of our old dogs Lucy and Ethel, and Jay told the story that when Ethel was put down, he was waiting with Lucy in the car, and she started to bark. When my mom arrived at the car 10-15 minutes later, Jay asked how long ago they put Ethel down and it seemed to be the exact time Lucy started barking. Those dogs were very special to me, and they also had a very special bond with each other. We also talked about the house two doors down that my mom is under contract for, their new paint in the front room that looks really nice, as well as other life updates.
One life update is that my mom just got braces! It was so fun to get a picture of her next to Lydia!
Then the house started smelling like poop. To our great dismay, we learned that Basil had found poop to roll in and it was all over his body. His rolled in poop before, but this eclipses all of his other poop rolling situations. It was all over him. We didn’t know what to do. Finally, we threw him in a shower, and I just stripped down and got in the shower with him and scrubbed him and scrubbed him and scrubbed him with 3 or 4 shampoos. Even then, I was worried if I got it all, but he smelled good at the end of it all, so it worked out.
After that, we went to visit my grandma. She is not very happy where she is staying as says they are not taking good care of her. The family is looking to move her into a new facility. But she is still doing much better than she was when she first moved in and had her UTI. It was very fun to visit with her while she at the dinner my mom brought over for her. We told stories about childhood trips Jere, David and I went on with mom, like four corners and Angels landing, and all just had a fun time chatting.
On the drive home, we listened to the Sia Christmas album which is Amazing. At home we let the kids hang candy canes on the tree, and then we all cuddled while listening to Christmas music. It was divine.
We then put the kids down, and I looked everywhere for my wallet. I hadn’t seen it in a day, and I was starting to get worried. The more I looked, the more difficult it was to not let worry creep in. I even went to target to check their lost and found. After about an hour of searching, I found it in the crack of the couch cushion. I don’t know how it got there. That couch is very mysterious. We lifted only two cushions before finding my wallet and there was also a full magazine, cards, money and other lost items. I just don’t get how it gobbles things up so mercilessly. Anyway, I’m so glad my wallet was found!
Then Lily and I decompressed over season 2 of “Yellowstone” and that was a ton of fun. I’m nervous about how heavy of a workday tomorrow is, but these last four days were heavenly.
Today started with Ammon taking a cute video of the sunrise.
Lily and I had a slow start today, but once we got rolling, we went running together again. We even did some sprinting which was a lot of fun. When we got home, we got all ready to go get our tree. We told the kids to dress warm and Clarissa put on four dresses. We changed her out of them, but it was a cute idea.
Once everyone was ready, we went to Sun River Gardens to get our Christmas tree. At home, we broke out all the decorations and got to work.
Lily put out fruit, crackers and cheese which made a delectable dinner. I couldn’t get enough of the goat cheese.
We put Ammon and Clarissa down earlier in the evening, and finished up the decorations after they went down. It was a lot of work, and afterwards all four of us relaxed on the couch and enjoyed our work while listening to Christmas music. Then I had some time with just me and Lily.
Here is a tour of our decorations that is having trouble embedding: https://youtube.com/shorts/_TMIiC5MT88
What fun to kickoff the Christmas season!
Today, Lily and I went running together. When I got home I did some additional strength training (the 500) and then I enjoyed petting Basil.
Lydia asked for her main Christmas trip to be a shopping trip with her mom. What a sweet wish! Here they are before they embarked to fight the crowds!
And fight they did! Lily told me of one instance when some teenagers (on foot) tried to snatch and save a parking spot she had been waiting for. Lily had to be assertive and she felt bad about that. It’s a jungle out there!
Back at home, I got my dream of having some deep play with the kids. It’s unfortunate to me that I do not do it more. But when I have multiple days at home, it really feels attainable for me to find the time, and today I played Legos with Mary, Ammon and Clarissa for over two hours. We spent the first hour building Lego spaceships.
After we all built our creations, we played for about an hour. The basic plot was that Green Zombie woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided there was too much happiness in the world, so to rectify that, he was going to kill the pizza man, because he delivered too much happiness to the world. On his way to kill the pizza man, he was intercepted by the good team, and shot out of the sky. He didn’t die, but he made it to his bad-team base where he got the bad team fired up and ready to wage war on the good team for revenge. Then a big war erupted. Right at the very end when they were all about to destroy each other, Relsa (Clarissa’s character) gave a riveting speech suggesting that the bad team should try pizza, and if they liked it, perhaps they could agree the pizza man should not be killed and the war could end. The bad team agreed, loved the pizza, and everyone became friends. Here is a video with some of the action.
Lily was pooped when she got home and in this picture she is cuddling with Ammon while looking at some family pictures Mary printed.
Later we all watched the Great British Baking Show while relaxing on the couch. Basil looks really content in this picture resting after his run today.
Lydia looks great in her new clothes and she is so excited about them!
Happy Thanksgiving! Today was a truly happy day in our home. Lydia certainly caught the Thanksgiving spirit and she made a scavenger hunt for the younger kids that involved notes she had us all write that complimented others in the family, and a turkey named Turkey Tom. She made such creative magic for her siblings.
To reciprocate Lydia’s scavenger hunt, Mary also made a scavenger hunt for Lydia. It was very cute to see them trying to solve the clues.
Below are the clues and compliments (that scavenger hunters would find) from the activities this morning:
After that, Lydia choreographed an entire dance routine with Mary and Ammon! See below! They would later perform this dance for our Thanksgiving guests.
Meanwhile Lily was hard at work preparing for Thanksgiving. For some of the items, she started preparing yesterday. And today she was a true soldier, making dish after dish, happily. Even though it was a lot of work, she was enjoying herself, and she loved listening to Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield while she cooked. I spent the day helping her with preparations.
And here are the results of what she made! Only the turkey gravy, stuffing and green bean casserole were from Harmon’s. Everything else was made from scratch!
For desert we had pumpkin pie from Costco (our favorite! Thanks dad and Suzanne!), chocolate cake from Magleby’s (So good! Thanks Georgia!), pecan pie from harmons, and a beautiful apple pie that Lily and Mary made yesterday. We had ice cream to go with the deserts.s
We had such a good time with our guests. Present were David, Olivia and Oslo, my dad and Suzanne, Jere and Georgia. Conversation and laughter flowed, and a really good time was had by all. It was fun learning about everyone’s life updates and we got some good laughs hearing about the old children’s songbook that David is playing songs from on their piano. Back in the days, not all kid’s songs were very kid friendly, lol.
After David and Olivia left, Suzanne and my dad played Apples to Apples with the kids.
Then Mary, Lydia and Ammon played music pieces for everyone.
We chatted until late. It was hard to say good-bye to everyone on this truly happy day.
Lily said this might have been her favorite Thanksgiving ever. Also, I drove Georgia home, and she was glowing, and spontaneously mentioned how happy she felt. She almost didn’t think she would make it, but a medicine she took helped her to feel better, and then she spent 5 hours with us feeling good. We all had such a great time. Lily, thank you for hosting such magic as you always do, and guests, thank you for coming and bringing your magic to our home. It was a great, great time!
I am daily getting more and more burnt out from work, but I was delighted to learn today that our friend Dean Richardson was not only in town, but also available for dinner. He picked up Georgia and we had the most wonderful time together. We shared fun stories and updates about our lives and families. The food was delicious, and we all enjoyed Mary’s brownies for desert. It was also so nice to see Georgia. It was just the pick-me-up I needed after feeling buried in work and stress.
After dinner, I helped Lily clean up and then went to Harmon’s for a turkey. Lily worked on an apple pie with Mary and Ammon and Lydia had fun dancing. I’ll be working late, but I can’t wait to be done so I can enjoy Thanksgiving break!
Lately, Clarissa has enjoyed going in Basil’s crate:
Also, Lily hosted her last TSOS internship meeting of the semester tonight. I only catch snippets through the door to the office, and hear her debrief afterwords, but I can tell that she has really made something special out of this internship. She has built a syllabus (when there was none), coordinated guest speakers, managed selection of interns, managed coordination with interns, and led the weekly meetings. She’s has repeatedly received feedback from both interns and leadership of TSOS that the program is impactful, inspiring, and well-run. Before she jumped in, the internship program looked nothing like what it looks like today. I am so proud of the work Lily has done.
Work is starting to get very stressful for me, and it was such a joy to pull out of work stresses at 5PM and join the Friendsgiving that Lily put on for us to have with Amy and her family. We have such a good time with them always, and Lily’s food was incredible.
While Lily did final preparations, Amy read A Cranberry Thanksgiving to all of the kids. They all look very engaged.
Not only did Lily bake two loaves of cranberry bread from the recipe from the book Amy read, but she also made the following from scratch: fresh cranberry topping, sweet-potato with marshmallow, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, Brussel sprouts, and an apple pie. I’m sure I’m forgetting something that she made, but it was all delicious. The stuffing and green bean casserole from Harmons and the Tofurkey loaf from Trader Joe’s were also very good.
For desert we had Lily’s apple pie, a pecan pie from the store and brownies that Mary made. The brownies were a complete hit, and there were repeated requests for seconds, thirds and beyond.
We had such a good time with Amy and her family. Conversation flowed, the kids had a great time and it was a very happy evening.
The big headline for today is that Ammon lost his second of his two front teeth today!
Today was a very sluggish, but sweet day. Lily started out strong and ran with Basil, and I slept in which was delicious. Then I finished blogging for our trip while Lily worked in the kitchen preparing for our Friendsgiving with the Flakes tomorrow. I came up around 11:00 from my computer and then we listened to church. The sermon was about trying to be cairns (rock piles) for people in this world, meaning guides that make peoples lives better. There was a business meeting after the sermon and a new pastor, Brittany Mangelson, was nominated and voted in. We love Brittany and are very excited. It’s bitter/sweet because we also adore our old pastor Carla and we are sad that she is leaving in May.
After church, Lily and I took turns, working in the kitchen, feeling tired and taking baths. The kids had their share of screens today, which we didn’t mind since we had confiscated the devices for months prior to this weekend.
Lily worked in the kitchen more and also helped Mary bake brownies while I went to Harmons for groceries. We had rotisserie chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and leftovers for dinner as well as an incredible fruit crumble that Lily made (with vanilla ice-cream). It was a feast.
In the evening, Lily, Lydia and I finished this amazing puzzle that we got from Suzanne. We loved it!
The older girls also helped me clean the upstairs. I also cleaned the kitchen. Lily went to bed early because she was tired and not feeling the best from all her labors of the day (see below) as well as the fact that she thinks she overdid it a bit on her exercise this week and it’s catching up to her. It was a good day!
In the morning I spent some time listening to Ammon read his first chapter book to me!
Then we all headed over to Pleasant Grove because the Marshalls had rented out an entire theater for the twins’ birthday. We thought it was the best birthday idea of all time! They had breakfast for everyone and we all watched Wakanda Forever, easily my new favorite Marvel movie of all time. I loved every minute, and so did all the kids!
After the party we went to Harmons, dropped off Mary at a play date and dropped off Lydia at a birthday party for the twins in her class.
Then we came home and Abe went running with Basil. I spent some time on the phone working out some details about The Little Mermaid with Tom and Suzanne who will watch the kids while Abe and I are in D.C.
After all the working out this week I took a long nap and then worked with the kids on their instruments before giving Lydia a long-promised massage before bed.