Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! It was a happy day. Kids playing with Katharine and enjoying time together. 

They enjoyed their sleepover in the front room under the tree. 

They ate the treats in their stockings. After Corey and I got up, Corey gave everyone the letter that Hyrum wrote to them. 

In the letter to Corey, Hyrum let him know that it took him FOREVER to write everyone.

...followed by "You have a lot of kids."

Then it was the moment they'd all been waiting for and they opened gifts from each other. the kids drew names for Secret Santa over Thanksgiving, and it was supposed to be: J - A, M - Eth, E - Wes, W - lily, A - Joseph, L - Mel, S - O, N - S, O - D (Lily help), D - N (Abi help), and P and K did not participate. Ethan didn't buy Wes anything, but I had a gift that I let Ethan pay for and he gave that to Wes - a metal earth SL Temple, which Wes loves. After opening the first present and putting the wrapping in the trash, Natalie jumped up and grabbed it from the trash "Don’t throw that away! That bow is still useful!” Uh oh - she might be her mother's daughter. Two other quotes from today - Corey and people talking about India - “it’s a different world…” Ethan- “There are a lot of different worlds in this world...” haha. Also, Corey warning the children "The more you complain, the more your mother will laugh." Some highlights of the gifts: Sophi gave Wesley a coupon book - 

Some of the coupons will be very helpful. Most of the gifts were just regifting personal items, or someone else's items that they found. 

Joseph put Katharine in his Christmas sweater that he got in a thrift store in Guatemala. She didn't like it.

Mel gave Ethan a poor student discount plan but disguised it as digital Trump cards as a joke. It looked pretty legit that it really was Trump cards, so funny!

He wasn't very excited to get digital Trump trading cards.

Everyone knew what it really was, haha.

We've enjoyed having Ethan's pet fish Sushi here over the break. He's a nice fish. Abi gifted Ethan some of her fish's former belongings, on loan until Sushi dies or Abi gets a fish. 

Then to the side room for more presents. 

Lego sets...

The mission books for JME were a hit. The only problem we realized was that some of Ethan's photos must not have downloaded onto his blog, so there were a few weeks that were missing the photos. I don't know if he'll get it reprinted sometime, but I don't think I'll redo it, unless I give it to him again for Christmas next year. I'll let him decide if he just wants to make do or if he wants to pay for it himself. 

Joseph looking at the photo of him, on the side room tv, wearing the same sweater, just two years ago. 

Peter liked the Spidey and his amazing friends cars that Wesley chose for him at Costco.

At one point, Daniel was crying cause he couldn't carry all his stuff. We were laughing at the first world problem. Joseph went to help him. 

We went to church for just an hour today, for a special musical Christmas program. Sophi and a group of girls sang one of the numbers.

Katharine wore her pjs to church. But with a bow and pearls!

A photo from someone in San Diego who was taking care of Hyrum today. 

It had been an early day for Peter, and he fell asleep during church. 

We went over to Corey's parents house around 1 and enjoyed lunch/dinner over there, visiting, and more gift giving.

Katharine being sweet and beautiful.

Talking to Hyrum!

Playing with more presents. 

Back at home - basking in the Christmas fun explosion. 

Wesley helped Owen build his Ninjago temple lego set, it was pretty cool. It reminded Wesley of Avatar. 

I'm glad I've been able to sneak in some blogging up here (Today is actually 2/26/23 but I truly am grateful I was able to sneak in blogging, yay, I'm almost done with December!) Time for bed soon. Katharine with a tiny bottle of sparkling apple cider that I stole from my parents. Merry Christmas. 

Little Bit Sick

Hey there. Kids have been a little bit sick - sore throats and some coughs. Abi missed most of this week but went today. I haven't gotten them tested for covid. I think it's a lingering bug from the cough that their cousin Isaac had during Abi's car ride back from Nauvoo. 

Since we've kinda been hunkering down with kids not feeling well, I haven't run out for groceries for over 2 weeks. I finally went to Costco yesterday. Sometimes I let too long go by between my Costco runs, and then I get so much food that it amazes me. The Costco checkout employee asked if I was from out of town and this was my monthly grocery run. No, I just skipped a week of shopping and have a large family. I was also impressed that I was able to fit so much in around Katharine in her carseat as I loaded up! We un-buried her at checkout, and I asked for a flat cart and boxes, cause I didn't want to try and tetris everything in all around her again. When I left I got a "God bless you!" from the guy who loaded us up again. The bill was $800+ but I used our rebate and some cash to get it in the $300s, yay. 

I got some stuff for Abi's bday tomorrow, and cause I think college kids are joining us on Sunday for a combination celebration for Abi and Sophi's birthday. I got some presents for Christmas, and a dinosaur lego for Peter to open now, cause that's what happens when I take kids to the store - they see something and want it, and I give in. That's one reason why I try to go sans kids if I can. 

Corey went and got skis for the kids today, time to get ready for the ski season! What else... I haven't talked politics in a while... Corey reads up on the news every morning and will sometimes send me stuff or will share things with the kids when we gather after dinner. We both still think Trump is crazy. Him having the classified files at his home is nuts, and he pretends he's been framed or whatever but then after a photo of the documents is released he says "There seems to be confusion as to the picture where the documents were sloppily thrown on the floor and then released photographically for the world to see, as if that's what the FBI found when they broke into my home. Wrong! They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet..." Um, that this is an admission that he had the documents and knew it. So funny, he just can't help himself. 

For butterflies - yesterday, I had one j-hook --> chrysalis and found 1 egg. Today we had 5 eclose: 4 female and 1 male. They are GORGEOUS!!!!

One enjoying the butterfly bush - 

Lily got to see some of them today after she got home, since it was an early out day for her jr. high. 

I'm glad monarchs are still around. After 2020 and 2021 were no-shows for any butterflies, I thought that perhaps our best days were behind us. I'm glad they're still here and that they've been so plentiful this summer! I'm grateful that there is still magic in the world!

Capitol

Corey and I have both watched more news today than we have for a long time. Today it started with Corey sending me a link about passengers on a plane harassing Senator Mitt Romney. I'm so proud of him and how he handled that. The poor guy was minding his own business, just leave him alone. That lady was mean, and I wouldn't like being treated like they treated him. It'd be nice if we all channeled a little more Mr. Rogers into our daily walk with our fellowman. So that started the day for me and then things got crazy from there, as the world is well aware. We were both kinda glued to our computers. He watched things from work and sent me stuff, I was watching here at home. I'd say I generally don't follow the news except for video clips that Corey sends me. Today he sent me a link to the President's speech, and then we saw what happened afterwards with the capitol being stormed. (photo credit)

I loved Mitt Romeny's comments tonight. I'm really proud of him. Corey's liked him for forever. I think I first heard of him when he turned around the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2002. I remember being really excited about his first run for President in 2008. And even more when he won the Republican nomination in 2012. I was really bummed when he lost. That was when I decided, once again, to focus my efforts on my kids and my home. That is where I will make a difference. So I was just looking over the list of my reasons why I was voting for Romney and also voting against Obama, and all my Obama reasons have been like a TON worse with Trump - more debt, more golf, more dishonesty... like I'm just shaking my head at how much worse Trump has been. We knew it would be bad. Corey and I never liked him. Corey just said "You don't vote for crazy people." He said as much after Trump won. Corey tonight: "I want to be on the right side of history when it comes to crazy mad men with power." It took me a little while to get over it after Mitt lost, but that was when I decided to let God prevail and turn the fate of our country over to Him. I think it's gotten so much worse since then and we haven't had any good presidential choices since, but I will Trust in God. Of all the things I read and heard today, I'll just share Senator Romney's remarks tonight (the video here includes a few unscripted comments he made, like about losing an election "I've been there myself... its' no fun!" We are proud he represents our state:  

“We gather today due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States. Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. They will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history. That will be their legacy.

“The objectors have claimed they are doing so on behalf of the voters. Have an audit, they say, to satisfy the many people who believe that the election was stolen. Please! No Congressional led audit will ever convince those voters, particularly when the President will continue to claim that the election was stolen. The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. That is the burden, and the duty, of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won this election. President Trump lost. Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General, and state election officials both Republican and Democrat have reached this unequivocal decision.

“We must not be intimidated or prevented from fulfilling our constitutional duty. We must continue with the count of electoral college votes. In light of today’s sad circumstances, I ask my colleagues: Do we weigh our own political fortunes more heavily than we weigh the strength of our Republic, the strength of our democracy, and the cause of freedom? What is the weight of personal acclaim compared to the weight of conscience?

“Leader McConnell said that the vote today is the most important in his 40 plus years of public service. That is not because this vote reveals something about the election; it is because this vote reveals something about ourselves. I urge my colleagues to move forward with completing the electoral count, to refrain from further objections, and to unanimously affirm the legitimacy of the presidential election.”

Christmas Is Here

It's CHRISTMAS!!!

Let's all sing it with President Trump: "Christmas is here! Christmas is here!"

It's CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I let the kids do the photo documentary this morning. The kids got up early around 3:30 am, but since there wasn't much loot in the stockings, they just went back to bed. So since they were nice to us by not being noisy at a crazy early hour, we were nice to them and we got up around 8. We met in the front room to see the presents the kids had gotten for each other and for us. 

Next, we headed over to the side room for opening gifts from "Santa" aka Mom and Dad. Corey had a unique numbering system again. The kids would pick up a present, find the small number on it, tell the number to Corey, Corey would look it up on his spreadsheet, and reveal the name of the gift's recipient on the big screen. 

We soon got to a point where everyone had received a gift except for Daniel, who was having a hard time understanding how this unjust system worked. 

I knew one of the sized of Daniel's gifts, so we grabbed one of the presents that had a remote control car in it for him. He was very happy to open it. Owen saw it, then looked at the board game that he had opened, and gave it back to me as he said "Not this one..." He wanted a car like Daniel. And he knew there was one, since he had been at the store with me when I bought them. Sophi got the biggest gift - a huge Friend's Lego set Amusement Park. 

Mel had sent us a package with letters for everyone and some small gifts. She made three little cars out of clay for Peter - Peter holding his big and his very tiny red cars - 

And she got me three lovely sets of earrings - a tree of life, pretty bronze oak leaves, and some red cardinals to remind me of my promised land of Virginia. The kids continue to find and open their gifts. 

A present for me - Corey got me a new phone! Yay! And it's an iphone! Ethan will be so happy for me, no more poor quality photos!

The girls built their legos at the kitchen table - 

Owen, Daniel, and Peter liked this marble run set I got at Kid to Kid. 

Corey was feeling a little sick today, as were Lily and Peter, so we didn't go over to Corey's parents' house or anything. We stayed home and it was fine. Peter was being super fussy tonight though...

I'm a little worried he might have an ear infection like he did a year ago. I took him for a late drive to calm him down and gave him some Tylenol before Corey put him to bed tonight. He was doing better after that. Don't be sick Peter!  

Playing with the little blue and green cars that Mel made. So it wasn't our normal Christmas with all the usual family traditions, but it was still a good day and I think it was a good Christmas for the kids.