Post-Christmas Loveliness

The week after Christmas was very relaxed and it was glorious!  We started watching Lord of the Rings with the kids (after I realized that all my sons had seen them, but none of my daughters-- what the heck???  So now I get the joy of watching Kendra develop a crush on Legolas and Camille crushing on Aragorn-- both smart choices!).  We went to the temple once with all the kids who were old enough to go (and the Holbeins took Camille, which was so nice of them!)

and we spent quite a bit of time putting together a puzzle we'd gotten from the Maddens

Christmas in New York City!

Kendra went out on splits with the sister missionaries and they were contacting people on the downtown mall, which sounds both scary and exciting to me!  They sent me this adorable picture from it:

We had our usual cheese and chocolate fondue for New Year's Eve, and then headed over to the Gaskin's who (like last year) were hosting a NYE party for the youth.  This was a bit of a conundrum for Craig and I since we weren't sure if we were supposed to stay or not since we don't have callings with in YM/YWs any more!  AND we have two kids who aren't youth!  So we went telling ourselves that we would be flexible and leave if it felt weird for us to be there.  (I'm SO BAD at being flexible!!!!)  We did end up staying and had a very fun time, so it was all good!  I didn't really take pictures, but I did get this one of Craig, Edwin, and Perry all matching each other:

People confuse Perry and Edwin so often that it's just become a joke; Edwin's daughter calls Perry Dad and everything, it's so funny!

And then I also got a picture of Camille and Peter, being goofballs like this:

They're so funny!

I got up one morning to discover that Craig was testing out his new griddle by making French toast!  Win!

Much better than barely squeezing four pieces of bread onto my frying pan!

We also took just Bentley to the temple one day, which was really nice.  He's been making great progress on being able to leave on his mission and I'm so proud of him!  He and Craig spent the better part of a day figuring out what he had for his mission and what he still needs to get, so that was super helpful.  Why is stuff like that so hard???

When we went to New York in October we had promised the kids a meal at Shake Shack, but they finally decided they were happy with Five Guys, so we did that:

It's pretty rare for us to take all the kids out to dinner, and that was a good reminder why we don't!  Dang, that place is not cheap!  But it sure is good!!!  (We also had Topher, who Bentley graciously paid for!)

Craig and Bentley made Ryder shave for the first time, so that was exciting.  His hair is so light and fine, you really can barely see anything on his face; he probably won't have to shave again for another six months now!

Speaking of Ryder, he was set apart as a priest, so that's pretty wild!  (Having a November birthday means he's always on the young side of these advancements!)  He hasn't actually gotten to bless the sacrament yet, but I imagine that will happen this Sunday, with Craig assisting him.  Stuff like this makes me so happy.

On a different day, I dragged Craig with me to see Hamnet.  I really liked the book and was excited to see it as a movie.  Bentley and Kendra decided to tag along, so I made them sit on Craig's other side so they wouldn't be quite so exposed to their mom crying her eyes out.  It was a good movie, but man, I was doing my best to not be audibly sobbing in the theater.  It was gutwrenching.  But in a good way, if that makes sense.

Craig also took the older kids to see the final episodes of Stranger Things in the theater.  I stopped watching the show after the first season, but they were all tremendously excited about it and seemed to have a great time.  (And I think fewer main characters died in that than in Hamnet, so that's some irony for you!). We also found time to watch the newest Knives Out movie, which we enjoyed!

It wasn't all perfect.  Between the Christmas decorations and all the new stuff, there was so much MESS all over the house, and the kids use so many dishes when they're home all day (would it kill them to take a sip of water out of the same cup more than once???) and it occasionally drove me a little crazy.  (Craig quickly realized this was turning into a problem and stepped and began doing a lot of the dishes for me.  I appreciated that so much!)

And then, suddenly, vacation was over!  I was so sad to have to get back to real life.  But we put away all the decorations, school started again, and I took Bentley to the airport.  It felt like real life was back with a vengeance!

When I got up early to go to the gym, the moon had the biggest ring around it that I've ever seen!

And then, something kind of great happened-- that first morning, I'd exercised and showered and was running around trying to get the kids all ready for school when I took a quick break to say my prayers.  And I remembered just how much I like my life and all my routines.  And it was okay.  All was well.