It was so nice to have nothing planned for the day after Christmas! Bentley and Kendra decided to go shopping at Target. My parents and I decided to have lunch at Torchy's and then Bentley, Kendra, and Craig joined us, and we had a lot of fun hanging out and gorging ourselves on chips and queso! Yum.
My parents flew back home Friday, and I was sad to see them go. It was really nice getting to spend Christmas with them again-- it had been a very long time! I was glad I asked demanded that they come! (Middle children quickly learn that sometimes it pays to be the proverbial squeaky wheel!)
We had a lot of time just hanging around-- Colton was working hard on his lego sets, we played some of our new games (I liked Poetry for Neanderthals), we watched shows we hadn't gotten around to seeing yet...
Craig managed to take a decent picture of Bentley for his mission papers:
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| Who could slam the door on this fine young man? Oh, right, everybody! |
Craig finally finished baking treats and we spent a couple evenings delivering them to friends (and feeling bad for all the friends we didn't manage to give treats to). Near one of the houses we saw an owl sitting in the road, so that was about the coolest thing ever! (We also saw a fox, some deer, and a mouse that same trip, so it was quite the evening for nature!) I think we delivered fifteen plates, and there were still so many people we would have liked to have given treats to!
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| Adam wasn't home when we stopped by his house, so I took a picture to prove we'd left him stuff, just in case the bear was around and got to it first! What a festive little plate! (He sent us a picture back of just the crumbs, admitting it was embarrassing how fast he and Allen polished it off. We suggested they lie and let the bear take the blame!) |
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| Despite trying to carefully pace himself, Colton finished the Hogwarts Castle within a week! |
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| More hanging out time! Notice that Kendra is in DIFFERENT plaid pajama pants this time, though! |
We'd asked our friends, the Gaskins, if they'd be willing to host a New Year's Eve party for the youth, and they did it so enthusiastically! I'm so glad we have such fun people in our ward!
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| They started out making pizza quicks and snacking |
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| Ryder and I managed to be matching this time! |
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| And then played the tenzi/saran wrap game where you pass around a huge ball of saran wrap and try to get the prizes out of it before the person in front of you can roll doubles |
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| Colton got the final prize which everyone was excited about because they'd heard it was ten dollars-- only to discover that it was Canadian money! 😂 |
That game took WAY longer than Amy had thought it would-- they were supposed to have a new activity every half hour, but I think that used up at least three of those slots! Amy kept suggesting they move onto something else, but the kids were DETERMINED to get all the prizes! It was kind of hilarious. Anyway, next we did a slideshow of all the activities the youth had done throughout the year, and that was a pretty awesome review-- we've had a lot of fun all together!
Once the slideshow finished, I slipped outside to sit by the fire and read my book for a few minutes. I needed a short break from all the noise and from being "on." Craig had started making Oreo truffles and put Olivia and Sabrina in charge of finishing those:
And suddenly it was midnight! Amy dropped balloons on everyone, they all had noisemakers and confetti and those party popper things... It was VERY loud and I was glad I'd taken a few minutes to escape before that! But it was nice to see everyone having such a fun time!
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| Chaos! |
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| Jason, Colton, and Gideon-- three of the newest deacons! |
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| I LOVE that Amy did this!!! |
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| Gotta love a good photobomb! |
Afterwards, Amy sent me a screenshot she'd grabbed from the top of the stairs-- Craig and I are totally busted!
It was as good a way to start out the new year as any I've ever had-- I so appreciate the Gaskins and how they make everything so fun! And after all the craziness we'd had before Christmas, that last week felt like a perfect mix of not-too-much, but what we did have going on was really great!
Welcome, 2025!
And suddenly it was midnight! Amy dropped balloons on everyone, they all had noisemakers and confetti and those party popper things... It was VERY loud and I was glad I'd taken a few minutes to escape before that! But it was nice to see everyone having such a fun time!
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