2024 - December - Winter Formal, Ninja Assassin, Photo Catch Up

December 14, 2024 was the Winter Ball at Carter's School. He asked his friend Ava and they had a great time together.

December 18/19th I joined Dee on one of his Idaho Falls trips for work. It's always fun to get away, do last minute shopping, and enjoy some one-on-one time.

The hotel where we stay is right across the river from the Idaho Falls temple, and the view is gorgeous! The river trails there are so cool and we love to go exploring on them.

December 10th. This is one of those things that only happen at college. I work at USU and for one of the class's final projects they had to make a cosplay costume (it was a theatre costume class). McKenna's friend chose an assassin from a book series they love and made the costume, but asked McKenna to showcase it. They had a whole final on stage where she got to practice her combat moves. Basically dream role. I happened to be finishing a class nearby and got to come see her. Absolute perk of the job. I love college!

The rest are random pictures. I had a friend clearing out her plants, and I went a little bit crazy. YAY!

Neighbor salsa gifts

Cutie Tyler who stole my phone

And of course, me who loves Christmas!

2025 - December 24/25th - Merry Christmas!

 Partial family picture (without Ellie) that we used for our cards this year.

Carter, Alec, McKenna, Diantha, Dee, Emmy, Tyler

We actually decorated the tree December 1, 2024, but I thought I'd throw it in here.

Always fun when the kids come, no matter their (or our!) age

Tyler and Emmy

Alec and McKenna

 

Dee and I literally sitting on the couch watching our kids get along and feeling all kinds of joy. Different new stage of life, but another good one.

Christmas Eve is my "Please please please try to be home for this night" holiday. We cook a fancy meal and eat by candlelight. We read the Nativity Bible verses and open a small gift (it use to be PJs but the kids stopped growing and have too many PJs.) I feel so blessed that they could all be here (except Ellie, of course!)

We opened our Christmas socks

Afterwards Tyler and Emmy headed to other-side-of-the-family fun, but McKenna and Alec stayed the night. I bought some British "crackers" to try and of course, it was fun. We played some games, watched a movie, and headed to bed for Santa to come.

His hair through the cracker crown cracked me up.

Too full after a big meal and pounding the Martinelli's 

The rule is still they have to stay in bed until 5:30. However, everyone was okay with waiting until 6:30 this year. Record! 

Happy early Christmas morning

This year for the "big kids" couples we got Broadway Wicked Tickets and a hotel stay. Super fun gift, but not really until May, and not really fun to open. SO. I made it more interesting. We wrapped 4 box layers and each layer they had to solve a puzzle. Oh yeah, each layer was also wrapped in wrapping paper and duct tape. Absolutely more fun.

We got a good deal on a basketball game for Carter. He has always wanted one and although it was tricky to take apart, move, set up in secret (his room!) it was totally worth it.

Emmy and Tyler came back Christmas evening and got to open their present. It ended up being so much fun! They were so excited (especially Emmy) since they had not ever seen it.

After Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are over, I pretty much am done for the day. I don't cook (eat leftovers or cereal) and we stay in jammies all day and watch Christmas movies. Raz loves this plan. Merry Christmas!

2025 - December 27 - Thanksgiving Point Lights and Gift Blanket

 I had the great/not so great idea of getting Dad and Pat Treadway tickets to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point with us. Mostly, they don't need gifts and spending time with them is precious. Well, the night we had reserved tickets was SO cold, and reading the reviews it said wheelchairs were pretty much inaccessible through some of the trails. Pat wasn't feeling great anyway, so we went to visit them then headed over to the lights, sadly without them. I was glad they decided not to go, because really it would not have been enjoyable for them with how cold it was. However, the lights were amazing!

Carter, Dee, myself

My favorite part was the "Tree of Life" walk and statues. It is huge and beautiful and so moving. I highly recommend going (it's there year round) because words and pictures don't do it justice.

For my parents, I decided to do a denim quilt made with love, of course. It has been a long time, and was so fun to make, except the occasional times I wanted to throw it out the window.

Raz was very helpful when we were tying it.

Dee actually was helpful. He grew up with his mom making beautiful quilts, and is always more than happy to jump in and help tie.

I didn't get any pictures of the final product, but it turned out cute.