2022, December 19-25

Merry Christmas! We spent most of the week indoors and hanging out at home.

Hard to believe that it's been a year since we went to Disneyland and the boys got their light sabers!

Landon's friend Sonny went down a few weeks ago, and he got Landon a white kyber crystal. 

This may be one of the last photos we see of Landon at taekwondo for a bit. We took him to the doctor for some back pain he's been experiencing, and it turns out he has a fractured L5 vertebra. He'll get an MRI next week. In the meantime, no exertion or extensions. 

 Here is some art Landon did for a final project. We're having to push him to keep up, but when he works he does well. 

Eliza seems built for the cold weather. She practiced her fine control skills at horseback riding this week. 

Landon and Mike tested out Landon's new crystal with their sabers. Although it's white, it kind of has a lavender tinge to it, maybe? 

Mike cut several paper snowflakes this week in keeping with the season and the cold weather. Here is a window into the process. He uses a very sharp pair of scissors that he bought at Gardner Village nearly two decades ago (yeesh). They have (mostly) kept their edge. Sometimes he'll use a pencil if he's feeling ambitious. 

Hallie got her hair done. This is as short as she's going to let it get for the next little while. 

Such a hottie!

On Thursday morning, we spied a crane through our front window. Looks like Reagan Elementary is getting new HFAC equipment. 

Hallie's sister ended up in the hospital due to a serious viral infection, and instead of her and her family coming up for Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa opted to go to California to help out. We went over to their house to help wrap the presents Carly had shipped up earlier. 

We also had an early Christmas gift exchange. 

Later in the day, Mike took Eliza to riding practice. It was cold, but note that Eliza has no gloves on. She's a skilled and tough kiddo. Eliza loves working with Nugget the miniature horse. This week Eliza spent time desensitizing her to all the fun Christmas items Afton and Eliza could spook her with.

In the evening, Mike caught Eliza singing along with a YouTube video of an old America's Got Talent episode. Eliza has a natural musicality to her. 

Mike collected the flakes he's cut this year. He keeps pondering whether he could frame and sell them as some sort of home décor. 

This is Fergus's favorite place, and he got a lot of it this week. Sometimes Mike feels trapped, but the kitty is so adorable! 

For Christmas Eve, the kids opened their gifts to each other. Landon got Eliza a bee ring, and Eliza got Landon a Naruto-themed gift set. 

Carly seems to have gotten the timely help she needed. She still has a long road ahead, but we're hopeful.  

Christmas morning dawned (too) early with an excited Eliza eager to open her gifts (6:30) Landon would have been happy to sleep in. That said, he was eager to get his gift from Santa. 

Skittles story books let you get your Santa on. 

Obligatory annual tradition: The stair sit, going on 11 years now. 

Landon enjoyed his new sword particularly. 

Eliza laughed at the funny cats on her new calendar. 

Fergus seemed a bit nonplussed by all the activity. 

And just as soon as the present frenzy ended, the kids were back to doing what they like best. 

Fergus too. 

Later in the day, we all got outside to get some fresh air. Landon enjoys practicing his sword play. Like Eliza, he seems impervious to the elements. You'd think it was 80 degrees out. 

The girls played with Eliza's Lite Brite and made bracelets as we watched movies. In all, we had a quiet day at home celebrating the season together. As we did our own thing this year, that meant Chinese (Panda Express) dinner on Christmas Eve, egg soufflé and cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast, and homemade Mexican (including tamales) for Christmas dinner. Every Christmas is unique, and some are more wistful than others. Here's hoping for many more Yuletides to come! 

2022, December 12-18

We got snow and cold as the semester winds down, and we celebrated with Argentina as they won the World Cup. 

Hallie and Eliza went out on Monday and got these cool sweatshirts. Thanks, @ashleycolletdesign!

Mike's department had a Christmas get-together with goodies from Mrs Backer's, Fillings and Emulsions, and Gourmandise and a fun game exchange. 

Mike has found a new place to "cut" digital versions of paper snowflakes. He can make them more elaborate than real-life ones and experiment with ideas before he cuts ones out of paper. 

Landon is doing quite a bit better in math this term now that it's online and Mike can explain/commiserate with him. 

It snowed on Monday, and we started Tuesday with continued icy weather. Hallie and her teacher had to move most of the furniture and materials from their building to their new digs. Fortunately, the football team helped. The high school will be redone over the next three to six years. They are starting with the football field and the preschool building first. The first picture below is what it looked like on the way to the high school at about 7:30 a.m. By about 8:15 am many people came to get the school moved, and it was awesome. Almost emotional, Hallie said. The principal and several administrators even showed up to help in the move. What a great community!

As they left their old building (which will be torn down as part of the high school renovation), current and former students left their marks. 

Here's a pretty view of the bridge and creek next to the library Eliza grabbed while we returned a book. 

BYU Campus got its own coat of the white stuff that continued through the day. 

At riding practice, Eliza and the horses took the weather in stride. 

Here is an image Landon made for his drawing class.  

Fergus avoided going outdoors for some strange reason and found warm bodies to be quite the comfort.

Eliza has been quite a bit more cuddly with Hallie too, and no one is complaining.

 

Mike and the department secretaries partook in our end-of-semester tradition of doing a Christmas craft. This year, Michele taught us how to make macramé ornaments.  

 

(Mike even consented to do a selfie. Ugh.)

Here's the view from Hallie's new classroom. At least the road was clear. The crew who takes care of the high school does an amazing job at keeping the school clear. 

Here are the boys hard at work on Landon's homework. Mike does a copy at the same time Landon does just to make sure he knows what to do himself before trying to explain it to the boy. We are not sure what Fergus does, but he likes to be included in the action.

We won a couple of boxes full of prizes from Cupbop from the food event a few weeks back. Eliza in particular was thrilled to get some of the treats she has come to enjoy over the past few months. 

 

In science class at Yates Place, Eliza and the other students studied classification of different animals. Also, this meant that they could bring in pets for study (read "show and tell").

 

Eliza and Hallie went to the Nebo gym on Friday. At first, Hallie wasn't sure she wanted to go, but in the end she was happy to have gone. Both kids are finding that they're not as fit as they're used to since stopping their intensive gymnastics regime. 

On Sunday, Argentina played France in the World Cup. In anticipation, on Saturday we went over to La Brioche to get some goodies to nosh on while we watched the game. 

So many choices! 

After not really feeling like cutting new paper snowflakes this season, Mike seemed to find his motivation in all this week's falling snow. 

On Saturday night, Hallie and Eliza had to run a couple of errands (cough, Dutch Bros., cough). Eliza's been a great travel buddy lately! On their way home they found a fun house full of blow up Christmas dinosaurs.

Sunday dawned clear but brutally frigid. We hung La Albiceleste, got out our goodies, and cheered our team to victory! Literal tears of joy were shed as Mike thought about how happy all the people he knows and loves from his mission must be feeling. What a rush!