2024, December 23-29

And as quickly as it started, 2024 is winding down. 

We took some time before the inclement weather came in getting outside. As Mike and Eliza were riding, we came across a friendly pony and some moo cows. Right after Mike took these photos, Eliza noticed that her bike's back tire was going flat. Fortunately, they were close enough to home that Mike could get his minivan and load the bike in before the rain started for real. 

Hallie was finally able to prevail upon Mike to make his favorite Anna Ellsworth's molasses cookies. They turned out delicious! Eliza brought several to share with Hallie and friends at Starbucks.

He also made time to decorate this gingerbread house. Landon made sure neither the cookies nor the house lasted long.

Landon got a couple of fun gifts from Jocie, including a Star Wars-themed pillow and a picture-filled throw. 

Here is how our Tuesday morning dawned: Cold and frosty. 

Mike read that the Nordik Village at Jaker's was going to be open for free, so he convinced E to go with him to check it out. 

Here's to tasty Swedish meatballs. 

E prevailed upon Dad to get a picture with Bluey and her family. 

On the way home, we noticed that one of our neighbors had painted this fun Nightmare Before Christmas window mural on their home.  

Mike continued making digital paper snowflakes. 

As Tuesday evening was Christmas Eve, the parents let the kids open presents. 

(These are Japan-themed socks.)

Hallie's coworkers got her the one LEGO set any of us received for Christmas.

Christmas morning dawned wet. Mike kept thinking of the modified lyrics "I'm thinking of a wet Christmas, just like the ones I used to know." As a SoCal child, this weather felt much more like those days gone by.

 

We noticed lots of droplets that had formed on the twigs of the trees as we walked the dog. 

As is tradition, the kiddos sat at the foot of the bed to open their stockings. This year, they both slept in long enough that the grownups were able to get breakfast started before the children started stirring. 

Hallie's Kinder Joy toy gave her the side eye. 

As also is tradition, Mike got his picture of the children on the stairs. Some years are more of a hassle than others.

 

Kai was thrilled with his new fetch/chew toy.

 

We got a pic from Diamond and Caleb wishing us Merry Christmas too with the gifts we sent them. We miss you!

After upstairs festivities, we made our way downstairs to open more gifts. 

Hallie's gifts to Mike had a University of Utah theme, including a Starbucks "Been There" mug and UU pajamas for him and the kids. Mike put both to use right away. 

Wet conditions prevailed throughout the day.

Later, Mike got a phone call from his friend Toby, and Priscilla came over to give gifts to the family, including this Woodstock chew toy to go along with the (now chewed up) Snoopy she gave him last year. 

In the evening, we went to Gma and Gpa M's for dinner. Kai likes visiting with Marilyn.

We ended the day with Eliza doing art with the kit she received and with Landon playing on the new laptop he and E received. Everyone seemed very content. 

Art time continued on Boxing Day. Here are some templates for you to use for inspiration in cutting your own paper snowflakes. From Mike's perspective, it's just a matter of angles and lines. 

We took Kai back to his other family to spend the week there. He spent the last 21 days with us, which is something we get used to. See you next year, Kai Kai Puppy!

After a long day at work, Hallie wanted to come upstairs, but Fergus had other plans. 

Eliza got Dad to do some watercolor painting with him. She painted this bee, and he painted this mountain scene. Hallie was impressed when they sent her this photo of their efforts. 

December 27 is National Make Cut-out Snowflakes Day. Mike cut a few today, and we already had plenty more to put up in the windows. He put an album on the blog's sidebar. Just click the snowflake over there!

Eliza thought Ferg was so adorable sprawled out on her that it merited a picture. 

We got new luggage as part of our Christmas/Japan travel plans. Hallie decorated hers with some of her Dutch Bros collection. 

Hallie had a work party/training on Saturday. Part of it included practicing making new drinks, including this chocolate-strawberry blend. 

Like most of the week, we had a wet Sunday. Eliza went to look after Tucker and Val. She likes earning money. Landon applied at Jimmy John's. Fergus gave Hallie the side eye, probably because she disturbed his slumber. She found him amusing enough to take a pic. 

We got word from Diamond and Caleb that Diamond's mom Joyce passed away suddenly. They are heading to Detroit now to help with funeral arrangements.  

Thus another eventful year winds to its close. Thanks for sharing our adventures with us, and see you in 2025! 

2024, December 16-22

Buddy the Elf claims that singing loud for all to hear is the best way of spreading Christmas cheer. While we love carols, as people more inclined to the visual arts, we see things a little differently. 

Kai is a sexy beast. Rowr! Hallie was proud of herself for catching Kai with his tongue out.

Here he is doing his best "come hither"

"Never mind. Imma take a nap."

Later the fur babies did some more sleeping. It's hard being a pet in the Owens household. 

At BUH, Eliza sewed herself her own fur cap. 

Hallie met this fur-capped individual at the high school. 

Mom helped Sonny-Poo finish up some work to end the semester. He keeps trying to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat by doing a term's worth of work in his last week of the term. However, we suspect he may not have made it work out this time. He may have summer school credit recovery in his future. 

For the preschoolers' last days of the semester, they got to go see the high schoolers perform music and dance. The orchestra/band room was decorated festively.

Eliza participated in a musical theater review for Yates Place on the Peteetneet School stage. She and a couple of other girls sang "Fearless" from the Mean Girls musical soundtrack. 

Eliza even pulled out some old gymnastics moves. 

The students had a lot of fun, and we hope Eliza continues developing her talents in this direction. 

Hallie caught a beautiful sunset from the doors of the high school.

Mike continued refining some work with digital paper snowflakes. He took inspiration from the work of Ken Libbrecht out of Cal Tech, checking out one of his books from the library and trying his hand at interpreting some as they might look if "cut" from "paper."

He also traced some of his own work from winters long past. 

On Wednesday, the other preschool group saw high schoolers perform again. 

Wednesday morning at BUH Eliza did a fun mug craft where everyone wrote fun things on the mug. Then Nan taught the girls how to make snowflakes out of paper bags. Eliza was very excited to learn this new technique.

Eliza learned how to make broccoli cheese soup at BUH on Wednesday evening.

Mike did some digital work on newer paper flakes. 

(This was based on his award winner from last summer's fair.)

Even though Hallie works at Starbucks, she usually shows up there on her days off. Hallie is very blessed to have amazing coworkers who take care of her. The picture below is the top of Hallie's drink this week.

Hallie scored some Springville Red Devils hats. Eliza loves her hat. While the girls were out this week, they found Kai a Santa hat and bells. We think he is still on the fence about dressing up for the holidays.

On Thursday, Mike taught a class of second graders. One activity was to have the kids write a story about how Santa was tired of wearing his outfit and was looking for something new to wear. He wanted the kids to get creative, so he came up with this story. As far as the costume itself, the teacher restricted us to using construction paper only. The students came up with some amazing stories and costumes of their own!  

Hallie forgot to empty the whipped cream container before trying to take off the lid. She wore it well. Apparently this happens with her coworkers too on occasion.

Eliza has had some issues with her sleep/wake schedule. Ferg likes having a warm body to lie down on for his naps. 

On Friday while subbing at a local middle school reading class, Mike met a Ukrainian refugee student. She was very eager to talk and work on her English, so while other students did their own independent work and free time on their last day of the semester, he learned about zefir and taught snowflake art. 

For Christmas this year the high school administration gave the faculty a very big comfy blanket. Hallie opened it right away.

Kai and Eliza (and later, Fergus) also like it quite a bit

Eliza had a horseback riding lesson at BUH on Friday. We are grateful for her new instructor Leslie. Leslie knows that Hallie loves pictures of the lesson, so here is a picture.

Springville City has launched a flag design contest. Mike was (a little too?) eager to make some entries. Here are a few drafts. 

Some of his online friends have created (superior) designs of their own. Here's hoping our little town gets something worthy of its Art City moniker!

Hallie's coworker Joey gave her this fun green cup. Hallie doesn't need another cup but loves the new-to-her cup.

Our friend Lisa gave Hallie some gifts for the home, including this decoration we hung up on the back door. 

A husband and wife came in and ordered 8 frappucinos on Saturday. Way to go Ty for knocking these out of the park.

While Mike watched the kiddos and in between bike rides and shopping with Eliza and walking Kai, he and the girl made art at home. Paper-based digital snowflakes have a different vibe and complexity level than ones based off the lab-grown real-life variety. 

Well, they started doing a couple of projects, then Eliza went upstairs to "draw" and didn't come back down for a couple of hours (she says she didn't take a nap, but Dad has his doubts). Anyway, Mike finished what they started. Then the houses all got gobbled up by greedy teens. 

We bookend this post with another photo of Kai snoozing after a raucous game of fetch with Dad. Let's just let our sleeping dog lie, eh?