With the end of the semester, Mike got to travel back down to Springville for the holidays. Landon still has another week of school, but we'll still have plenty to do. Eliza only has Christmas Day and New Years Day off.
Landon had the opportunity to do some freelance welding work for Kenyon, Hallie's Starbucks customer. Hallie and Landon went by to talk with Kenyon about it. The guy lives humbly but has quite a bit of property.
Mike felt underwhelmed by a fortune he received this week. While writing is thinking on paper, as a person who writes and evaluates writing for a living, being reminded of the obvious is a lot less fun than "You'll be going on a long trip soon." Speaking of long trips, he and his colleagues will be presenting a paper at a conference in Oxford, UK, next spring. Jolly good! He'll have to brush up on his English.
Fergus may have gotten into a fight this week. He definitely has been resting a lot more the last few days. The old man may not be as able to hold his own as he has in the past.
Mike surprised the fawns and their mom as he left for work. Missoula weather has been unseasonably warm, which Mike doesn't mind, but lack of cold weather leading into Christmas seems odd. Apparently the other side of the state and a bunch of the country are feeling the chill though. Winter cold will arrive soon enough. He hopes for passable roads when he heads back north in a few days.
Hallie caught this brilliant sunset while leaving a store.
The girls looked after our neighbors' cats and dogs this week. Come February they will do it again for 11 days.
Jocie fell asleep on the couch before we went to walk the dogs. Needless to say, Hallie babysat while Landon and Eliza went to take care of the animals until Jocie woke up.
By the end of the week, Ferg seemed more like his old self.
Kai came back later in the week. While they're not chums, Kai and Ferg, they're not enemies either.
Mike got to attend Fall Commencement at UM on Friday and celebrate with graduates from the Ed Leadership program and others from around the university.
Those are bubbles floating down from the ceiling. Pretty fun!
Hallie went to Darn Good Coffee on Saturday morning before getting Landon some welding equipment for his job with Kenyon. Plus, she's mad at Starbucks for some bad corporate behavior. While there, she ran into a neighbor and her friend. As the three stood and talked, it seemed to be a surreal moment. All three remarked that this could have been a scene from a Hallmark movie. Steve (the man who owns the building) was helping and brought Hallie her food that had a sticker in it. Hallie loves stickers and was so excited. Thanks, Steve!
Mike spent most of Saturday driving. Hallie, the kids, and Jocie met him at the airport, and then afterwards we all ran some errands at IKEA. Jocie had never been there before. Hallie and Eliza took a minute to take pictures in the photo op that was meant for Santa earlier in the day. Grateful Jocie was willing to have fun with Eliza.
Upon the humans' arrival at home, the pets attached themselves to Eliza. Again, not often are the animals so close to each other, so when they sit close, Hallie always has to capture it.
Kai found her again the next morning. Kai ended up there while listening to the adults trying to fix some furniture in their bedroom.
Our neighbors came by to say thanks for looking after their pets and bring some Disneyland swag. Thanks!
Mike took Kai for a walk in the early afternoon. As they passed a little boy, he asked, "Are you Santa?" Mike asked why, and the kid said, "Well, because you look like Santa. You're wearing a Santa hat" (which Mike was, because when better to wear a Santa hat then now? Maybe it also had something to do with the Mike's beard. But Mike's beard is not white. Oh, well. Mike asked the kid if he'd been naughty or nice ("Nice") and told him to watch the skies at Christmas. Eliza thinks Mike would have fun playing Santa. Could be, could be. But not anytime soon!
