New Year Catch-Up!

I've neglected my blog since August! August! Just yesterday I was having a blog book printed up (I'm still several years behind on that) and when I saw that my last entry was Lyndsay's BYU graduation, I felt awful because SO much has happened since then! She had a life-changing trip to Asia for six weeks with her roommate and the pictures were out of this world. I wish I could post them all here, but Blogger would explode. When she came back, she loaded us all with gifts from Thailand and China and then just a few short days later, she headed back up to Provo to start working in the Bioinformatics lab on BYU's campus, a job she had during school.

The younger boys started back to school, Aiden in 10th grade, Conor in 4th. Dylan has been doing some odd jobs for people in the ward, still looking for steady employment. I kept plugging away at work, night shift Labor and Delivery.

As the Christmas season started approaching, I asked the boys if they would be okay with less presents this year if we got a kitten. No hesitation from any of them, it was a resounding YES. I researched various ragdoll breeders and we went to meet the one we selected and choose the kitten that would be our newest family member. Then only problem was that we couldn't decide between two, and so we ended up getting both! Little ragdoll brothers, we named Aslan and Beowulf. Oh, how we love them! And even Maestro, our 11 year old ragdoll has come to accept and even tolerate their very active company.

It is so much fun to have kittens around again! And we are so glad we bit the bullet and bought two. The brothers love each other immensely and love being together, which hopefully made their transition easier.

But seriously, it's like having toddlers in the house sometimes. They are so curious! And they often get into things, or make things take just a bit longer as they check out the scene.

Conor and Aslan have really developed a special bond, as have Dylan and Beowulf, which is nice since Aiden is Maestro's favorite.

So, this is Aslan, our seal point ragdoll.

And this is Beowulf, a Lynx point ragdoll.

That Sunday, Aiden was ordained to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and can now bless the sacrament. He is my first son to be a priest, so it was very emotional for me, watching him break the bread and prepare the emblems of the sacrament.

Aiden also got his driver's license! On a rare, very rainy day in Los Angeles.

Lyndsay met a boy! And this one's for keeps! She met him in her new apartment complex and ward up in Provo when she got back from Asia. His name is Nate, and we knew it was serious because she brought him home for Christmas break. Fortunately, we love him!

He fit right in with the family, even willingly participating in our annual traditional Graham Cracker Houses!

He laughed that he used all the wrong colors and made his look like a Halloween house, but I was just super impressed with his creativity and construction, this being his first house ever!

So great to have Dylan home to make houses with us! He missed our family traditions.

Fun, fun! And Lyndsay even used some super-selfie tricks to balance her iPhone and get a picture of all of us in front of the tree, kitties included.

Our Christmas was wonderful and happy. Lyndsay spoiled us all with more gifts from her Asia trip, and the kids really spoiled me with gifts, including a new iPhone 6s! I adore them. Caitlin got to spend some time with us too, but not Sean this year, unfortunately.

Then my Dylan boy turned 20! Can't even believe it. The last five years, or maybe seven (but who's counting?) have been really hard, but now we are here, in a better place, and only looking forward! I am so grateful that he's home and safe. He has definitely learned some lessons the very, very hard way, and still has some others to learn, but he's doing it with courage and honesty, and I love having him around. He has been a great strength to me since being home.

I made him his dinner (steak, of course) and cake (Angel Food with strawberries, this year) of choice, and we bought him an entertainment center to put in his room.

Happy birthday, my Dylan boy!

Christmas Eve

I woke up early on Christmas Eve, the list of tasks for the day running through my mind. I love the holiday traditions we have established in our family, and I love that my children depend on them, but it is a lot of work to make holidays happen! I had to run to the grocery store to get last-minute additions to our day. We had waited for Lyndsay to be home to do our graham cracker houses, and with my work schedule, that tradition got pushed to Christmas Eve. Also, Lyns requested a turkey dinner, since she missed my food so much at Thanksgiving, and since I was scheduled to work Christmas Day, we plugged our holiday meal into this day as well.

While we worked on food in the kitchen, and carols played in the background, the kids and I got to work on our graham cracker village.

I did a cheater thing this year, and I'm blaming it on Pinterest. I saw someone had posted that they assemble their houses with hot glue since they never eat the crackers anyway, and then decorate with royal icing. This was a year I could definitely use a time saver, so I went with it. One less (at least!) batch of royal icing to make, plus the cost savings involved.

Several hours later, our finished houses!

Aiden's really took the cake this year. It was quite a masterpiece!

Lyns went for a log cabin this year.

Despite the confusion and turmoil in our marriage, I don't want anyone to be lonely for Christmas. I invited Adam to come and spend the holiday with us. His children, Caitilin (home from college) and Sean, came by for a little while to exchange gifts, and we got our traditional family photos in front of the tree. Man, we have so much fun together. Christmas has a way of blurring bad memories, and everything just felt so happy. We sure were missing Dylan though, who wasn't able to be with us.

Love a good laugh fest. And I love these two girls.

We reminisced about when they were little girls sharing a bedroom. Now they are college girls!

Three of our handsome boys.

Lyndsay made the rolls for me, and they were amazing!

Caitlin and Sean had dinner with their mom, so they didn't join us. The work involved in preparation was so worth it! The food was delicious! I'm not sure why Conor looks so glum here, except that he probably just wanted to get down to eating!

I really wanted to drive out to the temple to see the lights and hear the Christmas concert, but the traffic was horrendous, and truth be told, I really was exhausted. Instead, we read our nightly Christmas story together, sang several carols, and Lyndsay read the account of the Savior's birth in Luke 2. We had a family prayer together too, focusing on our gratitude and our wishes for members of our family who were not with us, and struggling.

My friend and visiting teacher, Angela, stopped by to drop off a gift.  We chatted for a bit. She's getting ready to move out of the ward, and a good distance away right after the holidays and I am so sad about that. She has been so good to me and I will really miss her.

Then it was time for yet another tradition: Christmas jammies! Each of the kids opened their gift.

Cozy!

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Season: A Tree and Blessing Bags

We went back to artificial this year.

I love the idea of a real tree. For the last six years, we've gone to get a real tree from Kathy's Tree Lot on the day after Thanksgiving. $80 a pop. And it's beautiful and it smells lovely. But the sad fact was, real trees just don't have strong enough branches to hold all of our ornaments, so each year many got left in the boxes that just wouldn't fit. The ones that were on the tree would weigh the branches down and take turns falling off. As would the needles. The constant vacuuming, the back-of-my-mind worry about the tree drying out and catching fire, the one more chore of watering. . . I just decided to bite the bullet and go back to fake. I figure in three years it will have paid for itself. And I can enjoy all of my beloved ornaments!

Thank goodness that Aiden is here to haul the tree inside and assemble it!

And thank goodness it's pre lit! No more messing with strings of lights!

So, the house is decorated and cozy and we've been enjoying the Christmas spirit for several weeks now.

There is an idea floating around on Pinterest and various blogs about Blessing Bags. I'm always looking for opportunities to get the kids involved in service, especially during the holidays, so I thought we'd try this out. The idea is basically to assemble bags of simple items that people in need can use. Simple toiletries, some food items, warm socks, etc. We have homeless people all over near where we live and it's very common to come off a freeway to see someone sitting at the off-ramp holding a sign asking for help. I rarely have cash with me, but I always want to help. I've given food that I've had in the car, but thought this might be a nice thing to keep stocked in the van for such occasions.

For Family Home Evening I took the boys to the grocery store and the dollar store and we collected various items to make our bags. We made "girl" bags and "boy" bags. There isn't a huge difference between the two, honestly, besides the socks, kind of deodorant, and color of toothbrush.

There are lots of lists of ideas of what to put in the bags.

The boys and I assembled the bags when we got home.

 We included:

soap
toothbrush
toothpaste
mouthwash
tissues
deoderant
shampoo
chapstick
socks
water bottle
dried fruit
nuts (this might not be a good idea for all homeless people as many do not have teeth. Should have thought of that. We were going for a punch of nutrition.)
crackers
cookies
hard candies
granola bars

There are many other possible ideas!

We made a bunch of them and put them in a box which we now keep in our van. We can't wait for the opportunity to share them and offer the blessing to someone in need!