Christmas Day

Oh by gosh by golly, Gabby was up early and making coffee before the first light of day :) Buck was grateful to walk out of his slumber chamber to the tune of hot coffee and cinnamon rolls, all ready to go! Gift opening began with stockings and then moved on to some sweet sibling gifts. When the text message came in from the round one newlyweds--that they would be arriving early because of the ***snow***--everyone waited for them to coast onto the scene . . . by 9 a.m. if that tells you what time we got started this particular Christmas morning ;)

This year's stockings had some more grown-up stuffed gifts like address labels and postage stamps :) The teens and twenties also opened vehicle warning light code readers and personalized playing cards. Those who aloha-d to Hawaii paged through personalized photobooks, and those who earn their living in the cycling industry received a pizza cutter, plaque, and a gear-like fidget spinner :) Teen boys gotta have snacks--teriyaki jerky, weird Poptart flavors, Takis of unusual seasonings, and of course treats and raisins. A few more items from a little shop we admired in Maui made it into the stockings as well; I tried hard to not just order everything from Amazon. We definitely mixed it up a little this year!

Noah and Caelan arrived with Miss Scarlet the long-legged, and started telling stories of their time here, there, and everywhere since we'd seen them last :) Caelan was excited about the plant stand from Graysen, the kicks from Brennen, and I remember Gabby giving her butterfly clips, but I think those were for her birthday :) Gabby gave Noah a little drummer boy drum set and he gave her a stick of butter ornament. Brennen's gift raised the annual weapons count, and I think you can hear what he had engraved on it and the box in the video below . . .

As you can see the BIG gift was a surprise from everyone for Gabby. She's been missing learning and music, so Brennen sought and found her a bass guitar. She played Vanilla Ice--I mean Under Pressure--at the kitchen table a bit later ;) Everyone gave such nice gifts this year, which is wonderful when it isn't a financial pinch to do so . . . I know they may not always be able to spoil each other like they did this season, but it is sweet that they showed their generosity and thoughtfulness when the funds were available to do so. One of those rare and special years! I know that when times are leaner, their creativity and hands-on skills in writing, art, needlework, building, music, etc. will make meaningful gifts come to life. Regardless of the gifting, their love for each other is apparent and that makes my heart happy!

Under the tree, tucked in the wrappings, there were LEGO sets and musical instrument accoutrements and a Corgi (for Graysen :) and Green Bay fit (also for Graysen) and t-shirts and a dress shirt and an espresso maker and DeWalt shop vacs and forensic science curriculum and Narnia audiobooks and a garment bag and a gun scope and mags and bullets and knives and a sword . . . I can't remember all the things, but definitely a fun morning of opening surprises. And then building them!

Gabby gifted Chase a full-sized Aragorn sword from LoTR! Noah was checking it out as newlyweds round two were heading to their second Christmas gathering at Chase's parents' home. I did get a pic of everyone together before they left :)

You likely saw my gift from Graysen in the background of our Christmas photos--it actually became a nice place to hang New Year decorations a week or so later :) Buck ordered these three cute, crocheted chickens from a friend of mine whose husband used to lead music at the big church. If you look in the background, you'll see the microwaveable/lavender-scented chicken Noah and Caelan gave me. Yeah! A cuddle chicken!! Brennen turned one of our collective most favorite pictures (I put it on a keychain for G$, too :) into a spinning cube that lights up, so cool! And Chase and Gabby added to the Nativity set she built for me last Christmas--just look at all those darling critters now gathered around the manger!

Outside was a snowglobe, gently shaken, with big, puffy snowflakes--our second snow of the season, incredible! Buck headed downstairs to watch football, Caelan grabbed a book she's been hoping to read--and then wouldn't leave until she'd finished it, so I could read it and we could talk about it the morning after next--uhh, I hadn't finished a book since September, so it took me a little longer than her belated birthday breakfast :) But it was a very intriguing story with so many characters! I'm glad I kept a list, and that reading it kept them here until well after 11 PM . . . Brennen helped me work on the puzzle I decided to build while Caelan was reading and Noah was knitting! Caelan is teaching him how to make a scarf and he's got a really good start on it. I told him how all kids were taught knitting during the Civil War, WWI, and WWII. They were "Knitting for Victory," sending garments to keep the soldiers warm. We read a children's book about it at the library, once. Both our boys tried knitting a few years ago, so maybe, like the LEGO and now Hot Wheels collecting, that will come back around. Winter is the best time for knitting, so warm and cozy!

Dinnertime! Buck's roasts finished up in the smoker just when we were all feeling hungry! We had a very traditionally non-traditional meal with asparagus, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, cheesy cauliflower, yeast rolls, my grandma's rice, and some lemon fluff. Good stuff!

The dessert Buck brought home, a black forest mousse cake with cherries, was amazing! And the pups had an amazing time playing together! Olive got a whole bag full of pink tennis balls and she shared them with Scarlet. She also "got" Scarlet a gift--a travel car care kit, since Scarlet still gets motion sickness and often pukes as a passenger. Poor pup just doesn't want to "load up" at all, anymore. But, she had a grand time with Olive!

I *stole* part of Caelan's Christmas video montage (but edited out the parts at Noah's house :) I love these little videos! And I love my Crew and the Christmas we spent together--Jesus is the reason for the season, from now into eternity, and I'm grateful that's the amount of time this Crew will have together 💕 Merry Christmas from all of us!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with fairly warm and pleasant outdoor temperatures. I know this morning-related news, because our church offered several Christmas Eve candlelight services at non-typical candlelight times. Brennen worked at 2 and Buck was scheduled to work all day, so we picked the service at least three of us could attend--and it turned out to be the one my brother's family attended, too. They even got "ushered" to our row :) I helped Mr. M with some puzzles in the kid packet and got to see sweet H in the glow of the candles--she was a fan of the flickering light, so beautiful!

I'm glad I at least loaded some photos onto this post last week, because already the details are growing distant in my brain-noggin. I recall spending much of Christmas Eve working on food prep for the following day (I learned my lesson from Thanksgiving, rolls need time to rise :) I mixed up my CO MIL's yeast roll recipe and it really seemed to take off! I also made a CA coworker's Christmas Chex, my cousin's Almond Roca, and Chocolate Pixie cookie dough that I remember my mom often made (I'm not 100% sure if it is the recipe she used or not). Those cookies got baked the next day, along with my Grandma' B's rice casserole--yum! It was a nice opportunity to break out some family recipes, for sure :) 

Buck texted in the early afternoon that business was very slow, and he thought he'd be able to come home from work early by a few hours! I wondered if that would mean he could attend a Christmas Eve service after all, but it ended up being an indoor type of afternoon as the temps dropped toward a hoped-for Christmas snowfall.

I also found out that Chase and Gabby planned to spend the night Christmas Eve, so I upped my plan for Mexican food and Buck brought home some extras like queso, tamales, and guac (along with several Christmas dinner items, like the roast he planned to smoke and a black forest cake dessert which was amazing). It was a pleasant, tasty meal! 

The kids retreated down the hall to play video games while Buck and I finished up my afore-blog-mentioned cabin gift from Gabby. "Advent" has kind of become synonymous with "countdown to Christmas," so this didn't have anything to do with preparing for the Nativity. It turned out to be a fun daily puzzle that coincided with my birthday month. We often let a few days stack up between puzzle solves, but we managed to pick up where we left off pretty easily :) Caelan took it home with her after Christmas, so she can finish the puzzles she helped me start. Super, super clever idea for an at home challenge!

Ooh, that dough! During the evening, I think Buck and I added some movies to the Christmas count, but I cannot even remember, and can't fact check with my currently-sleeping co-rememberer. I guess I should mention that this day started his week plus of vacation; he kept a portion of his approved time off from the Africa trip we're supposed to be on right now. It seemed like the time was going slowly, but suddenly it's all used up and he heads back to work tomorrow! Okay, but not blog tomorrow, lol, that's Christmas and we're just getting started! Oh, and I remember now that Buck set up a temporary Netflix thingy so we could watch Klaus, which is his favorite holiday treat movie that is available nowhere else in any form (well, unless you buy a copy in Japanese from overseas, but that's not really very helpful). I think I made it to 11 or 12 Christmas movies this year; I lost count.

It was impressive how the kids' gifts to each other, including the boxful the newlyweds brought over and stowed beneath the tree, really filled the place up! All the stocking stuffing took place earlier than usual for "Santa's Elf" (that's me ;) I had a written list of what went in each stocking, and--for the first time ever--didn't sample any of the stocking stuffer treats as they were loaded into the respective holding locations. Lol! Stocking stuffers are a lot of fun, because they can be anything and everything--and that's usually what they turn out to be :)

My dough fluffeth over!!

Our Life is Weird

It doesn't seem that weird until you put all the pieces together . . . and then you wonder, when did things get so weird?

You recall the homeless camp in the woods that moved into our treehouse. Well, add to that the drug bust in the apartments up the road from us--and we're not talking "low-key" drugs. Eeek! Thankfully, we have a neighbor who is a detective and lets us know about important events on occasion. There was quite a commotion on this particular morning, but it all seemed to go very smoothly. All the while, construction crews actively chopped up half the road--which I'm convinced was the most solid piece of concrete ever poured anywhere in this entire town :)

A couple days later, G$ was driving home from running some errands and saw ball of fire in the sky above the truck. The concussion from the explosion shook our house! Never do I EVER post on public pages, except this one time--thinking it might be helpful information if there was a real danger. Well, someone who got video footage (off like a Ring doorbell type thing) took a screenshot of my message on the public forum and sent both to the local news. The local news showed up at my door, unannounced, saying they'd had their research person locate me. Gasp!! G$ agreed to do an on-camera interview, and now he's famous, lol :) He had lots of guys at church joking with him about it, asking for autographs. Seems like a non-story overall, to me (I told the reporter that things explode randomly here all the time--it's actually pretty normal) but it was fun that G$ got to be on the news :) Caelan said she could hear our neighbors screaming their heads off at each other in the background; I went and relistened and sure enough . . . oof.

You may have noticed the uncharacteristic openness of our driveway in the photo above. Well, after several weeks of trying, Brennen found us a buyer for the Nitro. Now, the Nitro was indestructible, was in great shape mechanically, and had the most comfortable seats of any vehicle I've ever driven. Sure, the air conditioning and heater don't work, nor do the automatic locks or fuses inside . . . but we have put quite a chunk of change into keeping it in good shape through the driver's ed years, so thought we could get a decent price for it. And so, after a mix up on the first perceived arrangement to meet and make the deal (which Brennen and I attended), Buck and Graysen ended up being the actual sales crew. 

Brennen dropped the price to $3k, but told the guy we'd take $2,500. The guy couldn't come up with that amount but drove two hours to meet (and brought along his mechanic) anyway. When he explained that he was from Cuba, and that this was the best country in the world, and he just wanted to bring his mom here, and this vehicle he was buying for her, Buck's heart melted, and he accepted the offered amount. We pray that family finds success and peace in their life here in the States. And with the money we got from the Nitro, we fixed the truck, so Graysen can keep driving it under balls of fire in the skies at night :) Or not, but whichever. One other bonus--dropping the Nitro off our insurance basically balanced adding Graysen TO our insurance. You don't want to know how much we pay in car insurance each month. Wheee!!

If you don't like wound pictures, you can stop reading at this point. I ONLY include this, because this was the weirdest (and tiniest) wound scenario ever . . . here's what happened (we just finished watching the Monk series :) I was mending a few nights earlier and apparently dropped a tiny needle. The needle did not stick into the floor or carpet, but somehow stuck into the base of the couch. So, when I went to stand up, I "found" it with the back of my heel. It scraped some skin and caused a little blood drop to appear--but it hurt like fire! For the next THREE days, I limped around the house, not able to put weight on that silly heel. This was with ice, Advil, Neosporin with pain numbing, and scooting up and down the stairs on my rearend like a toddler. Completely baffling!

Now, it's a week later and shoes feel weird, and I get random electric zingers from my tiny ouch, but hey, our life is weird, so there you go. Lol!

He Did It!

Mr. G$ only needed his last couple hours of night driving to complete drivers ed--so Buck asked him if he'd drive to pick up Mexican food in a little town about 45 minutes from here. The boys rave about this restaurant, but we've never been. Not only did Buck get to watch the Broncos game (in Spanish) while the food was cooking, but I didn't have to make dinner or do the night driving bit. Best of all, G$ finished up his drivers ed hours! I started Caelan on drivers ed in the summer of five years ago . . . that's 140 hours of practice drives with teenagers over the past 5.5 years! I expect our gas budget to drop significantly, now ;)

Hoping to get the process wrapped up by the end of the year, I worked on the paperwork for basically hours (so much typing, the others I just scanned in my written-in-pen notes) that night. I submitted the logs for the "you did it" certificate pretty late, and to my great surprise, we had the approval back by breakfast the next morning! To my further surprise, the DMV had drive tests available the SAME week! In the past, we've scheduled a month or more out because that's how far out availability went. Buck was home to take G$ to the test (which lasts approximately five minutes) and soon brought home our newest driver! His hard copy license is already in his wallet, and he was interviewed on the news for an experience he had solo driving just a few days later--it was a busy first week!

I decided we should celebrate, so we went to lunch at the restaurant of his choice--Panda Express. I found it amusing that we got Rick Rolled on our way ;)

After lunch, he wanted to go annoy his brother, so we went to where he works. My next plan involved hot chocolate floats with red hot ice cream, but the ice cream shop was closed (even though their hours said open). Drat! He was okay with just heading home, even though I offered to let him annoy his sister at work, too :)

That night he stayed over at the nearby newlyweds' apartment, then he and a couple of friends drove to another state--six hours each way!!--to pick up a busted WRX for our pastor's son. G$ spent the next few days returning the favor of all the rides he's gotten in the past year or two by driving Caedmon down to the farm to work on his car. Now he's itching to get a project truck of his own. He's submitted a couple of job applications and spoke to a hiring manager this week. Hopefully when he gets back from Texas next month, he'll be all ready to go earn that cash and buy that truck :) 

Sheesh, when did they all get so grown?