December 2021

I turned 40! Scott got up with me and the kids and before Maddy and Ian left for the day he had me open my present, it was an Apple Watch. My Fitbit was on its last leg and it had a cracked screen so an Apple Watch was the next step up.

Scott arranged for us to stay at the legendary Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville. It's nice having an 18-year-old home to take care of things so we can leave overnight if we want. The Brown Hotel was built in 1923 and it’s one of the oldest historical buildings in Louisville. The architecture was really pretty and the paintings. We checked in and then walked about 10 minutes to the district of town with all the nice restaurants. We went to a Guy Fieri (famous chef) restaurant, it was a smokehouse and it had really good barbecue. I had the pulled pork and  Scott had a pulled brisket sandwich. 

Next, we killed time by shopping at Trader Joe’s and Nordstrom Rack. Then we went to the movie theater with the full intent of going to the Chosen Christmas Movie, but we saw that West Side Story had come out, which I thought wasn’t coming out until the next day! So we decided to go to that instead but we had to wait a bit for it to start. There were only two other women in the theater with us and that is it! I took full advantage of the emptiness and sang along. The music was performed so well, and the acting too.

We didn’t get back to our hotel until 11:30pm, we slept in the next morning and then went to a fancy brunch place called Wild Eggs, where I got a hash brown bake with sausage, eggs, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms, basically all the things that my family wouldn’t eat. We also got a cinnamon roll to share. Next, we hit up the mall to get some last-minute Christmas things then we headed home just in time for Ian to get off the bus for early release at 1:30.

Ian was inducted into Beta Club with other wonderful 5th graders. He is smart, kind, studious, and responsible. Plus a little boy in a blazer is just adorable. 

                                                 

                                        

Ian adores his teacher Mr. Thompson

                                       

Ian and Keaton

                                      

Funny Ian story- I was waiting to check out at Sam’s club when the mom of Ian’s friend Will calls me. My receipt was on my phone as I was getting in line to check out so I couldn’t answer so by the time I get into the car she had texted me that Ian was at her house and had gotten off the bus at their stop because Will and Ian had tied their bathrobe ties (it was pajama day) together and they couldn’t get the knot out, and the bus driver was not patient so instead of just taking off his bathrobe he got off at Wills stop! So funny! She dropped him off a couple minutes later, Scott was working from home. 

                                            

The December highlight for Monday was she had her cross-country banquet. It was really nice they had a catered barbecue dinner and the coach gave out awards. Maddy received an award for having a higher GPA while competing in sports. She also got a varsity letter. There were two senior boys that spoke and gave their praises to the coaches. You could tell that everyone really loved each other and genuinely enjoyed one another’s company this season.

The middle school girls

Her bestie Shylo

     Rylan had his last band Christmas Concert! He has made some lifelong friends in band.

                                             

                                     

                                     

                                 

He spent many hot Kentucky days and evenings on this practice field. 

                                

All the seniors with Mr. Cantrell and Mr. Smith

                               

Christmas Eve Day- 

Rylan was invited to go with Kyann to her aunt's house that lives about 30 minutes away. Every year their family does an extended family Christmas Eve brunch together. He wasn’t sure what to expect but they showered him with gifts, and he met all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins and he didn’t get home till 2:00 pm. I did not like sharing him on our last Christmas together but he’s starting to kind of just be older and not really care about our silly family traditions anymore.

We watched the second movie in the Hobbit series and then we started our preparations for our appetizer dinner. We had bacon-wrapped scallops, mozzarella sticks, twice baked potatoes, barbecue little Smokies, pesto and Brie bites, pretzel bites and cheese dipping sauce, a veggie tray, salami cheese and crackers, and I made a seven layer dip that we forgot to take out of the fridge (we ate it the next day for lunch). We also had sparkling cider. After dinner, Scott read us the Christmas story from both the book of Mormon and the New Testament and we read some scriptures about some parts of Christ’s life and resurrection. The kids opened their Christmas jammies, since Rylan had already purchased Christmas jammies with Kyann I bought some jammies for M & I that match them. Then we couldn’t decide what we wanted to do next. I wanted to play games. Maddy wanted to drive around and look at Christmas lights and Rylan and Scott wanted to finish the Hobbit. Somehow we compromised and we watched the new Disney+ movie Encanto. The animation was amazing and the music was beautiful and catchy. There is no real evil, just misunderstood family dynamics.  

                                             

One of my Christmas break goals was to figure out how to Dutch braid. I have the French braid down. To learn the dutch braid I have been watching tutorials and trying it out on Maddy but she gets impatient with me so I grabbed her American girl doll during the Hobbit and I practiced and practiced and then when I felt like I finally got it down and I did it on her. Success!!’ It makes the most beautiful waves, bigger than the French braid. 

Present highlights:

Leah got new pots and pans and black hunter brand boots. 

Rylan received a big tech trumpet mute, a missionary satchel-type bag that he’ll need on his mission, apparently they no longer let you bring backpacks but it can snap around his waist if he’s riding a bike. He also got six new mission ties and Scott and I got him a really nice leather-bound journal that we wrote in beforehand. Scott took a lot of time to write about four pages. He kind of gave him 10 steps for missionary/life success. I just shared my love and my testimony and tried to explain the strengths that I saw in him. Rylan had a hard time reading Scott’s cursive (it is really hard to read and has taken me years to learn to read) so Scott read his aloud and I read mine and we were both in tears expressing our love to our boy. 

Maddy-

Black and white converse shoes, which we claimed were impossible to find, she was so surprised. She also received a Crosstitch kit, headphones, a beloved flannel shirt, and the Mount Olympus Percy Jackson series of books. 

Ian received a riddle book, a Spirit Animals Brandon Mull book, a gift card to Barnes & Noble, Roblox bucks an axolotl T-shirt, and two Switch video games. 

All Scott wanted for Christmas were some new shoes for tennis, he ordered them weeks ago and we got an email saying they were going to come on Christmas Eve but then when they didn’t show up we got another email saying they were going to come on Monday. 

We got embroidered towels from grandma Bonnie, a Christmas quilt and a game from the Kohrmans and Grammy and Papa gave the kids Christmas ornaments from Yellowstone. We still have yet to spend grandma and grandpa‘s money and Ira and Teralyn gave us a new Kubb game. 

We played around all afternoon, ate appetizer leftovers, had too many sweets, Scott called his grandma and parents. I enjoyed all the Marco Polos from my family. Maddy and Lizzie FaceTimed and did some art together. We watched the last Hobbit movie in the evening. It got too violent for me and Ian so we went upstairs and talked and Maddy joined us later and the 3 of us played a game together. Scott told us when the fighting was over so we could see Bilbo return to Bag End. The book was better, I kept telling Ian that he should read it.  Scott and Rylan joined in on our game. We played AKA,  it’s kind of a riddle game and we were laughing pretty hard at our guesses. 

For our 20th wedding anniversary, we made overnight reservations at the Kentucky Castle. We have driven by the castle a couple times. I always wondered what it was. A man built it a couple decades ago then through a divorce lost his money and sold it and the new owner made it into a bed-and-breakfast, restaurant, and event center. There are about 12 rooms inside the castle and then you can also stay in the little turrets that are on the corners along the wall of the castle. It was a two-story room with a little kitchen, a bathroom, and a couch and coffee table and then you go up the circular stairs that had a king bed, another bathroom, and our favorite part a balcony looking into the inner courtyard. It was so beautifully decorated for Christmas our room had a Christmas tree and inside the main lobby they had garland and lights all strung out. We got dressed for dinner and it was probably the fanciest most expensive dinner we’ve ever had. I got a half hen on top of maple-glazed sweet potatoes, artichokes and kale chips. Scott got the filet mignon.

                                       

                                                   

                                         

                                         

The turret we stayed in

                                                       

In the morning we slept in, found a place to eat breakfast and then headed home. It took longer than usual because there was a wreck in front of us and we were at a standstill for about 45 minutes.

The kids were right where we left them and they didn’t seem to mind that we had left. Rylan was sanitizing and cleaning his room and was ready to be out in the world. Maddy took charge of the house and the cooking. They all got a serious lecture from me because I left the house with a clean sink and an empty dishwasher and there were three meals worth of dishes in the sink.