Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was the first full day that Ailey and Luke were here. We had a busy day prepping the food and getting things ready. It is fun to have Ailey here! She is such a great help! We decorated, set the table, and got the last of the presents wrapped. Ailey and Luke ran some errands.
Then we all got ready to attend the Christmas Eve service at St. John's Cathedral.
It was fun to have these guys with us.
This is probably my favorite Christmas tradition.
After the service we headed home and got Christmas dinner going. Reilly, Hunter, and the kids came over. The grandkids were so cute; all decked out in their Christmas outfits. They were darling!
The twinsies
Karsy in his nutcracker shirt!
I could just eat these kids up! Being a grandparent is one the best things in the world!
For Christmas dinner we had Bryn's cheese ball appetizer with crackers, ham, funeral potatoes, Christmas salad, and bubbly plus all of our Christmas treats.
Normally we do a more structured Christmas program with everyone contributing something but this year with three little kids we had to be a little looser and more go with the flow. We gave the kids and grandkids their ornaments. I love that we are continuing my Mom's tradition with our grandkids just like she did. We all put on our Christmas jammies. Ailey did the Christmas box and read about the symbols of Christmas.
We had our own little elf on the shelf! Thanks to AI we made Karter even elfier and also Scottish! LOL.
We texted with Kameron and Erin and also with Tyler's mom and sister who sent us pictures of them in their Christmas jammies.
Erin sent this picture of Kameron in his Christmas jammies with their nephew in CA.
Dwight and Beverly had matching Christmas hats.
We played with the grandkids until it was time for them to go home and get the kids in bed. They are pretty entertaining! Karson doesn't really get Santa yet and so wasn't too interested in all of that.
After Reilly and family left the Christmas-ing continued.
We did all kinds of Christmas Karaoke and Luke was quite the participant! I was very proud!! Especially for his first time spending Christmas with us. He even jingle belled up a storm. I love it! We played a bunch of games and then had Luke read from Luke (seemed appropriate) by candlelight. Tyler and I went to bed at 2am. What in the world?! That reminds me of when our kids were little!
Christmas Day
Reilly, Hunter, and the kids were back at our house at around 9:30 am. They had already had their own little Christmas morning at their house but MUCH earlier. We opened presents and Bryn opened her stocking.
The twins were in little gingerbread people outfits. So cute!
We had a big brunch of crepes...sweet and savory...with all the fixings and bacon and sausage. Ailey made her delicious hollandaise sauce too. Yum. Bryn took over Kameron's role this year of collecting everyone's favorite songs from 2025, and then playing parts of all the songs, while we guessed whose songs they were, and hearing why they picked those songs. She then compiled them into our yearly family Spotify playlist. We had Kameron and Erin's submissions too. This is such a fun tradition that we really love.
This year Reilly and Hunter weren't having to split their day with our family and Hunter's family. The Brocks were doing their Christmas gathering the next day so we got them all day. Later we went to the movies and Hunter took the little kids home so that Reilly could come with us.
We saw the movie Eternity and we all loved it!
After we got home we called Judie and Lori and talked to them and then called my dad and talked to him. We also facetimed with Kameron and Erin. I checked in with my brother and his family too and wished them a Merry Christmas.
The rest of the night was all about Stranger Things! We binged those new episodes! It was another night of getting to bed around 2am. It was a fun Christmas!!
The In-Between:
In between Christmas and New Years we did a lot of things. We shopped! One day Reilly (and all the kids), Ailey, Bryn, and I headed to the mall. Everyone had gift cards and Christmas money to spend.
We saw our cute cousin Haylee and her baby while we were there which was fun!
We did a lot of girl things!
Tyler and Luke watched A LOT of sports!
We went to Rockford again to go to Hurd's and visit Teresa like we promised. We had so much fun visiting with her and shopping. She already had the most darling Valentine merchandise out and the cutest baby things. Teresa was so excited to see all the kids and grandkids. She gave each of our girls a $100 gift certificate to spend. She is beyond generous! She has a heart of gold. She is so good to us and has known our family since Ailey was a baby.
We also stopped at Golden Gem Mercantile which is also out on the Palouse. The weather was so nice!
Karson LOVES his Aunt Brynnie!
We ate a bunch of delicious meals. It is so fun that everyone in our family is a great cook! One night Ailey made us mushroom chicken and another night Luke made us a delicious Ugandan meal. (He served his mission in Uganda.) Of course we had to eat dinner one night at Ailey's favorite Huckleberry's. Each kid has their own favorite places that they want to hit when they are in town. It's fun!
We also did our Dutch Bros chocolate milk run!
One night we went to Coeur d' Alene and went to the resort to see all the lights and do all the holiday things once again but this time with Luke and Ailey.
We got candy from the candy store.
Tyler and I saw a huge falling star while we were out on the boardwalk. Very cool! It was a fun night in one of our favorite places!
Reilly and her family came over most nights to have dinner and to hang out. It was so fun to see Ailey and Luke with the babies and realize that Tate will be here before we know it.
We played a lot of games. Our favorite this year is Sky-Jo that Kameron and Erin gave us and Reilly and Hunter gave us a fun game called Our Family is Weird. We played those a lot and we also played some Skip-Bo which is another family favorite.
We kept watching Christmas movies because why not? It was still the holidays!
We made more crazy AI pictures:
We were inspired by the one Kameron and Erin made of little Kameron hugging little Erin. So we made one of little Tyler hugging little Kristin. We weirdly love it.
It's now Tyler's home screen picture on his phone. Ha ha!
We all utilized one of my Christmas gifts daily...well everyone except for Ailey since it isn't advised that pregnant women should use it. I'm loving my vibration plate. Tell me you're a menopausal woman without telling me you're a menopausal woman. LOL.
Kameron and Dwight made it safely back home to Utah and were holding down the fort while Erin was enjoying some extra time with her family. They drove and then Erin flew home. I am so glad that they had good roads both ways.
BYU won their bowl game and everyone was excited about that especially our BYU super fan Luke!
We woke up one morning to the sad news that President Jeffery R. Holland had passed away. We were so sad. He is a family favorite.
Ailey and Luke came to church with us. It was our friends' daughter's mission farewell so a bunch of old friends were all in our ward along with their grown kids who were home for the holidays. It was so fun to see so many good friends.
We got some absolutely devastating news...one of our friends passed away unexpectedly. Their family was on vacation over Christmas in Costa Rica and he drowned. We are heartbroken for his wife and family. He was Bryn's Pa on the Trek and a former bishop in our stake. They had just recently moved to Utah. It was horrible horrible news. Such a terrible loss. The days flew by quickly and then it was time to celebrate New Years.
New Years Eve
Reilly and family came over again to celebrate with us. She made the best short bread. The Ted Lasso recipe. It was divine. Ailey made two batches of peppermint brownies and helped Tyler made the lefse. They are quite the lefse making team! They have it down to a science.
Ailey rolls them out and Tyler cooks them. This year he cooked them out on the Blackstone and it worked perfectly!!
Tyler and I left the festivities for a bit. We were invited to our friends New Years Eve party. We went over to Steph and Jason's house for a bit and hung out with our friends for awhile and wished everyone a Happy New Year.
When we got back we all wrote down the things that we WON'T be taking with us into 2026 and burned them. That always feels so good! Reilly attempted a TikTok trick that was a bust. TikTok once again did us wrong but it was pretty hilarious watching her attempt it. I think Ailey and Luke got some good video of that! LOL. We also wrote down our family goals for 2026 aka our "Gifts for Jesus" and put them in our little box. Even Kam and Erin participated from their various locations. Erin ended up leaving CA a day early, on New Years Eve, so that she could be home and ring in the New Year with Kameron. So sweet!
We played some games and then did an early "Ring in the New Year" for Karson. He had a great time popping the *non-firework* poppers. We had a bunch of these:
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Karson LOVED them and throwing the Pop-Its too! He had no fear! Then the grandkids were packed up and headed home to bed. After they left, we started watching the final episode of Stranger Things. We paused it at midnight and popped the bubbly, tooted the tooters, banged pots and pans, and welcomed the New Year. There was a great illegal fireworks show going on in our neighborhood! We shot off our confetti cannons and had our yearly Pop-Its war! We couldn't go after Ailey like we usually do being pregnant and all but that prego-mama showed me NO MERCY!! Ha ha! We came inside and danced to the NYE playlist and then it was back to Stranger Things! Another super late/early morning night for all of us but so fun!
New Years Day
The next morning was a bit of a downer. Ailey and Luke were packing to fly home. We were so lucky to get them for 10 days. I wish all of our kids lived at least *slightly* closer to us. The next time we see Ailey and Luke it will be when they have the baby. I know how nerve-wracking that time is leading up to the birth of your first baby and wish I could be there more for Ailey. Tyler, Ailey, Bryn, and I were all in tears. Luke probably couldn't get on the plane fast enough! LOL.
We went to lunch at Zip's before taking them to the airport. This has become a regular tradition. But it's a good one and gives us one last *fun* thing to do before we drop them off. I know what my day always looks like after the kids leave and the house is empty and quiet. It's grim.
This year was no different. It was a grim as always. I bawled all the way home from the airport. The day was gray and dreary. It started snowing. That didn't help. We were all tired from the night before so everyone just went to their corners. I took to the bed and fell asleep for a bit which somewhat helped. Then Kameron and Erin called and facetimed us to wish us a Happy New Year and that saved the day. We got to hear all about their trip to CA! That was fun and perked us all up. Thankfully Ailey and Luke had a safe and uneventful flight home. We are so grateful for the kids making efforts to come up for the holidays...Kam and Erin at Thanksgiving and Ailey and Luke for Christmas. It's not easy and we so appreciate it! We have the absolute best kids, kids-in-law, and grandkids. We are lucky indeed.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
