Christmas and New Years Eve 2019

Despite all that we had going on in December and all that we had been through; we had good Christmas! I was actually surprised at how nice it turned out to be and that I actually felt joy and happiness. Reilly and Hunter came over on Christmas Eve at about 5 pm. This was the first year that she didn't sleep at our house on Christmas Eve but they did come back over bright and early on Christmas morning. I am not sure how we lucked out getting them on both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning but we did. They went over to Hunter's house that afternoon and had his family gathering with his extended family. That is one of the hardest things about having adult children. Sharing them on the holidays. I hate it.



One of the things that we did differently this year was that the kids wanted to open up their pajamas right away and put them on. Okay... I can do that. They also opened up their special ornaments from Tyler and I...even Beverly got one. Hers was my favorite. A German glass blown Pug ornament!

We aren't a matchy-matchy pajama family. Everyone prefers their own kind of pajamas. Although all the girls were wearing two piece pajamas sets. That was about as matchy as we got.

Hunter's jammies were particularly delightful! 

We ate our Christmas Eve Dinner in pajamas this year and it was ENJOYABLE. Everyone collaborated on the menu:

Christmas Eve Dinner:

My Mom's Coors Ham (for the meat eaters)
Christmas Salad (spinach, strawberries, red onion, feta, candied pecans, balsamic dressing)
Funeral Potatoes
Hot Artichoke Dip
Tyler's Amazing Cheese Platter
Sparkling Juices
(We also had Chex Mix, all kinds of Christmas cookies, Lemon Bread, two kinds of fudge, and divinity.)

After dinner we played our favorite Christmas Eve game... Johnson Tries. This has become a much looked forward to tradition.  LOL. I think this was our third year. Our kids love trying unique and weird foods. Reilly ordered a whole bag of random snack foods from Japan and Tyler and I found some unique offerings at World Market this year.

Let the games begin!

Beef Tongue Snack:





Salad Snack:

Miss Beverly was all fancy in her Christmas dress and her black *panties*. She looked super cute! She also really liked her dress and happily wore it all night.

She was so curious about everything that was happening. Especially when the kids were unwrapping their presents of pajamas and ornaments. She would run over to each person when it was their turn to see what was happening and then she would run over to the next person when they were opening their gifts. It was so cute! She didn't attack the wrapping paper or run around like a psycho (which she can do!) She was just very interested and curious.

After Johnson Tries we moved on to the next portion of our night. Some traditions were gone.... no more Nativity. Boo. Especially after Ailey's epic fallen angel of last year. No more talent show. Boo. Although Bryn played The First Noel. Reilly and Kam tried to nix singing Christmas carols but Tyler and I overruled it. Come on! It's CHRISTMAS!! And... last year I got two good sets of jingle bells and we were going to jingle them! We did one tradition from my Christmas Box which the older kids also tried to nix but again OVERRULED. I have a box that has little stories and object lessons about the symbols of Christmas and that type thing. I compromised and Ailey did one of them...not all of them. We also didn't do the pajama parade. I want that brought back! We didn't put out cookies and milk for Santa. :( We read a couple of our favorite Christmas books. Then we turned off all of the lights and the tree lights and Tyler read from the scriptures by candlelight. That is my very favorite part of Christmas Eve.

After that we led the kids to their beds by candlelight and Reilly and Hunter headed home. It was weird just being able to go to bed. After 22 sleepless Christmas Eves of trying to stay up late and wait for our kids to fall asleep and filling their stockings and putting out presents without waking them up. It was weird to just go to bed but NICE! Even better was sleeping in on Christmas morning!! Reilly and Hunter came over at 9:30 am. Reilly looked pretty glam as she had to go over to Hunter's parents house afterward but the rest of us literally rolled out of bed right before they got there. Bliss.

Another thing that we did differently this year was how we did stockings. We talked to the kids about what my family used to do when Tyler and I were newlyweds and my siblings were older and no one believed in Santa anymore. My siblings and I loved our stockings and didn't want to give them up. So we drew names and filled stockings for each other.  We set our price limit at $100. All of us were working at the time except for my youngest sister and my mom kicked in her $100. This was a good deal for my mom because basically she only had to fill one stocking and then get a couple of gifts for each of us. We also included my mom's name in the stocking exchange. She was all for it. We did this for years. It brought back the Christmas magic for us. We would draw names on New Years and then we had a whole year to find fun things for each other. The best part of Christmas was watching our family member see what was in their stocking. We would go around one by one. It was great! We were still doing it with my siblings when we had Reilly and Kameron. My sister Stacey put the kibosh on it when she had her first child and then we just drew cousin names and couple names.

I brought this idea up to our kids last year because Christmas does lose some of its magic when Santa isn't involved. Reilly got a nice long Santa run! She was 22 before Bryn stopped believing in Santa. Our kids really liked this idea and decided to give it a try this year. It turned out fantastic! All of the focus was on GIVING! Everyone was so excited to GIVE to their person and couldn't wait for them to see all of the things that they had picked out for them. They were so sweet and thoughtful. They were genuinely so grateful and appreciative for everything they got. Tyler and I filled stockings for each other. We have never done that before. We even bought some pretty new stockings for the two of us. We helped Ailey and Bryn financially but Reilly and Kameron did it all on their own. The kids loved it and we are going to keep doing it.

Reilly had Bryn.

Kameron had Reilly.

Kam wins the prize again this year for *unique* wrapping!

Ailey had Kameron.

Bryn had Ailey.

Kam gave this gem to Tyler! LOL! Did we put in it our window?!?! We sure did!

That sucker made me laugh all the way to New Years!!

This was one of my very favorite gifts!!

We had a great Christmas Breakfast! The kids wanted crepes this year...sweet and savory. Everyone pitched in and helped with the cooking. It was a nice and leisurely Christmas morning. We weren't in a mad rush to meet up with family like we usually are. We were able to hang out and enjoy ourselves!

Some people napped! Ha ha!

When it was time for Reilly and Hunter to leave for his parents house; we got ready and headed out to the movies. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to go to the movies on Christmas Day! We used to do that when I was growing up because we never lived by extended family. We were still doing it when Tyler and I got married and up until we moved to Spokane. It was fun to bring that tradition back too.

We saw Little Women and loved it! I know. Kam and Ty were outnumbered on that one. My brother was coming to town later that week and we all had plans to see the new Star Wars movie together so Little Women it was. Both Tyler and Kameron said that they liked it. I LOVED it!! Later that night we ate leftovers and hung out and relaxed. It was pretty nice! Despite all of my fears and dread with the loss of my mom and with all  of the changes to our traditions it turned out to be a nice Christmas and I loved all of the things we added.

Kirk and his family and their friend Julie arrived the day after Christmas. They had the lake house for Christmas this year but drove up the day after. We spent every day hanging out with them while they were in town. We played a ton of games and watched a bunch of movies.

One night they hosted a family dinner out at the lake for all of the siblings and our families. They also invited my two aunts and uncles. Our family including Hunter and Abbey, Kelley and Elle, and Jordin, Ramon and their kids all came out. Stacey and her family did not. They made us an amazing prime rib dinner!

I love it when my brother is in town!

My Uncle John, my Uncle Steve, Kirk, and Kameron.

Kirk and Meki had the nicest and most thoughtful gifts made of all of us. This is my mom's handwriting. I will cherish this gift and this reminder forever.

This is an absolute treasure to me!

Jaylah, Elle, and Bryn.

It was a nice night until much later after the aunts and uncles had gone. I felt really bad for Kirk and Meki who went to a lot of effort to host a lovely evening for the family. There is some serious dysfunction with some people in our family that has gone unchecked for far too long. Add alcohol to the mix and the night went down hill. I felt so sorry for them that their special night ended on a low.

Despite the events of that night; we still had a great visit. One day Kirk and family came into Spokane and we went out for Ramen, to the movies, and played around downtown.

The guys (and Bryn) went to see Star Wars and most of the girls went to see Little Women. Excellent on second viewing! Ailey and Kaiya went to see Jumanji 2 which they thought was okay but not great. It was a fun day!

We spent New Years Eve out at the lake with Kirk and Meki. Reilly and Hunter came out. Kameron was out for a bit but then headed back to Spokane to ring in the New Year with Abbey and her family. It turned out to be such a fun night! We had a great time!

Kirk had to do a polar plunge and got the glory of being the last out of the lake for the year. Tyler and Kam did not take the plunge this year but offered moral support. LOL. It was super cold and the lake was slush.

It was really pretty though!

I love this picture that Meki got of Kirk mid leap!

Pretty view looking back at the house.

That night the competitions continued:

Some things never change! Tyler and Kirk still compare heights. 

Then it was time to get the party started! We were all REALLY looking forward to saying GOODBYE to 2019!

We made a bunch of the food that my mom always made for us on New Year's Eve.We made raclette and escargot. Family favorites. It is still so unreal that my mom is gone. She was just here and so much a part of last year's festivities.



We got Hunter to try escargot for the first time! This was HUGE! He unapologetically likes plain foods! We were proud!

Reilly brought a bunch of the fun flavorings and energy drink mixes that her company sells. She made us all kinds of fun and tasty drink combinations!!

Then it was GAME TIME! Our favorite game this year was the 5 Second Rule. We had the censored and uncensored versions.

We also played many violent games of spoons as per family tradition and sang karaoke too!

Meki brought up some of those Japanese Lanterns that you light and float into the sky. We were hoping to do those but the weather did not cooperate. We had heavy wet snow and wind. We were bummed. Those would've looked so pretty floating over the lake in the night sky.

Finally the New Year arrived and we were more than happy to bid 2019 ADIEU! Kam and Abbey texted us to wish all of us a Happy New Year from Spokane.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2020 will be AMAZING for everyone!

Kam's Heart Procedure

In October Kameron was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome. This means that he has an extra electrical current going into his heart. After having a bunch of testing done in November we were told by his cardiologist that his particular condition wasn't life threatening but it was something that should be treated by a heart ablation. In most cases it fixes the problem and stops the extra electrical current from coming into the heart where it shouldn't. Kameron was scheduled for his heart ablation at 7 am on December 9th.

Kameron isn't a dramatic kid. He doesn't get worked up and stressed when it isn't necessary and that has always been a nice aspect of his personality (and Tyler's)  in our family of highly dramatic and high stress girls. (His mother included.) Kam was pretty calm about everything...his mother was not. Hopefully I hid it from him but there were many days where I was freaking out and had to be talked off the ledge by Tyler, Kirk, and friends in the medical field. Heart stuff is scary.

Our friend Aaron came over the day before the procedure and helped Tyler give Kam a blessing. So many people were praying for him and that really meant a lot because there is power in prayer. If I have learned nothing else in the last five years it is that. THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER. This was also a time that I really needed my mom. She has been by my side for all of the other scary medical things in our lives. She is a nurse and has been a leader in the health care field for almost 50 years. She has always been my rock and my expert-in-all-things-medical my entire life. So to go through this without her was difficult to say the least. I was pretty nervous the day of the procedure and so was Kam. Thank goodness for Tyler!! The man is a rock.

We went to the hospital that morning with Ailey, Bryn, and Kam's girlfriend Abbey. Reilly's boss absolutely refused to let her off work because they were short staffed. It was hard for Reilly to not be there and to just be getting updates via phone calls and texts.

The first good news of the day was that a friend of ours who used to be in our ward, Eric, was his anesthesiologist. That calmed us all down knowing that Kameron would have Eric in with him. Kam seemed more relaxed too (see first picture) as we waited for him to go back. Then it was time and we headed to a small waiting room. This turned out to be the same waiting room where I sat with my mom while we waited for Tyler to come back from his procedure after his brain hemorrhage.

Kam was in his procedure for almost three hours. It was the longest three hours of my life. Tyler and I tried to stay busy. We designed and ordered our Christmas cards. We bought Christmas presents online. We answered a millions texts. Still time just crawled.

Eric texted us pictures from Kam's procedure and updates. He came out a few times too to talk to us in person about what was happening which was SO HELPFUL.

When Tyler got the first pictures of Kam I had no idea who it was. I just saw the picture and said "Who's that?" Not easy pictures to look at but I am so grateful for the updates that kept us calm...and we really were calm...during the procedure.

We had an odd thing happen while we were waiting. At one point the waiting room cleared out except for one other lady, the girls, Tyler and I. The other lady was sitting in the seat that my mom sat in while we were waiting for Tyler. All of the sudden the woman's phone started playing music SUPER LOUD not just music softly playing in a very quiet waiting room but EXTREMELY LOUD music in a very quiet waiting room. The woman could not turn it off. It just played and played. She looked at us in a panic and  said "I don't know what is happening!! I can't turn it off and I can't turn it down!!" Music by The Beatles played for almost five minutes at an extremely high volume. I kept thinking a nurse or someone was going to come in to see what all the racket was! The woman struggled with her phone and we tried to help her. No one could turn off her phone or turn the music down. The woman kept saying, "This has never happened before!!" Finally the music just stopped. All on its own. The poor woman was beside herself apologizing. What she didn't know was that I had goosebumps and chills because my mom was the world's biggest Beatles fan. THE BIGGEST BEATLES FAN! It was her absolute favorite band since she was a teenager. She loved their music so much and blared it throughout our home growing up. The fact that it was coming from the very seat that she sat in the last time we were there was odd too. I am not one who sees signs of my mom everywhere. Occasionally...pink night at the lake was one other time. I don't often *feel* my mom near me. But this was a very odd coincidence if you believe in coincidence. Plus it seemed like something my mom would do. There wouldn't have been anything on Earth to keep her from being there for Kameron and I don't think there was anything in Heaven that was going to stop her either. I felt like she was letting us know that she was there.

Not long after that occurrence my sisters Kelley and Jordin arrived. They were a nice distraction. We were updated that the cardiologist was trying really hard to stimulate Kam's heart to go into the irregular rhythm so he could see where that extra electrical current was going. It took a lot to get his heart to do what they wanted it too. They had to wake him up a bit so he was more conscious (and uncomfortable). They stimulated his heart with adrenaline. Finally they got his heart to do what they wanted it to. Finally after large doses of adrenaline and all the efforts of his cardiologist and a consult with another cardiologist they determined that the extra electrical current was very weak. Nothing life threatening. It also was very close to the major electrical circuit in his heart and doing an ablation there for something that is more of a nuisance wasn't practical and could have done more damage. So no ablation was done after all. That ended up being good news.

Kam went home a few hours after his procedure and had a two week recovery. They went in through the groin which has a longer recovery time. He had to be very careful for the first few days. He could not go up and down the stairs so he moved into Bryn's room and she moved down to his room in our basement. He couldn't work for two weeks or lift anything over 5lbs. It was still quite the process despite not having the actual ablation done. He went in a few days later for an echocardiogram. The results of that came back normal. Thank goodness!! He goes back in to the cardiologist at the end of February. It looks like he may need to be on a daily medication or maybe just on medication when needed for a more severe bout of tachycardia. The good news is that he is doing well and hopefully will be able to submit his mission papers the first of March.