Thanksgiving 2022

 

We had such a fun Thanksgiving!! A little unconventional but so incredibly relaxing and enjoyable. We rented an Airbnb on Lake Coeur d' Alene for Thanksgiving weekend and it was perfection. It felt like we were on a vacation and yet we were only about 45 minutes from home.

We started Thanksgiving break with Bryn finally starting to feel a little better. She had been sick for several days prior and I was worried that she was going to be sick all weekend. I also didn't want anyone else to get what she had. But the day before Thanksgiving she rallied. Yay!

Tyler went into work early that day and worked until around noon. He came home and we packed up. We had to stop in CDA on our way to the lake house so that I could do a little restocking and fluffing of my booth. We had a late lunch at Capone's before heading to the lake.

The drive to the lake house was gorgeous! It felt like we were really getting away from everything.

The Airbnb was so nice! We loved it! They had even put up a pretty Christmas tree in the living room. 

It felt so festive! The lake house was on Rockford Bay and the view was so pretty!

Every window had a beautiful view!!

Even the side of the house that looked away from the lake had a view of beautiful trees and a pretty creek.

I had already made all of the pies, homemade noodles, and a cranberry appetizer before we left home. After we got to the lake house we prepped the vegetables and rolls for the next day. The turkey was brining in a cooler and everything was good to go. We were able to relax, eat my mom's famous apricot and almond brie, and watch a Christmas movie. It was fabulous! I also made a Spotify Thanksgiving playlist. I think I've mentioned my joy in making Spotify playlists!

We talked to all of the kids. Reilly and Hunter were coming on Thanksgiving day and staying through the weekend. Kameron and Ailey were heading to Utah early the next day to spend Thanksgiving with Kirk and Meki. They were going to get to have two Thanksgivings in Utah. A Friendsgiving on the actual day... Ailey was going with my niece Kaiya to the other side of the family and Kam was going with Kirk and Meki to their celebration with their friends. Then the day after that they were planning to have their big family Thanksgiving dinner at Kirk's house. Everyone was excited about their plans. Like I said before, it didn't make sense for the kids to come all the way home for Thanksgiving when they were coming home for Christmas Break three weeks later. It is really nice having Kirk only 2 1/2 hours away. 

We woke up early the next morning in a panic to a phone call from Kameron. He couldn't get ahold of Ailey and it was past the time that they were supposed to leave. Ailey wasn't answering her phone or her door. Kameron had been calling and texting her and banging on her door. She was the only one left in her apartment. All of her roommates had already gone home for Thanksgiving and of course the apartment complex office was closed. Given Ailey's 101 weird health issues; she scared the hell out of all of us! She finally opened her door after we called multiple times and Kameron was still pounding on her door. She had overslept and her phone was dead. (She had a defective charger.) But good grief that girl! 

After our adrenaline calmed down and the college kids were on the road to Utah; we partook of one of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions that we started with my mom. That is eating pie on Thanksgiving morning for breakfast while watching the Macey's Day parade. I could almost see my mom sitting there with us in her robe with her cup of coffee. I love this tradition that she started with me and Tyler. 

Kirk called to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving and presented us with an intriguing proposition. Did we all want to go on a cruise? Uh-yeah! There was a pre-Black Friday deal going on and so we all made the decision and booked a cruise that morning!! Our friend Julie is going too! It is going to be so fun! I was not expecting that when I woke up this morning but we are all super excited about it. None of us, except for Julie, have ever been on a cruise before. It should be quite the adventure!! The college kids made it to Kirk and Meki's house safe and sound and on time to get to their various holiday gatherings. 

We watched the National Dog show on TV...another tradition that we love...while getting everything ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Reilly and Hunter got there around noon. We always eat our Thanksgiving dinner late and by candlelight so we were able to relax and enjoy the day. We watched football and snacked while we cooked. We had a great time! 

We ate our dinner at 6pm. It was perfect! The food was fantastic and everyone pitched in and helped. We had the music going and were singing and dancing around the kitchen. I really couldn't have asked for a more stress-free Thanksgiving. We all had so much fun! We laughed our heads off answering questions from this questionnaire that I found online during dinner. These people are crazy! But I sure love them!

Bev wore a festive sweater for the occasion!!

It's so exciting to think that next Thanksgiving we will have another little Johnson!!

We can't wait to be Lovey and Pops!!

Our dinner was SO GOOD!

Thanksgiving Menu:

Turkey: Tyler

Rolls: Tyler

Pecan Patties: Kristin

Homemade Noodles: Kristin

Gravy: Kristin

Killer Mashed Potatoes: Kristin

Sweet Potatoes: Kristin

Brussel Sprouts: Kristin

Cranberry Sauce/ Appetizer: Kristin

2 Pumpkin Pies: Kristin

2 Pecan Pies: Kristin

Lemon Pie: Kristin

Relish Tray: Reilly

Two Kinds of Jello Squares: Reilly

7 Layer dip: Reilly

Chocolate Orange Sticks: Reilly

Sparkling Juices

Mrs. Sees Chocolate Turkeys

After dinner we talked to the college kids. Both Ailey and Kam had wonderful dinners with their various groups of people and were looking forward to another Thanksgiving dinner the next day! LOL. We stayed up late (even the preggo lady) playing all kinds of games and late that night in true Ellersick fashion we came back for round two and I ate mashed potatoes and gravy at midnight! 

This was one of our favorite games!

The next morning we all slept in. It was fabulous! Tyler and I went for a beautiful frosty three mile walk. It felt great!

We ate leftovers all day and watched the World Cup. I practiced calligraphy with my calligraphy set that the kids got me. I suck at it but it was fun to mess around with it. We Tim Tam Slammed. Reilly and Hunter brought all the Tim Tam supplies!

We basically stayed snuggled up in blankets most of the afternoon and evening. We watched two different Christmas movies one of which was the new Christmas Story sequel which we all liked and the other one was Christmas Vacation a family favorite. We played more games until late in the night.

Kameron and Ailey had fun at Kirk and Meki's family Thanksgiving dinner!

They all facetimed with us. They had a big Spoons tournament! (As did we!) It was a bloody violent Spoon battle in Utah and Kam won. It was down to Kam and Ailey. He had to drag Ailey on the floor to wrench it out of her hand as his uncle and aunt cheered. (No one was injured and all in good fun.) Until you circle the spoon above you head and do the "woo-woo" sound that spoon is still fair game. We have our own dysfunction but all is fair in violent spoons with McClellan family rules. The loser has to do donkey ears and bray like a donkey. My Grandma McKinnon added that rule. LOL. 

I love that despite the miles separating all of us...the kids and Kirk and Meki... we were still super connected. I love my people and our crazy traditions.

The next day we woke up to Reilly making us a fabulous breakfast of pumpkin waffles, homemade buttermilk syrup, and my mom's deluxe hashbrowns. We watched more football and then Tyler and I did another big walk.

Reilly and Bryn decorated gingerbread houses.

I napped and read. It felt so good to decompress.

We facetimed with the Utah crew multiple times. Kam and Ailey went shopping with Kirk and Meki. They all went to a Nutcracker store. Kirk and I grew up with our mother collecting nutcrackers and our families still do. Kam and Ailey were excited to go with them and there was a nutcracker artisan doing a signing of nutcrackers that day too. Everyone was SO EXCITED and we received a ton of texts, pictures, and videos. THAT is how big of nutcracker nerds we all are! HUGE!

Ailey taught Meki how to make my Grandma's homemade noodles and soup. They facetimed me so that I could oversee the process and make sure they were doing it right. Ha ha! They were. Kirk was in heaven eating food from our childhood once again. He was so happy! That kind of thing is truly priceless. Ailey did a great job!  I got several sweet texts from both Kirk and Meki telling me how much they enjoyed having the kids there. It's nice for Kirk to have members of his family there who have the same traditions, eat the same foods, and do all of the same things that he remembers doing growing up. We stayed up late that night talking to Reilly and Hunter and having some really great deep and heartfelt conversations. That stuff is also priceless.

We woke up the next day to bright sunshine and blue skies. It was our last day at the lake house. Lake Coeur d' Alene looked gorgeous! We lingered as long as we could and then packed up to go home. The college kids left SLC at around 11am and had good roads and made it safely back to Rexburg. We talked to them several times while they drove home and heard all about their fun time in Utah.

We got home with time to unpack and relax. We watched the new Christmas movie Spirited that night and really liked it. Kam and Ailey watched it at Kirk and Meki's house and they all raved about it. All of our Thanksgiving holidays were good, loving, peaceful, and enjoyable ones! I am grateful for wonderful family, loving holidays, and priceless family traditions that keep us all connected.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 2022

If October was all craziness and cross-country then November was less craziness and all volleyball. Early morning practices, late practices, and two games a week. It was all consuming but also very fun! I loved watching Bryn progress and get better and better. 

Daylight savings time ended. It is one of my least favorite days of the year. I thought we were trying to end daylight savings time all together? Living in the north... I want it ended. Dusk at 3:30pm and darkness by 4 pm is horrible.

The college kids calmed down and settled in to a less dramatic life. Thank goodness! Ailey was still sick all month and that kind of slowed her roll. Probably a good thing. The kids still did some road tripping. Ailey, Elsa, and Miley all took a quick trip to Jackson Hole for Miley's birthday.

I basically went straight from Halloween to Christmas. Seriously. October 31st was Halloween and November 1st was Christmas. My month started out with a GIANT (basically the biggest and most stressful of the year) booth revamp wherein I transformed my booth into all things Christmas for our holiday open house which was the first weekend in November. This is such a big job for vendors that we had two vendor nights and the store closed on Friday for the transformation. When Midtown Market reopened for the Holiday Open House it opened to a Christmas wonderland! Bryn and Tyler came in both nights to help me. For the Open House photo booth, Midtown Market recreated the living room from Christmas Vacation. It was genius! My friends Jen and Rebecca came in to say hello on the big set-up day. It was fun to show them around. 

Everyone loved the photo booth! These two had to try it out!

The Open House was a big success! I had my highest sales ever!! Woohoo!! I was especially happy considering how bad the economy is right now. A windstorm even hit on the first day of the open house but people still showed up. Thank goodness there wasn't much damage and we didn't lose power and neither did the store. Reilly and Hunter were housesitting for her boss and they had some minimal damage there. We were lucky. I hate windstorms.

I started decorating for Christmas early. I had to do it in a few stages because I was so busy but it was completely done by November 15th. I had some trees up and most of the decorations out though by the end of the first week of November. I've become one of those people who needs early Christmas decorations. I've accepted and embraced it. I also helped Tyler put up the lights on the house. My first time ever. LOL. We are down to only one kid at home and she was busy and not able to help. She was not sad about that. Outside light helper is not one of the Johnson kids' favorite jobs. Let's just say that Tyler gets a bit *testy.* He wasn't too bad this year but maybe that was because he had a more *competent* helper. Ha ha! Our house looks so pretty all decked out in Christmas lights! I love it! Bryn and I started watching our Hallmark holiday movies even BEFORE December. (We missed Ailey!!) Did you know that they have Thanksgiving movies? They do! We started with Pumpkin Pie Wars and we never stopped all month long! LOL. Tyler joined us and napped through all of them.

We got our first snow on November 7th and it never stopped. We got about 4 inches that first snow. The trees in our yard never even had a chance to change colors or drop their leaves. Our Fall lasted about a week and then winter was here in full force. The roads were icy all month long. I was so glad that we got our studded snow tires put on at the end of October. We also got the call that our boat was winterized in the middle of all of the snow. Fabulous. I was so nervous that someone was going to rear end us while we were towing the boat. Thankfully we got the boat put away safe and sound for the winter. At the end of the month we got a huge storm that dumped about 15 inches at our house. Bryn got herself a snow day! Schools closed for only one day but the roads have been crappy all month long. The only good thing is that in between storms we have had a lot of sunshine and blue skies. We never get that here. Usually it is just gray day after gray day for months. The sunshine and blue skies made it *slightly* less terrible. 

Reilly turned 26 this month. 26!! Why is time suddenly at warp speed?

For her birthday she just wanted items for the baby. We were very happy to shop for that! She also wanted to go to Chaos Arcade and eat pizza. Chaos caters to a more adult crowd. More virtual reality games and adult beverages. There aren't a bunch of little kids running around everywhere. We had fun!

After that we went back to our house for cake and presents. Reilly requested my Mom's Mocha Brownie Torte as her birthday cake. I haven't made that in awhile. It is so good!

Happy Birthday Reilly Victoria!!

Two days later it was Kameron's 22nd Birthday!

I never got a birthday picture of Kam (despite requests) so I will insert this one here. LOL. We mailed him a package for his birthday and I venmoed him money to buy several quarts of ice cream for his cake. Ice cream is his favorite treat and he had just been telling us about how he has to budget buying ice cream. He can only afford it a few times a month. College life.  Ailey took him to lunch and he celebrated with his friends. One of his roommates has a birthday close to his so they celebrated together. Bryn was out of school for Veteran's Day (Kam's birthday) so Tyler took the day off too. We went to CDA and ate sushi to celebrate the glorious day of Kam's birth. LOL. We facetimed with him later that night.

Happy Birthday Kameron Tyler! Your birthday lunch was fabulous!!

This month Kameron tried to donate plasma with all of his roommates for some quick cash but his resting heart rate was too high and he was denied. This happened a few times. He called his cardiologist to see if this was something to be concerned about or if it was just part of his Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome. His cardiologist said that it was nothing to worry about and that his heart rate will be higher but that it is normal for him. Unfortunately it prevents him from donating plasma. His cardiologist said that it would be fine for him to donate but the plasma centers are very conservative and will keep denying him. Poor Kam. Ailey has also been denied donating plasma with her roommates because she was under weight. LOL.

There were a lot of hard things going on with people I care about this month. The husband of my BYU roomie and long time friend Carrie has been fighting brain cancer for the last year. He isn't doing well. Their youngest son has been out on his mission for the last 18 months and he just received permission to come home early so that he could see his dad. His mission president was SO supportive and wanted him to go home. My how times have changed. Thank goodness!! But it is absolutely heartbreaking for Carrie and her family. My BYU bestie and other roomie Tiffany and I are devastated. It is horrible feeling so completely helpless.

In happier news...Reilly had another ultrasound and her baby is a chunk! They decided against moving her due date up but if she goes full term he is projected to be about 10 lbs. Reilly was 7 lbs 8 oz and Hunter was a preemie born at 24 weeks so this is craziness! 

My month took an interesting turn...like I said in my last post... I contacted BYU about going back to school. It was terrifying. I don't know why it felt that way but it did. I knew that I was very close to graduating and would be a good candidate for their Bachelor of General Studies program. One day I just decided to make the call and find out where I stood. They confirmed that I only have about 3 more classes to take and then I could graduate. I had completed all of my generals and all of my classes for my psychology major. All I still need to take are three electives. They also had to look at my transcripts and my grade point average to see if I qualified for the program. I do. But since I had actually completed so much of my degree already I was an especially tricky case. They thought that I might still be able to graduate with a psychology degree rather than a bachelor of general studies with an emphasis in psychology. I had to set up a zoom meeting with an advisor in the psychology department. Also terrifying. She was awesome though and went above and beyond for me. Due to my complicated case status she had to talk to a lot of people at BYU including the dean to find out what could be done in my situation. Unfortunately because it had been more than seven years since I stopped taking classes I would need to apply to BYU and retake several of my psychology classes and one of those cannot be taken online so I would need to attend that class in person. Nope. Not interested in doing that.

My other option (the one I originally called about) is to apply to BYU and get accepted into their Bachelor of General Studies program. To receive this degree all I need to do is take those last three electives. Yes. That is the route that I am interested in. If I really wanted to do something in the psychology field I would look into going to school at EWU but I don't. All I want now is the personal satisfaction of graduating from college. There are a couple of other career fields that I am thinking about and am more interested in. Anyway... I started the application process. Exciting and scary!

I also had a lot going on with my church calling this month. We had a big Stake Primary training and appreciation night. We met with all of the Primary Presidencies in our stake. I spoke at the event and was also in charge of the Q & A session. It went well but I was really glad when it was over! Primary Program season continued. I attended multiple Primary Programs in several wards this month. All were wonderful! I especially loved attending the Swahili Branch.

I attended a refugee dinner/event for IRC Spokane. (International Rescue Committee)  This was fascinating. I really want to get more involved in helping the refugee population in our community which is quite large. The speaker was fantastic (she's in my stake). There are so many interesting ways to get involved. More hands on than just donating money and supplies. IRC is a refugee resettlement agency that provides support and housing for newly arrived refugees in the Spokane area. I am feeling a pull to get more involved in our local community.

So true!

Ailey continued to be sick throughout the month. Kameron had to run Ailey back to the doctor for another round of stronger antibiotics. Those finally seemed to do the trick and she started feeling a little bit of relief before Thanksgiving. Bryn got sick the week before Thanksgiving. She had a fever and respiratory symptoms. Bryn's Sunday School class stopped by with treats and a card for her. They were doing the rounds because so many kids in their class were out sick. Bryn was pretty miserable and missed a few days of school and a volleyball game but thankfully she started feeling better the day before Thanksgiving. Whew! 

Tyler got his third eyeball shot. Still terrible but his eye is looking good. Now he doesn't have to go back to the eye doctor for 6 months at which time they will check his eyes and see if he needs another round of shots. Tyler is thrilled to be done with those for awhile. I don't blame him!! At work he was asked to be on the Standards Committee. That was exciting! He will do a great job! He also had a speaking assignment this month for his stake calling and did great! 

The weather hasn't been conducive to getting outside all that much (the roads have been sheets of ice) so we have been putting our Peloton to good use. I am super glad that we have it! Bryn wants a gym membership for Christmas and that will be a good impetus in getting us back to the gym. I like having workout options but being outside is always my number one! Adding some serious weight training to my workout this upcoming year is a MAJOR priority. I started early by adding in a peloton weights workout when I use the peloton. It feels good. I like feeling STRONGER! We did squeeze in a couple of good park walks with our clip-on spikes to handle all of the ice and snow. It felt great! I hate being cooped up in the winter.

I love that frozen pond! It reminds me of the pond in Springdell.

Bryn got Beverly to go out in the snow whenever she could. Bev is NOT a fan of snow and refuses to go outside when it is cold and snowy.

Bryn had a fantastic month of volleyball! They have a really good team. So many of her friends are on her team and it is quite enjoyable to cheer them on. They had a great winning streak going until sickness hit. At the game that Bryn missed they only had four girls able to play. The rest were all sick and they had to call up players from the JV team to fill in. Bryn had so much fun and it has been great watching her skills improve. In one particularly memorable game this month she had the winning serve that won the game!! It was SO EXCITING!! The crowd went wild and her team went nuts! It was so fun! That experience pushed her to work even harder. Her volleyball schedule though is very demanding. Much more so than any other sport that she has participated in. It took a toll. She was exhausted every night and still had to stay up super late doing homework. She said it was worth it though. I hope so.

In random news of the month...the Acura started having issues. Tyler replaced the ignition coil. He had the part and did the work himself which was nice! Election Day rolled around and we voted. A lot was riding on this election in our state. Kam called us to see if we were following the Powerball lottery. We, of course, were not. He and his roomies were all buying Powerball tickets because the amount was up to 1.9 billion. Our family all bought multiple Powerball tickets from all kinds of random places for fun. Did we win? Of course not! Still it was fun seeing on our family group chat where everyone was buying their tickets from! It also got extra exciting because there was some kind of crazy problem with the lottery and it went down for several hours due to a situation in California. We all had to go to bed not knowing if we were potential billionaires! LOL! Speaking of our family group chat...it is one of my favorite things in the world. It gets pretty lively and never fails to be amusing!

We prepped for Thanksgiving! It came and went. It was wonderful!! It will be its own post.

Reilly had another appointment with her OB/GYN. This time her blood sugar was a little elevated. Her doctor wants her to do the 3 hour blood test in a few weeks. Other than that both she and the baby are doing well. Two sets of our good friends all became grandparents this month! All of our friends that are grandparents have grandsons. It's so funny! They have gotten us SO EXCITED to be grandparents in just a few short months!!

The day after Thanksgiving break a big snowstorm hit as I mentioned above. We got 15 inches in 24 hours. Tyler came home early from work. Midtown Market closed early. Tyler brought work home from the office so that he wouldn't have to go in the next day. Schools closed and we hunkered down. We had a Costco grocery delivery scheduled for that day. I felt so bad for the person who had to deliver it. He got a big tip!! The snow was crazy!! 

November ended with planning Reilly's upcoming baby shower, designing our Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, planning fun things to do over the holidays, and counting down the days until the college kids come home for Christmas Break! AND... we have SO MUCH SNOW!!!!