December was pretty magical! I love December with all of its activities, parties, and events. I like the build up to Christmas even more than Christmas itself. The month started out with more snow and more sketchy roads. It snowed all month long. It was constant. We had about three feet at our house.
Bryn's volleyball season continued. She and her team did fantastic! Volleyball ruled our lives until right before Christmas Break when her season ended. We are all looking forward to a little bit of a break between volleyball and basketball. Piano was going strong too.
Tyler only works a half day on Fridays... so one Friday, early in the month, we checked Bryn out of school and went Christmas shopping. She is a great resource (and clothes model) especially when picking out items for Ailey! Ha ha!
We attended our ward Christmas Party. It was Elf themed. It was cute and fun!
Bryn and her good friends Micah and Naomi.
Bryn and friends helping out at the kids crafts table.
We sent out our Christmas cards for 2022. We didn't get professional family pictures taken this summer so these will have to suffice. This is actually the first photo Christmas card that we have sent out in three years. Life was just too overwhelming. It made me sad because I love the whole Christmas card tradition. We sent out some here and there but they were just regular cards. This year it felt like we had a better grip on life and Christmas. This was the first year that Hunter was included. That felt momentous! LOL.
Front
Back
Speaking of being grandparents... we got a new ultrasound picture.
He will be here before we know it!
Reilly went in for her three hour blood test. They were checking her glucose levels. Her levels were completely normal. Thank goodness. No gestational diabetes.
We were madly ordering gifts online and hoping that they would get here in time. Amazon was NOT our friend this year. We were down to the wire on so many gifts. Especially the specialty ones that we needed to be shipped to us so that we could wrap them and send them out to extended family. It was a nail biter but everything got to everyone on time. Thank goodness!!
One day Tyler took a full day off of work and we busted out the last of our Christmas shopping and had our traditional Christmas brunch at Le Peep. It is festive and delicious. We had a table that looked out over the water. Gorgeous. It was nice to find a few chill moments in all of the holiday hubbub.
It was so cold and snowy that Beverly needed one of her Christmas gifts early. She was refusing to go outside in the massive amounts of snow. She needed a snowsuit ASAP. We got her this pink one. She loves it as we knew she would. Now she needs some little booties. She is totally THAT dog. She hates the cold and I don't blame her.
This is such a true statement!! Forget Santa... I was counting down the days and minutes until the kids got home!!
The college kids were busy studying for and taking finals. Kameron got called and set-apart to be the Elders Quorum President in his BYU-I ward. He was a bit overwhelmed but he will do a fantastic job! The kids realized that they would finish finals a week earlier than anticipated. We were able to change Ailey's plane ticket and move it up a week. Kameron had committed to working that week so we weren't able to move his ticket up. :(
He also had a terrible experience happen his first week of being the Elders Quorum President. A girl in his ward commit suicide. She also lived in the same apartment complex that our kids live in. Neither of them knew her. Kam's bishop told Kameron to be on call in case he was needed to help with anything. It was shocking and terrible and heartbreaking. In the end, Kameron wasn't asked to be involved in anything, but it was so incredibly horrible for all the kids and I cannot even fathom how devastating it was for her family.
In other sad and horrible news, my friend Carrie's husband passed away. He was diagnosed with brain cancer and given very slim chances of recovering. He fought hard for 18 months. 15 months longer than his doctors expected. Still. My heart is wrecked for my friend and college roommate. I remember when Carrie met Dave. Tyler and I had just started dating when they got married. Our first road trip was to their wedding reception in Colorado. It is just so unfair and sad. Dave and Carrie have been such a bright light through everything. They are an inspiration to all who know them. Tiffany (my other BYU bestie) and I were just devastated. I was able to attend Dave's funeral via Zoom. What a beautiful and spiritual event. All four of their sons spoke and I was so inspired to be a better person. Carrie and Dave have created an incredible family and his legacy will be felt for generations.
The snow continued to fall day after day. I tried to get outside and into nature whenever the weather allowed which wasn't all that often. The peloton came in handy this month. Did you know that they have holiday rides? You can ride to Christmas music!! Those rides were my FAVORITE! But when the weather wasn't too horrible we put on our spikes and headed out to breath in the fresh air and smell the pine trees.
It felt so good to be outside!
I officially applied to BYU. I had to get an ecclesiastical endorsement from my bishop which I did. I still need one from the Stake President. I am going to schedule that for after the holidays. The ball is officially rolling!
This month was Temple and Priesthood Preparation season. I went to multiple TPP nights for various wards. Bryn and Ailey both attended the temple. Bryn here in Spokane and Ailey in Rexburg. (Ailey is praying about and trying to decide if she should go on a mission.) In other temple news... my father after 44 years of church inactivity and two years of full activity...received his temple recommend this month and attended the temple for the first time in probably 48 years. Life is crazy.
Ailey flew home on December 12th and we were SO EXCITED to see her!! It was so nice to have her home. She got home in time to attend a bunch of events which was just perfect!
She got to watch volleyball games!
She got to come to Bryn's Winter Orchestra Concert!
Bryn did a great job! I love listening to her play the cello!
Bryn had Spirit Week the last week of school before Christmas Break. Here are a few of her memorable outfits.
Tourist Day
"Anything but a backpack" day.
Pajama Day!
Bryn's Santa hat was one of the first things unpacked out of our Christmas boxes and she put it to good use all month long. She loves it!!
Bryn had her end of the season volleyball tournament and Ailey and Reilly were both there to cheer her on with me and Tyler. Bryn's coach told her that she really wants Bryn to play volleyball in high school next year. (She is the girls HS volleyball coach too.) This presents a real quandary for Bryn as both the XC season and volleyball season are at the same time. After the tournament we went out for Thai food to celebrate! It was fun to have all of our girls with us! Poor Kam was still slogging away at the Rexburg Walmart for another week.
It was fun to have some one-on-one time with Ailey while Tyler was at work and Bryn was at school. She and I did a bunch of shopping for Christmas and Reilly's baby shower. We went out to lunch, ran errands, and did drink runs. She is hilarious and always fun to hang out with!
Bryn attended the high school Winter Concert. This was the first year in 12 years that we didn't go to watch a Johnson kid play an instrument or sing. We weren't too sad about it. ;) We'll be back next year! LOL.
Tyler and I attended our stake's musical Christmas fireside. It was fantastic! We've been missing out by not going each year. We haven't gone before because, frankly, it sounded boring. This year we had to go because Tyler is over this kind of stuff in his stake calling and it turned out to be really good!
My Mom's birthday came around. She would be 74 this year. My mom was a huge Beatles fan and Bryn learned to play Eleanor Rigby on the piano for her birthday. That night Tyler and I went to Coeur d' Alene with Ailey and Bryn to celebrate her memory and do things that she liked to do. We went to the resort and had dinner.
We walked around the boardwalk and looked at all of the lights.
It was incredibly beautiful and that night was one of my very favorites.
We did a lot of Christmas shopping with these two...
This month another car decided to act up. Our suburban broke down and we had to get it towed to the mechanic. It was the water pump. In another Christmas miracle we got it repaired the same day we brought it in. We've never had that happen before!
Bryn got her ears double pierced. She had been begging to get it done and wanted to wait until Ailey got home so she could go with her.
It looks really cute! I put my second earrings back in and am loving it. I got a second piercing in one ear in 8th grade (Bryn's age) and a second piercing in the other ear my junior year of high school. I took both earrings out about 20 years ago or whenever it was that President Hinckley asked us to only have one piercing. I was surprised that both holes hadn't closed up. I'm glad that things have changed yet again and my earrings are back in and looking good!
Kameron flew home on the 17th and we were SO GLAD to see him and have him home!! Woohoo! Kameron was home for Christmas after two long years!!
I loved having the kids attend church with us while they were home for Christmas. Especially since some Sundays it is just me and Bryn and some Sundays it is just Bryn there by herself. I loved having a MUCH fuller bench!!
Kam's first Sunday home our bishop asked him to speak on New Years Day. Ha ha! Poor sucker.
Reilly had her baby shower. It was co-ed. It was great to have all the guys there too. It was held at Hunter's aunt and uncle's house out on the farm. It was really nice! It was great to meet so many of Hunter's extended family. Reilly and Hunter were showered with a lot of love and support from family and friends!
Ailey made the cutest charcuterie boards for the shower!
It was a great celebration for the cute new family!
One fun thing that Reilly had people do at her shower was write down their favorite family traditions. This was so interesting! They didn't have to be holiday traditions either. It was really neat to read all of the advice that everyone gave them AND their favorite traditions. It was perfect for a new little family just starting out.
The day after Reilly's baby shower... Ailey got her wisdom teeth removed. Our friend Dave was her oral surgeon and my good friend Shannon was the surgical assistant. Shannon was sending me the most hilarious videos. Suffice it to say... take all of the crazy videos of kids after their wisdom teeth removal that you have ever seen...times it by a million...and you have Ailey. Even Shannon and Dave said that Ailey was a 10 in hilarity!
Tyler took her to her procedure. Thank goodness for that! She would have been impossible for me to control afterward. She was C.R.A.Z.Y!! Hysterical crying and f-bombing and then dancing and then crying that she didn't ever want to be homeless because it was so cold and then dancing and then more crying. The videos that we have are gems. She greeted me and Bryn... as she about fell out of the car... with "What up FUCKERS!" So...there's a taste of what she was like! LOL.
Finally she fell asleep! We were exhausted.
Her recuperation after that wasn't too bad. She had hardly any swelling. She did pretty well despite being a raging psycho on the meds. Ha ha!
During all of this... an Arctic cold front moved in with temps in the negatives and blizzard after blizzard! Kameron felt like he was in Minnesota again! I had to skip two vendor nights due to garbage roads. The weather was good for being cozy at home with lots of holiday baking, Christmas movie nights, and family dinners. Reilly came over almost every night while the kids were here. I DELIGHT in seeing everyone sitting at their usual places around our table. I loved our dinner conversations. As my mom always said..."simple pleasures."
We celebrated the Winter Solstice (Bring back the light and longer days!) by driving around looking at Christmas lights. The girls and I were in full pajamas and had our blankets. I have a heated blanket that plugs into the cigarette lighter that is so cozy! We had the Christmas tunes blasting. We made a brief stop at Maverick for hot chocolate which Ailey had been raving about. Apparently it is a Rexburg delicacy! It is very thick and rich. It was much needed as the temp on this particular night was -4.
Tyler, Bryn, and Kam getting the goods!
Bryn had our route mapped out and we were ready to roll!
Proof to Reilly that I really was wearing pajamas and had no make up on except for red lipstick because...#christmas
We drove around for several hours and ended at Cowley Park. I love the creek that runs through it. The kids were little scrooges and wouldn't get out of the car. I believe the temps were close to -6 by this point. Thank goodness for Tyler! We got out and took a chilly yet festive stroll by ourselves.
With everyone home the Christmas baking was in full swing. Everyone pitched in and helped. If you weren't on baking duty you were on dinner duty.
Ailey made my mom's famous sugar cookies. This is now Ailey's thing. Dare I say it... Ailey's are even better than my mom's!
Tyler and Bryn made Tyler's famous Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. I love a man who bakes AND can rock my pink apron! I made my lemon cookies. Kam made dinner. Ailey also made her homemade brownies and Bryn made chex mix. I love it when I can pass off my recipes to the kids and it becomes their "thing" and the student becomes the master! Kameron helped me make up all of my cookie plates and then Tyler and Bryn delivered them.
On one of the nights that I actually made it in to vendor night...the family came along. They helped me lug things in and waited while I spruced up my booth. Then we went to dinner at Capone's. The night was so beautiful and Coeur d' Alene looked like a town from a Hallmark Christmas movie. Kameron hadn't been to CDA since the summer so we had to go walk around a bit and see the sights.
After walking around we decided that we needed some dessert so we went to Tito's and ordered three of their desserts to split. They were all amazing!
Another night we went downtown to look at the lights and to see the vintage Christmas windows at the Davenport Grand. It was so snowy and Spokane looked like the inside of a snow globe.
We also let the college kids each pick a restaurant that they wanted to eat at over Christmas Break. Ailey picked PF Changs so we had dinner there while we were downtown. (Kam picked Republic Pi. We ate there the day he arrived.)
We had so many fun events leading up to Christmas: gathering with friends, Bryn's team breakfast, various Christmas parties, Book Club Christmas, Light the World, and gatherings that we were invited to but that we had so much going on that we weren't able to attend. So many friends stopped by. We had friends come over and we played a fun new game with them. It felt like Christmases pre-COVID. It was so nice! So many laughs and late night talks. It was just so enjoyable to have the kids home from college and Kameron back from his mission!!
The days flew by and suddenly it was Christmas Eve.
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