After Christmas

The last couple weeks have been so busy with enjoying Christmas break, New Year's, and getting kids back to school. For today I will share pictures and stories from after Christmas up to New Year's weekend.

Nikki's wearing her hotdog shirt from her friend Angie and the upside down goggles that came in a game she bought for the family. Funny thing is, we haven't actually played the game yet. The kids and Curtis just like trying to walk around or do things with the goggles on.

Garrett got a video game that teaches him how to play songs on his electric guitar. You actually have to plug in the guitar to the game system. 

The girls both got karaoke microphones and Charlotte got pink walkie talkies.

Garrett's friend Austin gave him this cookie baking kit. It came with a mix and a pan. So of course he baked it and ate it up!

I gave Twister to Jack as my secret Santa gift.

Alice got this princess tent with lights.

Having a little reading time in the new tent before bed.

Charlotte zooms around everywhere in the house on her new hoverboard. She's great at giving others turns on it though. Alice rides it too but I only let her do it on her knees for right now. Charlotte does both feet and knees but I find her on her knees most of the time. Unfortunately she spun circles so hard in our front room it left black marks. That's something we never had a problem with when Nikki had hers two years ago. I can't wait to get hard floors in that room....some day.

                                                

Curtis and I got out and took a walk on the dam. It was pretty cold. Later that same day we went shooting with his sister Jeanie and her husband and our niece with her husband. He was able to shoot his new shotgun for the first time.

The Monday after Christmas the kids and I all went in for our teeth cleanings and check ups. This was Alice's first time getting her teeth cleaned. She did great! And nobody had cavities this time!

Wednesday the 30th we went to Christmas in Color out in Garden City. It's a light show that you drive through. We met Tamara and her family at DQ in Boise where most of our kids climbed in the back of the truck so they could see the light show better.  It was right across the street so we didn't drive far. They had music that we could tune into on a certain radio station to listen to while driving through and it was synced with their light show.  This is the first time we've ever done this light show and it was fun! After we got the kids back in the truck and warmed up, our family decided to stop by Freddy's and get some frozen custard on the way home. Jack got Sprite since he can't have dairy. We love their frozen custard!

This is the line we had to wait in before going through the light show. The green wall had an opening for us to drive through. They would take one line of cars at a time.

Alice fell asleep on the way over and we couldn't get her to wake up for any of the light show.

On New Year's Eve some of us met up at the Majestic movie theater in Meridian. My dad went and bought a group of tickets so we could all sit close together. They had a limit of 20 people though. The movie was Wonder Woman '84 and since Jack didn't want to see it he stayed home to babysit the girls while Nikki, Garrett, Curtis and I went to the show. We met my parents, grandma, Tamara's family and Stillman's family there.  It was a good movie but definitely not as good as the first one. After the movie we went home to bake some artisan bread. Then we took that bread over to grandma's house and ate it with our soup dinner and played games. We packed up and went home around 10pm. I really didn't want to stay up for the New Year's but the kids did. Curtis and I were both tired. We let Nikki go hang out at Logan's house after he got off work at 11pm so that they could kind of celebrate the New Year together. Curtis and I decided to try and sleep until Nikki called for a ride home but I ended up getting up right at midnight and telling the other kids to go to bed. Then Curtis picked Nikki up around 12:30.  Needless to say, we slept in as long as we could. I honestly don't really remember what we actually did on New Year's Day. I think we just hung out and kids played with their Christmas stuff, etc. We also had to trap Stardust inside because my brother Colby was coming to get her the next day and we wanted to make sure she would be here. Some days she stayed away longer than others.

Stardust was fine staying inside all that day and even through the night but then the next morning she did a lot of meowing and walking to the sliding door because she wanted out. After awhile I think she got the hint and just went and hid under our bed. Because Colby and Cindy got in to town late Friday night my dad planned a breakfast get together at my grandma's house Saturday morning. I dropped off Nikki to work a little before 10am and then headed straight over and everyone was still waking up and we didn't start eating until about 10:30. After eating some yummy waffles and bacon we decided we should play a game since Colby, Cindy and his boys were traveling back home in the afternoon. We played Apples to Apples and then Uno I think. We stayed until about 2 or 2:30 and then went home to go get Stardust ready for Colby's family to take with them. We thought they'd be right behind us but it took them awhile to come over. They spent a little time visiting after they got here. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Nephi's reaction to seeing Stardust when they first came over. He was so happy to see her and just held her for awhile and was loving her. It was great. Both boys were so happy to see her. They left our house at about 3:45 to head home. I only remember that because it was right before I had to go pick Nikki up from work. We'll miss her except for when she clawed the carpet in our bedroom and Nikki's because she wanted out and didn't use her voice instead. I also won't miss all of the dead animals she brought home and Sage eating them sometimes. Yuck! I kept her from eating them when I could. I'm sure we'll get them again though when we start letting Cocoa out. Oh well.

Cindy got a nicer picture of the boys before I came over and took a picture then Nephi gives me a silly grin.

While waiting for Colby to come we took some last pictures with Stardust.

Sadly, she is probably thrilled to get away from these two girls. They were always picking her up and she would try to get away from them. 😂

Even Curtis gave her some last loves. Nikki was at work so I wasn't able to get one with her and the boys were busy.

Stardust has now been home with Colby for a week and Colby has reported that she is doing well and it seems like she might even remember them. Yay! I'm so glad that we watched her for them and that the boys get to have their cat back. And maybe we'll get to see her when we visit some time.