Our New Year's

After Christmas I got busy doing the puzzles I received as gifts. The first one was a 500-piece nativity scene that my parents gave us. It was meant to be a family puzzle as it has 3 different sizes of pieces. Larger for the younger kids to start on one side and gradually get smaller to the other side. Well, the only help I got on that one was Alice putting in about 8 pieces at the end. I started it Christmas night while watching a movie. I got as far as doing the perimeter pieces and then stopped to watch the movie. I wasn't sure I wanted to put the puzzle together the next day because no one else seemed interested in helping in the "family" puzzle. Finally, I decided to just do it. I completed that one with a little of Alice's help at the end. 

On the next day I pulled out another puzzle, which was Santa holding the baby Jesus from the nativity set. Curtis bought that one. It was another "family" puzzle that had 3 different sizes, only these ones were bigger than the last puzzle and it was only 350 pieces. This time I was able to get the girls to help me. I had them do the largest pieces and I would do the smallest. I think we all did a little of the medium sized ones. Well, that did it! After the girls finished doing their part of that puzzle, Alice went down to the game closet and pulled out a bunch of kid puzzles for her and Charlotte to put together while I finished the small pieces on the large puzzle. They caught the puzzle bug, ha ha!

The first puzzle.

Working on the 2nd one. They did the bottom of the puzzle and parts of the middle.

The 2nd puzzle finished!

Well, New Year's Eve rolled around Curtis signed us up to be chaperones at the youth dance. Don and Glenna Gale also signed up from our ward so we decided to ride together to get dinner first and then over to the dance. They had the chaperones rotate to different rooms throughout the night. It was held at Columbia Basin Raquet Club in Richland. The first room that we were assigned to was on indoor pickleball courts. They had 3 games of 9 Square in the Air going. Neither of us had ever played it before so Curtis had some youth help him learn how to play. We only played if they needed more players. Once more kids came, then we stepped out. Our next area to watch was the food area, which also had some other games as well like corn hole. Next was locker room and hallway duty. This was the nicest locker room I have ever seen! I wish I would have gotten a picture of it. There was a long mirror and counter with multiple tall soft chairs to sit on (while doing hair or makeup). It was nice and warm in there and the showers were separated from the locker area. Our job in there was to make sure no one went through the locker rooms out to the pool area. So, we pulled up nice soft chairs and sat by the doorway that was already blocked off. Easy peasy. 

Our last area was to go to the dance floor which is in an indoor tennis court area. There was definitely plenty of space. We found some stairs that led to an upper balcony so we could look over the edge and watch the youth from up high. There were also a bunch of balloons all filled and ready to be thrown over into the crowd. We ended up doing that a little before the countdown to midnight. 

Got our picture taken before the dance started.

Us and the Gale's.

Curtis playing the 9 Square in the Air game with the youth.

Up on the balcony and you can see the countdown clock on the big screen down below (21:42 to go until midnight at that point). 

I didn't see much of Jack, but we did finally spot him dancing way in the back.

Looking out at the crowd.

Jack with some of his group. He was wearing Curtis's Australian cowboy hat.

It was a fun night. Happy New Year! 

In case you're wondering, our girls went to a friends' house to have fun and then got dropped off just before midnight, where they rang in the new year with Garrett and then waited up until we got home. We didn't get to bed until around 1:30am or so because we had to help clean up after the dance was over. Surprisingly, I was not exhausted the next day like I thought I would be. We slept in but then we just relaxed. I pulled out another puzzle that Curtis gave me and this time he helped me with it. We just watched movies and put the puzzle together. It was 1000 pieces but it was way easier to put together than the one he gave me for my birthday last year.

The finished puzzle that only took us about 6 hours to do.

Curtis and the girls wanted to go see the new Avatar movie in the theater to do something fun. The boys decided they weren't interested in that movie, so they did not come this time. It was fun to be there with the girls. The movie was okay, but I guess I'm just getting tired of the same old story of the same bad guy chasing after the main character and his family. And there's supposed to be two more of these movies. I'm not sure if I will watch those.

To finish off our New Year's week, we finally got some old pictures hung up around the house. When we were done, Jack said that this house finally feels like a home, like it did back in Nampa. I agree.

I found some wall stickers in a box of frames that were out in the garage, so I put them up on this wall with our old family pictures. Unfortunately, the stickers on the upper half did not stick well and I eventually had to take them down. I'll have to find a new sticker or vinyl to replace it, but at least our family pictures are up. The stickers said "Family is Everything" and "We may not have it all together But together we have it all". Then underneath the pictures they say, "Grateful", "Thankful" and "Blessed".

I hung our gold leafed temple picture up by the stairs (on the left). And the proclamation to the family in the hallway close to the family pictures.

Hung up several pictures in the dining room.

And Curtis bought these phone/key holder shelves so that we could have a place to put our phones while sitting at the table. I still haven't gotten around to painting the archway yet, but hopefully soon.

It was a fun, relaxing and then productive New Year's week. Here we go 2026!