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.

Christmas Week 2020

Now that we were back from the wedding it was time to get ready for Christmas. This year I decided to purchase a cat tree for the cats for Christmas, especially since we have Cocoa who is still a kitten and very active. I wasn't expecting it until between 23-29th so I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up on our door on the 21st! I was kind of taking a slow day that day and recovering from our Utah trip but by the time the package came I was kind of bored and wondering what I should do with myself. So Nikki and I built the cat tree together! Cocoa loved it and kept climbing on it while we were building it. We had to put Sage on the tree to get her to go but she got comfortable and stayed up there. It wasn't until night time that Star showed up and we tried putting her on it but she jumped right off. She didn't seem to like it as much. Good thing she's going back to Utah this weekend 😆 Funny enough, the instructions for the cat tree told us at the end of the book that we could convert the box this came in to a cat house...so we did! Nikki and I built it and Charlotte and Alice decorated it.

They seemed to like this box at first but I haven't seen them in it any more. It may be time to throw it out already.

Tuesday was Alice's real birthday and even though we had already celebrated it I still wanted her to have something she liked for breakfast and for dinner. I made her some French toast for breakfast and she said she wanted pizza for dinner. Curtis was happy because it was $10 Tuesday at Papa Murphy's so it was perfect, lol. The funny thing is, she didn't eat very much of her pizza. I'm honestly surprised she didn't ask for mac and cheese because that seems to be her favorite food right now. 

I also decided to get busy on Tuesday and bake some goodies to give to our neighbors and friends. Monday night I baked a bunch of mini loaves of white bread. Then Tuesday morning I went to the store for a few baking items and stocking stuffers. I spent the afternoon baking chocolate w/peanut butter chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies and no bake cookies. Nikki and her friend Angie made a batch of rice krispy treats for me. I knew a couple of our neighbors are gluten free so I wanted something that they could have (rice krispy treats and no bake cookies). After Curtis got home and we ate dinner we got the boys to help us put the plates together (Nikki was at work). I didn't get around to making picture cards this year so I just used extra Christmas cards from last year to go on each plate. I signed the cards while the boys built the plates.  Our last stop that night was to my friend Whitney. We didn't have enough bread for everyone to get a loaf but I wanted to make sure she got one. Funny enough, she ended up giving me some homemade jam that she made this year. It is really good. She called it raspberry jam but I think she meant strawberry because that's what it tastes like to me 😆 I also invited her to come over to my grandma's on Christmas for dinner if she didn't have anywhere to go. I was hoping she would come but she didn't. It looks like she was probably out in Emmett at the ranch she's been working at on Christmas.

Christmas Eve was fun. We invited family to our house for a potluck dinner and a game of Christmas Family Feud. It was a hit! Tamara's family, Stillman's family, Dad, Laverne and Grandma Norton all came. It was funny because Chris drove his truck separately than Tamara thinking he would leave early because he doesn't like crowds. He stayed the entire time because he was having such a good time! It's always good to know when you host a good party. Stillman said that's the best Christmas Eve party he's been to. Wow! 😁 Dad, Laverne and Grandma had to leave early around 7:00 to go celebrate Ellie's 18th birthday at Melissa's house. Everyone else ended up leaving our party around 8:30 and before they left we called Ellie and all sang happy birthday to her. We also did some gift exchanging before we played our game. 

Katie gave Alice these Minnie Mouse ears as a birthday gift.

After the party was over we cleaned up a bit and got to opening our pajama presents. It's fun to get to open a present a day early and then have new jammies to wear Christmas morning. After we all got our jammies on Curtis read The Night Before Christmas and the nativity Christmas story from Luke. Then it was time to get the girls and Jack in bed. Jack had already fallen asleep during the story reading so it was easy for him. Garrett was our Santa's Helper so he got to work helping dad bring in presents from the van. We had been hiding most of the gifts at my grandma's house and the two of them went and picked up the gifts earlier in the day when we knew we were done going anywhere. We had already wrapped them all a few weeks ago so it was bring them in and put them by the tree. Then filling the stockings.

Our silly picture

Garrett did a great job setting up the gifts, with a little help from Nikki. She had stayed up to wrap a few last minute gifts. We were in bed by 11pm.

I knew the kids were excited but man, 4 am is WAY TOO EARLY!! I woke around 4am hearing some walking around and someone trying to open our locked bedroom door, then a quiet knocking. I stayed in bed and ignored it until they stopped but then I heard more walking a little later and then meowing...by my door. Apparently, Stardust was ready to go outside around 5:15am. Since I got up to let her outside I decided to see if anyone was by the tree. Sure enough, both boys were awake in the family room by the tree. Garrett apparently was even up around 1am. I'm glad I didn't hear that one! I decided to let them play games quietly on the Switch so it would help pass time for them and keep them busy. Since I was up I knew it was going to be difficult for me to fall asleep again because I was starting to feel hungry. I didn't want any sweet cereal so I cooked myself a couple of eggs. Then I cooked one for Jack because he asked. Nikki even came out because she heard noise but as soon as she realized what time it was she went right back to bed. After I finished the eggs I went back to bed as well. Apparently after I had gone to bed again Jack woke up Charlotte and Alice. I was not happy about that. The kids came in our room a couple times after that since I didn't relock the door. They were so excited to open gifts but we kept telling them it wasn't time yet. We slowly started to get up around 7:30 I think and started with gift opening around 8am. First, Garrett passed out the gifts and we took some before pictures.

These are the family gifts.

We always start with stockings so of course those were first. Then we went around the room and each opened one present at a time. It makes it lasts longer and everyone gets to see what everyone else got. Curtis's parents showed up in the middle of our gift opening so they got to enjoying watching as well and then we opened gifts from them also. The three oldest kids received gifts from some of their friends also. Here are the after pictures.

Alice is wearing a hat that Gaya made. She made one for each of the kids.

This includes some family gifts, not just mine.

Now that Curtis has a gun it's easy to shop for him. Getting him accessories!

I'm glad my in laws were able to share part of our Christmas gift opening that morning. The shirt Nikki is wearing is a gag gift from her friend Angie. Nikki likes gag gifts.

Later we cooked up some deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, and stuffing and took them over to my grandma's to have Christmas dinner with her and Tamara's family. We didn't get there until about 3pm. Grandma cooked a roast and her garden green beans. They were so good! I can't remember everything that was brought but it was all delicious. We played some games afterwards while watching Christmas movies on the TV.  Some of the kids brought some of their Christmas presents to show. It was a fun day but man was I tired from not enough sleep! I think I better end this post for now since it's pretty long. I'll get some more later of the kids enjoying their gifts.

My Brother's Wedding

The last two weeks have been very busy as I'm sure it was for many others. Curtis and I travelled to Utah on Thursday the 17th to attend the wedding of my brother Colby to Cindy on Friday the 18th.  Originally we were going to take our whole family down to the wedding but decided it would be better to leave them at home because of Covid not allowing us to do much of anything. Nikki is nearly 17 and we felt she was ready to take on the responsibility. She too felt like she could handle it. We also had my mother in law check in on them a couple of times. Curtis and I decided to take our truck since it looked like there would be snow in southeastern Idaho and Northern Utah.  We did run into some slick roads and slush and a few semi trucks that slid off but we made it safely without trouble. I was unsure if I should be wearing my snow boots for the trip but thankfully I did because at one stop they came in handy with walking through the parking lot. 

We drove straight to our hotel and got checked in, then picked up Stillman and Michelle from their hotel and drove over to Olive Garden where the ladies went for dinner with Cindy as sort of a bachelorette party. After the party we drove Tamara to her hotel.

This is the gift that Tamara picked out that was from most of us Norton girls, including grandma. She included a little gift for Colby as well in there.

Michelle, Tamara and I were the only ones to make it from our side of the family to the restaurant. The rest were Cindy's family and friends.

                                      

Friday morning we had some extra time and went shopping to Walmart. We bought some groceries, a wedding card and some stocking stuffer items for our kids. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed and watched a movie on TV. Around 4:15 we headed over to the church where the wedding was to be held. Stillman was busy leading the car decorating group, or should I say truck? I jumped right in to help. They had decided it would be much better to decorate before the wedding when it was light out and warmer. Very smart decision!

The wedding ceremony was scheduled to start at 5pm but didn't start until about 15 or 20 min after. Thanks to Covid and technology many people were able to view it from their homes, including our daughter Nikki. It was a nice little ceremony and I'm so happy I was able to be there in person.

Colby and Cindy during the ceremony. They hope to get sealed in the temple soon.

This is how you celebrate a wedding Covid style.

Of course we had to take off masks for some pictures.

Cutting the cake. I think most people actually missed this event because many had left already and many there weren't paying attention. I was glad I was able to witness it.

They had fun smashing cake into each other's faces.

They are so cute!

Saturday we went to breakfast with Stillman, Michelle, Tamara and Katelynn after we picked them up from their hotels. Tamara was staying with grandma in a room at the same hotel as Melissa, Livvie, Dad and Laverne. They were all leaving to go home that morning but Tamara and Katelynn booked a room at our hotel for that night so that they could stay longer. Our plans were to go visit my mom that evening. After breakfast was over we drove Stillman and Michelle to the airport as they were flying home that afternoon. Since we were in Salt Lake we decided to drive by the Salt Lake Temple to view the temple renovations that are taking place. They are in the process of making the temple better to withstand earthquakes, etc. It is a 4 year project.

We just did a drive by since it's all closed up.

We decided to try going to the Planetarium but found that the only part of it open was the gift shop. So we walked around to the Gateway Mall and were trying to think of what we could do. The theater was there so we decided to see if it was open and it was! We were the only customers in there and there were only 2 employees. The movie we decided to watch was the 2nd Croods and it was pretty good. We thought we were going to have the theater to ourselves for awhile there but then a mother with a couple of kids walked in and sat way down below us. Those were the only other people who came in. However, after the show we did see a few more people coming in to watch movies. It was still pretty quiet compared to what it used to be.

Before we figured out about the theater being open we found these big teeter totters and had a little fun. 

After our fun at the mall we took Tamara and Katelynn to the hotel so they could check in to their room. They had to wait until 3pm. Then we headed out to Springville to visit our mom. We stopped at a sub sandwich shop right there in Springville and bought our mom a sandwich also. Then we drove over there to eat dinner, play Yahtzee and visit with mom. We wore our masks most of the evening to help prevent any spread of covid since aunt Karen's mom was staying there for a couple of months and she's older and has some health issues. Gilbert and Karen were downstairs but did come up to say hi and take a picture for us.  It was a great evening and I'm so glad we were able to visit. Katelynn was our winner that evening in her first ever game of Yahtzee. I say it was beginner's luck 😆 

We were all too tired when we got back to our hotel that we went straight to our rooms. Curtis and I fell asleep watching a movie. The next morning we were able to watch our ward's Sacrament meeting from our hotel room on the computer. Curtis was even able to bless the Sacrament for us. We had to use tortilla chips instead of bread because Tamara can't have gluten but it worked.  After the meeting we packed up and hit the road to go back home. On the ride home we were also able to listen/watch Tamara's ward meeting online at 11am. The weather for the ride home was much better and it was smooth sailing all the way home with some beautiful scenery.

There was snow around us as we crossed into Idaho but as you can see the roads were very clear. Thank goodness!