Christmas and New Year's Break - Two Weeks

Saturday there was movie watching, game playing, family time, grocery shopping, and cooking.

Sunday there was church, then graham cracker house making, and pizza roll baking.

Monday there was graham cracker house eating and play and final shopping for fresh sub buns and deli meats for Christmas. My husband had to work today, which is unusual, and it was a long day driving a truck through the holiday traffic to make deliveries. He got home not long before his 8pm bedtime (to get back up for work at 2:30am as usual). We were surprised by a sweet treat of mini cupcakes from a family at church this evening as well.

Tuesday we finally got Makayla in to see a GI specialist. She's been waiting for months for this. They doubled the acid reflux medication she is on and scheduled a sedated scope and biopsy of her esophagus and stomach for right before she flies back to college.

Once Daddy got home from work we had dinner, then read Luke 2 for our advent countdown. The kids were excited for bed time - and so were Mommy and Daddy.

Christmas Day was family, family, family. We opened gifts in the morning. It is so fun to see the kids take turns one by one opening a gift. Everyone watches. Everyone enjoys. Then the next person opens a gift. As a side note, even when we just do 3 or 4 gifts, there is a big pile under the tree with a family of 12. All the wrapping...sigh. For several hours after opening gifts everyone just relaxed, played, and enjoyed cinnamon rolls. In the afternoon we headed to my sister's house for a late lunch and fun. Then it was home for quiet family time again, and some video chatting with a grandma in another state.

Thursday my husband was off work (the first time they've given drivers that day off in years and years). We made good use of the day to take out groups of kids with their Christmas money from some grandparents to shop, I picked up prescriptions, etc. Makayla and Emma got picked up early in the afternoon to go to the Transiberian Orchestra Christmas concert with cousins, an uncle, and grandparents (my mom got 8 free tickets through her work - phew!). The rest of us at home played with the fun new gifts in the house, including Monopoly Cheater's Edition. We took down the Christmas tree and decorations. We also did some cleaning out of bins in the boys' bedrooms and a solid vacuuming. Then my husband went to bed at 7pm for an earlier than usual wake up time for work.

Friday disappeared into the void that is the week between Christmas and New Years. Hubby was working. Saturday also disappeared. Sunday was a wonderful day of church. Monday was another holiday work schedule for hubby. We did some game playing and organizing around the house. Tuesday evening we got to go to dear friends for dinner and visiting.

Wednesday was the first day of the 2020. It was a crazy day with a cranky toddler and a teen who developed a sudden high fever.

If I were to choose a 'word of the year' in 2020 it would be "Simplify". That is the idea on my mind and heart for so many areas of life right now. I'll share a few examples:

• My health and wellness goals this year are simple: Do the diastasis recti and pelvic floor exercise program I have (thank you 14 pregnancies and 10 babies, you left me with some crazy muscle separations and issues), and cook with more whole foods (leaving less room for processed foods). 
• Our family scripture study plan is simple: Read the Book of Mormon every day using the Come, Follow Me schedule. Look at the church magazines we already receive each month for articles and activity ideas to go along with each week's readings. They're already marked in the magazines. 
• My personal reading plan is simple: Read. Ok, so this is an easy one. I read between 125-175 books a year, not counting picture books I read to my younger kids. 

Thursday was a mix of running (bank, grocery stores, post office, haircut for 1, another store, doughnut shop with a gift card to get doughnuts for dinner), organizing, and updating the budget. We did finally gather all the board and card games we own into one room of the house. That led us to Friday.

Our game collection

On Friday we tackled the stacks of games. Our goals were to catalogue all our games and sort them into labeled boxes/bins for storage in the attic. The catalogue became the master list, telling which games were in each box. Now we can find the games we want easily, and rotate in and out games from our dining room shelf. We have 115 games and plan to play every single one at least once this year, but most likely more.

It is now Friday afternoon. Some of the kids are watching the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, some are playing with Legos, and one is napping.

Makayla just got two fun emails from her college. She is on the Provost's List (like the Dean's List) because she has a college GPA of greater than 3.5. She is also on the President's List because her GPA is in the top 10% of students at the college - she has a 4.0.

Yes, an always homeschooled child can thrive in college. She laughed at me as I got teary, but it feels amazing to finally see some big fruit from more than a decade of homeschooling work. Knowing I didn't totally fail as a teacher is reassuring.

Now I'm going to work on school preparations for the rest of the kids, because we start back to the books on Monday!