Holidays 2023 - Thanksgiving Through NYE

Another holiday season has come and gone, and now I can finally sit here and reflect on all of the wonderful memories that were made. A (not so short) recap:

Thanksgiving:

• I tested positive for Covid the Monday before Thanksgiving. By the time I tested, I felt good. I had been sick the weekend prior but was on the other side. Regardless, we did not get together with Tommy's parents for Thanksgiving, as we did not want to get them sick. However, several of our friends, who we had been with the weekend prior to Thanksgiving when I would have been most contagious, came over on Thanksgiving morning for a lite breakfast: Elise and Ryan, Casey and Sean, Kristin and Sean. Tommy cooked a sausage and hash brown casserole and a french toast casserole. We drank mimosas and had a great time. 
• The Bligh five took a walk on a chilly but beautifully sunny day and played basketball and soccer in the neighborhood.
• Elaine dropped off a full Thanksgiving feast for us. The five of us sat down and had a quiet, but lovely, dinner in our dining room, followed by a movie upstairs. 

This picture captures it all: Tommy, kids, dog, a basketball and a soccer ball!

A small Thanksgiving dinner

Holiday Craziness:

• The weeks leading up to Christmas are always chaotic. While I love the holidays, I do not have a lot of time to breath. Between decorating, Christmas cards, shopping, wrapping, baking, teacher/coach gifts, etc, I am pooped! Every year, I aim to be more organized and have the silly things like gift cards for the garbage men, teachers, coaches, etc. all finished early in the season, I always end up working on a JIT "Just In Time" schedule. Every day, I have to think to myself, "Which gifts need to be ready by today or tomorrow?" so that I can get them put together. 
• In past years, I used to come up with something special to do with the kids every day leading up to Christmas. I would put little notes in our felt advent calendar, so each day when the kids would add an angel or an animal to our calendar, they would also pull out a piece of paper with the day's activity. Examples include writing letters to Santa, watching Charlie Brown Christmas, making ornaments for grandparents, etc. It was a sad realization this year that my kids are over that. They do not want to do those "little kid" things anymore. In fact, one night, when we went out for pizza and came home to watch a Christmas movie, the group consensus was "Die Hard 2." That is NOT the Christmas movie!
• Tommy and I enjoyed attending a couple of Christmas parties. We went to the Vickers' annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party one weekend and the Cousins' prime rib dinner party another weekend. 
• We met Alexa and Ethan at Snowflake Lane one Sunday evening and then went out for Thai food.

Ugly Sweater Party

Snowflake Lane with Alexa & Ethan

Holiday Happy Hour with neighbors

Prime Rib at the Cousins' House

Our Dear Friends

Arizona:

• The week before Christmas, we flew to Arizona to visit Mimi and Baba, Ryan and Brandi. We even brought the dog! Taylor had to fly down a few days late due to drill team practices, but at least she made an appearance.
• The boys did a couple of cold plunges into Mimi's pool. I took them bowling one afternoon and Tommy and I took them miniature golfing another afternoon.
• My mom hosted Sally Kerchner and Jerry Davis for dinner one night. Brandi and Ryan had the boys over to their house. The boys had an absolute blast, but I think B&R were a bit overwhelmed!
• We went to CCV's Christmas Eve service on 12/21. It was absolutely amazing! We came back to Mimi and Baba's for dinner and opened Christmas gifts.
• The night before we left, we went to Cave Creek for a BBQ dinner and a rodeo. Unfortunately, it was raining really hard, so we opted not to stay for the rodeo. Next time! We returned home and played euchre with Uncle Rye, who is always entertaining!
• Our return flight was at 7:00 AM on 12/23, so it was an early morning for our family. It was a nice visit with my family, and we are already planning the next one. It is just too hard for my sweet dad to travel anymore.

Annie's bag strap broke upon arrival at SEA, so we had to get creative with her at the airport.

Baseball in the streets of AZ

Baba and his grandsons

Mini golf

Ping pong and corn hole

A well-deserved beer

Round 2 of mini golf

The bathing beauty arrived just in time for one day of sunshine!

Christmas service at CCV

Gifts with family

Cookies with Mimi - a tradition!

Brayden created this manger cookie.

Dinner at Buffalo Chip Saloon

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

• We were back in Seattle from 12/23 - 12/26. Highlights include one last dinner at Riccardo's before it closed it's doors on 12/23. We meet Elise, Ryan, Angela and Gianna there and enjoyed some margaritas. 
• I wrapped 24 presents on Christmas Eve morning. So much for being organized. Tommy prepped Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning breakfast.
• Tyson came over to see Taylor for an hour or so. 
• We stopped by Crossroads Mall on our way to church for our annual Santa picture.
• We went to BelPres for the 3:00 Christmas Eve service. This was the first year we've sat in the modern worship room for the service; it was not my favorite. I prefer being in the big sanctuary. It did not feel the same and also did not help that we had just been to an amazing service a few days prior at CCV.
• After church, we came home and started working on dinner. Elaine, Tom, Kristen, Brian and their girls arrived around 5:30. Tommy made amazing filets on our Green Egg; I made Mistletoe Margaritas for the adults.
• After dinner, I gave Christmas pajamas to the Bligh crew. The girls turned wild and everyone left around 9:30.
• Brayden got cookies, carrots and milk ready for Santa. Is this his last year believing? Probably. :( 
• We put Brayden to bed (because Santa is coming!) and the rest of us watched "The Family Stone."
• On Christmas morning, the kids slept late! Boy, have our Christmas mornings changed! We finally woke them up around 9:30. We opened gifts and ate and had a really nice morning. Much to my surprise, Matty was not ungrateful! However, Brayden was pissed when he opened one of Santa's gifts, which was a ladder for our trampoline in the backyard. He eventually bounced out of it, but I long for the day when all three kids are happy on Christmas morning.
• Taylor got clothes, clothes and more clothes. Matty got clothes, Nikes, and a cooling blanket for his bed. Brayden got a "smart" soccer ball, Nintendo switch accessories, and a gold chain for his cross pendant. Tommy got a walking pad for his office. I received new cooking pans, a purse, and my most treasured gift: a book-bound print out of this blog!
• We cleaned up and headed over to the Bligh's for Christmas dinner. We exchanged gifts with Kris, Bri, the girls, Grandma and Pop Pop and had ham for dinner. We headed home around 9:00 because we had a big day the following day.

This was the sunrise on Christmas Eve

Obligatory 2023 Santa Picture

Candle light Christmas Eve service

We saw the Finholms at church!

The blessing!

Ready for Santa

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

A lazy Christmas morning...

Family FaceTime!

Idaho:

• The morning of 12/26, we packed up both of our cars and headed to Schweizter Mountain in Idaho for the week. I love how I can summarize the massive packing job and feat it was to pack both cars into one sentence. We packed skis, ski boots, jackets, snow pants, poles, helmets suitcases, a cooler, bags and bags of groceries, iPads, a dog, and 11 people into the Volvo and Suburban. 
• As Tommy and I were putting skis into our ski rack, Elaine called to tell us that Brian had Covid. Oh boy. We stopped our packing and came inside to discuss what we would do. The reality is that we had all been with Brian the previous two days, probably when he was most contagious. Everyone in my immediate family, except Brayden, had had Covid in the past 3 months. So, after much angst, we encouraged Brian to come with us. He and his family rode in the Volvo with me since I was the least exposed having just had Covid. Tom, Elaine and Brayden were with Tommy and Tay and Matty in the Suburban.
• We arrived at our townhome in Schweitzer after a long day of driving (it is a 5:05 hour drive but it took us much longer) by Tuesday evening.
• Our plan was to ski Wednesday - Friday. Sadly, there was NO SNOW. Of the 92 runs on the mountain, only 21 of them were open. And even then, several of the runs had exposed rocks and bushes which made it very dangerous to ski. 
• The little girls were in ski school all three days from 9:00 - 4:00, so Bri and Kris skied as much as they could. I called it quits after Thursday morning and sat by the fire pit with a drink on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, the last day, Tommy and Brayden skied in the morning. Taylor and Matty played cards in the lodge with Grandma and Pop Pop. Emery and Josie made a ton of progress and Brayden loved skiing with them at the end of the day. 
• We ate dinner at the townhome every night and watched movies (The Greatest Showman and Oppenheimer) and played games (Code Names and Telestrations).
• We loaded the family trucksters again on Saturday morning and made the pilgrimage back to Seattle. I cannot tell you how happy I was to get home. It was a hectic few weeks,but great memories were made.

Cutest ski bum I have ever seen.

Lunch by the fire pit

Cards in the lodge

Dinner time!

A not-so-serious game of Telestrations

The Bligh Family!

New Year's Eve:

• Like most years, we did not have big plans for NYE. Tommy spent the day at the Seahawks game with his brother. I spent the day doing a million loads of laundry, going to Pilates, and mentally preparing for a new year.
• NYE afternoon, Tyson came over to see Taylor for a few hours. I drove Tyson home on my way to take Taylor to a friend's house for a sleepover.
• Tommy, the boys and I went to Bill Boone's house for a drink, which ended up being an entire night. Unplanned, we left the boys (who were happily playing together with a group of other boys - Will, Casey, Danny, Blake, Mersam, Quinn, Max) and headed to the Snoqualmie Casino because our friend Rob had VIP tickets to a party. It was a hoot! We danced and danced and then rang in 2024 eating pizza at the snack bar. 

Look at that pack of boys! 

Our NYE crew!

My hope and prayer for 2024 is to cherish time with my family. The kids are growing too fast. Time is slipping through my fingers, and I want to make amazing and meaningful memories with this precious family of mine.