Christmas Adventures 2025

Merry Christmas! Merry, merry Christmas. We enjoyed a lovely week as a family.  I spent Monday morning doing the grocery shopping. There was enough time to spare for a quick trip to Desert Book. Phillip wanted some new ties and a specific tie bar. We found some ties and a different tie bar! Hooray. Amelia and I headed to Nampa Smiles for her wisdom tooth extraction at 2 pm. As the anesthesiologist administered the medication we were talking about the mouse in her apartment. Her surgery only lasted 15 minutes at most, I was hoping for at least 30 minutes to read my book. She was really weepy! On the drive home she started crying because Cotton-eyed Joe was dead, because she wanted freckles like Clare, didn’t know why she was crying, and cried because she couldn’t remember how she got in the van. I videoed the entire drive home. Later, Everett asked her if she was a potato, she started crying because she was NOT a potato. Amelia rested on the couch for a couple days, by Christmas Eve she was almost back to her normal self. 

On Christmas Adam we played another round of Carcassonne, I stole the game with a massive city. Somehow Amelia came in second even though she was drugged up. She also painted and assembled a gingerbread house while under narcotics. Impressive. The Nelves left us some gingerbread kits. The boys had a cheeze-it house to assemble. What did they do? Glued the walls together then squeezed all the frosting into the middle, dumped sprinkles and crackers into the mess and called the deed done. No more, those two are canceled. Evelyn and Josie gave up after trying their best. I spent a good portion of the afternoon wrapping gifts and running a few errands to get last moment items. I finished 95% of the wrapping by 10 pm on Christmas Adam. Amelia put on White Christmas, only the best holiday movie ever. 

Christmas Eve was cookie baking day. I made the best batches of cherry shortbread cookies. Sigh, so delicious. This year instead of gingerbread cookies I made snickerdoodle cookies for Justin. Those were coming hot out of the oven after dinner. I wrapped the last vestiges of gifts after lunch was over. Justin assembled a cheese and cracker luncheon for everyone. He ran two very important errands with Phillip in the morning. Christmas Eve dinner was nothing short of delicious. I love the idea of Courtenay’s Jerusalem dinner, but clam chowder. Mmmm. Josie was gushing over the sourdough bread bowls, interesting! She loves sourdough now. I made some chicken noodle soup for the heathens who despise clam chowder. Evelyn and Josie gathered the costumes for our nativity. The dogs did not want to be sheep or shepherds, the little dingle bats. Eve was frozen to the spot with a sheep hood shoved on her head! Justin read from Luke 2, we sang some Primary songs in-between the different scenes of the story. It sounds nice, but can’t forget the bickering and chasing after dogs who did not want to participate. The Nelves came right on time, just as we finished the last song. Frozen chocolate and PJs straight from the North Pole. Somehow the kids got perfect PJs, short sets for Amelia and Evelyn, flannel for Everett, fuzzy for Phillip, and soft and warm for Josie. We cleaned up while Josie decorated some cookies for Rudolph and Santa with 2 inches of frosting and sprinkles. Evelyn got to stay up and help set out the gifts under the tree this year. She was very excited to help. I stayed with Josie for a while and read her a couple of books. Amelia took over because she was tired and done helping. We got all the fun stuff ready just in time for Santa to visit. I took an hour after everyone was asleep to finish the “Mom Touches.” 

Santa CAME! He came! Stockings rested against our doors stuffed with treats and little doodads. Josie had a sparkle in her eye, knowing that Santa delivered the gift of her heart, hoping at least her wish came true. Justin found a singular wrapped peanut M&M in his stocking. Apparently, Evelyn asked Santa to give Justin one peanut M&M, ha ha. Everett found a yam stuffed in the toe of his stocking. The yodeling pickle, yes! I went downstairs first to take a gander at what Santa left. Oh my! It was magical. The kids came tumbling down the stairs to see the magic. Josie couldn’t believe there were two tins of bouncy balls (100 total), a unicorn gun, smiling cow cheese, and drumroll: COOKIE the Pony. Santa delivered a miracle. She got the pony that Lucy has, it is a very special character to Josie. I hoped with my heart that she would get Cookie. Evelyn got an Echo dot, Everett the Giza Pyramid Lego, Phillip bagels and the ugliest Fuggly ever, and lastly Amelia got Doc Martens for her mission shoes. What followed was a fury of paper and boxes. Yay. We also found a box of doughnuts that Josie requested for breakfast to accompany the bagels. I took a much shorter nap than last year, I felt so guilty last year sleeping for 4 hours. I helped Josie assemble her horse barn and carriage. We tried out new gadgets and spent the day here and there. The dogs took us on a run around the block. I made rice, beans, and green sauce for our Christmas chilaquiles dinner. Justin rallied the kids to make the chips and eggs. Yum. Everett tried his best to assemble the 3-d printer, he kept getting called away to clean or do something. We actually got most of the Christmas chaos cleaned up before the day ended. 

Friday we had another day of lounging about. We played games, worked on Legos, tried out Evelyn’s curling iron, and later worked on getting the 3-d printer to work. That was an exercise in patience. Everett skipped a couple very important steps (like connecting the wires and installing the motor correctly). The kids were so excited to print something they opened 6 spools of filament. The filament is supposed to be kept airtight until it is used. Phillip ripped off a sensor from one of the spools because he didn’t know what it was for. Justin joined the chaos making the situation volatile. I took a break before I said unkind words. Phew. In the end I got the printer assembled properly and working. Justin found a pattern for Roz the Wild Robot. We got the printer working! No one died. Amelia took the kids out for a side quest. The side quest included a trip to Winco where everyone got their own liter of soda and then to Sonic for a treat. Thank you Amelia! 

Saturday we went on a main quest as a family. The quest was a day trip to Kirkham Hot Springs. The drive up was pretty with a skiff of snow falling. There was no snow at all on the ground, it was dry and not very cold. There was some snow once we got past 3,500 feet. The hot springs were crowded. We had to hike to the end of the area to find a pool with some space. The one empty pool was a scalding 150 degrees, too hot for soaking. Eventually, we claimed a pool with a nice view of the river and canyon. After 45 minutes we had the pool to ourselves. The far side of the pool was warm but the side next to the source was hot, the rocks on the bottom were extremely hot. Your buns would literally burn! Amelia and Everett claimed a smaller hot springs pool a bit above the larger pool. It started snowing a few times with large snowballs instead of flakes. Amelia, Evelyn, and I made our way back to van before the rest so we would have a moment to get dressed. I whale flopped on a slippery rock, the ladies right below me looked startled as I quite ungracefully slipped onto my chest. The only damage was my pristine pride, good thing I don’t care. I uttered a merry, cheerio, and went on my way. Dang slippery rocks! The less treacherous route was covered with other folks waiting to soak in the boiling water. I was getting changed when I rejoiced that, “hooray, no one got injured this trip!” I spoke too soon. Justin came walking up with his hand cradled against his chest, blood oozing from his hand. He was collecting discarded beer cans to properly dispose of the trash, slipped, and the can in one hand sliced open a wound between his pinky and 4th finger. I took one look, saw muscle and fat and knew it was a stitches situation. Our main quest now included a side quest to the instacare in Eagle. He kept the fingers wedged together so bleeding was minimal. The Wingfeather Saga played to distract him from overthinking about the injury. The 2 hour drive down seemed much longer than it should’ve taken. I dropped him off and took the kids in search for FOOOOOOD. Evelyn started whining about hunger 20 minutes after we arrived to the hot springs. The older kids took bets on how long it would take for her to start complaining of hunger. They quickly won the bet, that was actually a no-brainer bet. The kids wanted to try the newly opened Raising Canes in Meridian. We made it before the dinner rush overtook the restaurant. Ordering is easy because there are only 4 items on the menu.  Tummies full and complaining halted we headed back to the instacare. I arrived just in time for the main show! Justin was soaking his hand prior to stitches. The numbing shot is about the most painful thing, I still recall the ice cold liquid painfully shoved into a small space. Makes me shiver. Justin almost passed out, his body took over and went into mild shock. The ER doctor sewed 7 stitches to close Justin’s hand wound. Nice. He felt much better after the event was over. Side quest over! We arrived home much later than anticipated.