Weekly Review January 16 '26

I'm going to do categories this week. 

Sleep update: Unfortunately, my sleep woes continued this week. I woke up at 1:00 am on both Monday and Tuesday and at 1:30 am on Wednesday. On Thursday I didn't wake up until 2:45, which felt a lot better even though that's still ridiculously early, when I think about it! This morning I didn't wake up until the alarm went off but I did have a restless night--woke up 3 times, but at least I went back to sleep quickly all three times. I've been trying a few different strategies to see if they will help me sleep better, but nothing has worked yet. Unfortunately, I'm probably just going to have to wait it out until my body shifts into a better sleep cycle. I made a deliberate effort to try to have a better attitude about it--not get grumpy and wallow in feeling sorry for myself. That seemed to help my mood, at least. I took naps on Monday and Wednesday in the mornings (and both times got woken up by phone calls from Scott) and I also took a nap Thursday late in the afternoon because I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I definitely have dark circles under my eyes. 

Seminary: I spent most of Saturday working on Monday's lesson; I did finish it. I also read through Tuesday's lesson again so I could start thinking about what to do with that one. As part of my preparation for Monday's lesson--which was on the creation--I sent a message to all the youth asking them to send me a nature photo that is meaningful to them. Much to my surprise, a girl who is on our roll who came one time the first week of Seminary and hasn't come since sent me a photo! I didn't even know she was getting our messages. Another girl in the class who comes sporadically also sent me a photo. Neither one of these girls actually came to the class that day, but I was happy that they each had engaged in that lesson on some level! A few other kids sent me photos and it was nice hearing what they had to say about their photos. I always enjoy lessons where the kids talk more and I talk less. After Seminary, there was a beautiful sunrise; so appropriate after talking about the creation!

I got Tuesday's lesson prepared on Sunday. It was a life prep lesson about setting goals. At the beginning of class, I told them I was giving them the goal to build the tallest Lego creation in the class. I gave them Lego pieces whenever they answered a question. They didn't participate as much as I had hoped they would, but it did help some and they seemed to enjoy it. A couple of the boys got really competitive near the end of class and started volunteering a lot of answers and they were really insightful beautiful answers, too! One thing I liked about doing these two lessons together is that they actually tied into each other in some ways. One of the questions in the goal setting lesson was "What can we learn from the account of the Creation about accomplishing goals?" (It took time, everything was accomplished according to a plan, much effort was involved, etc.) This lesson also tied in with one of the DM scriptures we just learned--Moses 1:39. That scripture essentially teaches us that Heavenly Father has a goal and His goal is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life. I'd never thought of that scripture that way before, but I like it. 

Next week we only have 3 days of Seminary and I only teach once. I read through my lesson on Monday or Tuesday and last night finally got it planned. I still have some things to get ready. I want to start working on my lessons for the following week as soon as possible because I am teaching 3 lessons that week. 

Tammy and I did some planning on the phone on Tuesday and some more after class on Wednesday. Because we get a new class president half way through the year, we were making a decision about that (among other things). I talked to the new president today and he accepted. We know he will do a great job! 

This morning we had them play a game to review the four DM scriptures that we have learned so far. I think most of the kids had a lot of fun with that. One boy who has come very rarely this year showed up this morning. He has made it very clear in the past that he doesn't want to be at Seminary and only comes because his mom is forcing him to come. He is a senior and finished up all his classes needed for graduation this semester (he'll be doing some sort of program to learn welding for the rest of the year) so he feels like he is done with Seminary now. He actually came today so he could tell us thank you. We weren't expecting that, but it's nice that he recognizes that we put a lot of effort into Seminary, even though he doesn't want to be there. 

Social Activities: On Saturday another couple in our ward contacted us to see if we would like to go to dinner together. Yes, we did! It was a lot of fun visiting with them and I really enjoyed the break after spending most of the day working on Seminary.

We had family night lesson on Sunday and the activity on Monday. We played the game Bank and I won both times--being cautious worked to my advantage that time. Sometimes it's a lot better to take risks, but not this time. 

I went to the Tuesday afternoon Sister's Meet Up and enjoyed visiting with the other women who came. I finished the picture that I've been coloring:

On Tuesday evening we also had a RS activity. The theme was "Tidy Up & Trade". We had a clothing swap (bring things you're not wearing anymore & take home anything you can use that others brought).and we also had a panel discussion about the emotional aspects of de-cluttering, including tips on how to de-clutter. I had actually been asked to be on the panel for that discusstion and I enjoyed it even though I was super tired. I took a large bag of clothing to donate (some mine, some Seth's). It turns out that most people who came were more interested in donating than in taking anything home with them, so we ended up donating a whole bunch of clothing to another local church. I did bring home one cardigan sweater, but that's it. 

Interesting side note: When I arrived at the church for the activity, I was surprised to see a police car with flashing lights parked near the trash corral. Our EQ president, who is also a police officer, was there talking to the other police officer so I wasn't too worried about it. I found out later that there was actually a fire in the dumpster (which had been put out before I got there and the fire truck had already left). Someone had dumped a mattress in there a few weeks ago and apparently someone else decided to set it on fire. Kind of crazy! 

Frank's Birthday: He turned 56 on Wednesday. I totally forgot to get him a card and his present hasn't arrived yet (he's getting a small treadmill that will fit under his desk) but I did make him a cheesecake and we took him out to dinner. He chose to go to the Olive Garden. We actually haven't eaten the cheesecake yet because we were too full to eat it after dinner on Wednesday. Tanner sent him a pair of BYU socks, so he did get one gift.

New Year's Cards: They arrived on Monday and I addressed most of them that day. I finished addressing them on Wednesday and we bought stamps and got them all into the mail. I whittled down our list a lot this year and only sent them to parents, siblings, uncles & aunts, and a few close friends. 

Frank and Seth: Seth doesn't start classes again until the 26th, so he has been enjoying a lot of down time. He did go to Mission Prep on Sunday, FHE (YSA) on Monday, and Institute on Wednesday. He has helped me with a few chores around the house like vacuuming and emptying the dishwasher. He only got one shift at work this week (tomorrow; he did work last Saturday as well). Frank has been doing quite a bit of cooking for me. (He's cooking dinner right now, actually.) He went to his temple shift on Tuesday. Yesterday he had a meeting and then a holiday party at work, so he got home later than usual. He also did maintenance for his clients last night. 

Weather: It rained most of the day on Saturday. It was very windy one day (I can't remember which day now). We've had a few sunny days (which I appreciate), but mostly it's been cloudy and gray--typical January weather. The temperatures haven't been too bad but the last couple of days have been quite a bit colder. On Wednesday when Tammy and I left the church after Seminary, there was a rainbow (doesn't show up very well in the photos...looks almost colorless):

Temple: I did go to the temple today and it felt really great to be in the temple again. I had an appointment to do initiatories which turned out to be a good thing for two reasons. First, there was an accident on 1-270 South and the traffic was terrible. It took me an hour to get from our house to a point that is usually only about 20 minutes away. If I had been trying to make it to the 10:00 endowment session, I definitely would not have made it in time. In the end, I was only about 10 minutes late so that wasn't a problem with initiatories. I ended up being the only patron in the booth with 3 temple workers, so the work got done very quickly. The other reason it was a good thing is that I was very tired. While driving down, I felt sleepy. Trying to stay awake through an endowment session would have been an ordeal. I'm glad it all worked out and I was able to enjoy my time at the temple,

The Big Boys: I didn't get to talk to Jared this week, but Scott called several times and Tanner called once also. Scott started his new job this week and it is going well so far. He had to take another insurance certification test and he did that today and passed it. He goes to the office (15 minutes away) three days a week and works from home the other two days. He sounds like he is in good spirits. He is very happy to be working again.

Tanner is applying for jobs, hoping to find something closer to home. There are some jobs available at Scott's place of employment, so he applied for one of those today. He is also applying at a company that a friend works for. He isn't in school right now but will take some classes when 2nd block starts, I think.

In Between Everything Else: In spite of being really tired all week, I did manage to get all the regular household tasks done. I've listened to a lot of podcasts while doing household tasks and sometimes while coloring (I started a new picture). I've also done some reading. I'm a little over halfway through Flowers for Algernon and it is really good. I don't think it's going to end happy, but it is definitely interesting and intriguing and even a little funny at times. One of the other books I put on hold back in December became available this week. I'm going to read that one next because it is in high demand so I know I won't be able to renew it and will have to return it in 3 weeks. I talked to Mom on Monday and I will be going to Utah in mid March to help complete her tax return. I'm looking forward to that!

That's everything I can think of that we did this week and Frank is calling for me to come eat some cheesecake, so that's it for this week.

Weekly Review January 9 '26

This week I had a rough transition back into my regular Seminary schedule. I'm hoping that next week will be better.

On Saturday January 3rd I was still feeling a little achy / tired, but had mostly recovered from being sick. My neck & shoulders were very tight and painful so I ended up putting heat on them for a while. That seemed to help and I haven't had much trouble with pain in my neck or shoulders since then. I spent a lot of the day working on my two Seminary lessons for this week, which included a trip to the church to make copies and check the closet for several things. Frank went with me and helped me, which I really appreciated. I also cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced the ukulele, and watched President Holland's funeral (since I didn't get the chance to watch it on the 31st). Seth worked a lot of the day which means Frank and I had more access to the television (😂) so we watched a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time that evening while we ate dinner.

We have church starting at noon on Sundays now which is not my favorite schedule but I will try to embrace it! I talked to Jared for a little while after church. He wasn't feeling great, which wasn't too surprising since Jessie had just been sick. I texted her on Tuesday and she said that Jared was doing better, thankfully. Our meetings overlap with Seth's now because his start at 1:30. We were surprised when he came home around 2:00. He explained that he had noticed another abscess that morning and then it had started draining, so he came home. That wasn't good news, of course. He had an appointment scheduled with the surgeon on Wednesday but I told him he'd better call the next morning to see if they wanted him to come in sooner. 

Frank returned to work on Monday morning. I went to bed around 9:00 pm on Sunday night but I had one of those bad nights where I woke up in the middle of the night and didn't go back to sleep for hours, so I had a late start on Monday morning. I did exercise, though, and it felt good to get back into that routine. (I've exercised every morning.) Seth called the surgeon's office that morning but they told him he didn't need to come in until his appointment on Wednesday. He had an appointment to get his blood drawn that day so he did that. They were checking his white blood cell count since it was low back in December. They called him back on Thursday and told him it was back up to normal levels, so that was good news. In spite of my late start, I was able to get the regular chores done and I also was able to talk to Amy for quite a while, which I always enjoy. I also starting looking at cards (we're going to send New Year's cards this year since we didn't send Christmas cards) and chose the books for book chat (I was in charge of bringing suggestions) and put them on hold at the library. I already chose some books in December and put them on hold but I still hadn't received 2 of them, one of them I had to return before I had a chance to read it, and another one I started to read but didn't like it so decided I didn't want to suggest it. For family night we played the game Labyrinth (Frank won, I lost) and enjoyed some brownies that Seth made.

I had a restless night on Monday night and then woke up really early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up, exercised, showered, and ate breakfast. By then I was feeling really sleepy so I took a nap. I'm not sure how it happened, but I got a LOT done on Tuesday. After I woke up from my nap I planned menus for next week, did some stretches, and ate lunch. After that I ran a few errands (did an Amazon return from Christmas, dropped off Seth's church pants at a dry cleaners, and picked up a prescription for Frank) and then went to the church for a "Sisters Meet Up" which is something new we're doing in my ward to try to beat the winter blahs. It's just a chance to visit and you can bring a project to work on if you want. I had to make some copies for Seminary so I decided to go during that time and visit for a while too. It turns out that the copier at the church was out of toner so I couldn't make the copies, but I did really enjoy visiting with the other sisters who came (about 4 - 5) while I worked on one of my color by number pictures. I talked a lot with a sister who moved into our ward a few months ago and discovered that she has an accounting degree and that she lived in Lancaster, California for a few years when she was a little girl. So crazy all the things we have in common! (She is a lot younger than me and wasn't in Lancaster until the 1990s, so well after we lived there.) I stayed at the church for over an hour and then ran some more errands--put gas in my car, picked up the books I had reserved at the library, did another Amazon return, and went to Old Navy to try on some jeans. I was able to find 3 pair of jeans that fit me, thankfully. (I was down to only 2 pair of jeans, which didn't feel like enough.) At the library, there was this really cool display of miniature scenes. I took pictures of them because they were so cute! (But the pictures aren't great because the display was behind glass.) Here's a few:

After I got home from all those errands, I made dinner, reviewed my Seminary lesson for Wednesday, made copies (since I couldn't make them at the church), and cleaned the bathrooms. Frank got home really late (after I was asleep) because he resumed his Tuesday evening temple shift. One of the students in my Seminary class needed a set of scriptures, so he was able to buy those at the distribution center for me before his shift, which was a big help to me. Shortly before I went to bed, my right foot started cramping up. It started with one of my toes, and then the whole foot started cramping. Then my left foot got a few cramps too. It was really strange! For about 30 minutes, I couldn't move my right foot at all without triggering a cramp. It wasn't much fun, but thankfully after about 30 minutes the cramps stopped and I was able to go to sleep. I haven't had any trouble with foot cramps since then.

I had a somewhat restless night but at least I didn't stay awake for hours. Wednesday was our first day back to Seminary after the Christmas break. I did a lesson which was an introduction to Doctrinal Mastery and it went fairly well, although the attendance was pretty low. I felt pretty tired after 3 not very good nights, so I planned to take a nap when I got home, but that didn't end up happening. Unlike Tuesday, when I got a lot more done than I anticipated, on Wednesday, I got a lot less done. I'm not sure where the time went! In the morning I spent way too much time finalizing my decision for what New Year's Card to order and typing up a short 2025 review to go on the back of the card (most of that time was wrestling with the formatting for the back of the card). Seth had his follow up visit with the surgeon that afternoon and I went with him to that since there were a lot of questions and issues to discuss and some possible decisions to be made. It turns out the appointment was with the surgeon he saw in June for the first abscess. She checked his wound and said it looked okay; she thinks the issues he had on Sunday were just the wound from December draining some more. She also doesn't think he has a fistula and doesn't feel like he needs to be checked for Crohn's disease. He doesn't have to do anything else unless he gets another abscess, so all of that was great news! I'm not totally convinced that he won't have more problems, but I am hoping for the best and we'll just deal with it in the future if he gets another abscess. 

Frank was having a bunch of issues with allergies that day. Feeling itchy, sneezing a lot. He was still having problems on Thursday so he worked from home (going outside seemed to aggravate the symptoms a lot) but today he seems to be a bit better. It's too bad he hasn't been able to go outside because the weather has been unusually mild for January. On Wednesday it got up to 57 degrees! I wanted to go on a walk and Seth came with me. 

Seth was trying to register for classes for the upcoming semester that day but he was running into some issues. He sent an email to his advisor, but when he didn't hear back by Thursday morning we told him he should just go over to the college and talk to someone about it. He did that and was able to resolve the problems and got signed up for four classes. Just in the nick of time...the deadline to register is on Monday! We've been telling him to register since November, but he is good at procrastinating. 

I managed to read through my two Seminary lessons for next week but that's all I have been able to do to prepare for next week. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? On Wednesday I reveiwed my lesson for Thursday morning and also prepared some doctrinal mastery flash cards to be used throughout the semester. 

I got to bed on time Wednesday evening but unforunately I woke up at 12:30 and was not able to go back to sleep. It's so frustrating / discouraging when that happens! Around the time I was leaving for Seminary, I started feeling really sleepy but of course I couldn't go back to sleep then. I struggled through my lesson which was on Abraham 3 and it wasn't terrible, but I came away from it feeling frustrated because I felt like I was too tired to show much enthusiasm for that chapter, even though it's really beautiful. I felt bad that I was feeling so grumpy and tired and therefore couldn't help the youth have a better experience with the scriptures that day. When I got home, Frank made breakfast for me and then I took a 2 hour nap and felt a little bit better. As I mentioned before, Frank was working from home because of his allergies. He helped me get laundry done, which I really appreciated. I got all the other chores done, including buying groceries. I listened to the Follow Him podcast episodes while getting work done. I also did a little bit of coloring while listening, but mostly I was working on chores while listening. I spent some time sending several texts for Seminary related things and talked to Scott for a few minutes before leaving for book chat in the evening. 

At book chat, we discussed the book Heidi. Last time we met, we had decided to read the book My Friends next time, but some people had expressed some concerns with the book, so I wasn't sure everyone was on board to read it. That's why I chose some other books to bring as suggestions, just in case. These are the books I took as suggestions:

Two of them (Hillbilly Elegy and Flowers for Algernon) were books that others had previously suggested but that we hadn't read yet. I've read We Were the Lucky Ones and really liked it. The last book (The Messy Lives of  Book People) is a book I came across when I was trying to find another book by the same author that I have already read. I was going to take that one as a suggestion, but discovered that the library only had eBook copies. This book sounded interesting, so I decided to take it instead. At book chat, everyone decided they'd rather not read My Friends. There was a lot of interest in all four of the books I brought, but in the end we decided to read Flowers for Algernon. I'm interested in the other books and may try to read them too, while I have copies of them. It will depend on how much time I have for reading, though! We had a good discussion and book chat ended up going longer than usual so I didn't get home until after 9:30. 

I slept pretty soundly last night, but since I didn't get to sleep until nearly 10:30 and my alarm goes off at 3:30, I didn't really get enough sleep. I felt really tired when the alarm went off. I was glad I wasn't teaching this morning. Our ward's bishopric brought breakfast for the youth this morning. I had an appointment to go to the temple this morning and Tammy did too. She had invited me to come with her and I was planning to go until I had so many bad nights in a row. I knew if I went to the temple I would struggle to stay awake the whole time, so I didn't go. I really wanted to go--it's been three weeks since I've been able to go because of family visiting and being sick. Hopefully next week I will finally be able to go!

After I got home from Seminary and ate breakfast, I took a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half, which helped a lot. I think I would have slept longer except I had one of those very vivid startling dreams that causes you to startle awake. (That happens to other people--not just me, right?) I got the budget updated which took extra time because I was trying to determine how much quarterly estimated taxes we need to pay. I also picked Seth's pants up from the dry cleaners. I worked on this post until dinner time--Frank made dinner for us, which was so nice. Have you noticed how sweet and helpful he's been this week? We watched a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time while eating dinner. 

It's been raining a lot today and I think it is supposed to rain tomorrow too. I will finish up with a few photos of this morning's sunrise. I feel like the sunrises in January are particularly nice.

Weekly Reviews December 26 '25 & January 2 '26

Happy New Year from Maryland!

We had family visiting last week so I didn't take the time to write a post then. I have a lot to cover for the last 2 weeks, but I'll try not to get too detailed!

Saturday (December 20th) was quite busy. Seth went to see a movie that morning. It was our ward Christmas party that evening and we had signed up to cook a ham and bring brownies. The ham was provided by the ward. Frank put it in the oven on Friday night and cooked it on a really low temperature overnight. It smelled so good and made us all hungry for ham! We made the brownies on Saturday morning. I ran some errands with Frank and there was so much traffic--Saturday before Christmas was probably the culprit. I also cleaned the kitchen floor,  practiced the ukulele a bit, and practiced all the choir songs for the next day's Christmas program. Frank replaced my laptop screen so I have a functioning laptop again. 😊 We went to the ward Christmas party that evening and it was very nice. Lots of good food, beautiful decorations, visiting, and instead of a program we did a service project where we put together food packages to be given to school kids who are at risk of going hungry when they aren't at school. ("Blessings in a Backpack") Afterwards, we gave a ride to Florian--one of my former Seminary students who joined the army last summer but was here visiting for the holidays. It was great to see him again!

On Sunday (December 21st) there were a lot of visitors at church and it was nice to have such a large congregation. The choir went up to the front after the sacrament and stayed there for the rest of the meeting since we were singing several songs. (We had a long practice before church.) I think all of our songs went well and I loved being able to sing them. There were a lot of congregational hymns as well and many of them were new hymns which was kind of interesting since most people didn't know them! 😂The opening song was a particular struggle because the organist didn't know it very well either. Oh well! We will never learn them if we don't sing them. Scott and Tanner flew in that evening, so we all went to the airport to pick them up. It's always so wonderful when our kids come home!

Monday December 22nd - I woke up early enough that I was able to exercise before everyone else was up. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to exercise since then (lots going on and I've also been sick) but I will be starting back up on Monday hopefully. I had a LOT of groceries to buy that day and Frank came with me to buy them which was very helpful. Seth had a follow up visit with our primary care doctor that day so I went with him to that appointment. The abscess was healing nicely and we got a referral for a GI doctor but haven't called to make an appointment yet. While we were there, Frank texted me to say that the surgeon's office called and they wanted Seth to come it to get his wound checked by a nurse and then make an appointment with the surgeon. I texted him back and asked "Why does he need a nurse to check the wound if we are at the doctor getting it checked right now?" to which he replied "Exactly what I was wondering." After we got home, Seth called them back and finally convinced them that he didn't need to get his wound checked again and he made an appointment to see the surgeon on January 5th (although they called today and changed it to the 7th). That's the short version of the story...there were several phone calls going back and forth for a while. 

Scott drew Frank's name for Christmas and decided that part of his gift would be helping Frank clean out and organize his office, so that afternoon he started by breaking down a whole bunch of boxes that had accumulated in the hallway outside Frank's office. It made a huge difference--nice! Unfortunately, that's basically all he was able to do while he was here because we were busy with activities and then Scott got sick. Oh well! I'm really glad that one thing got done. 

On Monday evening we all went down to the temple to see the Christmas lights and the creche exhibit. While we were there, we ran into one of Scott's good friends who is now working at the temple as a security guard. It was really great that Scott got to visit with him for a while. 

We stopped on the way home at a place called Moby Dick's (mediterranean) to get dinner:

After we got home, we went to an open house at Tammy's house for their daughter who just returned from her mission. Lots of fun visiting!

(Tanner and Scott with Tammy's husband...he was one of Tanner's Seminary teachers so they are pretty close.)

Tuesday December 23rd - I picked up Jared & Jessie at the airport that morning. Frank was having some issues with his stomach, so he wasn't feeling good about the long drive to the airport and back. Instead, he stayed home and made two batches of fudge, which was very helpful. Jared & Jessie came back to our house because we were doing a family photo shoot that afternoon. We originally planned the photo shoot for Friday afternoon, but since the weather forecast was for rain on Friday, the photographer contacted me on Monday and we decided to do the photo shoot on Tuesday instead. I'm really glad we did because not only was the weather much better, everyone was feeling well (except for Scott, who was just starting to feel a little sick). We got the photos on Wednesday and I am really happy with how they turned out. Here are a few:

After the photo shoot, we made dinner, made buckeyes, and Frank and I went to the store to get a new shower head for the boys' bathroom because the one we had was leaking all over. Jared went to a shooting competition that evening and Tanner met a few friends at Taco Bell for a visit. I squeezed in some reading--I was still working on the book for book chat. 

When Frank was melting the chocolate for the buckeyes, he got distracted and dumped the chocolate chips into the pot of  hot water instead of into the pot that was going to rest inside the pot of hot water (like a double boiler). He quickly drained the water out and tried to melt them, but it didn't work. We dubbed the result "Christmas Poop":

It actually tasted pretty good, in spite of its unappetizing appearance. Fortunately, we had enough chocolate chips on hand that we were able to melt a new batch for dipping the buckeyes.

Wednesday December 24th was super busy with preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner. We decided last minute (the previous Saturday) to invite the Elders over too because no one else had signed up to feed them that night. That meant we would be crowded, but that's okay. Frank and I went back to McCutcheon's that morning (same store where we get jam) to get some Maryland scarves to give to the Elders. Frank and I did a lot of advance preparations for dinner as well--both cooking as well as getting out all the dishes, table linens, candle holders, etc. and making place cards. Tanner made cookie dough and later that day we baked the cookies and decorated them. I also went with Tanner to deliver some of those cookies to a friend of his--she served in the same mission as him and she and her family recently moved into our stake. She actually wasn't home, so I didn't get to meet her, but it was nice to take a break from dinner preparations and visit with Tanner plus there was a cool halo around the sun:

We had all the kids here for dinner as well as the Elders and it was really lovely. One of the Elders is brand new and he is from Mesa, Arizona so it was nice to have that connection. After dinner, we read the Christmas story in Luke, Matthew, and 3rd Nephi and then we watched a short video and we each shared a gift that we want to give to Jesus this year. (Like being kinder or being a better listener.) The Elders both shared testimonies with us before they left.

After the Elders left, we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol and then everyone helped prepare the stockings before we went to bed.

(So nice to have everyone's stocking hanging up this year...even though Scott's is different because he couldn't find his stocking that Grandma made). 

Watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol:

Full stockings!:

Lots of presents waiting to be unwrapped:

So many sweets!:

The Advent calendar is complete:

Thursday December 25th - we all slept in, which was awesome! Frank and I woke up before everyone else and we exchanged a few gifts with each other. Then we went downstairs and started making some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. After everyone was awake and Jared & Jessie arrived, we opened all the presents. Each of us gave to one person this year. Frank gave to Tanner, I gave to Seth, Scott gave to Frank, Tanner gave to Jared, Jared gave to Jessie, Jessie gave to me, and Seth gave to Scott. It simplified things a lot and it was really nice! I was more interested in watching everyone else open their presents than I was in opening my own, so I didn't open mine until last. 😂 Frank and I surprised the kids by giving each of them a gift card, which they weren't expecting.

Seth is opening a photo book I made for him with pictures from his first year of life. I also gave him the pajamas that he is wearing (he ran upstairs and changed into them as soon as he opened them). 

After opening presents, we ate breakfast:

Jared helping Seth with a new video game. Seth is also holding a plushie that I got for him (he really wanted it). Those are the four gifts that he got from me:

After breakfast, Jessie did an IQ test on Tanner (she's learning to administer them and needs practice). Then we played a few games (Tenzie and Bank) before Jared & Jessie needed to head back over to her house. The rest of the day we just relaxed. I talked to my Mom and texted with Amy a bit. I spent a lot of the day finishing the book chat book (My Friends) because it was due the next day & I couldn't renew it because someone else had requested it. We made pizza for dinner which everyone enjoyed. 

Scott wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday and was feeling pretty rotten on Thursday but after a few naps he started to feel a little better later in the day. Seth started to get quite congested again and didn't feel his best either but fortunately he never got really sick. 

My Christmas loot. Frank gave me the four things on the left (gray pants, Sleep Smarter book, Crochet book, and hand warmers) and Jessie gave me the four things on the right (blue pants, watch, First State of Being book, and digital photo frame):

Most of those things were from my wish list, but Frank surprised me with the hand warmers (they are so nice!!) and Jessie surpised me with the digital photo frame, which I love! What a nice idea...she is really good at coming up with things that I love but hadn't thought of myself. 

Friday December 26th - more grocery shopping, did laundry, updated the budget, ran errands (put gas in my car and returned the library book I had just finished). Scott was starting to feel better, thankfully. That evening we were invited to the Hatch home for dinner and games. We made a big salad and a layered chocolate dessert to take to that. All of Jessie's sisters and their husbands were also visiting and the Hatch family had also invited a couple of families from the stake that we know. It was loud and fun and the food was great. 

Saturday December 27th - I enjoyed sleeping in but woke up not feeling too great: headache, congestion, slight sore throat. Even though I slept in, I was still awake before everyone else. I was reading scriptures and had the thought that I should check the Church website for an update on Pres. Holland--I just had the feeling that he may have passed away and when I checked, I was right. Kind of strange that I had that feeling! He will be missed so much, although we can't help feeling happy for him. I have felt really connected to President Holland for many years. The way he speaks just really speaks to my soul! In particular, he gave a talk in General Conference in April 2006 called Broken Things to Mend that I will never forget. I had been going through some difficult years, but not long before this talk was given, I felt like I had been healed by the Savior and I felt like President Holland was describing exactly what I had experienced. It was really sweet. I am so grateful for him and for all of our Church leaders who inspire me and bless me with all that they do.

Scott and I went to the storage unit and to the church to return some things we needed for Christmas Eve--a roaster oven from the storage unit and some tables and chairs to the church. I mostly tried to rest that day, though, since I wasn't feeling great. Unfortunately, Jessie was sick by then too. She had all the same symptoms as me except she was also running a fever. Jared was feeling okay so he came over to visit and to watch the Pop-Tarts Bowl with us. Scott signed up for a 24 hour free trial of Fubo so that we could watch the game using that. It was, as most of you know, a very frustrating but exciting nail-biter game and we were thrilled that BYU won in the end. We really enjoyed watching the crazy / silly award ceremony after the game ended. So funny that the football on the trophy is actually a toaster!!

Sunday December 28th - Scott and Tanner had a 6:00 am flight, so we had to get up very early to take them to the airport. We were up late and I didn't sleep well and I was feeling pretty sick, but I wanted that extra hour with the boys so I went to the airport with them. It's always sad when they have to leave, but I'm so grateful that everyone was able to be together for Christmas this year! It's the first time since Christmas 2020 that we've all been together for Christmas and the last time we were all together for Christmas in Maryland was 2012. 

After we got back from the airport, we went back to bed for a few hours. Frank went over to the church to set up the broadcast for the first ward, but he wasn't feeling well by then either so we both stayed home from church. We were able to watch our sacrament meeting from home; Tammy's daughter who just returned from her mission was the main speaker and she did a great job. We stayed in bed all day and tried to rest. Originally, we had planned to have Jared & Jessie over for dinner and to play games but Jessie was still sick so we weren't able to do that. (And I guess it was just as well since Frank and I were sick too.) Seth was feeling fine so he went to our ward's Sacrament meeting and to the YSA sacrament meeting as well. 

Frank shaved off his beard that day (he stopped shaving at the beginning of November so he had a pretty decent beard) but I didn't even notice until Seth pointed it out the next morning! Wow, I'm observant.

Monday December 29th - I slept in and tried to get as much rest as possible while doing a lot of laundry (including a lot of bedding since we had just had house guests) and planning 2 week's worth of menus. I put in a pick up order at Wal-mart and Seth was going to pick it up for me but when the pick up time arrived I got a message saying my order had been delayed and they never did fill it--I had to give up and cancel the order after the store closed that night. Super frustrating! Instead, I gave a list to Seth and he did the shopping for me on Tuesday morning, which I really appreciated. 

Back to Monday...I printed up the tax certification tests and went through the first two tests (they are short & easy--only 10 questions each.) Jared visited briefly but Jessie was still sick so we didn't get to see her. Seth went to see a movie at a friend's house that evening. I was starting to feel a little better by the end of the day and thought I might be "turning the corner". Frank, on the other hand, was feeling really miserable all day.

Tuesday December 30th - I didn't sleep well so felt tired all day. Seth went to the store for us, as I mentioned earlier. I cleaned the bathrooms and then spent the rest of the day taking down all the Christmas decorations. I'm OCD about the ornaments and have to go through all of them every year to make sure none of them get lost which is why it takes so long! 😈 We have special ornaments for each year we've been married, plus a lot of extras and there is not enough room on the tree for all of them so we don't use all of them every year and I feel the need to inventory and organize them as I put them away. I know it will drive Frank crazy, so I always tell him I will do it myself. He was too sick to help this year anyway. I was very tired and my back hurt by the end of the day but everything was packed up neatly and accounted for! 

Jared & Jessie flew back to Texas that day. They stopped by our house briefly to say goodbye. Jessie was still somewhat sick, but her fever had finally broken at least. We are sad that we didn't get to see her for the second half of their visit. It was a bummer that so many of us got sick!

Wednesday December 31st - Seth helped me take all the boxes of Christmas decorations back to the storage unit. We also returned one more table to the church (the table for all the sweets...we had eaten enough of them by then that we could fit what was left onto the table in our dining area). On our way home, we stopped to pick up 2 prescriptions for Frank which took a while because half the world was picking up prescriptions that day. After we got home, I dusted and swept and vacuumed with some help from Seth. It's a nice feeling to have a relatively clean and uncluttered house again. I also planned one of next week's Seminary lessons. Around dinner time we started a puzzle--Erick & Liz sent us one of Boise for Christmas so we made that one. It was only 500 pieces (we usually make a 1000 piece puzzle) but an easier puzzle was perfect for us this year since we were still recovering from illness. We got the outside edge done and then took a break for a while. Florian (former Seminary student) came over for dinner and for a few hours afterwards; he and Seth went together to a YSA New Year's Eve party after that. I worked on the puzzle a bit more and Frank helped a little bit. He was starting to feel a little better but still not great. Surprisingly, he did stay up until after midnight, though, so we got to wish each other a Happy New Year. (Frank has not made it to midnight for the last several New Year's Eves which is one reason I was so surprised that he stayed up this year.) We went to bed around 1:00 and Seth came home shortly after that.

The puzzle at 11:00 pm:

And at midnight:

Shortly before we stopped working on it, around 12:15:

Thursday, January 1, 2026 - When we woke up, we had alerts on our phones for snow squalls that had been sent around 4:00 am. What? Did it snow? There had not been any snow in the forecast. I looked out the window, and sure enough...there was a dusting of snow all over everything. 

It was sunny all day which was really nice--I always feel more cheerful when it's sunny! 

The day was busy with grocery shopping and laundry (including a lot more bedding because I washed all our sheets and pillowcases since we'd been sick). I also planned my second Seminary lesson for next week, worked on the third tax certification exam (I completed the first 6 scenarios), and we finished the puzzle. 

Working on it around 10:00 am:

Finished around 2:30 (we weren't working on it all that time!):

Although I started to improve on Monday and felt almost completely better by Wednesday, on Thursday I started feeling congested again and by evening my head and neck were hurting, which was how I felt when I started getting sick in the first place. Frank has improved a little bit each day and by Thursday was doing quite a bit better.

Friday January 2nd - My neck has felt better today, thankfully. I have a little bit of lingering congestion, headache, and slight sore throat, so I'm not 100% better, but I'm not feeling too bad. I updated the budget this morning which took a lot longer than it should have since it's a new year and there were some issues with the new spreadsheet that Frank had to work out. I spent the afternoon and early evening completing the last 3 tax scenarios for the advanced tax certification test and was able to complete all three tests and got 100% on all three of them. 😊 I'm glad to be able to check that off of my "to do" list. Frank was awesome and let me work and made dinner for me. 

Seth was gone to work most of the day today (his first shift in a couple of weeks--between his health problems and the family visit for the holidays, he had a lot of time off) and he has another shift tomorrow.

I've spent the rest of the day working on this blog post and now it is nearly midnight so it's been another long day. There is a Seminary training tomorrow at the stake center by the temple and I wanted to go to that but since I'm still not feeling my best, I probably won't go. I still have quite a bit of preparation to do for both of my lessons next week, but I am grateful that I have been able to get so much done this week in spite of being sick for a lot of it. I feel like I am mostly caught up on all the household chores and ready for the Seminary onslaught to begin again next week. 😂

Interesting story to finish up. When I was putting away Christmas decorations on Tuesday, I was contemplating this little nativity set that Frank's mom gave us when Scott was a baby:

I've always loved it because it's so durable and the kids could play with it when they were little without destroying it. I've always wondered why there were no shepherds, though. When I was putting it away, I decided to check online to see if  perhaps a shepherd set exists but we just didn't get that one. (The set we have came in three parts--Holy family, wise men, and animals). I discovered that we have a complete set...there really isn't any shepherds. What surprised me, though, is that complete sets like ours are now selling on eBay for about $150! It definitely didn't cost that much when it was brand new. 😄