31 December 2023

We've had a lovely Christmas holiday. This is a photo from Christmas morning, after presents, breakfast and phone calls.

Helen painted this watercolor for Sofi and Nate. Her artistic skills continue to grow.

 

Brandan built this blanket rack for Becky out of walnut to replace the overflowing basket of blankets in our family room. It's a classic Brandan design: original, efficient, elegant, thoughtful and completed with expert craftsmanship.

We hiked Upper Tablerock Christmas afternoon. The weather was mild and we had beautiful views.

It's been a special pleasure to have all of our kids together. Here's some foreshadowing: danger lurks in this photo.

Sarah and Joe gave us a giant Lego set that was perfect for Nate, Gibson, Abe and Helen to work together to build.

The Viking longboat looked fantastic when it was finished and brought back fun memories of visiting a Viking museum in Aalborg and later helping Sarah create a bulletin board for her classroom. We used the longboat as a centerpiece for several days.

On Tuesday night Gibson noticed some puffiness around one eye. He woke up Wednesday morning with one eye swollen shut and his entire face distorted. Clearly he was exposed to poison oak on our Christmas hike (the danger we alluded to earlier.)

We got Gibson in to see his doctor on Wednesday morning, but the pharmacy delayed the steroid she prescribed by 24 hours. In the meantime, Gibson was pretty miserable. He used ice packs to help manage the swelling and pain. He started taking prednisone on Thursday and now his face is back to its normal shape. Now he just has scaly, puss-coated patches all over his face.

Abe, Gibson and Helen made a midnight run to In-N-Out Thursday night/Friday morning for Helen's birthday.

Helen still got up a few hours later to hike the Applegate Ridge Trail with Becky. This may be our favorite winter hike. We wouldn't want to hike it in the summertime since most of the hike is along a ridge and would be too hot. The trail is 11 miles long, but only the first mile or so is uphill. It's the perfect hike for seeing a lot of beautiful scenery without making an extraordinary effort.

Although the forecast suggested rain, we had beautiful weather all morning with the temperature near 60 degrees. One of the pine trees along the trail was decorated with candy canes.

Here's a photo of another decorated tree.

Abe stayed home to keep Gibson company. Gibson was still feeling miserable from the poison oak. Abe met us in Jacksonville for sushi after our hike.

One of the benefits of children is they expand your world. Becky barely choked down sushi the first time she tried it. All of our kids like it and have given her more opportunities to revisit her original opinion. Now she appreciates the beautiful colors, textures and flavors, especially of freshly made, high-quality sushi.

Everything about the lunch felt celebratory: Helen's birthday, a long hike, spending time with Abe and Helen. Even Jacksonville, which is cute any day of the year, looked extra nice with Christmas decorations. We took home a box of sushi for Gibson.

We ended Friday night with singing Happy Birthday and eating lemon creme brûlée. It's been super to spend time with Helen following her first semester at college. She has embraced all of the opportunities in front of her: gulping down the firehose of learning, thriving in her classes, managing school and social life, meeting new people and forging friendships.

Abe braved another trip up Upper Tablerock on Saturday with Aspen, Malakai and Camden. So far he appears to be free from poison oak.

Abe hurried back from hiking in time to attend the temple with Becky and Brandan. Our hometown temple felt tiny to Abe after months of attending the Provo and Ogden temples. The intimate size is one of the things we love about living where we do. We always see people we love at the temple.

Helen invited friends over for games and a movie night on Saturday. Her birthday continued with this adorable cake Helen baked and decorated. And the celebrations keep coming! Helen and Abe will be in town for one more week before heading back to school.

24 December 2023

We hiked Upper Table Rock to celebrate the Winter Solstice, getting to the top before sunrise. Which wasn't too bad since sunrise was at 7:37 am. The valley was fogged in below us, but we got a little blue sky and a bit of the sun up on top.

Helen wanted to make gingerbread houses. Becky mixed up the dough and Helen and Gibson took over from there with each of them baking and decorating a house.

Gibson built a traditional A frame.

This is a photo of their completed houses.

Our friend is currently the activities director at an assisted living facility. She called Brandan to ask if a group from our church could sing Christmas carols for the residents the week before Christmas. Between holiday travel plans and sickness, only one other family was able to join us. The residents gave us a warm welcome and invited us back for next year. This is a photo of Gibson with the event calendar for December. We're listed as carolers from The Church of Later Day Saints. Close.

After caroling we visited Andy and Willie to play Christmas music. Helen and Gibson played several pieces and then Helen accompanied us on the guitar so we could sing.

Abe arrived Friday morning and Sofi and Nate came on Saturday. We baked sugar cookies on Saturday morning.

The kids got a little nutty making cookie mashups like a moose-bear, a centaur and a bird-cupid.

We had an appointment for baptisms at the temple at 2 pm. It was great to be in the temple together.

We had the Thurmans for dinner on Saturday night since their kids being in town overlapped with our kids for a few days. After dinner, we decorated the sugar cookies we made earlier. From the left are Johanna holding baby Emi, Tyler, Khaloni, Kaleesi and Blake.

Here's Sofi with Emi. Emi was born in September and is wide eyed and watchful.

Camden is in the corner of this photo with Helen, Ed and Gibson.

Abe decorated a cookie to look like an American bison.

Later we watched a Christmas movie and played Bingo.

We accidentally left the raspberries out of our Buche de Noel and cut it open to slide them in before we frosted the cake.

A thick layer of chocolate ganache disguised the surgery.

Christmas Eve was Sunday and a special Christmas service at church. Helen played the piano in a trio with Beka and Helen on the piano and Andrea on the organ for Angels We Have Heard on High for the opening hymn. The meeting was packed with music and ended with Brandan giving a talk about the happiness of savoring Christmas.

We finished the night with our traditional Christmas program, including reenacting the nativity story. This year Nate was Joseph, Sofi was Mary, Helen was the narrator/piano player, Abe was the angel and Gibson, Becky and Brandan were innkeepers, shepherds and wise men.

Here's another photo from Christmas Eve.

17 December 2023

 

Becky saw Gibson during a fire drill at school on Thursday, wearing a festive hat. This is a photo of Gibson and Colton.

The Young Men in our ward went caroling on Thursday night. The DeKortes sent us this photo. From the left are Spencer, Andy, Josh, Greg, Willie, Bob, Sam, Andrew, Jordan, Noah, Charlie, Ed, Jason, Ike, Gib and Brant.

This is the photo of Crater Renaissance Academy's math team, wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. Except for Will, who is Jewish, is wearing a sweater decorated with a Hannukah-saurus. From the left are Will, Caitlin and Becky.

Helen arrived home Friday afternoon. We're super excited to have her home for Winter Break.

Becky taught Sunday School from the Book of Revelation this week and asked Elders Tafuga and Jones to draw the dragon and the beast from chapters 12 and 13. They are talented artists and drew magnificent beasts.

10 December 2023

Helen attended the 1975's concert in Salt Lake City last month. This is a photo of Kristin and Helen at the concert.

 

Helen went ice skating with friends.

From the left are Paige, Hannah, Helen, Brig, Kristen and TJ.

Grandma Annette generously hosts a crowd of college students for dinner every Sunday. She has 4 official grandchildren attending BYU and welcomes all of their friends as if they were also her grandchildren. This is a photo from last Sunday.

Abe's intramural volleyball team made it to the league tournament before being eliminated.

His soccer team is still going strong.

Abe joined a Korean soccer league that plays early Saturday morning, apparently in all kinds of weather. This is a photo of Abe and Kangjin.

Camden, Katrina, Cece and Abe went to look at Christmas lights in Provo.

Abe made this beautiful chicken pot pie as a study break.

Abe takes advantage of being able to walk to the temple and attends frequently. Here he is with Cece.

Brandan received the Mission Spirit Recognition for 2023 for embodying the Providence mission statement as he practices medicine compassionately. The mission statement is, "As expressions of God's healing love, witnessed through the ministry of Jesus, we are steadfast in serving all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable."

Brandan left his award at work and brought home an enormous poinsettia he also received.

Helen completed a couple of final projects for school. The first is an art piece she painted with watercolors to accompany an essay she wrote about misogyny and the canonization of scripture.

The second was for her political science class and is based on a book entitled The Cash Ceiling: Why Only the Rich Run for Office-- and What We Can Do About It. Her structure represents the US Capitol building.

Brandan and Becky both have gift exchanges for work, which is a balancing act to find a meaningful gift with broad appeal that is still inexpensive. Brandan exceeded the assignment by crafting these charcuterie boards from a plank of walnut left over from another project.

Here's a photo of the completed boards.

Gibson, Ed and Mary played Silent Night for our ward Christmas party on Saturday night. Gibson wrote the cello part to go with the piano/violin duet the trio was given to play. They sounded beautiful. The worst part is now they are finished playing and Becky won't get to hear them practice anymore.