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.