We tried to squeeze some fun things in for Spring Break this year. We started with Ryan and I taking the girls to Pinot’s Palette. It is a painting place. They teach you to paint a picture and you get to take it home when your done. The night we went was glow in the dark night too. So we had all the lights off and painted with a black light only. The picture looked way different when they turned the regular lights back on. It was a lot of fun. When we were done we went to get a cookie from Matthew who was working at his job at Twisted Sugar and couldn’t come with us. We showed him our pictures but mixed them up and had him guess who painted which picture. He didn’t guess any of us correctly.
Ryan and Matthew were finally able to go on the trip they had planned for Spring Break in March 2020 that was cancelled due to COVID. They went to Spring Training for the Royals in Arizona. They got lots of manly activities and manly talk in over the few days they were there. They saw several baseball games. Matthew ran into one of his former baseball buddies at one of them. They did some golfing, ate lots of pizza and other manly junk food. They also went to an NBA game and had a blast.
Matthew is a Phoenix Suns fan now. They ran into Frank and Eli Goldstein from Matthew’s baseball team while they were there and watched a game with them.
About mid week Matthew flew home and Ryan drove to Vegas with a mission buddy of his for their annual man-trip were they spend as much time watching as many March Madness basketball games as they can between eating at delicious buffets and trips to Bass Pro.
Left to Right- Sam, Ryan, Cory and Mike.
The girls and I stayed at home and did some fun activities on our own. We did Urban Air trampoline park, movies, sleepovers with cousins, and some rock climbing. THe weather in Arizona was beautiful. The weather in Kansas was not-we even had snow a few times. We all had a good week doing things with each other and others. Then when is was all done and we were all home we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant- K Macho’s and told each other all about it. It was overall a pretty good spring break.
Ryan and I went on double date with a co-worker of mine and her husband. I thought for a while that the four of us would get along. We did and we had a great time and have hung out many times since then.
The first time we hung out was also Dani’s birthday. We went country line dancing. Dani and I happen to listen to the same radio station on our way to work in the mornings and one of the radio hosts from the station was there that night so we met him while we were having a fun night dancing.
Seventh grade is the year the kids can start doing all the extracurricular activities and playing in school sport. Allison has been trying to squeeze in as many of those activities as she can. I love that she is so willing to try new things.
Allison decided before Christmas Break that she wanted to be in the school play. Tryouts were first thing in January. She was cast as Spy #1. The first few days of practice they read through the play and her part wasn’t really a part so she decided to switch to the stage crew instead. About a week later the director sent an email out that said she needed someone to play the dead body because the person that was doing it was no longer able to do it. Allison replied back and was soon the dead body for the play. She played a once rich but recently destitute millionaire that was murdered. She laid dead on the couch for the entire play while the rest of the characters tried to figure out who the killer was. At the very end she stands up and acts out what happened when she was killed for about 10 seconds then sits on the couch again. I didn’t see her move a muscle or crack a smile the entire 1 hour and 45 minute play. She did a great job and said she had a lot of fun and enjoyed being in the play. I think she will do it again next year.
Lyla and AllisonEmi took notes for her during the play and gave her a 9/10.Peighton, Lyla and Allison
The same week of Allison’s play performance, she had an orchestra concert too. Here are the two songs she played. She is third up from the bottom of third row in from the right.
Allison talked me into going on a run with her one morning in March. We ended up at HyVee and decided to get a bunch of fruits that we had never tried before. It was one of Allison’s bucket item lists. So we picked out a few and and found enough other things to get that we called Matthew and he came and picked us up instead of running home with a bunch of groceries.😊 We liked the dragon fruit the best. The golden berries and the pomelo were ok. The kuwanon was gross. The activity was priceless. Allison absolutely loved it. Everyone else tried them too- except Emilee refused to try all of them except the golden berries and dragon fruit.
My moms dad was not feeling well and went to the doctors to figure out what was going on towards the end of November last year. It wasn’t good news. He had a very aggressive form of leukemia. They said he probably had 4-6 months left. They had a few options for treatment but the doctors said that none of them would prolong his life more than a few months. To make the treatments even harder my grandpa was starting to have some dementia and would often forget he had cancer and not want to cooperate with tests and other things he needed to do.
They decided to choose the treatment option that was by were they lived so he could stay at home. They did the first treatment right around Christmas and he seemed to respond really well. The doctors said they would keep giving him the treatments every four weeks until they weren’t effective anymore. He had a good Christmas and New Years. All of his kids and other friends and family came to see him. When he went in for the second treatment they checked the cancer and it was exponentially worse. His symptoms had been getting worse quickly as well as his dementia. They doctors said there wasn’t any point in doing more treatments. So they went home and got hospice set up at the house and kept him as comfortable as they could.
Grandpa Brent (wearing a hat with his Brand on it) and Grandma June.
I talked with him on the phone a few times. He seemed to know me most of the time. He was more talkative if I talked about things 10-15 years ago that we did. So he would tell me about going out to check on the cows and tell me how the farm was doing. On January 31, 2023 he passed away.
I was able to go out for his funeral. Everyone was there except the rest of my family, and my brother John and his family. Most of them live there already or no more than three hours away. Sherri and her family and my parents and I had the farthest to travel. I stayed at my grandmas house with my parents and my aunt Peggy and her daughter Sam. My sweet grandma can probably count the number of nights she has been without my grandpa since they got married on one hand. She seemed pretty lost. She spent as much time as she could at the funeral home sitting with my grandpa’s body. My sister DeAnna and I were talking and we both said we remember grandma saying since we were tiny that if Grandpa died first she was just going to crawl in the casket with him and let them bury them both. Since he passed away she hasn’t been sleeping more than 1-3 hours a night. She told Sherri she doesn’t know how to think on her own without him. It will take a bit for her to get used to her new normal.
My Granparents house and a few other pictures from their house that remind me of them.Grandma is ALWAYS knitting, crocheting, quilting, or sewing something.It is not uncommon for Grandma and Grandpa to leave their Christmas tree up all year long.I can hear this clock chiming just looking at this picture.Me and my Grandma June.This would be a great picture if my eyes were open.‘Sharing’ a chair.On our way to help set up the pictures for the funeral.
There is a lot of drama in my moms family. The Call’s are a strong willed, determined, opinionated, sometimes prideful bunch. The last 15 years or so has had a lot of family drama and divisions in it. There were a few people that were pretty worried about how things would go at the funeral. There was some stupid petty stuff that happened but for the most part it was ‘behind the scenes’ and other than unnecessary stress on my Grandma the preparations and funeral went pretty smoothly.
When the viewing started the night before the funeral my Grandma could barely keep herself composed and sometimes didn’t. Before it even officially started there was a line of people out the room down the hall and to the exit door of the church. It stayed like that until 30 minutes after it officially ended. I think it really helped my Grandma to realize how many people loved her and my Grandpa and came to share their grief with her. They lived in Grant Idaho for over 50 years. My grandpa was pretty active in the community and church so he was a part of a lot of peoples lives. I saw several people that I remembered or new from visiting there in the Summers when I was growing up. Other than one of my uncles showing up high as a kite on something with his obnoxious ‘friend’ it was uneventful. There were several people there with the potential to cause a scene so it was a relief to just have the one.
Grandma looking at Grandpa.Mom and her best friend Brenda
The next day at the funeral there was another long line waiting to talk with her that even with the funeral home people ending it so they could start the funeral on time went 20 minutes over. It was a nice funeral. My grandma kept her head down and couldn’t look at anyone but she said she liked what was said and thought it went well. I learned a lot of things that my grandpa did and participated in that I didn’t know. It was also fun to hear the things people shared that I remembered or new he loved or did. He tried to be a good example and leader for his family and community. He was a doer and a go getter. He had an amazing drive and work ethic.
At the gravesite after it was dedicated my Grandma requested that The Rose be played. It was one of my grandpa’s favorite songs. It was very sweet and touching. I think my Grandma would have sat there all day if they would let her. Eventually everyone left and my Grandma was taken back to the church for lunch. After the lunch everyone dispersed to their own homes. My sisters and I were at my Grandmas a bit before they left. She slept a lot in her chair which was good. She needed any sleep she could get. She doesn’t like to be alone but doesn’t want to move out of her home or have someone move in with her. She decided to go with my mom to Florida for awhile for a change of scenery and to think about what she wants to do going forward. I hope it is good for her and she can start to heal and rally a little while she is there.
Told my dad he needs one of these hats.My Uncle Duane branded the coffin with my Grandpa’s brand per my Grandma’s request.
After the viewing my cousin Jarom offered his office for all the cousins to get together and hangout for a while. I was back and forth on going but ended up going. I feel a little bit out of place in the family as to were I fit. I was the oldest grandchild by several years. When I had other cousins come along they were my siblings age so I didn’t really play with them. I babysat them sometimes but I didn’t have a cousin I hung out with. Since I was the only grandchild for a while I hung out with my aunts most of the time. The two youngest are 9 and 11 years older than me. So that is who I spent most of my time with but as everyone has gotten older I have been reminded by some of them that I am a grandchild not a sibling…in case I forgot I guess. So I ended up having that realization while I was at the cousin dinner and was able to verbalize to myself what I was feeling all weekend. It was still a good time and now that most of them are older and have families the gap is a little smaller and we have more in common now. My Great Grandpa had a pocket watch that he wanted passed down from Grandfather to the oldest Grandson that would be carrying on the Call name. My cousin Jarom had been holding the watch for his son Levi that will some day pass it onto his Grandson. They brought the watch and passed it around and let everyone see it. It still works, and has a elk etched on the back and the chain has the two (one has been lost) ivory elk teeth (I also learned that elk have two teeth that are ivory) from an elk my great grandpa shot.
I flew home the day after the funeral. I arrived just in time to see the fireworks go off from the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. It was good to see my family and spend some time with my Grandma, I am glad to be home.
One of my cousins spouses put a book together for my Grandma with memories from the grandkids about Grandpa. Here is what I put in it;
Over the past few days I have seen some happy memories posted of Grandpa on Facebook. Several of them mentioned things that I have memories of too. Checking cows. Summer and Winter days at the cabin. Burnt cookies, and watching movies (The Man From Snowy River most of the time). I also remember the dairy barn, milking cows, checking baby calves, ‘short’ drives to the farm that turned into spending the whole day at the farm. Checking and changing water. Helping with potato harvest. Water skiing, family reunions, The Playmill, snowmobiling. Driving to the store and getting ‘lost’ in Yellowstone for hours on end.
I learned to never get in a vehicle with Grandpa without a few snacks because it was never ‘just a quick’ drive. From the time I was a teenager one of the things he would often tell me on our drives was to always keep a quarter with me so I could always call him if I needed to. About the time I was going to college he was telling me again and I told him I hadn’t seen a pay phone for years. He just looked at me and said, “Well, figure it out.” I laughed and told him I will always think of him when I see a quarter, and I do.
One of the earliest memories I have of Grandpa Brent is ‘hide the beanies.’ I am not going to explain more. If you know you know. (To further explain this. When I was little 3 maybe 4 I was often taking a bath before bed about the time that Grandpa would come home from working) If he heard us splashing around in the tub he would make a big deal about covering his eyes as he walked by to his bedroom so he didn’t have to see any naked beanies in the bathtub. He would say, “I’m walking by hide all the beanies. I don’t want to see any beanies!!” It always made my sisters and I giggle.)
I have pictures opening up Christmas presents at Grandpa’s house when I am way to young to remember. We lived close for a short time when I was young and then it was anywhere from 4-20 hour car rides to come visit depending on where we lived. When we would arrive Grandma would come running from the garden or wherever she was at to give us all hugs. If it wasn’t dark Grandpa would still be working out at the farm and we would see him when he got home. He loved to give me a hug in his dirty coveralls. Sometimes I would help him take his boots off. I still remember the smell of dirt and grease on him. I would always tell him he cleaned up pretty nice when we would go to church. I remember the smell of his cologne and leather boots and belt.
I remember a light blue car, maybe a Buick. The interior was covered in matching light blue velvet. There was an ABBA cassette in it and he and Grandma would play Chiquitita over and over for me when we were driving. It is still one of my favorite songs.
Sometimes Grandpa would try to convince you to do something by betting you that you couldn’t. Sometimes I took the bait, other times we would just agree to disagree. One of my visits he brought home a Big Judd’s burger and challenged me that I couldn’t eat the whole thing. I did and topped it off with an ice cream sandwich. For the next 10 years he introduced me as the grandchild that could eat a whole Big Judd Cheeseburger.
It was nice to go to college at Ricks/BYUI for a few years and get to see both Grandma and Grandpa more often. I would come do my laundry and spend the day at Grandma’s and usually stay long enough to eat dinner if I didn’t get there early enough to see him before he left. One year he took me to get new tires on my car for winter. He teased me about how often I had to eat (apparently 3-4 times a day is high maintenance) but I was always welcome to join them for dinner whenever I wanted.
I remember dancing with Grandpa at my wedding reception. Shortly after I was married and living in Kansas I came home from work for a lunch break and heard a knock at the door. Grandma and Grandpa were standing at our front door, driving around the country to who knows where and decided to stop by for a minute. It was a pretty awesome surprise.
I have four generation pictures with each of my kids and Grandma and Grandpa. I will always treasure them. I love you Grandpa Brent. I’m glad I got to talk with you one last time a few weeks ago. Thank you for all the memories and talks. I didn’t always do what you said but I liked to listen and spend time with you. I will miss you and miss giving you a hug and kissing your scruffy cheek.
Like January, February seemed to stick to the tradition schedule. There is more days off of school between teacher conferences, snow days, holidays, and this year we added another day off for the Super Bowl Parade since the Chiefs won.
Emilee made her Valentines box to take to school for her Valentines Party. After this year she had one year left before there will be no more kids making Valentine’s Boxes in our house.😢 She did a great job and did everything on her own including coming up with the idea, gathering supplies and creating it. When she was all done she had an adorable Valentine’s Day Fox Box.
Matthew and Campbell went to the school dance. Matthew called it Winter Homecoming but I think that is not the right name. It is probably Sweethearts or something like that since it is in February. That is what all the other schools called it. I was in Idaho when he went to the dance but Campbell’s mom Lisa sent me some pictures. Between Matthew and Ryan they were able to pull an outfit together. They had a fun time. They went with a group of Campbell’s friends, and ate dinner at Sake Lounge before the dance. Campbell is a Sweetheart because she does not like sushi but she agreed to go there for dinner because Matthew loves it. Those are the same pants he wore to the dance in October and he has already outgrown them. He loves that he is obviously taller than her now and she can wear heals if she wants.
The day after the dance was the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs were in it so everyone was pretty excited. Ross and Lauren and Roger and Rhonda came over to our house. There was lots of yummy food and it was a really close game. It came down to a field goal the last few seconds of the game that won it for us. I was driving home from the airport at the time. I had seen some of the game on the airplane. Lots of people would cheer whenever we scored. There was tons of decorations and a balloon tunnel at the airport set up for when the players came home. I was trying to hurry home in time to catch the last few minutes but as I was getting off the freeway at my exit a bunch of red, gold, and white fireworks started going off. I knew we had won. As I pulled into my driveway about five minutes later there were still fireworks going off everywhere and people running all over cheering that the Chiefs had won. Kansas City has some good fans.
January was a typical January. Kind of slow. Just the way I like it so we can recover and relax from the busy months before. By the end of January baseball, horse lessons, piano, gymnastics were all up and going. We had lots of things going on each weekend so Ryan and I would divide and concur the best that we could.
Like he does each year, Grandpa Terry started off one of the weekends in January celebrating his birthday. He turned 71. We told him we would make or get any food he wanted for his dinner and strongly hinted at BBQ. He said he wanted to go with easy to get, eat, and clean up so he picked pizza. After asking him 5 times to make sure he really didn’t want BBQ we picked up some pizza (we made sure one had every topping they offer on it just for Grandpa) and we celebrated with dinner followed by cake. His boys and his two oldest grandsons took him on an axe throwing adventure. They all felt very manly and proud of themselves when they got back. Ethan was concerned about not being able to throw the axe far enough and ended up being the best of them at it. Rhonda made a chocolate cake and a cherry cheesecake for him. In true pre-covid fashion we put candles on the cake and he blew them all out. I am all for blowing out candles but I think taking a piece for the birthday person and putting the candles on just their piece to spit on when they blow out is more my style. However, I am often overruled though and called a germ-a-phob or fun hater. All in all I think Grandpa had a fun birthday.
The next day was another big day. Ryan’s biological mom Sherrie, her husband Dave, daughter Genevieve and her son Eric came up to finally meet Rhonda and Roger in person. It has been a highly anticipated meeting since we found Sherrie two years ago. Ryan was a nervous wreck all week. He was really worried Rhonda would change her mind or hurl back handed ‘compliments’ or barely veiled insults when she met Sherrie. The day before they came, Rhonda decided she wanted to call Sherrie and talk with her over the phone first. They said they ended up talking for three hours and it was a great conversation. That put Ryan at ease a little bit and when they arrived in person it went pretty well. We all sat around and talked for a bit then Rhonda and Sherrie kind of split off and talked and looked at photos. Gen and Dave talked with the rest of us and Eric jumped right in to play with Emilee and Jovee. Rhonda and Sherrie just kept talking. Everyone else went to Top Golf and played games. Rhonda told me afterwards that she was really glad she finally met her and she really liked Sherrie. She said she felt like she was talking with a long lost friend. Ryan and I were very happy that they got along and made a friend in each other.
January 2023- Sherrie, Ryan, and Rhonda
Instead of going golfing with everyone, Allison and I headed to Salina Kansas for a gymnastic tournament. She did a pretty good job. She placed 9th overall, and had one of her best bar routines yet. She is still loving gymnastics. We are proud of her for how hard she works and how much effort she puts into it. Right when we arrived it started snowing so by the time we left a few hours later there was a pretty good snow storm. We had to go a little slower but we were still able to make it home.
About a week into the New Year, it was a regular evening. The kids were all at youth night at the church. I sat down to work on a puzzle we had out from Christmas. Ryan said he was going down to the basement to work on the computer. We were set up for a nice relaxing evening after work and the events of the day. A few minutes later Ryan called me to come look at something. After a sigh, one more sip of my hot chocolate and begrudgingly unwrapping from my cocoon of my favorite blanket I went downstairs.
He had found little black things scattered around the top of the desk and couldn’t figure out what they were. We thought they were insects…dirt…crumbs…they weren’t much bigger than a flake of pepper. We weren’t sure, we wiped them up and decided to see if they came back. I went back upstairs, wrapped back up in my cocoon. A few seconds later I snapped a satisfying piece into my puzzle and the words ‘mouse poop’ popped in my head. I have never seen mouse poop so I wasn’t sure. I decided to google it- sure enough that’s what it was. Ryan had the same thought and we both hollered to each other that we thought is was mouse poop at the same time. We looked around and found a few more spots that had evidence of the disgusting rodents. Immediately everything in our clean cozy little house turned to contaminated, dirty, soiled nastiness in my mind. So instead of relaxing and enjoying our evening we cleaned up everything we found, bundled up and went out in the nasty cold weather to Menards to get some mouse traps. I was still hoping it wasn’t mice, Ryan was pretty certain. We decided to buy one of each kind of trap and see which ones worked and get more of those. We told the kids to pick up any messes and no food was allowed anywhere outside the kitchen and dishes had to be done ASAP after eating.
We crawled into bed. Wondering if there were just mice running around the house like they owned the place every night. Then I heard Allison crying in her room. I went to see what was wrong and she was distraught that we were going to torture the mice and kill them. I tried to explain we weren’t torturing them but we were going to kill them. We came to the agreement that we would use traps that killed them immediately or caught them alive and then dad would take them to the field by his work and release them AND provide video evidence of their release. Crisis averted we went to bed.
The next morning we had THREE dead mice!! THREE!! To make matters a little worse the only traps that worked were the sticky pads…not Allison approved. They completely avoided the rest of the traps. That day was spent cleaning, disinfecting, throwing things away, and putting anything the mice might take as food into a plastic storage bin with a lid. We bought a lot more sticky pads. I researched mice and learned way more then I ever wanted to know about them. Allison made it clear that her trust in us was gone and we were murderers. We had a lengthy conversation about why mice are gross and shouldn’t cohabitate with humans. I apologized that we were going to be using the sticky traps. I had not lied to her but now that I had more information then the night before I had to update our plans. She couldn’t get the image out of her head that they would bite there own legs off to get away from the sticky traps. I told her I thought the sticky traps had poison on them or something because the mice were all dead in the morning.
We ended up catching multiple mice several days in a row, for a grand revolting total of seven. I kept thinking I couldn’t believe we had seven mice running around and no idea. More mice than people!!! I don’t think they were here very long though. The week of Christmas it got really cold. Several days of -5 or more. We think that is when they moved in under the sink for warmth. I deep cleaned the entire house before we moved in and never saw any evidence. I had cleaned several times since we moved in and not seen any either. Since we caught number seven we have seen no more evidence and the traps are checked and moved around regularly. Hopefully we are done with the gross disease carrying vermin.
That was the end of the mice drama until about a week after the last mouse was caught. Allison stepped on a sticky trap. She had a shoe on but was concerned she was going to spread poison all over the house.🤦♀️🤷♀️
As most Decembers are, ours was pretty busy. I did a poor job of documenting it with photos. I can still write about it.
We did a lot of our usual traditions. We drove around and looked at lights while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate.
We did some service-this year most of us were able to help with the local Christmas Bureau. They set up a giant store basically for people that need a little extra help and then they can come shop at the store- but it doesn’t cost money. We helped man the store while people were shopping and take it down and store everything left when it was over. Allison enjoyed helping people pick out a coat if they needed one.
Ryan and I went to a White Elephant party. All of us went to the ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. Yummy food, good music, lots of visiting. There was a photo area and we had full intentions of taking a family photo but we couldn’t locate all of us at the same time to take it and missed our chance. Matthew got one with his buddies though.
I didn’t think about leaving out some puzzles from storage for Christmas. We usually have a puzzle out to work on most of December. We were able to borrow a few from Grandma and we got a new one to work on too. Lots of Christmas music, hot chocolate, Christmas movies, wrapping, buying, gifting. We decorated a ginger bread house. We made and decorated sugar cookies. Our elf Bubbit sent his cousin and reindeer so we found them each morning too. It was a nice month, I think we all enjoyed the family time and celebrating Christmas together.
Christmas Eve was supposed to be at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house with a big dinner and then reading the story together, singing, and hanging out while we played games. Becky and her family came from Idaho and brought Covid and RSV with them so we stayed away for a few days. So we ended up doing all the things I said but we did them with just our family at Ross and Lauren’s house. We did go over later on Christmas day and we had a family dinner the day after Christmas with everyone.
Christmas Day we were up and ready to open presents by seven. We opened everything and had breakfast and checked out our new gifts. Emilee got her roller skates, Allison got lots and lots of squishmallows, and Matthew got his air soft gun. Then we went to church. It was just sacrament meeting and it was a really nice service. There was lots of music which I love. Then we had a the rest of the day to eat junk food and play with the new toys and games.
Between Christmas and New Years we had an artic wind blow in. It was -5 degrees for about a week. Gross. We played with cousins a lot. Emilee really wanted to see the new movie called Puss and Boots so we all went to that together. We went to Urban Air one day and let the kids all get their energy out on the trampolines. My sister Sherri and her family came to visit about mid week. We found some space to squeeze them in while they were here. Matthew moved to the basement. He had snacks, a fridge and a TV down there so we didn’t see him to often. One day was warm enough we went to the park down the street to play. We caught up on the movies we hadn’t had a chance to see. Sherri and I got our nails done and went shopping together. It was a fun visit.
We also turned Allison’s grumpy picture into a meme.
For New Years Eve Sherri and I got some things to play some games with the kids. Ryan made some BBQ and we had lots of snacks to munch on. We played the games we did and then the kids played while we watched a movie. When it was almost midnight we busted out the glow sticks and celebrated the new year. Matthew is now old enough to go out with his own friends and do his own thing so we didn’t get to enjoy his company New Years Eve. He went to a Stake Dance with his friends, then to Twisted Sugar to eat to much sugar, then to Campbell’s house to finish the evening.
2022 was a pretty good year- hopefully we keep that trend going in 2023.
It is always a little crazy to look back over the past year and realize how much happened in a year. Some of it we expected some of it we didn’t. The highlights for me are usually the trips and family events we do. Ryan and I had our 20th anniversary trip to Europe. We decided to buy a lot and build a house. We went to Branson a few times, one of them a Terry family reunion with boating and Silver Dollar City. A sister trip to Texas. Countless activities with the kids- gymnastic meets, wrestling matches, horse riding lessons, baseball games, concerts. The kids all spent some time in Florida with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. I went to Utah for my Grandma’s funeral. Then we decided to sell the house and move into a rental while they build our new one. It was quite a year. I am grateful we were able to do all those things and more. We are very blessed.
We got to go watch Allison play her cello in the school concert before Christmas. This is the second year she has played and she is pretty good. Imagine how good she would be if she practiced!! It was nice to hear her play. Grandma and Grandpa were able to come watch too. Enjoy!
Our Elf Bubbit usually shows up around the 10th of December. This week Emilee found a letter from him hiding in one of the stockings. It looks like we will have some antics from his cousin this year and a visit from his Hershey Kiss Pooping Reindeer.
but I liked to listen and spend time with you. I will miss you and miss giving you a hug and kissing your scruffy cheek. 
