Happy New Year!

Courtney spent some time with friends and then we watched movies until Bryan decided he didn't want to stay up and he went to bed.  I stayed up because I needed to get a baptismal appointment for the youth and the new appointments opened at midnight.  Courtney stayed up and rang in the new year!

Hair Dye

Courtney has always wanted to have pink hair.  I hate colored hair so I haven't ever let her.  She was shopping with her two friends and they found temporary hair dye on clearance and wanted to try it.  They said they would only do the underneath of their hair and that would be gone after 5-10 washes.  The older sister of one of the girls does hair and she was going to supervise so I thought it would be ok.

They went to the one girl's house and they tried it out.  

Yeah, it didn't really work.  You can't see it very well and it STINKS!  But they got to try it out.

Jedi Kids

Ethan's last phone call home of 2021.  He was cold (we found out later that they didn't have heat or hot water for 3 days) and so was Courtney.  They both looked like Jedi masters with their hoods on.  It was hilarious to watch them tease each other.

Cold

It has been really cold here.  It has been raining quite a bit so we have gotten snow in the mountains but none in town.  When we went to move the truck, we found ice in the bed.  Crazy!

This is ice!

Christmas

Courtney warned us that she was going to be waking us up at 6 am to open presents.  We thought it would be funny to go in and wake her up but we ended up pretending like we were still sleeping when she came in.  We had to make a spoof of a video of Ethan when he was little.  If you haven't seen it, you are missing out because it's a hilarious Christmas video.  Here is Courtney's version (at least the first part of it is):

We opened presents.  Santa did indeed come and brought Courtney a camera that she has been wanting for a while.  Ethan took his with him when he went on his mission (actually, we took it down for him when we went through the temple with him) and Courtney has wanted one of her own to take pictures with.  She got ski clothes (surprise!), a bunch of books, and a new Minkey Couture blanket.  She got money from her grandparents so she is going to buy new cleats and she got another year of Spotify premium.  She was pretty happy with her haul.

We had our traditional breakfast of sausage, eggs, orange rolls (a different brand this year since they were sold out of the usual ones we get), and orange juice.

My parents came over and we had lunch and opened more presents.  Then it was time for naps and games.  Santa brought us Connect 4 for Christmas.  Bryan and Courtney played for a long time and have become addicted to it.  I don't play because I'm too easy to beat. ;)

Ethan got to call later in the afternoon.  He opened his presents with us watching and it was fun to see things that the ward members had given him and all the packages from family.  He has a ton of gift cards and so much candy!  They were invited to a member family's home for the evening and he was excited for that.  They were going to have a big dinner with family.  I am glad he was well taken care of for Christmas.

It was a good Christmas day!

Drywall Process

We took a video of the basement drywall process.  You can see all the dust in the air down there.  But you can see the walls and the progress they have made so far.  You can also see that it is taking shape.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was kind of hilarious.  We had the drywall crew in the basement for half the day.  They had their music up full blast and were singing along.  We were dying! It was the best entertainment, especially when Courtney started karaoke along with the songs.

Our tradition is to have Pizza Hut pizza for dinner on a blanket in front of the tree.

Then we play the chimes, which actually went ok this year. We got one song good and that's all you can ask of us.

Courtney read "Queen of Christmas" which is her favorite Christmas book.

I read "Davey's First Christmas" and then Bryan recited "The Cremation of Sam McGee".  We tried to be scary with the light on his face but it wasn't dark enough outside to make it really work.

Courtney got to open her Christmas pjs from "Christmas Eve" (that's what I would always write on the tag so I could remember which were the pjs so they could open them on Christmas Eve.). 

She was actually surprised that I got good pjs for her.  She doesn't trust my clothes buying skills sometimes.

We watched a movie and hung out until it was time to go to bed.  Courtney is hoping that Santa comes!!