The Blanch Herd

Monday, December 28, 2020

Christmas

Our Christmas was filled with presents, food (we had cinnamon rolls and "egg rolls" (aka mini crustless quiches) for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and pineapple ham, potato casserole, spinach salad and rolls for dinner), zoom and love! (In no particular order ;)

First present to be opened (we took turns
youngest to oldest).

After he got over his initial (mild)
disappointment that this wasn't a train set,
he was quite glad to have a train puzzle,
and he even did all 100 pieces by himself

Cal made disc golf signs for each "hole"
of our backyard course.

She had names and pars and distances and maps
and even dedications. It was darling and perfect!

A showdown - they opened their presents from each
other at the same time (see video below to find out why!)

bonus video!

"they got each other the same thing!"

(glow in the dark discs, if you couldn't tell or didn't watch ;)

See what I mean by love? Awwww . . .

Cal is the absolute best when it comes to
reactions and genuine gratitude for the gifts
she got (most of the time). She's been wanting
a rainbow loom since kindergarten, but hadn't
really talked about it for a while, but she was
so surprised and excited about it!

Oh yeah, he knows what this is!

40 feet of hot wheels track!! (Just one of
many, many, many hot wheels-themed
gifts he got this year: launcher, 12 cars,
another track set (with loop), calendar,
shirt, coloring book . . . )

Yep, nailed that one, too. It's a sewing box
since she's been really into sewing lately.

Gregg moved a couple big presents into their
rooms, unwrapped, after everything was
finished at the tree and we sent them down
to see what was there. Since Sam is in his own
room, we decided to get him a "dresser"/shelf/
storage area.

And Cal got a cozy chair for her reading nook.

Christmas aftermath!

I must admit I do love this mess on Christmas morning.

She also got a reading light (which is
now attached next to her bed) and will
get lots of hours of use, I think.

Cozy spot.

New clothes from Grandpa and Grandma
Elwood.

Hot Wheels City going strong.

Christmas Eve

We had a nice, simple, quiet Christmas Eve at home and it was lovely. We skied in the morning (a gorgeous bluebird day!), cooked and prepped in the afternoon (I didn't want to have to "make" anything on Christmas day), went for a walk to the park before dinner, watched GBB Holiday episodes and ate nuggets, cranberry cream cheese dip, shrimp, crepes and chips and dip around the coffee table, watched the first half of the Nutcracker on TV and then called the Blanchard grandparents to watch us open our "open Christmas Eve" stockings and jammies. The kids were wired, but that makes it fun. We all watched a reading of Luke 2 that we participated in with my cousin Savanna (and other extended Thornley family members) for our scripture reading that evening. And then after Cal and Sam went to bed we had a bit of assembling to do on Sam's last present before we headed to bed, too. Only one more sleep till Christmas!

My favorite time of day is 6 am under
the glow of the Christmas tree lights.

From my vantage point on the love seat, here are the
rest of the lights adorning our big room.

We got first chair on this gorgeous (cold) morning!

How many plumes of snow can you see
from snow guns cranking it out up there?

Monster trucks at the park.

She somehow made it to the park without
socks on her feet inside these boots and
(surprise, surprise) her feet and ankles
were being rubbed and starting to hurt,
so she spent her park time on the bench,
trying to configure socks out of her mittens.

I took laps around the "crop circles" aka tire tracks
from a four-wheeler (we think) in the field. But look
at that moon!

Also: the ice sheets curling off the bowery roof were
pretty cool to examine.

Dinner time!

Present time! We've had this giant box
under our tree for days and the anticipation
has been growing!

Hi Grandma and Grandpa B!

Ready for bed (and for some hot wheels
racing!).

She wanted a solo pic in her new jams.
She loves them so!

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

A Visit from the Moosletoe Express

Since we weren't gathering with everyone on Christmas this year, my parents offered to play "Santa" by picking up and delivering all the gifts we had for each other (we siblings and grandkids all drew names for each other). They started on the 23rd in Providence organizing things from them to each family. Everyone's presents went into boxes in the back of the truck, then they headed to North Logan to Nate's family where they made the drop and trade. Kylie in Hyrum was next. And then us. While they were here, we all walked to the lake and out onto the ice for a mid-day leg-stretch. It was fun to show them around the frozen tundra before they headed further south to Heather's house in Heber. Since Heather's family wasn't giving anything to our family, the Moosletoe Express didn't have to make a second stop back at our house. They finished their deliveries to Ky and Nate back in Cache Valley and then we waited for our Christmas Day Zoom sesh . . . only a few days away!