December 2020, Part 3 - Christmas in Utah and New Year’s at Home

Our Christmas Eve tradition is something that Tyler has been doing with his family since he was little, so we already had our plan for the day and night being at his sister’s house. We always start with appetizers, so after making a list of our favorites and getting lots of help in preparing them all, we sat down to enjoy. We took some pictures as we started our Christmas Eve festivities - one of everyone and one of each of the tables.

Our appetizers included jalapeño poppers, mozzarella sticks, guacamole shrimp bites, and bruschetta. Everything was delicious.

 

Our first activity was the talent show. It’s always hard to prepare a talent when you’re not at your own house, but everyone participated and found something to share with us. Taryn learned a song on the ukulele. Aubrey was a little more prepared since she had taken her flute anyway to take real lessons with Halley. They’ve been doing virtual lessons through zoom once a week, but Aubrey was very excited to be able to have a real lesson in person with Halley while we were at their house. So Aubrey performed a song that they had been working on for the last couple months. 

Tessa and Julia prepared a duet on the ukuleles. They both played and sang. It was to a song from the movie Tangled, and they did so good having prepared it in just the few days that we had been there. Abby sang a song from the hymn book and it was so pretty. Abby and Halley and Anna also performed a musical dance number together. They did a synchronized swimming number where they danced behind a sheet to a Christmas waltz song. It was awesome. I videoed it but didn’t get any pictures. It was hilarious and well done.

After our traditional dinner of chicken balls and mashed potatoes, we did the piñata. The parents wrapped a box full of goodies and gifts and Tyler and Justin figured out a way to hold it up in the living room so everyone could take their turns hitting it. They are always very creative in how they wrap the box and how they can get it high enough to lift it and let it swing around while everyone takes turns.

With how well it is wrapped, it always takes multiple rounds of everyone getting a turn. They start by getting two or three good swings while trying to make them good contact hits as the dads lift and sway the rope to make it more challenging. Taryn and Aubrey still had good hits.

 

Tessa and Abby took their turns as well and made good indentions in the box, but nothing opened. We always go youngest to oldest in hopes that everyone at least gets one turn, but it usually ends up that everyone has to take 3 or even 4 turns before it really starts opening up. The best part of the night was when Anna took one of her turns. She decided to try a different approach and planned to stab it from underneath with the stick, but with one quick movement by the dads, she ended up swinging at air and releasing the stick and it hit the ceiling and made a nice crescent shaped mark. We all laughed and laughed forever before we calmed down enough to let the next person go. It was really funny.

 

This year the gifts inside the piñata were individually wrapped presents for everyone that happened to be the traditional matching pajamas. With all of the whacking and hitting, some of them were already coming open and falling apart, but the names were luckily intact so we knew which pair belonged to which person. We all immediately got into our pajamas after cleaning up the piñata mess and then we had to take some pictures in the cute matching “oh deer” pajamas. The synchronized swimming number put the kids in a good mood for awesome picture poses which I loved. We also figured we had to do a pose with all the girl cousins holding the one boy cousin. They all got along really well together as we hung out all week, but Jacob’s face was perfect for this pose as he was surrounded by so many girls.

 

We took one with all the girl cousins too after Jacob made a fast getaway as soon as they let him down from the previous picture. We really liked these pajamas and thought they were super cute. We were also very happy we could find matching ones for all the varying sizes from the little girls all the way up to the moms and dads.

We finished off the night by watching the newest video that the church had put out about the nativity story. It was an awesome rendition of the Savior’s birth. They showed a lot about the shepherds and wisemen as they were guided to the Christ child. My favorite part was when the wisemen came to worship him, he was a toddler by then, but they still were so overjoyed that they were able to meet him and when they all bowed down to this little boy, you could feel the spirit so strong. And the joy and happiness on the wiseman’s face was just so powerful. We loved it. We were able to get one good full family picture in with our matching pajamas before we sent the kids off to bed to get ready for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning came early as usual. It was probably 6:30 am when the kids starting waking up the adults. I was too tired to think clearly, but luckily Tiffany took some pictures of the morning. Here’s Aubrey and Taryn with some of their presents and Tyler as he delivered gifts from under the tree to their owners. 

The teenagers all had blankets to stay warm and they were happy it was Christmas morning, but you could tell that they weren’t used to such early mornings. You can see from the window that it was so early the sun wasn’t even up yet. At least we got some smiles from a couple of them.

Tyler and I were across the living room from Tiffany and Justin. Tiffany took these picture of us as we got ready to start opening presents and as we took turns opening our gifts. It’s nice to be in some pictures and not always be the only one trying to remember to document everything through pictures. We like to stretch out the present opening process by everyone watching as one person opens a present. We usually go from youngest to oldest until all the presents are gone. It’s a fun tradition that lets us enjoy the reactions as presents are opened and to lengthen out the Christmas morning process.

 

It didn’t take the teenagers long to take their morning nap. They all decided to snuggle up under their blankets as soon as the presents were opened and take a quick snooze while we cleaned up and prepared breakfast.

One of the presents the parents received was a hard drive of pictures and home videos that Tara had put together from all of their family’s videos. We spent the morning watching a few videos when Tyler and Tiffany were kids like birthday parties and family gatherings. We also happened to come across the wedding video that I put together for our wedding. It had all the pictures of Tyler and I as we were growing up, so the kids thought it was pretty funny. I loved watching it and Tiffany conspicuously took this picture while we all were enjoying that wedding video.

The cousins are really close and I always feel so blessed that they get along so well and it doesn’t take long for them to get back to being best friends when we get together. I took this picture of Halley and Abby as they talked and conspired on the couch across from me on Christmas Day.

Taryn and Lucy are like long lost best friends whenever they get together. They do everything together. One of Taryn’s Christmas presents was a hair extension maker kit. She made one for herself and then let Lucy make one too. They wanted pictures of them together; and they definitely wanted one showing off their new cool hairstyles.

 

We’re always sad when it’s time to leave Utah. We love being with family and spending that quality time together. We always leave looking forward to our next visit. When we got home from our week long Christmas vacation, we still had some time left before school started up again. Abby spent some of that time with her friend Astrid. One day she went to Astrid’s house to help them make tamales. She said it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Luckily, we got to help eat the finished products. They were Costa Rican tamales which are a little different than the typical Mexican tamale. They had a lot more vegetables and filling than just the meat ones, but they were equally delicious. We also scheduled Abby’s driving test for one of the free days before school started. She was very nervous, but prepared and she did great. She passed with flying colors and she immediately came home ready to go for drives on her own. She took her first “parent-free” drive with Tessa and they went and picked up ice cream cones for all the kids. It was a fun tradition that I hope all the girls continue - taking a sister for their first drive with a drivers license. Abby’s an awesome big sister and I love the great example she sets for them, for me, and for everyone she meets.

We planned New Years Eve festivities at our house by inviting friends to join us and doing our traditional appetizer and game night. Aubrey baked her own cake from scratch and was excited to decorate it too. Tyler’s family sent texts wishing everyone a happy new year and asking what we were all doing, so I had to send pictures of all our appetizers that we were preparing.

We had the Kasallis and Andersen families join us for food and games. The only picture I got of everyone was while they all took turns playing Rock Band. It was fun singing songs and playing games together and visiting while the kids all played together. We’re very grateful for good friends when we don’t have family living near us. We can always count on our good friends to help us celebrate the holidays that we’d normally spend with family. They have become our family and we love that the parents and kids are all so close. It was a great way to finish off the crazy year of 2020 and prepare for the new year.

Aubrey’s cake was a great hit. She decorated it herself and was very happy with how cute it turned out. It was a little confusing when she asked to put candles on and everyone kept asking who’s birthday it was or who was turning 21, but once we explained that the “21” was for the New Year (2021), it made a lot more sense. We were all happy to say goodbye to 2020 and all of its weirdness, and ring in the new year and celebrate with cake, food, games, and friends.

December 2020, Part 2 - Wedding, Family, & Fun in Utah

Andrew Gibbons married Maddie on December 19, 2020. We were excited that we were able to be there. Because of the COVID pandemic restrictions, not very many people could go into the temple for their sealing. They were sealed in the Provo city center temple with just their parents and grandparents in attendance. They had a ring ceremony and reception in a rented hall a couple blocks from the temple. We drove over with Tiffany and her family and were there waiting when they arrived from the temple.

We all wore our masks, but we were happy to be with the family for the ring ceremony that Tim presided over. The cousins were so excited to be together and it was fun to visit with family that was in attendance.

 

Tyler’s parents came over from the temple and that was the only time that we saw them while we were in Utah. We got a picture of all of the Gibbons original kids and their spouses. I really liked this picture even though it took forever for everyone to stand still long enough and look at the right camera to get it taken.

After the ceremony, they took a lot of pictures. I was able to get one with Andrew and Maddie and all of the cousins. It was a large group and we were happy to be there and be a part of the family festivities.

We stayed for the luncheon, which was pretty small since a lot of people left with their food after the ring ceremony was over. I took pictures of the cousins, so I got one with Aubrey and Taryn and all the younger cousins; and then I got one with Tessa and Abby and all the teenage beauties.

This all happened on Abby’s birthday. She was a little sad that we had to travel some on her actual birthday, but once she knew we would be with her cousins, she was willing to make the sacrifice. She loves her cousins very much and these girls get along really well. Even with only seeing each other a couple times a year, when they’re together, it’s like they’ve never been apart. When Abby heard the wedding reception would be on her 16th birthday, her only question was, “Will there be dancing?” So, during the reception, Tim made an announcement about Abby’s birthday and then they played a line dance for the kids to dance to while Maddie and Andrew changed into their travel clothes to head out for their honeymoon. Abby was ecstatic about the dance and the shout out for her birthday.

The girls love their cousins. Here’s Abby with the youngest cousin, Camden. He loved snuggling with Abby and she just soaked up the affection he gave her as she held him. They were so cute together. I loved the wedding colors and flowers so we took pictures of the girls with the table centerpieces. This was my favorite picture of Tessa. I loved her hairstyle that she let me do - a crown braid. She’s so pretty!

We loved the different shades of pink in the flowers. Here’s a picture of Aubrey with one of the centerpieces. I love her smile. Taryn was so excited because she caught the bouquet that Maddie threw out to all the young girls. I believe how it really went down was that her cousin Sara actually caught the bouquet since Taryn was a little shorter, but Sara gave it to Taryn since she already had a bouquet as one of the bridesmaids. It was very nice of her to let Taryn be the shining star. I might have made the suggestion that Taryn give it to Abby since it was her birthday, but by the disgusted look on Taryn’s face, I figured that wasn’t going to happen. She was very proud of herself for being the one to “catch” the bouquet, so she didn’t like my idea at all.

As the newly wedded couple left their reception, everyone got to do sparklers. I didn’t take pictures when they actually ran through the lines of guests, but I did take some pictures afterwards while the kids used all the extra sparklers. Here are some pictures of the tweens - one with Jacob and one without. These three girls are pretty inseparable when we get together.

Aubrey usually hung out with Jacob, but would jump between hanging out with the tweens or the littles depending on her mood. She loved doing the sparklers and was so proud of herself when she had one in each hand.

Taryn, Lucy, and Anson are called the littles and they are also inseparable. As soon as we walked in Tiffany’s house, Lucy grabbed Taryn’s hand and they were off and we barely ever saw them again. They always included Anson whenever his family was with us and those three were like peas in a pod - they did everything together.

For Abby and Julia’s birthday, Tyler rented out a movie theater and we saw the new Croods movie. Tim and Tara’s family joined us too, so it was the one time we all did something together. Just like last time, we loved having the entire theater to ourselves and everyone really liked the movie. We of course had to have our traditional dance party during the credits and then we got a picture of all the cousins outside the theater.

 

The movie theater was in a mall, so we walked around the mall for a bit after the movie. We found some cute Christmas decorations where I had to get pictures. This big Christmas tree was in one of the main mall galleries and it had a walkway through it, which was a perfect picture spot. I took a picture of Taryn and Lucy and I begged the tweens to get in my picture too, but I couldn’t talk the teenagers into having their picture taken.

 

On another day, we decided to meet up for ice skating. We had to wait in a really long line because there were restrictions on how many people could be in the rink at one time. We finally got to the front of the line and they let our large group go in together. While we waited in line, outside in the cold, I took a few pictures of the kids while they were bored and trying to stay warm.

 

The cousins didn’t care too much about the wait, as long as they got to wait together where they could visit and catch up. They all just wanted to go ice skating, so they didn’t care how long it took as long as they got in at some point.

I had to smile watching my Texas-raised kids trying to ice skate. We’ve done it before when we visited Vernal, but it was many years ago. As excited as they were to ice skate, it took them awhile to get used to the skates and the slippery ice. I was very thankful of the family for giving helping hands to my girls who needed the support. Here’s Abby taking turns with Halley and Katie, and then another turn with Tiffany.

Halley was a good help for Taryn and even Uncle Justin took a couple turns helping Aubrey. Once they got the hang of it, they did eventually do some skating on their own.

 

Tessa picked it up pretty quickly, but she enjoyed going around with Makaela. Taryn was so excited to finally catch up with Andrew and Maddie who made an appearance too.

At one point all the skaters had to get off the ice for the zamboni to drive through and smooth the ice. We all crowded together so I got a picture of everyone while we waited. 

Another activity we planned was an escape room. We wanted to do fun stuff during our vacation, and Tyler found a family-friendly escape room where we all worked together to solve clues to help save Santa and Christmas. It was a fun one and all the kids were able to participate and we did solve all the clues and save Santa with time to spare. We had the host lady take a picture of us with Santa in the background after we won the game. The kids all said it was so fun and they had a great time.

The escape room was just down the street from my grandma’s house, so after leaving the escape room, we stopped by to say hi. We thought we’d just say hi from the driveway to keep our distance, but Grandma Willes was ok with us coming inside if we kept our masks on. We got to have some of her famous homemade Christmas chocolate truffles and we visited for a bit. She’s doing well even though she’s been stuck home for most of the last year because of the pandemic. I think that’s been hard for her since she’s used to going and doing. She normally teaches at a senior center and she has lots of groups and clubs that she’s a part of, but with everything closed or restricted, she’s just been spending most of her days at home. We were happy that we got to stop by and visit even though it wasn’t for very long.

While we were at Tiffany’s, there was a phenomenon that occurred that hasn’t happened for many, many years (like 800 years to be exact). Saturn and Jupiter aligned so that they looked like one bright start and many were referring to it as the “Christmas star.” It happened on the 21st of December, 2020 and I went outside of Tiffany’s house to try and catch it on camera. I took a couple pictures, one with the flash and one without, but you can kind of see the two planets really close together even though I missed the exact moment that they were aligned. It still was a pretty cool sight and I was happy that the pictures turned out as good as they did.

 

Tiffany planned some fun menus and one morning we did pancakes and created them like Santas and Rudolphs from a Pinterest article that she had seen. We thought they turned out super cute and the kids loved decorating their own plates, especially when they found out they could use however much whipped cream they wanted. We also spent an evening decorating sugar cookies, although the only picture we got was one Tiffany took as Tyler decorated cookies after all the kids were finished. His perfect decorated sugar cookie was one filled with chocolate chips.

 

The cousins had a blast hanging out day and night. We love being at Tiffany’s house. All of our kids are so close in age that everyone gets along so well. All the teenagers serenaded us with a song while wrapped in blankets one night and we thought it was so cute we took a picture. We were able to watch the BYU bowl game while we were there, and Lucy even dressed up in her cheerleading outfit to help cheer on the cougars. They even did a cheer and pyramid during halftime. It was a good game and they won easily, so it was a fun game to watch.

We packed in all the fun activities we could and still had plenty of time to just relax, hang out, and play games. We went over to their church gym a couple of times to play basketball and the teenagers took a lot of drives to just hang out. We also took trips to the BYU campus and its bookstore which is always on our to-do list when we visit Utah. We really love getting to spend holidays with family and we loved being together for Christmas. We did so many fun things, I had to split up the posts, so all of the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities will be in the next post. We love our family!