Happy New Year, 2026!

 We were invited to our friends, the Barkers' New Years Eve holiday party. This year they had it at one of our church buildings, had board games, a video game set up, a hot chocolate bar and a table for goodies people brought. We (Aubrey) made an herb cheese star bread that was the hit of the evening! We stayed from about 8-11, when crawled home to hopefully just get to bed... but ended up staying up until midnight to enjoy our festive cider and everyone else's fireworks. We did our ground display fireworks earlier in the evening before we went to the party.

Dad lights firesticks for Kai

 

Everyone got a chance to light some of the fireworks

Emily gets to light some explosives

Kellen takes his turn lighting some explosives

New Year's Eve Party

The garlic cheesy star bread...Turned out great!

At home it's Midnight! 

Happy New Year 2026!

Post Christmas Family Excursions

 The day after Christmas we went as a family to the theatre to watch the movie DAVID that Angel Studios produced.

We enjoyed our time and the movie.
Note: expect 1/2 hour of advertising/previews right at the movie start time, prior to the movie actually starting. Not having been to the theatres in a while, we were not expecting this. Now we know.

Emily also really wanted to go bowling.

We tried a couple days and each day it just didn't work out with timing and other acitivites/commitments.

But, we kept at it and made it happen, even if we did have to go to more than one bowling alley that day to find one that didn't have a 2 hour on-site wait (crazy! Who knew!?)

A family hike/walk was also in order. We didn't have a TON of snow on the ground at the time, so we went to see and explore an area close by where Dad went hunting earlier in the fall.

Emily gets a chance at siting in and pulling the trigger

Owen and Dad test out the sites

(Kellen and Kai were WAY ahead of us on the trail and weren't able to shoot, even though they were on the hike with us)

We found some wildlife prints!

Holiday Mischieviousness

We have a pair of Santas who have followed our elf, Henry, down from the North Pole. While Henry likes to keep out of trouble and simply observe, the Santas... well... they create some mischief all their own. And it is, frankly, somewhat hilarious.

One night Emily couldn't find Bunny and then next morning we found her on the bookshelve with the Santas riding on her bike like a horse. HA!

Merry Christmas!!! 2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dad caught Santa again this year! The sneaky li'l elf!

Christmas morning sleepy time... but we're so excited for all the surprises!

Early morning stocking exploring

Dad loves on Owen with some back scratching 1st thing in the morning

 

Dad got some fun stuff

The family takes good care of Mom on Christmas, too.

 

Christmas Morning wrestling... sort of

Patiently waiting for the morning to begin...

Before getting going for the morning- the family all together

(Kai, Mom, Dad, Emily, Owen, Kellen)

EMILY

Dad love and a new toy car

SO many earrings!

OWEN

Cologne?! Socks!

Guitar music and being awesome

 

Electronic paper-to-digital drawing pad and wallet

KAI

 

Butterfly combs and a new media player (the last one was not terribly waterproof, even though it wasn't completely submerged; steam is apparently also deadly (eek))

This Saturn V Rocket Lego set was a gift to Kai from Kellen.

It was a thoughtful, not inexpensive gift, and was very clearly Kai's favorite of all the gifts this day.

He spent the entire afternoon putting it together- he was so excited.

This was Kai's most unexpected and most loved gift this year. From Kellen (and parents)

Replacing a water damaged media player; and another hoodie- with pockets!

Monopoly AND Harry Potter? Yes please!

KELLEN

Replacing a TSA confiscated Cirkl water bottle; Kellen's OWN bow

Emily loves her brothers and is not shy on the hugs and gratitude

New (badly needed) shoes; and 500 pencils (no excuse for not having one now!)

Kellen is the cookie connoisseur of the family.

Emily addressed her own gifts this year

Now we don't have to be concerned about pencils disappearing.... ever! (Hopefully)

500- should be good for a while

Family Tenzie with the new game. Emily is obsessed

Kellen tries out his new bow with Dad

Kellen helps getting dinner ready

Happy Christmas dinner! with 3 pies: pecan (for Dad), mixed berry (Emily's request), and key lime (Kellen made)

Christmas Day afternoon was beautiful (no snow) with a lovely rainbow

Dad 'plays' with Emily's Christmas earrings. Ha!

Kai with his completed NASA rocket.

He spent most of the afternoon putting this together.