For New Year's Eve, we went to the annual party that the Whettens usually throw. The party ends by 8:30 pm and they do a balloon drop around 8 pm. This is so any youth can get to the dance that is always happening somewhere. Jonah is turning fourteen in 2025, so he was able to go to the dance this year. He went with friends from the ward: Blake Bittel, Cameron Whetten, and Savannah Bittel.
We had to wait to do the sibling gift exchange until Westley came into town. He went to California for Christmas but then came to Texas afterward before going back to Utah. This is still my favorite family tradition at Christmas Time.
Jonah made Eliza a butterfly charm to hang from her rearview mirror in her car.
Eliza made Nathan a bracelet.
Annmarie made Jonah a superhero cape.
Travis gave Annmarie coupons for baked goods.
Westley made Travis a custom album with a QR code to access it.
Nathan made Westley a scrap book photo album from all his years in band.
Annmarie will be twelve in the coming March, so she'll be moving into Young Women's in January. The Bishop organized a tour of the temple with the kids who were coming into youth in January. We walked around the outside of the temple and went in the foyer where the temple president talked with them. We did go to Braum's after for a treat.
And Annmarie FINALLY got her new team leo for competition season, which is coming right up.
This place opened up right near the Plano In-N-Out where Corey was store manager called "The Minecraft Experience", a place for people to have an immersive experience in Minecraft. The kids have all been playing Minecraft since they were little, so Corey and I got to see more of what it's all about. It was pretty fun to go to as a family. I'm only sorry we couldn't have signed up for a time that included Westley, but his flight from California, where he spent Christmas, wasn't due until later that afternoon.
We took time in the afternoon on Christmas Day to go to the Giving Machine in McKinney. Each of us picked a gift to give. It was cold and there was hardly anyone there. What a fun thing to do and a great way to spend Christmas Day.
We hosted an extended family Christmas party at our house on my birthday. We had a brunch where everyone brought some food and we socialized. Grandpa and Grandma brought their ornaments to pass out and let the grandkids open. I took some photos of Maggie and Eliza in their letter jackets from rival high schools, one earned for band, the other earned for choir.
I had such a great trip to Chicago with my parent orchestra.. from riding the L to eating deep dish pizza to hearing the most amazing symphony and choir concert ever to looking at incredible art to eating apple strudel to getting stuck in an elevator to having a six hour flight delay to participating in an amazing workshop on how to form a parent orchestra to running into Jonah's old trumpet teacher (Rylan Taylor) at the convention to getting together with an old friend (Allison Harvey Peters). What a great trip!
