happy merry christmas

The crew hung out and had occasional appearances for game play on Monday. At night, we all trekked up to Craig's "cabin" for dinner and games. Craig unknowingly split up teams very unevenly for our group game, but we'll cut him some slack because his table was cool - and had lots of leg room. 

Saran Wrap game. 

Our official festivities occurred on Christmas Eve. We had a potluck taco bar (delicious). We did a gift exchange (SO to Mac & Gerg for stuff to fuel our freeze dryer hobby) and a white elephant. Both our gifts were highly sought after - a creepy wooden shepherd and a knife/flashlight set. We ended happily with a money saver notebook (unfilled as of yet) and a boy lamp that probably shouldn't have ended up with Shannon's little girls anyways. 

A hiatus was taken for a bit, since I had previously invited Lauren for festivities around 7pm and wanted to wait until then for the game we brought. She ended up not making it, but for good reasons. So we played our version of Jeff's saran wrap gift game instead. There was over $500 worth of goods in there and I think everyone went home with a bunch of stuff. It was a hit, but we probably don't need to play again in the near future. 

Our white elephant. 

On Christmas morning, every was at their own houses and we stayed at the BnB for gifts. We were happy for books and a tourniquet and a cheese grater and some chew sticks for J. And we were able to watch some of our given gifts be opened, which was fun. People slowly trickled over for game and Lauren finally made it over - and actually opened up about all the things I'm not allowed to tell anyone and her plans to make her BF bald before anything gets too serious. 

The photos. 

Thursday and Friday were pretty chill. We did some shopping at Costco while in the area and watched Kelly assist with baby blanket/stocking creation for Courtney's child and Xander's business. We had some New Girl on. We listened to the entire Epic Saga at one point. And Rich fed J everything that he ate. Which J loved. A lot of games were played and I even played a fair number myself. Roger wished he had a few repeats on some of the trickier games and MGH had no complaints about No Mercy Uno. 

We leisurely packed (between games) on Saturday and Greg let us know the family videos were all uploaded to his YT channel now. We ended up leaving around 1 and getting into Page by 6:30, just in time for spring rolls and bed. We had a third Christmas with the Page Sandalls and are thankful for a new tarp, some funny clothes, and knives (always). 

Thank you to everyone for making this Christmas special. J especially appreciated eating all the food, lessons on crawling/walking (aka physical therapy), and the empty water bottles. 

The crew.

Sunday morning, we went to Sacrament in whatever clothes were not too buried in our car and enjoyed some yummy pork chops. We finally came home, showered, unpacked, called patients, and prepared for a return to normalcy and a new year. 

Again, if you want access to the blog once it goes private, LMK asap otherwise you may lose it. 

Travelling

Another crazy week at work since our PTA was out sick for part of it, but I ended up busting tail at the start and then the PTA got better, so I only had 2 people to see on Friday morning. I still didn't work out this week since I was sick and someone else was able to open the gym for volleyball. 

We picked up our freeze dryer this week! It came early and the store got confused, but we did it just in time before leaving for vacation. We also had a quick trip to a store nearby for some Virgil's black cherry soda for a Christmas treat for the Page Sandalls. 

The recreation

Our Christmas tradition (which I didn't realize was tradition until Rog pointed it out) is to go to the used bookstore in town for some new reads. I ended up picking a new planner for Roger with profane birds and he let me pick out 6 books for myself (which was a mistake lol) before getting ice cream and heading home. 

We did our family Christmas early since we weren't about to pack stuff anywhere (which I stand by). And Rog is excited about some new pants, shooting stick, and headphones. He got me a cookbook - but a useful one for our freeze dryer - some homemade fruit snack molds, a sweet knife, a gun cleaning kit, and some hand therapy tools - unironically purchased right before I broke my wrist. We're not really giving Christmas gifts to children, but we did get a couple new books and some new tools for progressing to a solid food diet that we were needing anyways. 

This was just to fulfill her shutter count. 

After my two patients Friday, we waited to meet up with the Natural Plumbing crew for lunch. Rog got a lovely new shirt that Kaleb gifted him - although half of Kaleb's gift is still in the mail. He had a good time and I enjoyed the good food. We paused in Page then headed up to Richfield (Roger's requested spot for a hotel that he later realized was not on our direct route). 

We spent the night in a nice King bed, getting in around 9:30. We had some continental breakfast and I forgot that it was a public place. Then we stopped at Red Barn for cider and a few other treats we spent way too much money on before getting to Hannah's. Aurora did so many tricks and kept trying to show us different movies. Everyone took naps at various times, then Hannah went to pick up L/M. 

The most uncomfortable one. 

The siblings all met up at JC Penney's for a photo recreation as a surprise Christmas gift for Kelly. The photographer was WILD and her ideas for a nice photo were super uncomfortable. She also ruined the reaction to introducing J to the crew, which was unfortunate, but Hutchins don't have crazy reactions anyways. 

Then we all showed up suspiciously around the same time to the AirBnB for a hangout and some games. We were the only ones sleeping over that night since Xan/Mads switched off staying at Mad's family's house and Hannah slept at her own apartment sometimes. 

The only decent one. 

We went to church with Kelly and Rich at Derek's ward. It was 98% musical numbers, but surprisingly went 5min over. There were a few excellent ones and the rest weren't bad either. A small crew hung out at the AirBnB for a smaller version of Tday dinner provided by Kelly. 

As a side note, with the emergence of baby J, the blog will be going to private mode. Please let me know if you want access, as I will need to add emails individually. 

Sickies

VB happened and after I opened the gym, I went to my own gym so I could go on a little run. I've also tried doing a little weight lifting, but it ended up not working out so well. So I figured running was the best option - until I got sick with whatever Rog was getting over. Then I was just finishing Christmas stuff and trying to survive. 

I saw Rog's mom and sisters briefly. They're in town pretty much every week, so I'm not tryna chill for long. And I am still doing overtime at work, especially since our PTA got really sick. (I just have some congestion and a sore throat). 

Rog went to an annual checkup and it was a NIGHTMARE. Two hours and doing the same extensive paperwork 4 times and a new system that didn't work and IT guys that weren't helpful. All for an annual physical. He did get a real quick dermatology referral out of it (vs the typical 3+ month wait), so that was nice. 

Since I was sick, I didn't do a whole lot over the weekend other than try to sleep and get better. Which I feel like I did, before I got worse again. I ran some errands and did some editing for my new YT series. Meanwhile, Rog went hunting. He took a 3-day weekend and went all over northern AZ to try to get a deer. Try. There's always next year. 

Lumpy

 I've been opening the gym for VB and helping them get set up since I can't play. I'm hoping it'll become self sufficient at some point, but right now it definitely is not. Rog is playing basketball and I finally got my cast off so I can do SOMETHING. (Although since they wanted me in a cast for another 4 weeks, the tradeoff is my weight restriction is 3 lbs.) But it was worth it to be able to move it sometimes and take a real shower. 

Work is settling down a bit, but I did convince my higher ups to pay me for all the extra training I've been doing to get our PTA up and running. So I have a nice bonus in the works. And we are going to have our annual cookie contest at work, so I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies since I haven't made those yet this year. Roger also made some delicious chocolate chip cookies this week, so we are feeling especially lumpy. 

I finally had some time to film some more YT videos for my latest study guide set. (Now to editing...) And while I was running errands, discovered the wonders of World Market. I was there on a Christmas errand, but took a quick peak around and came home with a few extra things - including the now rare Virgil's black cherry soda that we love, and a refreshing mint lemonade a la France, that Roger loved and requested over other soda or sparkling cider. And everything was surprisingly affordable. 

Tis the season. (These are now hung on an antler.)

While Rog was helping our neighbor collect wood from a secret spot, I finally painted the ornaments we meant to do over Kelly's birthday weekend. I was kinda sad the table wasn't bigger, but I also needed to shower so Kelly could do my hair because I could not at the time. 

We also had the sister missionaries over for dinner. They are both super trunky and have an unfortunate list of allergies. So that was an interesting challenge, but we managed to make it work with an adjusted stew. And Roger ended up not being there since the hunt he was helping on still had yet to tag out. But he showed up just at the end. 

round 1

Friday night was our ward Christmas party - which always does all the sports people dirty by setting up a day early and not checking the ward calendar other than at the time they want to set up. So a few groups were salty. They also go wayyy overboard. It's probably a good thing I'm not on that committee, because it's not worth it to me. Anyways, so we chatted with our landlords for a bit and ate some pulled pork. And this was after pre-gaming with a Christmas party by a group that Rog's plumbing company works for. And there were some bomb fajitas there. We were glad to attend both. 

T-day

I had 2 long days this week in order to have one short one on Wednesday so we could be on the road before it started snowing. Work is still crazy and likely will be until our PTA is up and running. Also everyone else at our company seems to take a lot of vacation, which makes my schedule crazy too. 

We had a good crew for VB (which I know because I helped them open the gym). I was planning to start working out once my ankle felt better, but my cast has been chafing pretty bad around my thumb and I don't want to make it worse. Probably for the best for now because my ankle is still swollen. 

We packed up our Ford and test drove it up to Page (which was where T-day ended up after some dispute). It drives fine, but it seems like some of the sensors have iffy connections - which ends up with the RPM gauge not working, the tire pressure sensor going off, etc and sometimes that all sets the check engine light off. But then they all go off randomly too. 

Thanksgiving wasn't too stressful this year, but maybe that's because I cooked my sweet potato casserole in advance and took a nap while the kitchen was busy. We had wild turkey, store turkey, and ham. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and veggies with ranch dip. Frog eye salad, orange jello melange, and hot baked rolls. Dessert included oreo cheesecake, chocolate pudding pie, plain cheesecake, pumpkin pie, blueberry pie (my favorite, SO to Linn on that), and ice cream. 

found some sheds :)

And we're still enjoying leftovers. Which I love because then I don't have to cook. Rog spent Friday hunting in 12 with his Aunt Aly. She ended up getting one the next day and he only had a little FOMO. Lots of games were played and I enjoyed a book, did some budgeting, and tried to take naps since I didn't sleep great this week. 

We drove back Saturday night so Rog could help his friend's friend try to shoot an elk. He was irked when neither of them listened to his advice the first two days and set out with the expectation they could be picky in a hard hunt. Today, he was more frustrated they couldn't keep up so they didn't get to the right spot in time. But they actually saw elk with Rog there and even got a couple of (missed) shots off.