So I realized that I forgot to include the post-Christmas Family Christmas party! It is after all a tradition for the Preslars to gather on the Saturday after Christmas to exchange gifts and have a meal together. This year Troy and I took a turn planning. I don't think it's been that long since we hosted the party, but Troy's oldest brother just moved to Vernal and things are kind of up in the air so we just went ahead and did it. Most of the time we gather at a church building and we were thinking of doing just that. But then we started counting up the number of people coming and we realized that life for our family is changing! The grandkids are growing up! Many of them are not living at home, some even out of state. Our group has really shrunk in size. And we realized how little space we actually needed. We decided to call my dad and ask him for a favor. He has a home with really a very nice open space for meeting. We were very grateful that he agreed to have us there. What a nice cozy gathering.
Our meal plan was soup and bread bowls which was delicious. We exchanged gifts - we gave to Sam and Kathleen this year. I was very excited that I had the idea to give the gift of a play ticket to Kathleen, and also Lucy, since one of our kids drew her name. I had also given tickets to the girls to see The Wizard of Oz in January and how fun to add Kathleen and Lucy to the party. Troy and I really enjoyed getting some movie money from Morris and Carol as well as a lovely fluffy scarf for me. We had fun picking out anime things for Alissa, who funny enough, gave anime t-shirts to Chase in return. Fellow anime lovers! Emma got a splendid gift from Lucy - an online drawing class and some markers. Romney got some legos which has been a favorite of hers still. And we gave Curtis star wars socks and t-shirt. What a pleasant afternoon together. Games and chatting and soup!
That very same night Troy and I snuck away from the family to go gather with his high school friends. We were meeting at Craig's house in Orem, but before we went there, we made a stop at the home of his friend Dave who owns two massive huskies. We have been following them on instagram and dying to meet these puppies. Romulus and Remus. Oh my gosh these dogs. I love them. They are absolutely massive. And friendly. And very licky. We didn't get any pictures of the actual party, but I grabbed a couple of selfies of me and the pooches. And for the record, the friend gathering was wonderful. I love Troy's friends.
So New Years Day. Much like Christmas, we decided to take the holiday firmly in our own hands. We had the whole day, and we did not want it to crawl by in a steady search of wondering what to do. We had a really good time putting together a day we would enjoy celebrating and enjoy remembering!
One of our activities was ice skating. Chase did not join us in this venture. He detests ice skating. So, his celebration was staying home. Troy and I took the girls though. Emma started the outing by clinging to the rail at all times, shuffling along and hardly daring to move. I don't know what clicked but by the end of the skate she was totally on her own! She was so proud of herself and so excited. She's still begging to go skating again but I haven't relented. Troy and I felt very old and sore. Skating is not easy on the ankles.
In the evening, Chase was invited to hang out at the Moore's house for a massive gaming night. We were invited as well - we are so excited because after 15 years of living in the neighborhood, they bought a house! In the neighborhood! Yay! We were very happy to go over there and spend the evening with them, but decided that we really wanted to go out to dinner first. The girls wanted to go to The Olive Garden. We decided to hit the downtown location. We went early - we were pretty nervous that it would be packed to the very gills. We weren't sure where to park or how bad it would be. Guess what. At 5:30 on New Years Eve people are not going out to dinner yet. We parked on the street right outside the front door. There was absolutely no wait, and in fact most of the tables were empty. It was awesome! Troy was even feeling festive enough to get appetizers. It was so fun!!
I just loved that we decided what sounded like the most fun and just went ahead and did it. I am really loving family time these days. It's changing - I mean, basically Chase wasn't with us all day. He had a great day with friends. And it should be that way. He's 16. He should be with friends. But I miss him when he's gone. Of course, when he's with us, he's generally terrorizing his sisters so then I feel better about him going to be with friends. It's a weird line we walk these days.
The evening with the Moores was fun, although we were laughing a bit because the adults were so tired. The Moores had earned it for sure - they had been moving since the day after Christmas. Basically I never want to move. What a lot of work, and how much more stuff we have than we think we have! The part of the evening that was not fun at all was watching the Utes totally falter in their Bowl Game, OUCH, but mostly it was super fun. Emily did a huge snack buffet for all the teenagers she had in her basement. Super nice. The girls and Troy and I did not stay until midnight. We are too old and tired. We did watch the ball drop on tv at home, or at least Romney and I did. Emma went to bed and I think Troy was asleep on the couch. Bittersweet moment as always.
The next morning I did what I had wanted to do on Christmas morning - make Pioneer Woman sweet rolls which are ridiculously buttery and so tender and good. I realized that we had more food than we needed so I put in a call to my dad and to a couple of neighbors and suddenly we had a house full of people. I was glad we did it - I enjoyed the idea of a New Years Buffet and might do it again next year but with slightly more intent and....planning. Always planning, I am.
Well, that was that. We were pretty darn tired, and basically all we wanted to do after that was continue with our other favorite post-Christmas tradition of watching the Lord of the Rings. We get so excited about watching it every year that it makes the sting of Christmas ending a little easier. Last year we made a mistake and totally binged on them - one whole movie a night. It was over way too fast. This year we pledged to watch only half a movie a night. But what ended up happening was that a lot of activities got in the way and it took us like ten days or something to get through all of them. That wasn't all that bad - fun to enjoy it for so many days. And even longer because then we started watching all the making-of videos. Those are longer than the movies! So yay for New Years Traditions and good times.
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