December: Christmas Music, Christmas, a trip to Washington and New Years Eve

 December was full of fun concerts, lots of yummy food, visits with family and friends and the wonderful Christmas holiday. We had our twins home from December 7-January 4....almost an entire month! It's getting quite tricky to find gifts for our boys. They are all old enough that toys just won't cut it anymore. I wish we could just give them some money and call it "good" but they do still love the excitement of opening gifts under the tree. Hyrum does a great job every year of coming up with fantastic, practical but also silly gifts. I told him he has to stick around for many more years...our family would be lost without him!

Oma came to Portland for a short visit. We walked around the Portland Audubon Society park.

We went to a "Hawaiian Christmas" concert. It was fun. The singer did a great job and a lot of his songs were accompanied by dancers, so it was really enjoyable.

My front entryway. I bought the Santa just this year to go with the elf...I think it's pretty festive:)

I work with the Activity Day girls for our ward (girls age 8-12) For our December activity we combined with the boys group and we made wood block nativity sets. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do this, there was SO much paper to cut out to prep for this activity. I think the kids had fun and they turned out pretty cute but I won't be doing this again any time soon!

We found the best little tree for our Christmas (we went on December 21st and we were so happy the tree farm was still open!)

Did I mention it was an absolutely gorgeous evening. The sunset made the entire hillside glow:)

Katrina and I braved the crowds and went to Tuba Christmas in Portland. Always a fun concert, especially when the rain holds off:)

We took the whole family to see a "Charlie Brown Christmas Live" We thought they would play the movie while the orchestra played the score but instead they had live actors play out the movie while the orchestra played. Not nearly as good as if they had just shown the movie.

We walked down to Pioneer Square after the concert to see the giant Christmas tree all lit up.

Jason just bought his first house and needed some help painting some walls. We all showed up and knocked out the whole house in a few hours. It was the boys first time painting and they all did a great job!

We attended "A Celtic Christmas" and we all agreed this was a wonderful concert. They played Celtic music and had some Celtic dancing but there was also a man from Ireland that told wonderful stories about his childhood growing up...it was a heartwarming event

We enjoyed our Christmas Eve with the Doxey family where we have to perform "talents" to get a special "grab bag" surprise. This year Emerson wrote with his right and left hands (which they looked pretty identical) I performed the Maori "stick game" with Hyrum, Julian and Townsend did a balancing game where they tried to push each other off balance...it was a very fun night.

I went to Midnight Mass at St. Mathews Church in Hillsboro. They didn't have an organ or a great choir so I might try a different church next year.

Christmas kitty waiting for Santa to come

The tree awaits Christmas morning

We have a relaxing morning. The boys don't usually wake up until around 11 and then we have a wonderful breakfast before opening gifts. I like how slow and easy our Christmas mornings are.

The boys posing with the ornaments they got from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

The aftermath!

Hyrum cooked up an amazing Christmas dinner that we shared with the Doxey family

We are so lucky to live close to the Doxey's so we can share so many wonderful times together.

I took the boys to the mall after Christmas so we could donate with the "Giving Machine" We donated shelter, clothing, migrant legal services and vaccines. I'm glad the boys were eager to donate to those in need.

The weekend after Christmas I drove up to Washington to spend some time with the Christensen family. Their daughter, Maggie, is getting married in May 2025 and she invited me up to go wedding dress shopping with her. I had a blast! It was so wonderful to hang out with this great family and to participate in Maggie's wedding preparations:)

This was my favorite dress she tried on...unfortunately it was $4,000 and she just couldn't bring herself to spend that much money on a dress. But she looked absolutely stunning!

Hanging out with the crazy Christensen crew:)

I requested Aaron's homemade sushi and we had so much fun making it together.

Ready to dig into the sushi feast! The man on the right is Maggie's fiancé, Heller

And on top of being able to hang out with some of my favorite people...their goats had some babies just a few days earlier and I got to snuggle baby goats!  Best trip ever!!

The power went out on New Years Eve around 5:00. We were going to go to Katrina's for our annual party and almost cancelled but we are so glad we made it work. We just ate and played games with lanterns and candles...it was actually quite cozy and memorable

Ringing in the New Year at midnight with some fireworks.  Goodbye 2024!

In all honesty I'm not very excited about 2025. For one, Donald Trump was elected as President AGAIN even though he is a liar, criminal, cheat and all around terrible person. Who knows what insane and crazy things will happen this year just because our country is led by a complete idiot!! I'm also a bit sad because Julian will be leaving us for a year to study abroad in Japan. I am beyond excited for him to have this experience but I can't help but feel a little sad at the same time that my baby boy is going to be gone. I hope that in December 2025 I will have wonderful things to remember...but looking ahead I fear 2025 will be a bum year!