Christmas Break in Mountain Home

 I'm so grateful for the time with my siblings and family this week. My parents are saints for housing everyone together. We were all together for about a week and it was the best. 

Although my kids all took turns getting sick and Chris ended up having to leave for a military assignment on the day after Christmas, we still had a great visit. 

The week together was full of quality time, delicious food, cousin snuggles and lots of laughter. 

Before David and Michelle left to drive home, we took some sibling pictures. Also, we took a picture of all the girls together. I played a fun prank on my parents this year for Christmas. I bought all the daughters a sweatshirt that said "Favorite Daughter" and I labeled them to each daughter from Mom and Dad. So when they got opened, Mom and Dad had no idea what was happening and it was so funny to see everyone's reactions. Naturally, we had to take a picture of all of us in our sweatshirts.  

 

The kids loved building their PVC pipe forts with their cousins. Aunt Sarah loved spending time with her niece and nephews and fawning over how big they are getting. Tanner absolutely loved his new jean jacket and I loved getting to be pajama twins with Bailey. I probably loved it more than she did, but she was a good sport. 

Although this Christmas break was exhausting as I was constantly dealing with my kid kids. Managing their medication schedules and doctor visits- it was still completely worth it to be home. The kids napped a lot as their bodies recovered and Skye loved snuggling up with them. Also I had to snap a picture of my kids wearing these chicken socks because I find them absolutely hilarious. I love finding weird socks for my kids. 

Uncle Johnny also spoiled the kids by purchasing every pop-tart at the store in preparation for the "Pop-Tart" bowl that BYU ended up winning. It was a fun game and way too many pop-tarts were consumed. 

In other news, my Dad's Parkinson's is getting worse and he's been experiencing very vivid hallucinations and paranoia. It's been exhausting for him and for those caring for him. I have so much more empathy for my mom and sister, Laura, now. After caring for him and worrying over him these last two weeks, my heart is tired and heavy. I love my Dad so much and it's so hard to watch this disease take away parts of him. I know it's frustrating to him. It's almost like he's living in a different reality than the rest of us and it's hard for him to know what's real. While we were visiting, I was able to sit in on a video call with one of his doctors. By the end of the appointment, they decided to switch out a medication and increase a different one- so we are hopeful that he will see some improvements. But if nothing else, this has taught me that I need to get home more often. So that's one of my goals for 2026- get home atleast once a month. 

I'm so grateful for my parents for hosting us all this Christmas. It was wonderful to be together and I will forever cherish this time we had together. Now it's almost New Years Eve. I'm excited to celebrate and welcome a new year! 

Christmas Day

 We did a lot of our normal Christmas eve traditions but we've really slimmed our traditions down over the years. It makes things more simple when we are traveling at Christmas. 

Christmas was wonderful. The kids woke up early and went through their stockings. Stockings are always my favorite thing and I love watching my kids find all the treasures in their stockings. They loved their stockings and their "Santa gifts". 

Then by 8 am, all 20 of us were awake and ready to open presents. We all gathered in the family room and we first watched the kids open all their presents. We didn't give our kids a ton of presents this year, but that was because each of them got an ipad and apple pen. They were pretty excited. The kids always exchange sibling gifts and then they also got gifts from their Oregon Grandparents. 

After the kids had finished, the adults exchanged gifts  and then we all gathered to open the big "basement gift" from Nanny and Papa. Nanny and Papa give the grandkids a big gift for the basement every year. But this year it was whole new level of amazing. 

The year my parents gave everyone a cruise to Alaska. I'm still in shock even though i've known about it for months and I made 20 shirts for my parents so everyone could open them on Christmas morning. 

It was such a fun reveal. The cousins can't wait to spend the week on the ship together and I can't wait to spend the time with all my family in Alaska. It's going to be so amazing. 

After opening presents, my kids all took naps. Tucker is still recovering and Benson started feeling sick so I'm just praying no one else gets it. 

Chris and I got the sweetest gift from Tucker this year. He painted a beautiful landscape picture and then wrote a sweet poem about his life. It brought both Chris and I to tears. It was so sweet. 

Christmas was so great and my Dad had a very lucid day with us. It was so sweet to have that time with him. My parents only exchanged poems this year because they spent so much money on the cruise. Their poems were so sweet and they were both crying after reading them to each other. It was the sweetest display of love! I'm so grateful for their example of what marriage should always look like. They are just the best. 

The rest of the day was spent playing, resting and eating yummy food.  We actually had our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. It made for a wonderful day. We are so glad to be all together with the entire Drake clan. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Fun

 We've had so much fun this Christmas season. We've been so lucky in that we've been able to check off all our holiday bucket list items.  The weather has been unusually warm and it's actually been a beautiful December. 

I had the amazing privilege of working on a "Giving Machine" committee again this year. Just like last year, I served on the "decor & visitor experience committee" and it was so great. We changed locations for the giving machine this year and it was a great location. We worked hard to make the machines look amazing and we decorated for about 16 hours over two days. Just in time for the "ribbon cutting event" on December 11th. I was very grateful to work with such amazing women on this committee and the ribbon cutting was a huge success. 

That same day, I took the kids to visit Santa on the square and then we met Chris at the machines to make our purchases. 

Santa and Ms. Clause were amazing and so cute with Benson. Tucker also talked with Santa but Bailey and Tanner decided they were too big this year. 

After we visited Santa, we met Chris at the machines and went to make our purchases. These machines are the most incredible way to give to our local charities and global ones. This year our Giving Machines supported 6 local charities including "Sleep in Heavenly Peace", "The Ronald McDonald House", "Pedal it Forward", "Havenwood", "The Salvation Army" and "The Boys and Girls Club" with the two global charities being "Water for Good" and "Mentors International". 

This year Bailey bought a "hearty meal". Tucker bought a pillow and Benson bought both a pillow and a warm blanket. Tanner bought a "Water pump repair" kit. Chris picked the "grocery kit" and I bought two chickens. It was so fun to see what each person picked and why. The kids used their own money to make their purchases and I am just so grateful for opportunities like this to teach my kids about giving and loving our fellow man. It also helps them realize how much we have to be grateful for in our lives. It was a wonderful way to celebrate this season. 

After my part in the GM was done, my life got a little less hectic. I did celebrate by going out with some friends to this cute underground Christmas bar called "The Miracle on 2nd Street". It's always so cute and decked out for Christmas and they added a bunch of "mocktails" this year that were holiday themed and delicious. We wore our ugly Christmas sweaters and had a great time. 

Tanner and Bailey also had their holiday band concert. They did a great job and they sounded great.  Oh and Tucker got to be part of the "Giving Machine" float in the Bentonville parade. I had help with the float prep but I wasn't planning on being in the parade. However, the day of the parade Tucker was at the Lanoy's house and so he ended up going with them to the parade and being in it with them. He loved it. 

On Sunday we had all the cousins over to make gingerbread houses. I put together a little party set up and the kids had a blast. Their gingerbread houses were mostly out of control and covered in so much candy but they had so much fun making them. 

The cousins love playing together and just hanging out so it's always fun to have them all together. However, we were missing our Allred cousins. 

Then on Monday, we drove down to the Drakes' house and they made us dinner and then we went to the Fayetteville square to see the "Lights of the Ozarks". 

The kids love getting to spend time with their cousins so this was super fun. At Chris' request I made "wassail" for us to take with us and it was super yummy. The lights on the Fayetteville square were beautiful and we had a great time. 

After we finished at the square, we drove over to the fairgrounds and went through the drive-thru lights. This was a massive display all set to music and  we all loved it.  We took Clark and Danny in our van and the kids had so much fun together. 

On another night we did our "Minivan Express" and it was great. This is one tradition that I hope we never outgrow. The kids found their Christmas pjs and gold tickets on their beds and everyone got changed and we loaded up into the van. We found some great new houses this year with amazing light displays. It was lots of fun. 

And all the last day of school, I got to attend Benson's class Christmas party. Benson is my last kid to have Christmas parties and I love getting to attend them. He's the best and he loves having me at his parties. 

Then yesterday, poor Tucker woke up sick. He was so sad because we have alot of plans. 

Today the rest of us went to help with the "Sleep in Heavenly Peace" bed delivery day. We got to deliver and assemble 4 beds to two different families. It was incredibly rewarding and I'm so grateful that we got to find another way to serve this holiday season. 

Chris and Tanner assembled the beds and Bailey, Benson and I took care of the mattress and the bedding. It was fun and it felt so good to help others. 

After getting back from the bed delivery, I took Tucker to the doctor. Turns out he only has a bad cold. I feel bad for him since there isn't much we can do for a cold and he doesn't feel great. 

Last night we did our last Christmas bucket item- "The North Polar Express". Sadly, Tucker didn't feel up to coming so he stayed home and the rest of us went. We got there early and and we were close to the front of the line. So once they opened we didn't have to wait long. 

We had a great time but we missed Tucker!

Then today we were able to attend our Christmas Sunday church service. It was a beautiful service with amazing musical numbers. I always love Christmas Sunday. 

After church we headed to Mtn. Home to spend the next two weeks with all my family. We are so happy to be here and can't wait for everyone to arrive. It's the best. Only four days til Christmas!!!