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!
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