Christmas Eve, 2025
Dinner that evening was at Little India, we enjoyed it last year, and decided to make it a tradition. We were in the parking lot before 4 p.m., waiting for the Open sign to light up. As soon as it did, in we went. NERDS. We shared a couple of dishes and also tried the mango ice cream. Christmas Eve is a special night. You can feel it in the air; it just feels different.
Midway to Santa
The wagon ride began at Wasatch Mt. Golf course and took us to none other than Miner's Retreat, the location of our family reunions for years. The kiddos got a kick out of seeing it fussied up as Santa's Village. Since we felt at home, it seemed obtrusive to be charged for a cuppa hot choc.
Callie also wanted to deliver Christmas light awards. All three of them did it. I have funny videos of them knocking, running, and shouting "Gooooo!" However, I was at the wheel, so the getaway car didn't get above 16 mph:)
At home in our cozy basement, around the Christmas tree, Matt and I shared Christmas thoughts.
The kiddo's opened their new jammies. It is getting rather difficult to pick jammies for teens and young adults. Every year, I think, "This is the last time I can do this," and then I come across something that I end up buying. This year, I channeled Wicked, with the girls in pink and gray in green.
The kids exchanged gifts, and we all thought it was fun to get a handmade card and a personally chosen book for each of us from Katrina. I also had a book for the family to open: Twas the Night Before Christmas, recorded by me! Grayson said, "Ahh, I can picture playing that after you are gone."
It was lovely to have a book to read over the holidays. I sent a Book Report to Kat:
Book Report: The Red Tent
Thanks for sharing with me something that you fell in love with. The Red Tent is a beautifully written book. It was thought-provoking to see the liberty Diamant took in giving background and an epilogue to Dinah’s story.
It is unusual for a book to cover the before, during, and after of the main character’s life. It was done very well. Dinah is a vivid dreamer, like others in her family, which is a nice connection.
Phrases that resonated with my mother heart: p. 249
After Re-Mose had been away at school for so long, with plans to continue away. Dinah expresses her happiness for his achievements. “That was all I could say. Just as he did not tell me of the pain he suffered at school, I did not speak of how much I missed him, or how my heart had been, or how he had taken the light from my life when he left.”
Lovely imagery:
When Meryt’s son invited Dinah to live with them after so many years of living in the palace garden. “All of my days had been spent in that house, and looking back on them in the night air, I recalled little but good: the scent of my infant son and the face of Nakht-re, cucumbers and honeyed fish, Meryt’s laughter and the smiles of the new mothers to whom I delivered healthy sons and daughters. The painful things – Werenro’s story, Re-nefer’s choice, even my own loneliness—seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place. My eyes filled as I bade farewell to those days, but I felt no regret.”
As you indicated, this book is full of sensory experiences. You feel it all as you read it, from the joys to the horrors.
Characters:
I regard Rebekah as one of the great matriarchs, so I would have liked to see her painted in a warm light rather than cold.
Some biblical differences are that Naphtali was the son of Bilhah. The order is reversed from Issachar and Zebulun of Leah’s sons.
As you know, the story of Joseph (Jacob, Jacob and Sons!) has always fascinated me. We are studying the Old Testament this year in Sunday school. Though I teach 7-year-olds, I am looking forward to once again studying the Bible stories. From the curriculum:
“…when you read the Old Testament, you’re reading words that have inspired, comforted, and encouraged people of God for literally thousands of years.
Don’t expect the Old Testament to present a thorough and precise history of humankind. That’s not what the original authors and compilers were trying to create. Their larger concern was to teach something about God—about His plan for His children, about what it means to be His covenant people, and about how to find redemption when we fall short. Sometimes they did it by relating historical events as they understood them, including stories from the lives of great prophets.”
Did all of these prophets, poets, and compilers know that their words would be read by people all over the world thousands of years later? We don’t know. But we marvel that this is exactly what has happened. Nations rose and fell, cities were conquered, kings lived and died, but the Old Testament outlasted them all, from generation to generation, from scribe to scribe, from translation to translation. Of course, some things were lost or modified, and yet somehow so much was miraculously preserved.”
I suppose that’s where my fascination lies. Viva Dinah!
We tried a new movie, Klaus, one that Mal had recommended, and we enjoyed it!
Year after year, when at last alone, I sit in the recliner and take in the room. It is a moment of deep reflection, relief, wonder, and gratitude. This year was different for us. Different for some reasons. It caused my Christmas room to look like this through my eyes.
Ahhh Christmas. ALL the feels. Always.
Christmas Day, 2025
For some reason, I still had hope we would wake up to a white Christmas.
We did not. Matt cooked his bacon outside in the rain. I didn't realize his strong thoughts on this till I heard him exclaim, "Mom doesn't allow me to cook it inside."
"Allow" is a strong word. It is just that I don't know why our house needs to smell like bacon whenever it is a special day. And it is true, I did get rather tired of cleaning up splattered bacon grease every Christmas while the family was downstairs watching a movie. So yes, I guess he is correct.
I don't allow it.
We didn't open gifts until brunch had been enjoyed. I won't allow it (evil bwahaha).
When Grayson opened his shoebox, he was genuinely confused. Which made me confused because his gifts are self-explanatory since they are basically the same every year: Diary of a Whimpy Kid book, ball, Legos, fidget spinners, shoes, etc. Then he asked, "Where is the other one?" The box only had one shoe! Well, in hindsight, the Black Friday sale had said, "Buy one, get one half off..."
I had also purchased books for everyone. For Matt, an easy read, Tuesdays with Morrie. Let's just say, his book report was not as detailed as mine.
"Yeah, it was good."
The kids were thoughtful in their gift-giving; you could tell they put effort into it. Ava gave me a stained glass, and Gray gave me a candle lamp for my office. He also gave a fun family game: KLASK.
The aftermath isn't quite as chaotic as in years gone by.
Mal called while we were watching Taylor Swift: The End of an Era. Because Gav worked, she spent Christmas in someone else's family room, while they had their Christmas, which made us all grateful to be home with loved ones.
Callie spent a lot of the break highly engaged in phone conversations with her new "friend" who was visiting his dad in California over the break....
(Gray looking like he's had enough of all of it, including the documentary.)
Graham also called from Spain, and I was grateful this time that members had taken him in. He's my bay-bay at Christmas!!
I had emailed my kiddos my mom's 80th birthday document. I appreciated hearing back from Katrina that it was a delightful way to spend Christmas Day, reading about her Granny. Graham mentioned it as well.
By the time evening had rolled around and we had eaten our traditional meal of Lasagna, Caesar salad, and Texas toast, I headed out on a walk for some much-needed fresh air. Everyone agreed to join me. It was amazing how quickly Grayson lost his bearings, yet we were only a mile from home. He said, "I wouldn't even know how to get home from here." There has been so much building going on around us—he stopped to throw a rock into a construction hole.
It was a low-key, beautiful Christmas, reflecting on the past and connecting with family—spending time in our bubble.
My happy place.
Callie spent a lot of the break highly engaged in phone conversations with her new "friend" who was visiting his dad in California over the break....
TaySulZol Party
So grateful this tradition has been kept alive! We gathered on December 27th in Highland, Utah.
The white elephant lives on!
Who would have guessed the hot items this year were two taxidermy geese that Ashley brought from her parents' garage?
Callie bought me darling cheetah tennis' for Christmas. I thought that was rather bold to buy your momma a pair of shoes, but she knows me all too well. Besides, she said, "If you don't want them, I will take them." Lindsey G was wearing a near-identical pair. She informed me, "They go with everything."
(I often found myself singing,"The Christmas Shoes" over the next few days...)
Boc Party
December 30, 2025
My side of the family gets together a fair amount. To be honest, the gatherings come to us! For decades, it's been blessings, baptisms, birthdays, farewells, homecomings, weddings, and babies. We are pretty good about annual reunions as well (another shout-out to Miner's!). Matt's side is smaller, and therefore, events are fewer and further between. Matt was vocally expressing this vast difference in get-togethers between the two sides of the family. I said, "Well, unless someone makes it happen, it doesn't just happen." This was an ah-ha moment for him. He mulled that over for a while and decided to make something happen. He put his feelers out to Mark and decided to get together over the break with whoever could. Turned out to be just ten of us, but we dined and gamed, and learned all about Mark's server—so much so that, dare I say, there were 11 of us at the party!
As winter wore on, I feared I had lost the beautiful brooch I bought at the family Christmas gift show. It wasn't until I looked at this group photo that I realized, "It is still pinned to my blazer!" There it was, hanging in my closet.
A funny time during the game was when both Ava and I misspelled the same word we came up with as a decoy word. We are intrinsically linked. All my kiddos were being so hilarious that night. Way to represent, Bocs!
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, 2025, truly The End of an Era.
