Christmas 2020 and New Years 2021 in Utah

 

When we first got to Utah we were with our cuzzies from California. We started my NZ puzzle I got from Cesha.

I didn't help with any of it. Puzzles aren't my thing man.

It was good to be in Utah with the family. We stayed at Dru's parents place.

We arrived on Wednesday night. Christmas Eve was the next day.

The next morning we went to a local breakfast place to celebrate the twins, Seth and Tate's, 18th birthday. I love those guys and they've been great friends to Masaru. He loves them.

Here we all are. 

It was good food and a great time together.

We got the rest of the puzzle done. Isn't it great? Now I need to frame it. I gotta figure out how to do that.

We ran around and did some last minute errands and then had a great Christmas Eve family night together.

Everyone came around and we had soup and salad and then Grandma played games with us and then Dru did a Christmas programme with the family. It was excellent and I was really proud of him.

We stayed up late that night doing each others stockings and wrapping all of the kids gifts. There they all are.

The next morning the kids didn't wake up too early, which was awesome.

Here's Emiko with her gifts.

Takeshi with his gifts.

Yuki with her gifts.

Masaru with his.

And here's what Dru fit in my stocking.

We were all treated well and were happy with what we got. 

We all hung out with each other and did puzzles and ate. It was great. We then headed out to Kristins house to be together as a family.

I was doing the dessert.

Everyone was there and it was fantastic. I had a great time catching up with everyone and celebrating Christmas with Dru's family. The dessert turned out great as well and it was a wonderful day. I'm grateful this plan B was so good considering NZ wasn't in the cards.

The next day I worked on getting out my second episode.

Masaru went to an indoor bike park and worked on his flipping.

Here he is getting in some practice time.

He's almost making it.

Lots and lots of runs. He went with a couple of friends he made mountain biking. I'm glad he could go with mates.

Sunday we stayed at the house and did our own church at home, like per usual.

We stayed for the rest of the week and left the next Saturday. When we did things is kind've a blur because I've left it so late, so I'm just going to post the pictures up and talk about the things we did.

We visited with friends. We saw Laura and Dave and hung out with them for a while. It's always great to see those guys and be able to catch up.

We also hung out with our mates the Maxwell's and were able to play games, have dinner and catch up with those guys.

We also had dinner one night with PUggs and Stacey which was also epic. It was good to have sushi and ice cream with them.

One night we also went out for sushi as a family, just the Nakaya's. That was good food as well.

One of the days, Dru went to work on his snowmobile with his brother. Masaru and the twins went as well and they used PUgg's shop to do their dirty work. Puggs or Dru captured this picture of handsome Masaru who just happened to be sitting by this cool mixing machine which made him look like a musician. He's got such a great smile. I think they got things all squared away. We'll see if Dru uses his snowmobile this winter to really find out I guess.

We also saw our long time friend Jared and got to catch up with him after a couple of years. He was good to talk to as always and shared what he'd been up to. He's always got projects he's doing and working on and saving the world. He's a great person and we've always appreciated him being our friend. Bonus, he also gave us some snowshoes for Christmas. Such an awesome gift which I've totally used. They were great.

Yuki went ahead and got her ears pierced for the second time. She did great and paid for it herself from her grandmother's Christmas money. 

This day we hung out with Kristin and Brooke all day. It was nice.

Masaru also went back to the indoor bike park and learned how to do the flip 100% We were way pumped for him. How cool is that right?

Now he just needs to try it on dirt. Good luck to him.

Masaru hung out a lot with his twin cuzzies, when they could hang out and we went and hung out with Ryan a couple of times and watched movies. He was busy working on re-doing his house though. Dru helped him with that one full day as well. It's looking really good, but is going to be a lot of work.

New Year's Eve we prepped for Shogatsu and celebrated bringing in 2021

Then we woke up and kept prepping.

The food was amazing and we had family and friends come over. The Maxwell's came back which was wonderful and Will and Jen came and hung out with us as well. It's always good to see them.

Ryan came down for some lunch and we dropped off some food to Kristin because her family was sick and we didn't wanna spread germs right?

It was a wonderful day catching up with friends and eating good food.

The next day we packed up and got on the road to Boise.

It'd been a wonderful time in Utah and we were really happy to have spent out time down there.

We saw these jokers going home with us and figured we'd capture a picture of the greatness that is their sail ontop of their car. If you don't have enough room or a trailer, you gotta do what you gotta do right?

It was a great week and much needed. It was nice to get away and see friends and family. It was a pretty perfect trip and I'm glad we did it.

School projects, snow, and more

 

So the kids had to go back to full time at home online school after Thanksgiving. They were totally bummed out, but it is what it is and we move forward with it. Here's Emiko making a school with her soft toys and reading to them. Her assignment was to read to someone and since we're all busy she made this up. I love it. She did a great job. Sometimes our soft toys are the best friends we can get. I remember feeling the same way when I was her age.  

Dayton was around and he showed me this picture he had of Takeshi. I loved it so asked him for a copy and am putting it on the blog for safe keeping. Handsome.

This is the letter I decided to write for Christmas this year. Figured I'd get it up here.

This was Masaru's science project he handed in for his Biology class. It's an animal cell in cake form. Pretty cool.

Emiko had to make a robot for a project in her class to hold her markers. So Everyone pitched in and helped. Mostly Takeshi though. Pretty cute.

It turned out really cute and like I said, everyone pitched in and helped. She was really happy with the end results.

Takeshi and I decided to go for a mtb ride. It was cold but not bad at all. It's been a pretty light winter with basically no snow. But it's been raining quite a bit so it's still kinda muddy around here. But if it keeps being such nice weather we might be able to start mtbing again here in Jan.

So our ward decided to do a drive in Christmas party. They set up a big screen and got an FM channel and we drove in and listened and watched the video the ward put together. It was pretty fantastic. We got popcorn and candy and collected socks for a charity. Then we got a gift on the way out. Masaru and Yuki did a video of their year as the ward asked for the youth to submit something for the video. So these video's are what the kids submitted. I think they turned out great.

The kids have been enjoying going up to bogus basin and getting some snowboarding in, however. Here's some video's of Masaru and Takeshi.

Lots of their mates end up being there and so it's a great place to met up and go enjoy the snow together. It's been good for the kids. I'm glad it's open.

I uploaded my very first podcast episode and I'm way excited about it. I feel good about this adventure and am happy I have had support from Dru to do it. I've had great feedback, so that's wonderful.

We have had a little snow here and there, but nothing that's stuck and nothing to write home about that's for sure.

Hannah Tolman gave me this book to read to present a fireside on for the youth for Trek this year. So I read it and have been taking notes. It's a fascinating book and I love it. I'm glad I was given this assignment as it's helped me learn so much about the history of this country and how it's intertwined with the gospel, maybe.

This is a video of Emiko's success in math. I was so proud of her. Her goal was to not be the last person finished and this day she was in the top 10 done. So I got her to make a video to her math tutor that she's been seeing to tell of her success. Pretty awesome.

Takeshi and Emiko went to Dayton's house to make some sugar cookies. It turned out to be a big success. Look at everything they did!!! So awesome.

I'm glad the were able to be together. Takeshi really likes Dayton. I'm sad he's moved out of the area.

Yuki went with Harper to do school at the school because Harper's mother, Jobecka, teaches there. They found this cave like room to do their work in. Fun.

They decided to utilize the free hallways and take their longboards all around. Super fun.

Takeshi worked hard and made it teeny tiny crane. Pretty awesome I'd say. He's so great with things like this.

Well that was the latest between Thanksgiving and us going down to Utah for Christmas.

Our neighbours were exposed and then caught covid 19, and so we quarantined ourselves for about 10 days. None of us caught it, thank goodness, but it was kinda nice just to relax right before Christmas.

We realized that if we had any symptoms around the 15th of December we'd be staying in Boise for Christmas. Fortunately none of us got sick and so down to Utah we left for 10 days. That'll be next.

I'm really happy the Christmas season was so chill. 

Christmas is in the air

 Now that our Thanksgiving trip is done it was time to focus on Christmas. My ultimate favourite holiday. The only one that I've taken decorations out for this year as well!!! Love it.

We got home on Saturday and I forced the family, except Yuki she was mad keen, to help me get out and put up all the decorations. Dru and Masaru were total party poopers and hate decorations and so I simply asked them to get the boxes out for me and told them to take their poopy attitudes somewhere else while the rest of us decorated. No one was gonna spoil my and Yuki's Christmas cheer mate.

So we got started and put Christmas music on, it was epic.

This was my happy place that night. Christmas all up, the fireplace raging, me on the couch with Dru snuggling. What more could I want.

After seeing Amy's awesome star on top of her tree, I decided to try to make my own. I didn't know if it was gonna work, but I went for it anyway. So I ordered a gold star about the size I wanted, then started wrapping it with my cotton yarn I have. I think it turned out great and the star only cost me $2!

This was the old star that was on the tree. We'd had it for years and years. It was simply from the dollar store. It's broken as well. So it was time to say goodbye to the old faithful dollar store star and hello to the new home made star.

There she is, looking awesome.

Dru thinks our tree has waaaaaay too much going on, but I don't care and love it. They're so many that are made by the kids. That's what it's about right? I don't need a themed tree with it all neat and tidy. I was raised with a live tree and decorations we made and could find........period. So that's what I have. There's no rhyme or reason to it and I love it.

Our friend turned 6 and so I knitted him a hat and gloves. I hope he likes it. I love it.

Yuki has started hanging out with Harper and I'm pretty pumped about it. Hopefully they'll remain friends.

Harper then made us Christmas cookies and this is the only shot I could get of them after everyone had devoured them. Super kind.

I also got some gingerbread houses for the kids to make. So we had fun doing that.

They did a pretty good job.

I love Christmas. And this Christmas was less stress than ever before. I said no to stuff I usually say yes to, and we did most of our shopping online. The pandemic helped and no school and church. No volunteer stuff, it was pretty awesome if I must tell the truth. It was relaxed and focused. It's the best season I've had in a while, stress free wise. So that's nice.

Bring on the Christmas cheer.