January 2023

Christmas and New Years

Here are the Christmas festivities for 2022

For Christmas Eve we had our pache dinner in Saratoga Springs this time. Afterwards we had the talent show and Tayevion played the cello for us. Zuri helped Cee Ryle with his piano performance. Shayden played the guitar for us, which was awesome. We opened presents and we caught a picture of Blossom actually smiling! For Christmas Day we decided it would be best to have it at the old house with Jonas. The kids slept in a tent in basement and had a good time opening presents upstairs in the morning. That night we went to the Browns and its played the chimes which is a tradition now. We had a white elephant gift exchange and Casey made his delicious egg nog! Then during the week between Christmas and New Years we went to the aquarium in Layton again and had such a fun time. One day we also went ice skating too. For New Years Zildy had a job face painting at the Gateway until midnight and got to work with Kailee and Sidney. 

December times

We had lot's of Christmas fun in December. We have a new tradition of going to the Christkindlmarkt at This is the Place. It's a great way to set the Christmas mood. But our real kickoff is going to see Christmas in New York. This year we had to take a detour to California, but the payoff was that we got to fly Mint class!! It was amazing and so fun to have the kids (except Shayden, who met us there) get to experience it! This year it rained on our first day in NYC which the older kids loved for some reason. We had to buy Jasmine new shoes because the ones she wore had holes in them. We bought umbrellas and made the best of it, and it was still a fun day. Of course we saw Santa but we also walked along the Highline and ate at Chelsea Market. We shopped at several Christmas pop up markets. We stayed the night at a hotel in Queens, and the next day had much better weather. We hung out at Grand Central terminal and had some yummy bagels. We saw THE tree and braved the crowds. 

It was a memorable trip!

In December we also:

*Saw some progress on the addition to the Browns home!

*Had a Gingerbread house night with all of the cousins which is now a tradition

*Jonas got a Grinch costume and surprised the kids in school one day. Another day Zuri was sick and he wore it to visit and cheer her up

*One Saturday we went out and had a fun day Christmas shopping and eating at Costa Vida.

*Zuri had a great sing a long performance and her outfit was so cute!

*Taye has been playing the cello this year and his teacher raves about him regularly. He had a concert at Tracy Aviary and did fantastic!

November times***

In November Tayevion performed in a series of showcases. He was *** in Newsies and Aladdin! He did so great. One day at Sunday dinner we played a quiet nerf gun game that was fun. Zuri had lots of cute hairstyles. Tayevion was the best school President that Bennion Jr. High has ever had. 

Thanksgiving was in Saratoga Springs this year and Julio came. Cat crocheted the cutest little hats for everyone's place settings. After dinner, since it was Ellie's birthday, we all went downstairs and had a fun Harry Potter themed birthday party for her. We all wore house colors and competed in games. Then the next day of course we went Black Friday shopping. And we ate out with Julio at some delicious restaurants.