True Love

Michael has been dreaming of a fat bike for years. He has been putting money aside each month, and scouring the continental United States for a good deal. Then one day, it happened. His dream bike was on Facebook Marketplace, in his price range, and was located just five hours away in Bend, Oregon. 

One road trip with his brother later and Michael was the proud owner of his very own Surly Ice Cream Truck fat bike. His joy knows no bounds.

His new love even got its own photo shoot, which is more than we can say for our daughter who needs her senior photos done. He has his priorities.

Noodles!

The library's Noon Year's Eve party would have been a disaster, if it weren't for the help of five wonderful people. With all the extra help, it went off without a hitch. 

I was so grateful for all their help, so a couple days later, I took everyone out to dinner. 

Can't go wrong with Mongolian BBQ. Who doesn't like noodles?

Ethan has mastered the chopstick life. 

Sam decided his method worked well enough.

Libby also found the need to get creative.

Grace and Michael decided forks were just fine.

It didn't matter how we got the food to our mouths; it was delicious. It was nice to sit back with a meal everyone enjoys, visit, laugh, and not have to worry about dishes at the end. These are some lovely people to spend an evening with. And the kids told me to quit saying thank you; I was just making it weird. But I really was grateful.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was a grand event this year. Actually, I guess it would be more correct to say, "Noon Year's Eve was a grand event!"

I was in charge of hosting a Noon Year's Eve party at my library branch for all the littles that couldn't make it to midnight.

There were snacks, popcorn, crafts, DIY confetti cannons, crowns, stories, bubbles, a dance party, and a balloon drop. Whew. Thankfully, I had a lot of volunteers to help run all the stations. These volunteers all happened to live in my house, and may have been forcefully recruited, but it still counts.

By the time the party was over, the balloons all popped and the confetti-strewn floor was vacuumed, we were all ready for bed. Unfortunately, it was only a little after noon.

After a nap, we started the festivities again.

Sam had several friends over to ring in the New Year. They played games, ate junk food, had a great party, and were taken home minutes after the ball drop.

Grace met up with a friend at Wahooz and played the evening away. She brought her friend back home with her. So while I ran Sam's friends home, Grace and her friend crashed on our floor.

It was a day full of activities and noise. I think it was perfect.

Christmas

The children on Christmas Eve. They smiled so graciously and then went calmly to bed. Let's just go with that story, k?

The next morning came and everyone found their way out of bed to celebrate. Sam decided he was too tall to to stand in the front for the photo. His siblings insisted on age order. This was Sam's workaround.

Christmas morning came, and with it the glory of presents. Like each year, the morning was early, the stockings were overstuffed, and there were presents under the tree. 

Libby was ecstatic about her Carhart vest. She wears it as often as humanly possible. It amuses me how much she loves her vest.

There were plenty of presents. All my kids worked their tushies off, saved money, and spent a lot of time shopping to buy each sibling (and parent) the perfect gifts. My favorite part of Christmas this year may have been watching the children unwrap gifts they had bought for each other. They put so much thought, energy, and money into making their siblings feel special. It gave me warm fuzzies.

Birthday

In the last year Ethan graduated high school, got a job as a bike mechanic at the BBP, started college and moved out. He's still willing to come over for presents and dessert, and that's good. He celebrated his 19th birthday surrounded by loved ones who were worried about keeping him fed. 

He got a lot of food and more energy drinks than I want to believe he will drink.

This last year has been one of huge change for him, and he is doing pretty well. His first semester of college was pretty rough, but he has a plan in place to get him back on track. He loves his job and is keeping his rent paid. Not bad for nineteen.