A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a peaceful ending to 2023 and a good start to 2024. I love new beginnings and fresh starts. One of my favorite verses is Lamentations 3:22-23 that says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”(emphasis mine) Boy, I sure need that. Here’s our how our holidays went:
1. Keeping the boys busy. As always, the excitement and anticipation of Christmas is often more than my boys can take. So, each day is a challenge to keep them from climbing the walls and/or attacking each other. There were a lot of chores to do, but we also squeaked in some fun.
Grayson wanted to practice football kicking, so we went to a nearby park several days.
Morgan worked a few shifts at his new job at Dart Wars. And then he and Grayson played for a bit afterward on one day.
We also did a lot of our Christmas traditions: Last year we attempted a ginger bread house–this year was a gingerbread train. We put the boys in charge of the decorating. Isn’t it lovely?
We also made and decorated sugar cookies. Doesn’t Super Rockstar look thrilled?
And we made a trip to a shooting range–always a favorite to practice with Morgan’s air soft sniper and a 22 rifle my dad gave the boys.
2. Christmas Eve. Our long-time tradition is going to our “second home” church Calvary Fellowship Monument. Super Rockstar and I get the privilege of leading worship, we absolutely love Pastor Tony’s teachings, and then afterward is a chili supper and getting to enjoy hanging out with folks that have known us and loved on us since our boys were babies.
When we got home we opened our traditional Christmas Eve jammies and Super Rockstar still makes videos from Santa for the boys and Barney via PNP (it stands for portable north pole). He’s done this since they were little. Somehow miraculously the boys made it on the nice list, but Barney? Well, he was told to try harder. Poor Barney.
We also watched what has become one of our favorite Christmas movies–Klaus. It’s on Netflix and is an absolutely wonderful movie. And then ended the night setting out cookies and milk for Santa. I think Santa would prefer peanut brittle and beer. Maybe next year.
3. Christmas Day. I’ve heard tales from my fellow parents of teenagers that their kids sleep late on Christmas morning–often that they have to wake them up to celebrate and open gifts. That is not our house. Super Rockstar and I were up til 1am getting all the stockings filled and gifts laid out. Grayson often has trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve and this year was no different. We told the boys to wait until at least 6am (but 9 or 10 would be just fine). All through the night we heard Grayson up. At 5 am, I awoke to find one of our big Nutcracker soldiers at the foot of our bed.
I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep. At precisely 6am, a loud yell of “Get up!!!” followed by a high-pitched scream (not mine) jolted me upright. The yell was from our boys–the scream was Super Rockstar. And that’s how we started our Christmas morning.
The rest of the day was much better (especially after I had some coffee). We opened gifts in record time–so many shouts of joy and laughter and thrills.
And Santa remembered Barney after all. He LOVES his new bed.
We spent the day enjoying gifts, watching football, naps and lots of good food and treats.
4. Kansas Trip. The day after Christmas we go to my parents’ house in Kansas. We got to enjoy seeing family, eat the most amazing meal that my mom makes each year and so much other good food, opened gifts, and then got to hang out and visit a lot. My parents surprised the boys with VR headsets. They’re hoots of joy were heard around the world. As you can imagine–we didn’t see them much the next couple of days.
5. The Last Gig. It is said: “All good things must come to an end.” That couldn’t be truer as Super Rockstar closed out his time as lead singer for SofaKillers. Over 14 years of practices, hauling gear, gigs all over the place and so many awesome memories. He made the decision to quit the band so he can spend more time being a Daddy to our two now teenage boys. They were just babies when he started this. I have just loved how much support and love he has received since he made the announcement in the summer. Fans and other local bands have sent him so many well wishes and even our local Fox 21 morning news show called Loving Living Local did a nice feature on him. Then had him in to do an interview the last week of December and the story got picked up and shared on Yahoo news.
We treated him to a new guitar as a “retirement” gift of sorts. He’s been eyeing and saving up for it a long while. It’s a Taylor and is beautiful both in looks and sound–just like Super Rockstar.
5. New Years Eve. The boys had their own celebration at home–watching lots of movies and playing video games.
And I got to go see Super Rockstar play his last gig with SofaKillers at Boot Barn Hall. It was such a fun night. They put on a great show to a sold-out crowd. During the break–the guys presented Super Rockstar with a card signed by several fans and even other bands in town–it also included some money to put toward recording some songs he’s been wanting to. The owner of Boot Barn Hall also did a farewell video thanking him AND there was a slide show of photos from his over 14 years with the band. It was awesome for him to be so honored and celebrated and a perfect way to end his time with the band as well as ring in the new year.
6. Movies and Shows to Watch. Just click the link to read about our favorite Christmas movies and shows.
7. My Favorite Memes of the Week.
I want to say thank you for spending time reading my 2023 musings and ramblings. I look forward to the adventures ahead and will have fun sharing them with you. I pray God blesses you and your loved ones richly this year! Happy New Year!