Ethan and Ehlana:
We’re winding down from our holiday weekend adventures tonight, and have a lot of news to cover; so let’s get at it!
The trip to the Christmas tree farm yesterday morning was seriously awesome – in part because the weather was so great. We didn’t reach the mid-sixties high for the day while we were there, but it was warm-enough to make the hay ride and picking out our trees part of the adventure really good. It took a while to pick out all of the trees for our gang – including the trees that went home with some of our guests. That also made for full loads in all of the trucks we brought along and on the rooftops of some of the vehicles too. By the time we were finished shopping in the Christmas store and enjoying all of the snack treats and drinks, we also had the storage inside most of the vehicles filled too; so the farm owners and shop vendors and crafters were very happy with us when we hit the road again for home.
Warm weather all afternoon allowed for biking on the trails and park play time to go along with the indoor football watching, video gaming, and movies; so we had a lot of fun all day. We were split up for dinner yesterday with Ehlana and Aiden having that meal with his family while Naomi and I were at the Ayres’ home for another Ayres-Seager families’ get-together. Decorating trees and watching Christmas movies were the top entertainment options at many of the homes we delivered trees to from the farm. We had Naomi and Aiden with us for our tree trimming. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for that blast of fun, and then we wrapped up our fun for Saturday with more movies and a co-ed sofa sleepover.
That brings us up to this morning. Tai Chi by the river included Brianna and Aunt Leanne, so that was fun; and then we only had six for breakfast while the Carringtons and Ayres had the busiest morning meals in the family – and possibly the entire town. That made getting ready for church easy for us; and we were among the first members of our extended family to get to the church. The teen-led holiday service was really great; and then we were booked for the first buffet at the Inn at noon – mostly so that our weekend guests could enjoy that meal and still hit the road for home by mid-afternoon.
We loved the lunch meal, and then we helped out with the chores that ranged from helping to pack vehicles and keep cousins entertained to cleaning and laundry at multiple homes. It didn’t get very warm today, but it was still decent and dry; and our favorite travelers didn’t have any bad weather worries for their trips home. Most of the visiting members of the Johnson clan were on the road by three-thirty, but Jaimie and Kaitlyn stayed until after dinner so that they could spend the time with Micah and Jeremy. That also gave them the chance for a visit with Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, Caleb, and Faith after they got home from their weekend in Granite Park; so they had a happy wind down to their visit – even though they were sad to be leaving Micah and Jeremy. They might not get together again before the Christmas break in-person; so we expect an extended visit from them for a week or more while we’re all off from school. We’ll keep you posted on that news when we have more. That’ll be just one of many holiday plans still to be made; so stay tuned for all of the fun we expect to continue from now through the New Year!
There are so many little details that we haven’t covered for this report, and as usual, we’ll need to settle for assuring you that the ‘what’ we’ve done this weekend isn’t as important as the love and joy we’ve shared with our family and friends. In contrast to all of the home town happiness, we haven’t liked learning about all of the bad news around the world. We helped Mom with some work tonight to help out with some of those problems; and wish that we could do more. We have continuing concerns related to the pandemic, but while the latest Omicron variant is at the top of the news cycle; we’re more-worried about the social problems that many governments around the world are making worse with policies that don’t really have anything to do with health and safety. We’ll work for and pray for the best; and be ready to do what we can wherever and whenever those problems become new crises.
We don’t really want to wrap up our holiday weekend on a down note; so let’s move on and skip the rest of the global bad news stories that you can look up elsewhere in the archives if you’re really interested in the worst of our current events. As we wind down November toward December this week, we’re happy and looking forward to the Christmas season. That transition from Thanksgiving will begin tomorrow at school as we get started on the final round of study modules of the year; and we’ll also have a lot of Christmas-themed fun coming up nearly every day.
That is a happy thought to end on as well as to dream about while we have our nap time tonight; so, until next time...
...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
