Ethan and Ehlana:
The full weekend update works for us now; so let’s get to it – starting with the highlights from New Year’s Eve Day!
In hindsight, Friday ended up being the day when we spent the most time with the Johnson clan weekend guests. That family fun included shopping, biking, and park play time during the day; and then the New Year’s Eve dinner and party at the Inn. Having a high temperature in the mid-fifties on the last day of the year helped a lot with making all of the outdoor fun better; and the adults were happy to have decent weather while they had to spend extra time getting prepared for the incoming snow storm. It was a bit weird to know that was coming while also pretty much ignoring it while celebrating at the Inn; het that’s what nearly everyone did.
Our New Year’s Eve adventures were very different than in a lot of different places around the country and world because of the current surge in Covid cases, but that honestly wasn’t a concern for anyone at the Inn – including from or for our guests and out-of-town visitors. We don’t point that out to make any political statement – that’s just a fact for our little community; and we’re okay with having our lives continue to return to something closer to normal.
That’s a bit too-serious – and we don’t want to do that when our New Year’s Eve was really happy and fun. A big part of the reason for our personal happiness was thanks to our dates for that party – along with the entertainment that came from getting teased about being the two youngest couples at the party! Naomi has never had a problem with that, and if Aiden still has any problems with the jokes and teasing; Ehlana does such a good job of helping him that he doesn’t care or notice anymore! ;^)
Spending the night with Naomi and Aiden had everything to do with why we spent a lot of time dancing; the midnight hugs and kisses were highlights of our night; and the co-ed sofa nap time after we got home was great too.
Before we move on to the news from Saturday, we also want to mention that the family dynamics for the Johnson clan are changing quite a bit now as the younger adult cousins join the parents’ club. The babies, toddlers, and pregnant women get a lot of attention from the rest of the family, and we had our share of cameo moments with all of them, but while Violet and Dillon are part of that group from our side of the family; they’re still the exception for the Proctor clan. This weekend feels different for that for us because our family Christmas last weekend was more-focused on the changes with our collegians and teens as they collectively reach new milestones – like Jaimie’s and Kaitlyn’s next-level dating status. We can’t really get into every individual story in this report – just as we didn’t do that for everyone last weekend; so we’ll settle for assuring you that everyone in our collective families are doing well; they’re happy; and finding joy and love in their lives even with the ongoing challenges we all continue to have due to the pandemic.
As we’ve already written, the big news on Saturday was the snow storm. The weather affected everything about our New Year’s Day, and while the party went ahead as planned, the fun was subdued because of a combination of the work that tired a lot of us out and the need to spend so much of the day doing that work. There was still a lot of fun too; so let’s cover some of those highlights instead of focusing on the not-so-fun parts of the day. Thanks to Michael, Tim, and their college football successes this year, watching the bowl games was a bigger deal for our family than it has been over the past few years. We didn’t really get into that too much because we spent more time in the lounge with the rest of the kids. Playing video games was part of that entertainment for us, but we also had some music fun; we played some ‘real’ games with some of the younger cousins; and there was a bit of outdoor snow play time too during one of the breaks in the snowfall. We all had dinner on the fly around the work and indoor entertainments; the evening fun included co-ed cuddling and a movie in the sunroom with some of the other couples; and then we ended up with some extra sleepover guests when some of the kids crashed before their parents were ready to take them home. That didn’t get in the way of another co-ed sofa sleepover for us; and Naomi and Aiden were allowed to stay with us because their parents didn’t have a problem with getting bonus kid-free nights by the time they were ready to head home for the night after the last football game ended.
Before we move on to today, we should include at least a note or two about the Johnson clan Christmas that we weren’t involved in at all – if you don’t include the social time that went along with the snow plowing and shoveling visits. They had an amazing day too – even with the bad weather, and they were a lot busier than we were; since the gift exchange, Christmas dinner, and the rest of the holiday-themed fun was in addition to the same sports and entertainment adventures that we were having at our home! Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne might need a vacation to rest up from their Christmas holiday, but we’ll see whether that can happen for them this winter or not and let you know about it – especially if we can help make that happen for them!
Speaking of traveling, we should mention that the Everetts are away this weekend for Aunt Grace’s maternal family Christmas and New Year’s celebration with her parents, brother, and his family. We haven’t heard many details from their weekend yet, but they are home tonight; and they returned with Micah and Jeremy following them to make sure that they all got back safely.
That brings us to today. Our morning began with extra work both indoors and out as we got ready for church and fed the extra gang with had with us. Extra parental support arrived in time for breakfast; that meal was pretty good; and then the church service was another teen-led blast of music and fun with a hopeful New Year message from Pastor John that we can all hope will happen for us – and our country and world!
The rest of our day after church has included a last blast of holiday shopping; some snow play with our cousins and friends while the parents mostly took care of helping weekend guests get packed and ready to head home. It’s funny to think about warm weather and biking on Friday transitioning to sledding and snowboarding and snowball fights less than forty-eight hours apart, but that’s exactly what happened; and we’ve had fun with both the warm and freezing cold play time.
Our family and some of our friends were booked for the mid-afternoon buffet sitting at the Inn, so we were home in time to get cleaned up and changed so that we were ready to go to the Inn; that meal was awesome; and we enjoyed a last chance to hang out with our Johnson clan cousins before they headed for their homes with their parents straight from the Inn. Those final farewells didn’t take long because it has been so cold out today; and then we headed for home with Mom and Dad while Naomi and Aiden went home or to the bakery respectively; and Cassie, Michael, May, and Lee too Sierra with them and split the rest of their day between a long visit with the Bassetts and babysitting Sierra at her home while her parents were busy at the Inn. We’ve spent a lot of the rest of our day working around home; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and we just finished up with bath or Jacuzzi time as part of getting ready to head back to school tomorrow.
This has been another amazing holiday weekend; so we’ll avoid adding any bad news tonight – though we should add that we don’t have any local bad news at all. It is actually tempting to offer a New Year of journals that only include happy stories, but that isn’t a true reflection of real life; so we won’t do that even while we also do our best to fill our personal lives with love and happiness.
We’d like to do that tomorrow too as we get back to school, and that will be easier to do if we catch up on some sleep now; so that’s all we have for this report.
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!
