Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - January 4, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Aiden’s parents were not surprised by our not-unplanned co-ed sofa sleepover last night, so while that isn’t why we’re currently getting ready for another night away from home – this time at Sophia’s house; that isn’t why we’ve set that up.  In this case, we also want to spend some time with Jessica and Patrick while they’re home from college; and they are available for that tonight.  As with last night, we’re sure that our entertainment highlights will be tonight, but we’re not taking our computers along; and the ‘when’ for our daily reports don’t really matter to any future readers.  If I’m wrong about that and still around when you’re reading this; feel free to let me know – and explain why an end-of-day report would be important to you! ;^)

The tween cooking last night was a success according to Hailey and her friends – and no, we didn’t just cook up frozen pizzas or other finger foods!  That meant more work before and after the meal, but we loved sharing that time with my future sister-in-law and the other girls; and then we went on to an awesome play evening.  Our audience loved the musical entertainment that we provided with our practice; the girls picked the first movie; and then they eventually moved on to their own bedtime fun in Hailey’s room after Hannah and Nathan got home from the birthday party and went to bed after just a short visit with all of us.  We stayed up and watched another movie; the co-ed cuddle time was a highlight that was better without me needing to write our update while Naomi likely would have teased me the entire time; and then we eventually got around to some quality nap time.

We got up in time for Tai Chi this morning, but we also took that ‘show’ on the road and over to Cassie and Michael’s house.  That wasn’t really a surprise for them by the time we arrived, but it did make for a fun start to the day for all of us.  We couldn’t do breakfast with them too because we were in charge of getting breakfast ready for the gang at Aiden’s house.  We cooked for that meal too, and while I’m thinking about it; Aiden’s father has a serious aversion to products like Pop Tarts; so you will never find anything like that in their kitchen.  Pancakes and bacon worked for everyone, and in hindsight; maybe we should have invited Cassie and Michael to join us; since their breakfast wasn’t as good as ours!

Hailey and her friends were free to move on after breakfast and they did that, but the tweens in the house had a to-do list of chores to get done at three homes.  We stayed together to do all of that work; had lunch with Mom; and then we’ve had the afternoon off.  We hit the trails with our bikes, but it was barely above freezing; so we only ended up staying outside for an hour or so before coming home again to warm up and hang out in the lounge.  Sophia and Aaron were with us in time for the biking and since then; and now we’re only split up for long-enough for five of us to pack overnight bags.  We won’t need to haul band gear too because Sophia’s family collectively has about as much as the rest of us combined.  We’re expecting that any music fun tonight could be amazing – especially if Sophia’s Dad and brother get in on the fun and jam with us!

Before we wrap this up and get going; let’s add in a few comments that aren’t directly about us.  First up, Cassie and Michael are still working hard and putting in long days while getting ready for their trip to Australia.  We need to find some times to spend with them before they leave, but they want to do that with all of their favorite people; so we’ll need to share them – even if we really don’t want to do that sometimes!  We can now do that together with Sophia, but haven’t really thought about that much for her brother and sister – or the rest of the Bassett cousins.  It is a bit funny to think about Patrick being a future cousin of Cassie’s too, but let’s save those jokes for the future – not that Michael’s family really needs any new crush stories when they already have so much fun with the one that Cassie started with her admissions of crushing on Jake.  We don’t want to mess that up for her, but for the record, while she does like Jake a lot; she never actually had a crush on him and has loved Michael from the moment they met.  If they are still around when you’re reading this in our future; please pretend that you don’t know the truth about that and play along with the jokes too!

Ethan and I didn’t get to the lab or archives today and probably should have gone, but we might be done with the work there for the rest of our break; depending on what our friends want to do during the last few days of our holiday.  Let’s also add that we won’t be doing game night at the Inn tonight because they don’t start up again until next Thursday, but don’t worry about our favorite adults getting kid-free nights; since we’re fairly-sure that they’ll be able to keep themselves entertained – even if they tell us that they didn’t do anything at all whenever we see each of them next!  That is a mental musing that we do not want to have, but does lead to our plans for later tonight.  A co-ed play room sleepover might be in our near future, but we’ll have to let you know how that goes for us; since this would be a first for Sophia at her house – and for the rest of us too.  Ethan has suggested that it might also be weird if we can do that but also have Jessica and Patrick with us for the night, but I’ll guess that if they are staying the night too; they’ll do that in Jessica’s room.

Stop grinning, Ethan, since I know what you’re thinking, and while Naomi would likely be the one sneaking into your room instead of the other way around; we are not going there tonight – or likely anytime soon.  Yes, I’ll likely be wrong about that for you and Naomi, but let me stay in denial for a while longer before I’ll need to accept the inevitable.  Yes, I also know that I’m writing a lot for an update that doesn’t include much actual news.  Have fun with the jokes; since I’ve already mentioned that I’ll be writing as much as I feel like every day; so you should just accept that reality and get used to it.

I do want to move on and get back to the fun with our friends, though, so I’ll curb my impulse for more commentary for now, but expect more to come – especially since I’m feeling a very strong urge for a political rant soon thanks to the collective idiots that seem to be in charge of the world right now.  Some days I really wonder whether Cassie and Michael would get more done by dealing with politicians before Dark Magi Masters and their families, but Cassie probably is doing the right thing; since many of the worst politicians are ultimately being manipulated by those Dark Magi on some level whether that is directly or through proxies.

Okay, Ethan, let’s again concede that I can’t even wrap up a wrap-up quickly; I’ll call this one done now; and we can get over to Sophia’s house now.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - January 3, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 47^th Birthday, Tracey Landry!

Ethan and I are getting ready for spending the rest of the day at Aiden’s house with Naomi, and this update is early because we might be planning on an unplanned co-ed sofa sleepover too!  We will also be hanging out with Hailey, Leah, and another friend or three while our parents are at Tracey’s dinner party and that will include feeding the gang and keeping them entertained.  We’ll have all of those details for you with our next update; so let’s get to the news that we do have for today-so-far.

Our morning was quiet with Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom and Dad.  It was below-freezing then, so we opted for more play time at the lab or archives until lunch time; and I had more fun than Ethan did while working on two experiments with Dillon and Uncle Adam joined us for the second experiment.  We didn’t have any breakthroughs, but I’m still noodling my latest ideas for where to take our research next; and will let you know when I’m ready to take those ideas beyond the mental stage.  I’m not trying to minimize Ethan’s work in the archives because his work might be more-important than mine in the long-term, but let’s be honest here and admit that playing in the lab is way more fun than reading dusty, ancient books! ;^)

Moving along, we met up with Naomi and Aiden for lunch, and while it only warmed up to a bit over forty this afternoon, we went biking on the trails after having that meal with Mom; we spent some time with Brianna, Faith, and some other cousins and friends while at the park or elsewhere around town; and we had a warm-up snack break back here before splitting up with Aiden going home to get ready for the tweens and teens that will be there tonight while Naomi is packing an overnight bag and grabbing her guitar because we’re going to have some music fun as part of our entertainment plan for Hailey and her friends.

I really don’t want to shock future readers – or Ethan – with a short update already, but we don’t actually have much to add to this one; and we need to get going soon anyway because we’ll be two of the chefs for our dinner.  We can mention that Cassie and Michael will be at the birthday dinner because they are also helping Rowen and Tim with the dinner and party work at Tim’s parents’ home.  Tim’s father is hosting, but the party is there because Rowen and Tim don’t have room in their apartment for a big party.  We’ll pick our not-really-babysitting assignment over helping out with that much-bigger meal, but they will have fun too; and we really hope that Tracey is having an awesome birthday!

As tempting as it is to ramble on for another page or five, Ethan and I really do need to get going now, so that’s all for today; and we’re out of here!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - January 2, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The holiday break is over for most of our favorite grown-ups, but we still have until next Monday to have fun before getting back to school again!  We had a happy start to the day having cuddle buddies to wake up with; Tai Chi was indoors, but still fun with Mom, Dad, and our best friends; and then we had a fruit-and-bagels breakfast before Dad headed to work.  Naomi and Aiden helped with the breakfast clean-up, but then they headed for their own homes and Mom put us to work on a list of chores that needed to be done before setting us free for the rest of the day.

It didn’t get all that warm today, but it was still above freezing at the start of January; so we can’t complain – and went out to play and bike with our friends.  That was a tough choice because I really wanted to play in my lab too, but our friends really wanted to hang out together and trade holiday weekend stories.  Yes, we saw some of those friends at the Inn, but the rest were busy with other holiday parties with family and friends; so there was a lot of gossip to catch up on!  While Naomi really did encourage me to take over writing our twin journals for the girls’ perspective of our lives, I won’t try to cover every story for our friends.  For a couple of examples, though, I’ll mention that Miles and Joshua both managed to make Caroline and Jennifer happy and annoy them over the weekend, and while that made things a bit weird for some of us today; I’ll point out that Miles and Joshua have come a long way over the past year.  I wouldn’t want to date either of them, but then I’ll never feel that way about them the way that Caroline and Jennifer obviously do; so I don’t know how I’d feel about Aiden if he messed up with me as-often as Miles and Joshua manage to do – even when they have no clue about what they’ve done wrong!  That story could technically count as two examples, but for a happier story, let’s mention Dana Roberts and Jonah Wildes.  We haven’t mentioned either of them in our journals yet, but that’s true for most of our classmates that we don’t hang out with very often.  In this case, though, they are a good example for new tween couples.  They apparently have had a happy holiday weekend, and while we know that they are not a match; Ethan and I understand that we’re exceptions to the norm when it comes to Naomi and Aiden and we can appreciate when our friends are happy.  Dana and Jonah are happy right now; and we like that a lot more than when our friends have dating disasters!

Gossip might have been the top goal for hanging out together for the girls, and we did enough of that, but there was also some biking on the trails; the guys played a football scrimmage – mostly because Miles and Joshua were still fired up from the college bowl games.  They were not as happy when they lost that scrimmage to Ethan and Aiden’s team; and I will pretend that some of us don’t know that they never win those scrimmages when playing against my brother and boyfriend.  That was when a lot of the girl chat time happened – including the stories from Caroline and Jennifer that were all about venting their anger; and the happy stories offset the bad – though there were other boys that didn’t do well with their girlfriends either.  Ethan and I needed to be home by five to help Mom with making dinner-for-four; Naomi and Aiden needed to be with their own families because they’ve been teased about just moving in with us for as-often as they’ve stayed here over the holidays so far.  Naomi always has fun with jokes like that; and would honestly be okay with moving in with Ethan now instead of waiting until we’re adults!

Ethan can’t stop grinning about that comment, but while he’s off on that mental side-trip; I’ll move on to our dinner break with Mom and Dad.  We cooked up a pasta dinner with sides that wasn’t anything major after too much food on the weekend, but the chat time was the best part of that break; we all took care of the clean-up; and then Mom set us free to go over to the lab and archives for some play time there.  For me, that was all about wanting to spend some time on an experiment while also thinking about some ideas I’ve had from weekend inspirations.  While the top-two started out as jokes; the ideas might prove to be helpful – especially the possibility of exploring symbiotic relationships that might help with finding cures.  I really need to pay attention to other perspectives; since my research is often focused on fighting against diseases; and that can give you tunnel vision.  In this case, focusing on the ‘fight’ may have kept me from considering better defenses for the body or natural combinations to overpower cancers and other diseases that don’t also damage healthy cells.

No, I didn’t cure cancer tonight, but I might be a step closer to that goal; so stay tuned! ;^)

Ethan and I played at the lab or archives until ten-thirty; Mom came for us and put the work to an end for the night; and we did a bedtime snack with Mom and Dad that included talking about my work more than anything else.  I was not being selfish about that – Ethan and I just didn’t need to talk about the parts of our parents’ kid-free time that they loved the most – and we don’t want to think about it now or ever either!  Dad had his work done by then too thanks to some time phasing; so we all headed up to our rooms after the snack break clean-up.  Ethan and I both opted for quick showers instead of bath or Jacuzzi time; we’ve been enjoying our usual bedtime twin chat and computer checks; and now we’re nearly ready to call it a night and get some sleep.  Before we go there; we also want to mention that we did a Hathorne Industries check tonight – mostly because we knew that Gwyneth has been in New Orleans for the holiday weekend with a group of her college friends.  She hasn’t returned home yet because they stayed up and partied most of the night after going to the Sugar Bowl game, but will be leaving tomorrow.  I still don’t want to write about football, but will report that Ethan and some of the other guys that know about Gwyneth have joked about the possibility that Gwyneth messed around with some of the players on both teams for there to be such a strange end to the game when the unlikely comeback attempt by Texas came down to a last chance for the win with a second left in the game only to fall just short and losing by six points.  Sure, we wouldn’t put it past Gwyneth to do that sort of thing on a whim, but if she did; we don’t have any proof of it!  That check was all about keeping an eye on her, and while that doesn’t help us out with any goons she might send against us; we can at least know when she might be planning on coming after us directly again.  It seems that she won’t be doing that while we’re all off from school; so we can relax and have fun for the rest of the week!

Ethan is now starting to joke about how long this second update of the year is getting compared to his norm; so that’s my cue to wrap this up – even though I have no intention of doing anything different because I’m going to include whatever news or commentary I want to write about each day.  If any future Magi reading this doesn’t like the extra information or verbosity; feel free to skip my updates and pick up our story from whenever Ethan starts his next turn!

One of us will pretend that I apparently can’t even wrap up my writing without dragging it out; so it is probably a really good thing that I have such a great memory and will never need to go back and actually read my own journals!  Try not to have too-much fun with that thought; and I really will stop adding more and move on to nap time soon.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - January 1, 2024

 

Ehlana, Aiden, Naomi, and Ethan:

Happy New Year 2024!

Our top news for the first day of the New Year is not that I’m taking over writing our twin journals, but it is news; and we have Naomi to thank for suggesting that Ethan has been writing them for too long without more of a girls’ perspective.  Let’s go with that; since the real reason is that she wants the extra cuddle time with Ethan on co-ed sofa sleepover nights like this one!

New Year’s Eve was definitely a best-ever-so-far for all of us; and having that as our last date of last year and the first for this year is awesome too!  As always, the buffet dinner was a major highlight of the night.  Our boys get bonus points for not needing to be in the small dining room to watch the NFL football game; and keeping track of the score wasn’t hard for anyone at the Inn; since some of the game-watchers were quite vocal about their reactions to the on-screen action.  Okay, we also had tablemates tracking the game on phones, but Ethan and Aiden weren’t two of those guys!  We shared that meal with Sophia, Aaron, and six of our younger cousins or siblings.  For the record, we were not officially babysitting at all; the six girls mostly wanted to stay away from tables with boys like Zack and Eli; and we were happy to help them out with that.  We can’t cover every little detail from last night or today; so let’s move along.

Naomi, Sophia, and I also want to give our dates credit for their dinner manners, and while that included things like holding chairs out for us; they also didn’t try to eat too-much despite all of the great food temptations!  We were happy with the total lack of food games or pranks, but let’s not go there; since that wasn’t true for some other kids and teens last night; and best behavior was only a hope for some of our favorite parents!  We really don’t want to go there; and the problems were really pretty minor compared to all of the amazing moments of the night!

For us, our best moments included our unplugged ‘set’ that we were drafted to share with everyone; Cassie and Michael were also drafted to sing a few duets; and we collectively helped out with the happy for everyone – especially when it came to the dancing and ballads that were very popular with the couples of all ages.  Trust us that you really don’t want all of those details; since there are things that tweens do not need to know about their parents and grandparents!  We spent most of our night in the main dining room, but in addition to the football-watching option; the other small dining room was available for video gaming or other games ranging from cards to darts.  We made appearances in both rooms; joined in on some games other than with the too-popular video gaming; and had fun with that too – though the dancing and socializing were more-fun for all of us.

Midnight kisses were another highlight of the night, and while we’re not at any level where we take those kisses to any levels that older couples do; we’ve moved on from little-kid kisses too; and I am happy to report that Ethan and Naomi earned whistles for having their first kiss of the New Year last longer than it did for most tween couples in the room!  The party continued after that, but we didn’t mind getting drafted to help out with getting younger cousins home while some of our favorite adults stayed out longer – or until much later for anyone staying to help with the post-party clean-up.  We didn’t leave until getting in on the midnight buffet, but we didn’t need much food by then; and some of the kids really were starting to fall asleep by then and needed to be taken home.

 

We did that at three homes; headed for our home after that; and had more than an hour to get started on our co-ed cuddle time and a movie before Mom and Dad got home too.  They, by the way, were not designated drivers tonight; so they didn’t need to stay out late doing that and weren’t on the work crews at the Inn either.  While that idea might seem weird to other people, let’s add that all of the staff at the Inn are there for the party too even when scheduled to work; so getting any of them to stay up all night with post-party clean-up doesn’t work for their friends and neighbors; so we take turns helping out.  We’ll likely start getting drafted too by next year; so we’ll just be happy that our contributions this year were kept to music!  We did eventually get to sleep early this morning; enjoyed the co-ed naps; and then we started our New Year with a Tai Chi workout that Mom and Dad skipped.  The tweens in the house also took care of making breakfast for eight.  We enjoyed that meal in the sunroom; took care of the clean-up with help from Dad; and then our friends needed to head for their own homes for the rest of the morning while Ethan and I were drafted to help with getting ready for the college bowl game watching party that Mom and Dad have been hosting since early-afternoon.  Naomi and Aiden came back with their families, but Sophia and Aaron had other plans with both of their families; and that’s also why they aren’t here again overnight.  Other than a snack, we basically skipped lunch because major snacks were available all afternoon and evening.  Dinner included a major Pizzeria pizza order, and that was another buffet, eat-when-you-want kind of event.  As usual, football-watching was in the living room; chick flicks were in the sunroom; and kid-central was the lounge and third floor.

We spent most of the day upstairs and helping with the younger kids, but there was a lot more going on than that with our family – including for the Johnson clan as they gradually hit the road for their homes in waves from early-afternoon to early-evening.  Parents with the youngest kids mostly wanted to leave early; the teens and older kids were happy to stay for some of the action at our house with their hometown cousins and friends; and the grandparents generally went with the majority for their grandkids.  We didn’t help with much of the work around those travel plans, but we did help out with entertaining some of the kids while their parents were busy; and were in on the goodbyes with everyone.  Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron did more to keep Zack, Eli, and some of the other guys from getting into too-much trouble; Naomi and Sophia helped me with the girls; and our games and play time included everything from playing with toys in the workout room to board games in the dining room to music in my room.  We checked in with the chick flicks in the sunroom, but didn’t watch even one entire movie; and the highlights of our visits to the dining room revolved around one of Cassie’s demonstrations of play-calling and the request for me to attempt the same feat for a play too.  I’m not like Cassie for a lot of things, and don’t normally make a big deal of my math skills, but I am competitive; and had fun with making my own correct prediction – and hope that it won’t mess up Cassie’s growing legend for that talent! ;^)

The guys might want us to include the football highlights, but to be honest with you; Naomi and I just don’t care, so if you really need to know those sports details; check out the current events archives in the sports section and we’ll move on.  I’m also thinking about wrapping this up, since I might soon scare all future readers if this becomes the longest one-day update since before Ethan’s latest turn at writing our journals!  Okay, this is for a bit more than a day, but you know what I mean; and Naomi is laughing while also enjoying the extra time cuddling with Ethan.  She has also already pointed out that it isn’t the same for Aiden and me; since he can still hug me while I type on my computer and that is true; so maybe I’ll use that as my excuse for longer reports.  My motivation for keeping them short won’t be as strong as Ethan’s have been over the past year or two!

With that decided, I guess that we can move along and keep going.  We mostly played all afternoon with the breaks we’ve already mentioned for departing guests and other social visits elsewhere in the house.  It wasn’t very warm today, so we didn’t go out to play at all; and had too-much going on anyway for any major bike rides or playground adventures.  The tweens and teens in the house mostly ended up having a later dinner after getting the kids fed and then busy again; and then our evening continued with the play time except with more of the breaks to spend time with favorite adults.  Many of our guests stayed to the end of the last game and beyond, but we started losing some younger kids and their parents by around nine o’clock.  Sleepy kids were only part of those choices, since it is also a work night for many, but whatever the reason; we helped out with the kids and even walked home with some to help with hauling kids and gear.  We still had older cousins to keep up with on the third floor, and Zack and Eli were the most-challenging, but Naomi and I still left them to Ethan and Aiden; and only had to deal with the pranks when we didn’t manage to totally avoid them or needed to help the other girls with the aftermath from them.  As with last night, we really don’t want to make a big deal of the not-so-fun moments; since the rest of our day has been really great!  That’s true for right now as we’re winding down toward nap time with music videos and cuddle time that I will again note that Naomi is enjoying a lot more with me doing the writing! ;^)

Moving along, the party on the main floor began to wrap up with the last movie choice for the girls; some clean-up happened while the game-watching gang finished up with the final bowl game of the day; and we eventually needed to help out with getting the rest of the kids in the house ready to head for their homes.  While we didn’t need to help with getting them to those homes, we did have a major clean-up that was needed on the third floor; and that kept us busy until after one o’clock – including the work we helped with in the kitchen.  Mom and Dad had other help for that; there was a minor snack break once the work was pretty much done; and then we split up to either head home or to our bed or sectional sofa.  There really is too-much to cover without turning this update into a small novel; so maybe this is a good place to just stop and call it a night.  We’ve had another amazing day with many of our favorite people; so... that reminds me that I’ve skipped some news that should get mentioned!

The members of our family that have been away for the weekend are home tonight – or most of them are.  The Everetts are back from Granite Park, and while they made a cameo appearance here; they didn’t stay long; and went home again early.  They didn’t have Jaimie or Kaitlyn with them; and Micah and Jeremy are staying for another day or two before coming back again for either a few more days for Kaitlyn or longer for Jaimie and Micah before they head back to college in a couple of weeks.  Violet, Dillon, and their kids are home too, but they got in later; and didn’t come over here at all.  We’ll check in with them tomorrow; and Ethan and I might see them at the lab if we decide to do some work there – a choice that will depend on weather and what the rest of our friends are doing.

Okay, that definitely is enough for tonight – this morning; so we’re out of here; and I’m going to enjoy a bit more cuddle time with Aiden before we get started on yet another wee hours of the morning start to our winter’s naps!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!