the grovers - patently awesome

The rest of Christmas break

An encapsulation of the other activities we did over the two-week break:

Gingerbread houses and dinner

Uncle Kent and his family were visiting from Virginia, so we hosted dinner and a gingerbread house-making extravaganza on Saturday, December 21.

Everyone creating their yummy and artistic houses around the kitchen table.

Winnie with her creation. The roof HAD been peaked, but the weight of everything on it led to its flattening.

Rebekah with her house. This is the first year Rebekah has successfully made a house that hasn't fallen apart by the end.

Miriam with her icing.

Ana's beach house.

Star Wars

We wanted to take the girls to see The Rise of Skywalker before they went back to school, so we watched the prequels, Solo, Rogue One, the original trilogy and episodes seven and eight before going to the theater to see episode nine on Friday, January 3. (Seth found some great fan edits of the prequels that we enjoyed, and some lovingly and painstakingly restored versions of the original trilogy that look exactly like the original theatrical releases.) To help with the hype, we made Star Wars pancakes on Sunday, December 22.

Winnie's and Miri's yoda pancakes.

Seth's septoplasty

Seth saw an ENT about his snoring shortly before Christmas break, and Dr. Capener recommended getting Seth's deviated septum straightened out, as well as reducing his turbinates. Since our deductible had already been met, he scheduled Seth for surgery before the end of the year. So on December 26, Seth went to Mountain View for day surgery.

Seth prepped and ready to be wheeled off to surgery.

Date at the aquarium

Miri and Winnie wanted to go to the aquarium for their mommy-daddy-daughter date, so we took them and enjoyed seeing the sea life on Monday, December 30.

Seth pointing out one of the fish to Miri and Winnie.

Miriam coaxing a parakeet to eat the birdseed she is holding.

New Year's Eve party at Anne's

Anne graciously invited us to her annual New Year's Eve party, so we (except Seth who had caught the stomach bug) went. Good times were had by all.

Arbitrarily counting down (it was around 9 p.m.) so the balloons can be dropped.

Sledding

We woke up New Year's Day to a bunch of new snow, so we decided to take advantage of it by going to Freeman Park and sledding down the hill. We had the entire hill to ourselves for the hour and a half we stayed.

Miriam catching some air on the jump we made.

Seth helping the girls construct a big snowman next to the light show's snowman.

A side-by-side.

Winnie made her own snowman and loved it.

Museum of Idaho

While Seth attended a temple session in Rexburg with his grandma, dad and brother, I took the younger three girls to the Museum of Idaho to see the Darwin and Dinosaurs exhibit on Saturday, January 4. Rebekah had gone previously with Seth and me on a date, so she opted to stay home and practice trombone.

Winnie sizing herself up against a dinosaur leg.

Ana and Miri using the touchscreen.

Christmas

Minus the pesky stomach bug I ended up with, Christmas day was great for everyone.

Miriam's pile this year.

Winnie's. She obviously likes unicorns and Shimmer and Shine.

Ana's pile.

Rebekah's.

Ana opening up her mermaid tail blanket.

Miriam sporting hers.

Seth helping Winnie get her feet clear to the bottom of her mermaid tail blanket.

Bekah helping Winnie be completely engulfed in hers.

After presents and breakfast, I went to our bedroom and hung out there for the rest of the day. We watched Rogue One together (me upstairs; the rest of the family downstairs), Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis came over to check out the girls' presents, and everyone (except me) went back over to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for schnitzel leftovers.

Christmas Eve

After taking it easy the morning of Christmas Eve, we went over to the church for the annual Hendricks family Christmas party. We had good food and good fun.

Ana playing nine square.

Miriam playing nine square.

Rebekah as the queen of nine square.

Winnie making bracelets from pipe cleaners.

Ana the innkeeper informing Joseph that there isn't room.

Rebekah the shepherd worshiping the baby.

Miriam the wise woman.

Winnie the sheep.

Winnie being a very small and melted snowman after singing "Once There Was a Snowman."

Miriam being a scared goofball when she sees Santa (Grandpa Dennis) come into the room.

Miriam on Santa's lap.

Winnie on Santa's lap.

Ana on Santa's lap.

The closest Rebekah would get to Santa.

Grandma Hendricks on Santa's lap. She was a good sport.

We then went to Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis' house to exchange presents with family, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for schnitzel, a nativity movie, pajamas and "Stille Nacht."

Winnie and Miriam helping Grandpa with the schnitzel.

Bekah reading and Ana playing ukulele.

Miriam whispering in Oakley's ear during the nativity movie.

Miriam opening pajamas. This year the kids decided to open presents according to their birthdays in the calendar year. So Miriam got to open hers pretty early in the rounds.