Ryan & Erinn's Family: December 2019

When we got back from Thanksgiving, Connor got his braces off! He said his teeth felt weird, but he liked it.

Ryan and I celebrated our 42nd birthdays! Corinne was so sweet, she wrapped some of her own things and gave them to us as gifts. Instead of a cake, Elise made us a pan of blondie bars that we ate with ice cream - which is pretty much the best dessert ever invented.

On Saturday the 7th, Connor and Elise had a rehearsal in North Hollywood for their Christmas choir performance. At the same time, Evan and Ryan were supposed to march in the Montrose Christmas Parade. Unfortunately, after a Costco run that morning, Ryan left the van running while I got everyone but Evan, loaded them into the van, and drove to the rehearsal. I mistakenly did not have my keys with me, but apparently our van runs without keys until you turn it off. So...I was stranded in North Hollywood with my own and other people's kids until late that night when Ryan could rescue me. The Wheelers were so kind - they stayed at the church with us practicing the organ and helping entertain the kids the whole evening! Ryan and Evan had a good (but cold) time doing their parade. For better or worse, this was the last parade for Pack 390/391.

My kids decorated the tree all by themselves this year! It turned out pretty good, and I don't even remember anyone yelling at each other while they were doing it. Clearly a Christmas miracle!

The staff at Grandma Cloe's nursing home heard that she loved ice skating when she was younger, so they made arrangements to take her to a skating rink one afternoon. They sent us pictures and a video, and it was really sweet to watch. She definitely enjoyed herself, and was chatting with the staff members the whole time.

Christmas Cantata! I didn't have a class performing this year, since I was only teaching science classes, but I still tried to make myself useful by helping organize kids. The new sanctuary space was small, but very pretty, and all the kids did a great job! The upper school choir, particularly, put on an amazing performance - all those rehearsals made a difference!

Second Grade

Fifth Grade

Lower School Choir

Upper School Choir

We attended a performance of the LA Philharmonic one evening, organized by the Yoders. We took everyone except the little girls, and it was one of the most enjoyable concerts I've been to in a long time. Also, it's much more fun when you know some of the musicians!

While shoveling snow over Thanksgiving in Utah, Ryan fell and sprained his wrist. It swelled up and didn't seem to be healing, so he went to urgent care to see if it was broken. It wasn't, but it was serious enough that he had to start going to physical therapy.

We went to see the temple lights! This was the least stressful year so far. I even took a thermos full of healthy cocoa so I could participate without all the sugar.

Yummy Cocoa, not Healthy Cocoa

Browns and Emmersons

I have a tendency to overprepare for my Sunday School lessons, but it makes me so happy to study and organize and explain stuff I find interesting! I've gotten in a habit of taping lots of papers on the chalkboard to make visual summaries. I never knew what was in the book of Revelation before I had to teach it - it kind of takes the mystery out of it, in a good way.

The combined Cub Scout packs of (most of) the La Crescenta Stake had their last pack meeting. Ryan gave out thank you gifts to the leaders, the boys got their last awards, and advice was given to those who wanted to transition to a community pack. It was interesting, because some families were glad to be done, a few were sad, and most (like us) had mixed feelings. Church-based Scouts had a lot of issues, and we can see why the Church decided to create its own worldwide youth program, but Scouts was such a positive influence on so many boys' lives while it lasted. Evan is taking a break from Cubs, but will most likely join a local Boy Scout troop when he turns 11.

Last summer, the kids did pottery classes with an artist in Eagle Rock (again, organized by the Yoders.) In late December they finally had the time to paint and glaze their artwork so it could be fired back at the studio.

Right before Christmas, we drove up to Lodi, CA for a couple days so that I could see the famous sandhill cranes of the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve. I made arrangements for Ryan and the kids to spend one morning at a science museum while I drove out to nowhere and looked at birds for awhile. It was rainy that weekend, but we managed to go on a really nice hike/walk and still see the cranes flying in that evening. It was pretty cool, but I think I was expecting one united flock of birds, rather than a gradual inflow of cranes gliding in to their sleeping grounds. Also, the kids complained quite a lot. But it was pretty, and I saw so many new and interesting birds that it was still worth it.

Moon Walk

Wind Tunnel

Nature Walk

Evening Crane Fly-In

From Lodi, we drove over to Morrow Bay to spend the 23rd and 24th with the Murrays. I had doubts about what we'd do at a beach house at Christmastime, but I didn't know about the elephant seals! They were so huge and active and CLOSE, it was amazing. Also, since this is California, the kids swam in the heated pool a lot. Kelli taught everyone how to play the dreidel game before we left, and we made it home in time to wrap presents.

I stayed up a little later than average for Christmas Eve (until about 3:30), but I got it all done, and we had a great Christmas day. My favorite thing about Christmas itself (as opposed to the season, which is different), is that we just sit around and watch the kids and look at gifts and do almost nothing. It's the epitome of contentedness.

Connor's Drone

Cotton Candy Machine

3DS

Christmas Crab!

The Murrays decided to drive straight home from Morrow Bay, in an effort to get back in time for Kyle to prepare for school. He loves his new job, but he was so, so tired when we saw him at the beach house. As a new teacher with no previous training, he was already dealing with, I think, six different classes, and another was going to be added after the break.

Anyway, they made it to Rancho Cucamonga after hours stuck in traffic, and during a break to get donuts, they hit something and mangled the back of their car. It wasn't drivable, so I went and brought them back, and we got to enjoy their company for a few days while they worked out the insurance situation. We had a great time going to the park, playing games, and visiting the "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" museum. (Sadly, they don't allow pictures.)

Skull King

Ryan took Evan and Corinne downtown for "Take Your Kid to Work Day". They got fancy lunch and rode the "Angels Flight" trolley down the hill, besides getting to watch Ryan type and look at his many computer monitors.

The drone Connor received for Christmas was equipped with lots of nice features. He was able to get some pretty cool shots of the park near our house using my phone as a remote control.

CV Park

La Crescenta Winter

On New Year's Eve, we were all feeling tired, so instead of hiking around Pasadena or driving the streets looking for tortillas and shaving cream, we just ate frozen yogurt and went home to wait out the last hours of 2019.