Here's My 2016 Prediction Results

2016 Predictions

I made this one year ago tomorrow. Let's see how I did, and then tomorrow I will post my 2017 predictions.

1. Camille's speech will improve so much that we won't have to enroll her in kindergarten for fall of 2017
Sadly, though her speech has improved immensely, it is not enough to not enroll her in kindie. Here's hoping

I don't have to enroll her in 1st grade.
2. I don't think either the Broncos or Seahawks will make it to the Super Bowl. This leaves me incredibly sad. But, I think it will be Arizona and the Patriots, with Arizona winning it all.
Boy, was I wrong- and I'm so glad! Broncos beat the Cardinals 24-10, and it was glorious!

3. Hillary Clinton vs. Ted Cruz in the election, with Hillary winning in a landslide (sorry, Republicans- but where are your decent candidates?)

Wrong again, in the most un-glorious way!

4. A third-party candidate will enter the race and make a serious run, but fall short
Hmm...this one is hard to judge, but I would say wrong because there really wasn't a serious/viable threat 

from the third party candidates.

5. This may just be our year for a broken bone. We have not had one yet, but we are due. It's amazing our kids haven't had some sort of crazy injury with all of their crazy antics.
No- yay!

6. I'll still be in Public Affairs and Ben will still be the financial clerk at church.

Yes- and I love it!

7. Claire will finally score a goal in soccer.
Yes!

8. Audra's tooth will finally come in- without surgery.
Yes!

9. I will finish a book I'm working on (It's not a very good book. It's just the idea of writing- I like writing, even if it never goes anywhere except my computer)

Nope- but I have had some fun writing, which was the whole point in the first place.

10. I will learn to make homemade yogurt and cheese.

Yes on yogurt, no on cheese.

A Milestone

I know I posted this on FB, but I wanted to post it here as well so it would be included in our blog book.

I really didn't realize how emotional I would get over my parents retiring. But, Ben and I went to the temple today, and all I could think about during the session was all that my parents have done for DECADES to support us and care for us, and now- finally- they get to relax and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. They are incredible people, and I'm so happy for them!

Here's my FB tribute:

I get to brag on my parents as today was a major milestone in their lives. Today was both of their last day of work- they have now officially entered the world of retirement!

My parents are, without a doubt, the hardest workers I know. At one point my dad worked three jobs to put food on the table for us. He’s worked the swing shift and the graveyard shift. He worked on the railroad and at the docks. He’s a blue collar union man. Often growing up we would come home from school to find a transmission on the kitchen table. I have never seen him without grease encased in his fingernails. He taught us kids that honest, hard work is nothing to be ashamed of- even if it meant cleaning toilets for four years to get out of college debt free (shout out to my Marriott Center Peeps!).

My dad has 45 years of hard manual labor under his belt. He is a mechanic. I remember the day we got a phone call that he got on the wrong end of a crow bar and was rushed to Harborview and emergency jaw surgery. He never wore a wedding ring because when he was first married he almost welded his ring into his finger.

We were very poor growing up. My dad doesn’t have/care about much in the way of worldy status. He wouldn’t know, or care about, a name brand tie if it hit him in the face. His greatest church calling was Webelos Leader. But, he constantly used his talents to bless others. I remember one night around midnight we got a call from the father of one of my best friends. He was leaving the next day to take his oldest son to college, but couldn’t get the truck to start. He wanted to know if my dad could come over and help fix the truck. Without even thinking about it, my dad jumped out of bed and spent the next couple of hours getting the car ready to go. We pretty much always had about 6 non-running vehicles in our front driveway that my dad was working on (sorry to our neighbors- I’m sure even our Christmas treats didn’t make up for all the cars Kirsten McCarl had to put up with).

My mom worked equally hard. After getting married while still in high school (totally normal for rural Idaho residents), she then had 5 kids in 6 years (you read that correctly). When my youngest brother started kindergarten, my mom went to work. Yes, we definitely needed the money, but I’m pretty sure she also needed to get away from us kids! She started out working at the Hostess Factory- cleaning the large machinery at night. This made us the coolest house on Halloween because we got to hand out Twinkies, but after a few years her back gave out and she had to quit. She went to work at a bank for 25 years, then retired from there to go work for my dad at the shop he and my uncle started.

I remember when I was 8 I broke my arm. She couldn’t get to the ER. Her best friend came instead (thank you Sue Hart for being such an amazing friend to come over and care for her 8 year old daughter). I was pretty upset for several years that she was working instead of being there to help me, but now that I am older I can look back and realize her sacrifice. That must have been very difficult for her, and the many choices she had to make between work and family must have been excruciating.

Sacrifice- that’s a word that describes my parents! They gave so much so that all of us kids could participate in every sport imaginable, band, piano lessons, and so much more. Hopefully they can love and enjoy this new phase of their lives- they have definitely earned it!

Love you Mom and Dad!

And, here's a comment that was left on my post that just needs to be remembered (I hope my kids know how lucky they are to have such awesome grandparents on both sides of the family!)

Sue Hart Such a beautiful tribute, Chris! Your parents are the best 💕. I remember a time when Tom was in a treatment facility and I had taken my car to Firestone for an alignment. It started making a loud noise when I was driving it home afterwards so I took it back to them. The new repair was going to cost $90. I didn't like it- felt like they were taking advantage of me because I was a woman but I agreed to it. When I went to pick it up, they told me that it was more extensive than they'd thought and it was going to cost $150! I called your dad and he told me to tell them to take it off the lift and to bring it to him. He and Bill-can't remember his last name right now (but I bet I will at 2am!)-went over my car and found nothing wrong. I have always been so very grateful to him for that and for his unconditional kindness, service, and support. And your mom- she has always been my hero! I love her so much!! I remember how hard it was for her to not be able to be there when you broke your wrist. You were like one of my own though so I was more than happy to be there with you. Your dad really wanted to stay with you but someone needed to be picked up from soccer practice or a game and I didn't know how to get to the field. No google maps in those days 😢. I'm so happy that they get to retire!!

Ice Skating

Ben has this entire week off from work. Mostly, we have stayed home and relaxed and just enjoyed having NOTHING on our schedule. It's been wonderful!

But, yesterday we decided to get out of our pajamas and leave the house and go ice-skating. Ben wanted to go to an outdoor skating rink, reminiscent of a small Rockefeller Center. He's such a romantic- he really wanted to go at dusk so we could watch the Christmas lights come on over the ice.

Claire wanted to show off her twirls:

It was pretty chilly, but a lot of fun- and the girls did great! We lasted for a little more than an hour. Claire and Audra hardly needed our help at all. Camille definitely needed our help, but loved it- even the falls.

Christmas Around the World

I loved our Christmas Around the World Unit! So much, in fact, that we will continue it again next year. We didn't get through as many countries as I had hoped, but we'll just pick up again next year and visit more countries.

It was a lot of fun learning about Christmas in other countries! I finally know what Boxing Day is all about. That's one of the great things about homeschooling- I get to learn so much along with the kids!

We visited South Africa, Sweden, Australia, France, and Mexico. For most countries, we made a craft and a traditional food- and, of course, studied how they celebrate Christmas.

For South Africa, we made these cute angels and a type of bread pudding. I liked it just fine, but it wasn't a big hit with the kids.

 For France, we  made a yule log. This turned out awesome- so delicious! This might become a new tradition.

For Sweden, we learned about St. Lucia, watched Donald Duck's Christmas (apparently they LOVE this special in Sweden, so we indulged), and we happened to receive a traditional Swedish cake from a friend.

It was a lot of fun, and once again I am sad to leave our unit, but it is time to move on to another great unit!

Merry Christmas!

The girls claim to have woken up somewhere around 5:30, but they know they are not allowed to wake us up until 7. At exactly 7 AM, they came running in to wake us!

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we had to rush a little bit so we could have the presents opened by the time we went to church at 9. Mission accomplished, but we didn't get to our traditional Aebelskiver breakfast so that had to wait until after church.

Our church service was beautiful, with a lot of joy and rejoicing to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I was reminded that all of these kinds of celebrations- holidays, Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc. add so much happiness to our lives. What a bleak world it would be if we didn't take time out of our schedules to celebrate!

Camille got a horse, and Audra got an American Girl Doll (a used one).

Claire got a barn for the horse she got for her Birthday last year. She even is allowing Camille's horse to share in the barn- both their horses are sleeping there tonight. It is pretty cute.

 Honoring my Grandma High's Danish heritage:

 Camille is so in love with these cowboy boots she got from Grandma and Grandpa Marriott:

It was a wonderful day! I really don't know how we could be any more blessed.

Christmas Eve

Oh, the magic of Christmas! What a glorious night!

We lit the pyramide for our Christmas Eve dinner- ham, yams, bread, and salad.

We read the story of Christmas from the Bible, and the girls opened up their Christmas pj's.

Then, in perhaps the start of a new tradition, we watched Elf. The girls loved it!

What a fun and glorious time- it's so fun to pass on traditions and experience the magic of Christmas with these kiddos. We are truly blessed.

Temple

The girls BEGGED us to take them to the temple to see the manger scene, and finally we were able to.

Jerusalem Dinner

Last night we had our annual Jerusalem dinner. It was again really great to see the girls get so excited for our traditions. They decorated the blanket with candles and got all dressed up like in Bethlehem- except Camille, who insisted on being the Jerusalem Bunny. Whatever works, right?

I splurged this year and got us salmon. While we know they ate a lot of fish back then, I am fairly confident it was not salmon and it was not seasoned with ginger and orange herbs, but I'm OK with that.

A New Tradition

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go with some friends and sing carols at a memory care facility down the street from our house. We have taken the girls there a couple of times to volunteer, and were excited to be able to do some service there again. I read an article that said 60% of people who are living in nursing homes NEVER receive a visitor. How sad is that? While I don't believe that is the case at this facility- this is a very nice facility where they really know how to take care of their residents, which leads me to believe each resident comes from a supportive family (and that Ben and I need to be able to afford this place should we ever need long term care), it was nice to go sing. I am pretty sure this needs to become another Christmas tradition of ours!

Then we walked over to the main campus of the retirement center and saw their Hogwarts train station. Apparently there are some gentlemen residents there who every year put together a train set for all the residents. It was really neat.

Gingerbread Houses

The girls were super excited to make gingerbread houses this year. It makes me so happy, because I am SO GLAD that we have a lot of family traditions (many of the same traditions that I had growing up- and I love passing that on to my girls- as well as many more that Ben and I are creating together), and I love that they get excited about them and remember them. As they get older, they can take on a lot of the work involved with them which is, of course, nice as well.

This year I decided we were going to cheat and use hot glue. I'm tired of the tradition of collapsing houses! The hot glue was wonderful- a brilliant move.

Audra was really excited to do a "triangle" house:

Claire's is on the left, Camille's the middle, Audra on the right:

Dance Recital

The other day Camille had her dance recital- it was super cute, as always.  I so love Ms. Muffie! Every little girls needs a Ms. Muffie in their life!

 Feeding the nutcrackers after the show- an annual tradition: