Adele is 18!

Adele deeply felt the full impact of legally leaving her childhood. She felt the celebrations should fit the magnitude of her feelings. She went through several iterations of her birthday "weekend" and this is how this "action figure"brought in a new stage in life:

FRIDAY NIGHT
Let the celebrations begin! Tennie came home for the weekend she, Adele and Ceci went to Little Women, followed by pizza at The Pie, followed by a Goodly Cookies run.

SATURDAY DAY/EVENING
Adele's day plans fell through (hot springs with friends) and she fretted about a plan B. Finally, she and her sisters hit a fun little store they all love, met a friend at Sugar House Coffee (Adele's favorite homework spot), and then went out to a super yummy sushi place, just the three of them, followed by a movie at home.

SUNDAY (ACTUAL BIRTHDAY)
After church and Come Follow Me we prepped for a birthday dinner with local family. She didn't want the traditional treasure hunt, but instead asked for memories instead. Hmmmm. So I brainstormed and looked through old Hello from Seattle letters I used to write before starting this blog and came up with the following snippets of Adele. Each had a clue attached, to keep with the treasure hunt tradition.

Remember in Auburn when Adele was about 8 and Edie Hardman was her Primary teacher? Adele had a strong desire to touch everything as a child, and sister Hardman had very interesting hair. In the middle of class, Adele walked up and touched her hair!

Remember when Adele was 6 and we were in Hawaii. Adele had a FIVE DOLLAR BILL! In a store where she wanted to buy something we encouraged her to “break her 5”. She then ripped it in half!

As soon as Adele could walk she went for peoples shoes. She tried on every pair of shoes she came across.

Remember the Family Night where we talked about the importance of being nice and not inviting contention into the home? Adele exclaimed, “I could really do that if I were an only child!”

Remember the time we spent a night in Nevada, breaking up the trip to Utah? Adele asked if I heard the birds tweeting earlier that morning. Knowing her complete distaste for the state of Nevada I said, sarcastically, “What do birds in Nevada have to tweet about?” To which she quickly replied in a bird call, “Casin-o, Casin-o, Casin-o!”

Remember when Geoff took Adele with him on a work trip to DC when she was 3 and Ink about her a bag of 1,000-piece chicle gum for her birthday. Adele was in heaven. Right then and there she chewed about 750 pieces, filling up their small trash can with barely-chewed wads. This is what I wrote about her in that week’s Hello From Seattle soon after their return:  She loves chewing her endless birthday gum so much that she’ll dress up in coat, hat, gloves and boots and go stand on the porch so she can chew a piece.  When out she’ll chew a piece just enough to get some teeth marks in it, spit it out and start another.  This chain chewing can go on for an hour and keeps her quite entertained.

Remember when Adele was 3 and she made up her own little lingo? She would say things like, “Let’s go to Trader Jodie’s” or “I want Frenchie” for French toast.

Remember when Adele was little and anytime something was hot she would say, “Hot, hot, hot…hot chocolate!”

Remember when Adele was small and she was scared of public toilets flushing, as if they might swallow her whole?

Remember when Adele was really small and we bought her ladybugs? I wrote this in a Hello From Seattle about the day:  Today we bought (Adele) some ladybugs.  Tennie is growing her indoor garden and has the caterpillar process to attend to so we wanted Adele to have something of her own.  In contrast to Tennie who is bug-loving, Adele said, “I have so many it is ok if I smash one” (There are 1500 ladybugs!!!)  In the backyard she didn’t seem to mind too much that they were crawling on her, but if she saw one on the ground she would slyly walk over and stomp the bijibies out of it.  Tennie found one that was nearly dead and was cradling it in her arms hoping that through positive mental force and verbal encouragement it might come back to strength.  She put it on the ground and turned for a moment and Adele went over and stomped it to smithereens.  Tennie was mortified and let the whole neighborhood know.  It was a pure manifestation of their individuality.

This was from one week in a Hello From Seattle when Adele was 3:  Adele is so relieved to be eating dairy again.  Last week in one of her prayers she said, “Dear Heavenly Father, I love my friends.  I love Jesus.  I love normal milk.  And normal cheese…the orange kind without soy – it’s yummy!  Amen.  Another prayer last week went like this, “Dear Heavenly Father, I love my friends.  I love Jesus.  I love candy – all kinds; and gum!  I love dad.  Amen.  After clear warning Adele called Tennie “stupid” (she just had so see how it rolled off her tongue) and so went to the bathroom for the consequence…soap on the tongue. She came out with a contorted face and Tennie asked her what it tasted like.  Adele paused searching for just the right description and said, “It tastes like pee…with salt and pepper!” 

Adele's quick wit lives on too! Lots of good laughs with the treasure hunt.

Adele requested chicken tacos with slaw as her birthday dinner, and we fed the crowd. She also confessed she doesn't really like cake, and could she have donuts instead?

We had a sign up to capture favorite things, as well as an eye-level section where the little guys could draw her a picture, which all did.

 

Knowing Adele's love of quizzes and this or thats, I created a little quiz to see who knew the birthday girl best. Turns out it was Ceci. How would you have done? (This is Adele's with her answers, some of which she couldn't choose.)

Geoff had put together a slideshow of Adele's life in pictures, so we concluded the party watching her adorableness through the years. Since she had no expectations other than dinner, she was pleasantly surprised and had a great actual birthday.

(Britt provided all of the birthday pictures with people in them. Thanks, Britt!)

Loads of family and friends, and even many acquaintances, reached out expressing good wishes and what they love about her. It made her feel so good. In her own unique way she draws so many people to her. She is so easy to love.

I failed to mention that Nikki was out of town for her birthday, so she took her and Ceci to the same yummy sushi place earlier in the week.

And the next day life went on as normal.

Christmas in McCall

It was nothing short of a miracle that we finally drove away from Salt Lake City to McCall. There were so many last minute ski and boot fittings and work wrap-ups and Christmas to-do errands, care for Mila and prepping the house so our friends Dave and Georgie could stay in our place while we were gone, and packing for Christmas and who knows what else. We installed crossbars on our car so we could borrow a roof rack so we could fit all of our STUFF, and we were still sitting cross-legged the entire seven hour drive. I have no idea how everything fit in our car and roof rack. Ski gear, warm clothing, Christmas gifts and decor to liven up our rental, half of our kitchen and pantry, even a bag of dress-ups for anticipated movie making.

Our roof rack wouldn't close, so we pulled over on the side of the road for Ceci to get on top of it so we could latch it. Tennie captured this great shot.

But once we got on the road, all five of us squished together in such a small space, we talked about all kinds of interesting things. This is one of my favorite things about grown children - the deep thinking, ideas and questions they have on all kinds of topics. The drive zipped right by.

All of Geoff's family (minus Nikki) met up in McCall. This time everyone got their own condo, or shared with one other family, and all condos were next to each other or within close walking distance. While no place had a large gathering place, it was really nice for each family to get good sleep, have a place to prepare their own meals and enjoy a little breather from the mayhem now and again. We were the first to arrive, and our condo mates, Britt and Hunter, arrived the next day. Then everyone began to trickle in.

Some went to get Christmas trees.

Since we got in late Saturday afternoon with just enough time to grocery shop and unpack the car, and the next day was Sunday where we decorated our little place and made sugar cookies and began to visit and be visited by incoming family, Monday was the first day to ski. Geoff was LIVING for skiing, and while the snow wasn't great this year in McCall, he was dying to get on the slopes. That is why his sacrificing his first ski day to spend my birthday with me was a big deal. Usually I just sit home and read while everyone skies on my birthday, which has always been nice, but this year I wanted to learn to skate ski. Geoff was so excited I was exploring a snow sport I could like, he agreed to take a skate ski lesson with me on my birthday.

It was a perfect day. Davey and Erica joined us for an hour skate ski lesson, which wasn't as hard as I thought, but I'm still VERY beginner. Geoff picked it right up, of course.

Geoff and I got acai bowls and browsed a book store and a few other cute shops around McCall. That evening we all met up at a Tollhouse pizza to celebrate. All 39 of us. It was a perfect day.

After surprising Christian with a birthday breakfast in bed, everyone but a few of us went skiing Christmas Eve. We gathered in the evening for a shared Christmas eve dinner (taco bar for simplicity). Somehow it worked having us all packed in to one condo.

The small cousins acted out the nativity, which somehow is rarely reverent and is usually quite chaotic...

Ian read T'was the Night Before Christmas, letting the kids finish the end of each rhyme. It was pretty animated. When it got to the final line, a booming voice from above yelled, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" It was Geoff's dad dressed up like Santa, looking down from a small upstairs interior window. I wish I could have captured the kid's reaction. They jumped up, waving and hooting and hollaring and staring in wonder. It was magical. I got the tail end of everyone's surprise and delight.

Santa had a gift for every person there. And everyone got a picture with Santa. It was really spot on childhood magic.

Our kids now sleep in on Christmas morning, which is another thing I love about grown up children! We all celebrated Christmas in our own condos. Ours Christmas morning was full of surprises, which was fun. Grown up kids still get super excited about gifts, and I'm grateful for that.

I had prepared a Christmas bingo game for the little cousins, with the winner(s) picking out a prize from one of the small pockets on our large elf. Prizes consisted of little shells, bells, colorful rocks and little animals. I didn't anticipate the very loud and proud yelling of bingo every second, but it was fun.

In the afternoon we all gathered to exchange family gifts. Every adult picks the name of another adult, and same with the kids. This took a long while. I snuck in a few unexpected white elephant gifts, as I have in years past. This time TK snuck one in for me!

We had a shared Christmas dinner with ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fruit salad, the works. And somehow it worked smoothly with so many people in a small space.

After the littlest kids went to bed we did "updates" (Geoff's idea). We started with kids 8 and up telling what is going on in their lives. Everyone asked questions and we finished by asking if there was anything they were worried about or anything they wanted us to pray about. These kids beamed at the love and attention they received from the entire family. We've got some remarkable kids growing up in this family!

The next night the teenagers did "updates", and by the next night the adults just sat around and talked about issues in the family, and how we could support each other. These were productive, full-of-love late nights.

The rest of our week together as extended family was spent skiing, playing games, finding out what Harry Potter house everyone belonged to, making gingerbread houses, sledding, a teenage night with Poppop, and general visiting and hanging out.

It was all perfect. It was as if Mormor was watching over us all from heaven, still working her Christmas magic.

Except Zoey threw up, and kids began to get sick, and some adults too. The first week we were all together, then our little family stayed a second week to ski. Except we didn't ski because Tennie, Adele, Ceci and I were all sick. Like super, can't-get-out-of-bed-sick. Mine only lasted four days, but as of this writing, the girls are still all fighting this darn, persistent, nastiness. So that second week was spent making tea and warming soups, watching movies, putting together a puzzle, watching more movies, reading, and celebrating New Years while laying down, and going through rolls and rolls of toilet paper and medicines. Geoff was spared and snuck away to ski a time or two, but skiing alone wasn't so fun, so he stayed home and kept us all company most days. I will say that being sick in a winter wonderland is better than being sick at home.

On the way home we stopped in Nampa, Idaho to watch TK wrestle in a tournament. I had never been to a wrestling tournament before. It was a LOT of sitting around with about1-5 minute bursts of interest. I'm so glad we got to see him. He is GOOD.

My mom lived in Nampa during her junior high years. Her dad owned a root beer stand, and every weekend there was dancing at the church with a live band. This was the late 50s. She remembered her address so we looked it up and found it. It hadn't changed one bit!

Here is that cutie in front of the house at 14 or 15-years-old.

The girls were dying to see the new Little Women movie that came out Christmas day. If they hadn't been so sick they would have driven the two hours from McCall to Boise to see it. The wrestling tournament went longer than we thought, and all showings in Salt Lake were sold out the evening when we got home. We spent some good time on our drive home finding an available theater that was timed right with our driving by. Turns out Wells, Utah would work. We found this old, little theater and were not disappointed. Little Women was a movie we watched every Christmas when the girls were growing up. Their childhood was similar to the imaginative, lively, creative characters in this beloved story. They feel like it is THEIR story (and Adele sort of really likes Timothee Chalamet). Since then they've all seen it 3-4 times since. A great ending to a great Christmas vacation.

And that was Christmas.

December

Somehow life is speeding so quickly and it seems like I just look up long enough to see the weeks whiz by! How is it already mid-January? Let's back up to December.

Aside from the stress of college applications and last ditch studying for the ACT, December was relatively calm. It was a short and wonderful holiday season.  Knowing we were leaving town, we put out minimal decorations and kept things simple. It was nice.

Cousin Bailey invited Ceci to a special viewing of the new Star Wars movie. She came home with her own light saber and a smile a mile wide. So fun.

There was another big climate march that the girls participated in, and Ceci did a Friday sit-out one week this month.

Ceci is Mila's favorite...

One of Ceci's friends invited her to go see Conan Gray in concert, back stage passes included!

We got this super unique Christmas gift from a friend. Popcorn on the cob!

My sister-in-law Ingrid got this cute Gingerbread kit from a neighbor. Such creative ideas!

Geoff, Ceci and I made a trip to St. George for Dooz's baptism. It was fun to spend a weekend celebrating this cool little guy. 

Adele's Choice Humanitarian youth board took part in a live nativity.

It was a great start to the Christmas season!

We left for McCall, Idaho on December 21st, which I'll cover in another post.