Christmas morning 2024

It was a lovely Christmas morning at home.

Omri got a Rubik's cube in his stocking and is well on his way to learning to properly solve it (thanks to a YouTube tutorial)!

 

V with her new weighted stuffed animal:

Checking out the stockings:

Checking out the wool socks:

R opens a few gifts:

Omri gets a new Switch game and V opens the cover for her new, warmer duvet:

Part of Omri's bedroom redesign project: LED light strips:

V got Lana Del Rey's poetry book. Omri "relaxes" on his (still-compressed) bean bag chair (trust me - it got a lot bigger/fluffier when we released it!):

Opening a new Clue game from Uncle Nate.

Omri also got a subscription to The Week Junior, a Swiss Army knife, and toiletry bag for travel.

V is getting into tea with some loose-leaf varieties to try, a proper infuser, and glass mugs:

My gifts below! Thanks to everyone who thought of us!

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Christmas Eve 2024

While Christmas may have been a little overshadowed by the stomach bug (had only by me and R a few days before) and our departure for Paris on the afternoon of the 25th, we did still have a nice -- if abbreviated holiday -- as just the four of us. Here we are after church:

The first gift of Christmas:

It was new pajama pants for everybody:

We managed to get out for our traditional tour of lights in the neighborhood too:

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Other December ongoings

Quilly was running a few days behind his scheduled arrival and got locked out:

Bill of Rights Day with the Girl Scouts (photo by R):

Omri spent two nights away on a school trip, so Raia and I had a night out in Minneapolis after dropping off V at rehearsal. We had dinner at Gai Noi.

Walking around New Brighton during one of Veronica's voice lessons:

She sang "Blue Christmas" at a recital, solo, in front of a church full of people (I don't have permission to post the video, but this is her poodle skirt):

Omri and I went to the Bell Museum to see an award-winning planetarium show produced by our friend Dr. Holly:

We did NOT start smoking. This is R blowing out the advent candles after dinner:

I took 300 photos at a concert held at Bethel University. That happened to be during the weekend before my busiest week of the year at work.

It eventually caught up with me because I, literally, fell ill the Saturday morning before Christmas, when my parents were in town, passing out onto the floor of the kitchen in front of my dad. It was mostly due to a stomach virus, but it was also a warning sign to slow down.

Taking and editing photos is not what is stressing me out, but I'm still going to take a little pause on the blog for the next week or so, for reasons that will become clear. Christmas photos are still coming (in January)!

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Solstice Festival 2024

Still catching up on the month a bit...

Veronica sold homemade candles at the junior high market to raise money for her upcoming trip to Washington DC:

Thank you to Grandma Linda for the help in making them. They turned out beautifully:

She also sang and played the flute:

I did not have a good vantage point for the band, so we only have video of her singing:

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Family photos 2024

You may have received our Christmas card, which features a few of these, but I wanted to post them here too. All credit goes to local photographer Gretchen Loretta. She did an amazing job! It's even more impressive when I tell you these were taken on a windy, rainy, chilly day.

 

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Shrek The Musical Jr.

Veronica made her Minneapolis debut at The Conn Theater on Nicollet Ave with 18 performances of Shrek over three weekends (and some school days). It was a very entertaining show with a small but incredibly talented cast, ages 10-20. Her role was the Wicked Witch, but she also sang and danced a bunch in the ensemble. She is such a hard worker, learning new skills for her parts (baton twirling and more advanced tap dancing this time), even powering through multiple shows a day when she was sick (the show must go on). I'm hoping we will get some professional photos of actors on stage that I can post eventually, but for now I only have a few snaps from the lobby afterwards. 

Here is her selfie with grandmas Linda and Sofia:

And one with my parents from last Friday.

Grandpa Rak and Uncle Nathan also made to performances, along with other friends and supporters. Thanks to everyone who made it out!

Brava, my darling girl!

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Omri on keys

Omri gave Grandpa a preview of the song he would be playing at his piano recital:

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Decorating the tree 2024

These are a little disappointing compared to previous years because I have been having an issue with my big camera and wasn't able to use it! I also can't seem to take a decent shot with my iPhone these days either (I think because of the auto-HDR that can no longer be turned off?). Anyway, here's what I got:

Nice job, team!

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Alice turns 2

The day after Thanksgiving was Alice's birthday, so we stopped by to wish her a happy one. She was happy alright!

 

Salvi got a belated birthday gift too:

Alice, having her hair done again:

The gamer guyz had other things on their mind:

Ezra made an appearance too:

That's about it from our one-night trip up north. It was a lot of driving but nice to see family!

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