And here we are at the end of another year! 

December was full of the usual Christmas things, starting out with Lina's school Christmas concert.  

Then came Lina's 10th birthday!

I took the girls birthday shopping and out for lunch. Josiah stayed home, shopping is not his thing at all. But us three had a really good time. I can't believe how long those girls can spend in a make-up store, they don't even wear make-up yet, but they love the lotions and oils and lip balms. No wonder Josiah stays home!

The weather turned cold and frosty. We didn't get a white Christmas, but it was sure cold and wet out there.

I decorated right after Thanksgiving. It is always so fun to get all those decorations out. Everything feels so peaceful and cozy.

Lina was so excited she could reach the Humdinger for the first time. 

I was sure it wasn't going to happen, but finally just before Christmas, Arianna re-arranged the nativity. Every since she was a toddler, she has made sure and circle everyone, including the animals, with baby Jesus in the middle, so that everyone 'could see the baby'.

John and Rachel arrived just after Jessi and the kids and we set to work on dinner preparations. When I asked everyone what they wanted to eat this year for Christmas Eve dinner, they all decided we should try to make tamales. Along with that we decided on chicken enchilada casserole, tortilla soup and pupusas. Through the years, we have had many students from Central America. From them and our travels we learned how to make tamales Central American style and also El Salvadorean pupusas. We had a really fun time making it all, but I was worried until we broke into the tamales if they would taste OK. It all turned out good and we can call it a success!

We finished off with cheesecake and a Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Then came the gifts. As everyone has gotten older, the gift unwrapping has been less exciting. Somehow, this year, it was fun again.

John and Rachel built a little picnic table that holds an ear of dried corn for the squirrels. 

It took a while, but finally I had two of them today!

Christmas morning, we went for a little walk. 

Christmas Day, we had traditional dinner at Mom and Dad's and opened gifts.

I made a memory game for the kids. For some reason, Lina scored and came away with all the high end surprises under those cups.  Great Memory!

And now it is time to bring on 2025!

The first week of November, I flew down to California to go to Gabe's high school production of The Newsies.  Time is flying by so fast, I just had to make a point of getting there to see one of his events before he is out of high school. It always seems like as much as I intend to get to more events, life here just keeps going and suddenly before I know it, everyone is growing up so fast. I hope to get to more events in the coming months.

He did amazing in his school play, it seems like Gabe does amazing at all the things he decides to try. Drama, dance, violin, speech, debate, choir and church worship team. I tried to upload a short video of the play, not sure if it will load. He has not taken dance lessons before and the role he had in The Newsies had a tap dancing scene. Of course, he took right to it!

Before the play.

I can't believe that Dennis has had a book published! And now it has been updated and reprinted!

While I was visiting, the power was shut off because the power company  was taking precautions because of the Moutain Fire that had just started pretty close to where they live. Daniel got bored, so picked up his violin and played for us by candlelight. It kinda makes me want to go without power all the nights. 

I made it home in time for Josiah's 14th birthday.

Dinner to Country Kitchen with my parents.

Driving with Josiah one day, the reflections were so pretty on the Columbia. Since I was driving, I could not shoot, so I had Josiah try to get one with my phone. I can't believe how pretty it turned out.

The leaves put on a pretty display on the trees AND on the ground. It sure kept John busy!!

Emily sent monthly photos of the boys. The one below of Henry just cracks me up.

Dennis and the family flew up for Thanksgiving. The cousins loved their time together as always. We saw a movie, made peanut butter balls, and had so much fun together.

Family photo missing Joshua (stationed in Japan with the Marines) and Alexis, and Emily, Matthew and Beau and Henry. One of these days, we WILL get everyone together for a photo!

Mom and grandson Matthew have the same birthday. She turned 87. 

October blew right by!

John took this shot at Blue Lake when he took Josiah fishing.  I love those reflections!

Gabe did so great at his speech competition. He has had a really great start to high school. He is the busiest guy I know, speech, debate, violin, drama and that all goes with honors classes! Plus he volunteers at the grade school and does worship team at church. 

Arianna had a great season of school volleyball. Now she heads into club volleyball.

These ladies are my friends from way back when my kids were in grade school.  We worked on PTA events for years and always love getting together.

The hedge at the side of our place has a maple heart pop through each year. 

I love that Emily is so good at sending us photos of the kids. Henry is growing up fast!

I went with the kids to the pumpkin patch. While there, we bought some dirt babies, including one to have Great-grandma make one with us. We took pizza and they planted them.

And here they are just a few weeks later.

I have a bin full of things for the kids for Halloween. Lina and Arianna didn't need anything, but Josiah spotted Grandpa's letterman jacket and decided it was just what he needed. I can't believe he fits into it! But then again, he is 14!  Grandpa lettered his freshman year, so he is only a year off from Grandpa's age when he got the jacket.

Gabe and Daniel's costumes, Waldo and Chicken.

Beau was a basketball player and Henry was the basketball.

Josiah was a letterman, Arianna was a volleyball player and Lina was a Minion.  She came up with that costume all on her own.

September

It was a super nice warm September. Flowers are still going and it has been the final harvesting of what is left in the garden.

I transplanted the asparagus to a box because I heard it will take over your garden.

My little watermelon didn't get very big. I cut it open and for sure it just didn't have enough time to ripen.

But two of my cantaloupes made it. I had trouble deciding when it was time to pick them. They were still a bit green outside, but they had a cantaloupe smell. One day, as I was inspecting them, it just popped off in my hand. It was soft and ripe inside and tasted so good!

My heart hoya bloomed. For Valentines Day a few years ago, I bought a little heart one in a pot. It hasn't done anything. I found out that the ones that they sell at Valentines are that way forever, they never grow or change. You have to have a start from a vine to get it to grow and change. I love to check the clearance table at Tony's and one day they had a terrible looking heart hoya. I decided to see what I could do with it. It has been almost two years and finally the little stub bloomed and the stalk has new leaf shoots.

The scent of the stephanotis is even better than the sight of them in bloom.

I think I get the most comments in my yard on the fall crocus. At the time of year when yards are winding down for the winter, here come these gorgeous blooms to the amazement of everyone who walks by.

My 'Vicki' clematis decided that it needed to bloom again. It looked better than when it bloomed the first time in June.

The kids are all back in school and volleyball began. Arianna has done great with the JV team. So much change from when she first began.

After all the years of watching Arianna, Lina finally made it to the age when she could join. Sadly, there are so many girls, the coach made the decision that 4th graders would only observe at games. They would use this year for practice. Lina has been the best bench sitter ever, watching and cheering on the older girls one more year until it is her turn next year! 

But...one game night, the other team didn't show up and so the coach decided to do a game between the team. Lina hit the floor and impressed us with her skills!

Josiah even got in on it and kept score!

At the first of the month, Josh and Alexis moved all their things back to Oregon. He had a month leave before being deployed to Japan/Korea for 6 months. Alexis will live with her Dad and when Josh gets home, he is out of the Marines!

Matthew and Emily brought the boys up from Texas for Beau's 2nd birthday. It was the first time for me to meet Henry. I still can't believe I am a Great Grandma!

It is still so amazing to us all that Mom is also a Great-Great Grandma! It is so rare!

Josiah brought a couple of his favorite garbage trucks to share his love of them with Beau, who also has a love of garbage trucks. At first, he was too busy with basketball to even notice the truck, but suddenly that was all he could see and think about. He wouldn't even stop loading the truck for us to sing him Happy Birthday!

I also decided it was time to pass on some toys. This little work bench belonged to John, and then Josh played with it and now it is Beau and Henry's turn to use it. It is on its third generation.

We had a really good family day with my parents, kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Life just keeps moving on! Way too fast!

5 Generations!