Our dear friends hosted Christmas Eve this year. I was super grateful, because I was a bit hosted-out from the hurricane. We had tons of appetizers to eat from and always have a good time catching up. We have a great group of friends where are kids are similar ages (minus Jack and Luke… sorry, we still love you though) and laughs are easy to come by. Our Christmas was great even though we celebrated it a day early. It honestly felt the same as any Christmas. On Christmas Day, I did feel a little like I was in limbo because I didn’t feel like I could crack down on the clutter from Christmas yet because it was still Christmas Day, but also it was driving me a little crazy. So they day after real Christmas we got everything cleaned up before they had some school friends come over to play. During the week, we saw Sonic, Wicked, went ice skating and Urban Air (trampoline park) for a birthday party, and had a lot of quality fun at home. Saturday I got the bug to put away Christmas and I went from feeling like the walls were closing in to, “Our house feels bare.”
I spent the first half hour hunched over like this to help Harvey. The ice was very uneven, which made using these bumpers really hard for a little guy like Harvey. 
The other kids were pretty good considering they only ice-skate about once a year with their Grandma Rasband. 
The second half of ice skating was a lot of squatting and lifting this little guy off the ice. He wanted to figure it out. 
My kids’ attempt at taking a picture of us kissing under the mistletoe. 
I didn’t get many pictures of the kids at Urban Air. The light quality isn’t great anyway, but they were all over the place and I was following Harvey around. 
Here’s Beverly with her good friends from school. 
Max was helping the epoxy seal on the lego table he’s had since he was a toddler.
As we come upon the New Year, I’ve began to ponder on what I’d like to accomplish by the end of 2025. I used to come up with really lofty goals: lose 30 lbs, write an entire novel, etc. And those goals actually seem more plausible… or maybe it’s just because it’s the beginning of the new year again. But I did almost finish a novel in 2024. The hurricane derailed me a bit, but I’m back at it. I’m in the editing phase so it may take a bit to finish, but I think by the end of 2025 I can try to find a publisher and if not, I can go the Amazon self-publishing route. One of my personal goals for 2025 is to choose happiness. When things get hard, I need to search for the things I have to be grateful for. At this moment I am happy. My life is very blessed, but sometimes when things get hard, it is easy to forget all that you already have. I am going to strive for patience with myself and my family. One of the biggest things I learned from my mission life is how to set goals. They have to be realistic and attainable. In order for them to be attainable, there has to be an action plan. This is easy to do for goals like, “I’d like to lose weight, etc.” (though attaining weight loss isn’t an easy goal) but sometimes, the more ambiguous goals like, “I’d like to be more patient,” seem a little harder to plan. I’m going to start with what the Book of Mormon recommends in chapter 7 of Moroni. “Pray unto the father with all the energy of heart.” I believe that if I really want this, he can help me. I also need to understand what patience is. I think it is more than being slow to anger, though that is a starting point. I think that being slow to anger comes from an understanding of the person you are dealing with, and believing in them. So maybe I’ll start there. Trusting and believing in my family. Knowing that they’re doing their very best will make it easier for me to be patient.
I’d love to hear what goals you have for 2025 and how you make and implement plans to achieve them. I am a big fan of “Atomic Habits” and love to learn more about improving myself.
I love your goal of being more patient – I need to join you in learning more about being patient this year too.