Brian and Devri: Our Own Eden: May 2021

By December 26, the world was eagerly and happily counting down to when the horrid year 2020 would be over. According to internet memes, 2020 was the year from Hades, and the general consensus was that it would magically all be better at the strike of 12 on December 31/Jan 1. As for us Savillians, our countdown went something like this:

Hiding under the bed.

Enjoying our Christmas presents by discovering the magic of an Instapot (Thank you Santa!)

"camping" in December:

And getting an at-home massage (thanks Mom!)

One night, Brian and I had to discover the mystery of the piles of sand found throughout the house. We found one on the stairs, in our bedroom, and in our bathroom, all looking something like this:

After searching around, we found more on this bear, and this tiny hat in the corner of our room.

Earlier, I had let Gracie back into the house and she had run in with this camo hat cover (shown in the picture by the bear's foot). I had thanked her for bringing it into the house, but didn't watch what she did with it after that. Apparently, she felt the need to stash it for some unknown, possibly nefarious purpose later. We never were able to ascertain what the purpose was, and therefore, we slept with one eye open for a week. Nope, that's a lie. We laughed, cleaned it up, and went to bed, barely thinking of it again other than to call Gracie our favorite pet name, "Crazy".

Lea came over with a couple of her boys, and wanted to show us how they're growing. Here's 12-year-old Danny, same height as Lea, but with longer arms.

This doesn't bode well for Lea maintaining her height dominance over her third-born.

While she was there, we tuned in for Tucker's baptism via Zoom.

Gracie, who we can all agree could use some religion in her life, chose to remain a heathen, and slept through the entire proceedings.

On a serious note, we really were blessed to be able to join Tucker for his baptism. That is one good thing that came out of this pandemic: the ability to tune into events that take place across the country.

We finished the year with our sights on getting the kids rooms in better order. They looked like this:

and this:

The big goal was to clean up, organize, and make it better. Step one for 2021, since we didn't get it quite handled by 11:59 p.m. on the 31st.

We picked up a few sparklers to celebrate the new year. Our adventures in the snow led us to see our neighbor light a really awesome aerial.

We had our annual early countdown and toasted the new year with sparkling juice in fancy cups.

Then we put Gabe in bed and headed across the street. Our neighbors and friends, the Bertilsens, invited us over for some last-minute festivities. Our other neighbors, the Moyles, were also there. We played games, Marcus made us a non-alcoholic cocktail

There were a few more fireworks

And the Michael and Rachel got to stay up until midnight with all these girls.

We danced to Abba

Took some selfies:

Watched more fireworks being lit off around the valley, and then went to bed feeling blessed to have such great neighbors and friends.

2020 brought us some incredible gifts: 20/20 vision for me, my first ever girls' trip, a Disneyland Vacation with Nana and Papa (which included getting to be with my brother for his first Disneyland experience), learning how to make a sourdough starter, serving my community by making face masks, moving to a new home, meeting new friends, embracing new opportunities, designing a backyard from scratch, embracing new schools, starting new traditions, healing, going to Yellowstone with both sets of grandparents, finishing our basement, stretching, learning to rely on faith instead of giving in to fear, seeing the goodness of humanity after catching and recovering from the coronavirus, being able to pay it forward by serving some more, appreciating people and relationships more, appreciating the blessing of sitting in a chapel with other believers, treasuring the sacramental ordinance, and so many other things. Above all, seeing that God is still in His heaven, and He is still in control.

The world may have said "Good Riddance" to 2020 and try to forget about it, but I wouldn't trade that year away or wish it forgotten. We learned and grew so much, and I will always be grateful for the year 2020.

Not only is December a month-long celebration of Christmas, but it is also the month we get to celebrate our Moms' birthdays! First, we got to celebrate Julie's birthday. I made a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate cake. It looked pretty, but might have been an acquired taste. We celebrated her birthday early because Kirt and Julie went to Florida for Christmas, and this was the day before they left. It was also the day of one of Rachel's dance demonstrations, hence the nutcracker hat and leotard.

She led us in our epic "Happy Birthday" song singing. We were particularly awful yet again!

After celebrating Nana's birthday, we got to celebrate Christmas early too!

Which meant opening presents

Right after this, Gabe exclaimed, "What?! Not a stupid puzzle!" Not only was this incredibly ungracious of him, but it was also ridiculous because of all the toys and things he has received over the years, he comes back to puzzles the most. He LOVES puzzles, and I specifically suggested to Julie that he loves floor puzzles, so this is what she got for him.

Rachel on the other hand had nothing but good things to say about her present.

She got lots of Barbie dresses and shoes, and she was so excited.

We also pulled out her special collaborative present:

She was really excited and admired everyone's handiwork like a good girl.

Michael was up next.

He loves his new quilt from Nana. He had requested a bigger one, and Nana delivered! He loves this quilt and has used it more than the other kids have used/played with their presents. And he was also grateful.

Nana and Papa helped Gabe put his puzzle together and he saw how cool his puzzle was.

Here's Rachel's new Barbie house in her room.

The week before Christmas, we headed up to Idaho. We were there with just my mom for one night, and then Emily and her crew arrived. A few days later, Taryn's crew arrived as well. It was quite the party!

We had a fun trip with everyone, and played all kinds of games at night, even coming up with Bonus Christmas rounds of "Oh He@@"! We even watched "Scrooge" together for moral support. It was much easier to watch all those classics this year over last. We were all ready to have a joyful Christmas after last year was so hard.

We celebrated Wyatt's birthday with some chocolate cake.

I tried to get a good picture of the Christmas Star.

I struggled getting a good focus on the stars, but the wind made it really hard.

Twinners!

The kids loved hanging out with cousins. They got to play all kinds of games together.

Since we still had a week in our candy advent calendar, I bought little gift boxes to put the rest of the candy in for my kids so they had a present to open everyday before Christmas, and I made some for my nieces and nephews as well. My mom and Brian helped put the boxes together and tie all the bows. These two cuties just killed me with how darling they are! We tied their ribbons into their hair.

There were a lot of kids in this house, and sometimes that was a struggle. Some of the walls around the house started looking a little smudgy, especially around the height of some of these guys' waists. I gathered them together and asked them if they wanted to give Grandma a special present. I told them that sometimes the best gifts are when we give our time serving. I gave them each a rag, and we went around and cleaned walls, baseboards, and windows.

They were so excited to show Grandma her present when they were all finished!

I need to back up a little. When we were driving up to Idaho, my mom called and let us know that Grandpa had tested positive for Covid-19. We were about an hour and a half away from her house. There wasn't any question in our minds: we would stay the course. We were grateful that we'd already caught the virus and recovered from it so that we could have no fear heading into Grandpa & Grandma's house to bring them dinner and take care of them. But, this seemed to be my nightmare coming true. From the minute I learned that the elderly were the most at risk of dying from this virus, I've been afraid that my grandparents would catch it, and here they both were, sick with this virus that had shut the world down. Brian wondered if we should keep our kids away, but I said, "No. If we lose one or both of them from this, I refuse to let them go without letting the kids see them again."

Cal had texted and asked if I could record Grandpa reading the Christmas story from Luke 2, and suddenly that became the most important thing I could do during that trip. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, I headed over to their house with my camera and tripod. I went into the house to find only my grandma. When I asked where Grampa was, she replied, "He's out in the barn." What was my ill grandfather doing in the barn?! I went outside to bring him inside to read the story, and I found him sitting back by the wood-burning stove.

Apparently, he had just finished what he was working on, and he was resting from the effort. I was shaking my head at him for being out in his barn work-shop until I realized what he was working on: ladder chair for my brother Ethan. My dad had made each of us kids one before he died--well, each of us except for Ethan. My mom had asked if Grandpa could finish Ethan's for Christmas (before he caught the virus), and he took that request seriously, Covid or not. It was Christmas Eve, and (in his mind) he needed to get that done for Ethan. As I shook my head at him, I had a vision of myself in my craft room just a couple of months previously, feeling completely lousy because I had Covid, fighting through the fatigue to finish Halloween costumes, even as those around me told me I should rest. I couldn't rest because my kids were counting on me. Grandpa couldn't rest because he'd taken up the gauntlet from my dad, and Ethan was counting on him. We both have the same stubborn determination to do what we say we're going to do, even if we are really sick. I couldn't be upset with my grandpa for doing what I had done, and I was a little proud to have such a big piece of him in me.

I helped him inside, and he washed his face and combed his hair so I could record him reading Luke 2. He read through it twice for my camera, and then Grandma & Grandpa let me take photos of them. I was so terrified that I wouldn't have another chance that I wouldn't take no for an answer.

Grandpa had struggled through his readings. I felt so bad making him do it when he felt so crummy. Before I left, I saw his oxygen levels, which were really low. I told my grandma to call the doctor and see if he would let my sisters (who were in Idaho Falls) bring him some oxygen so that he wouldn't have to spend Christmas Eve in the hospital alone. I went home and tattled on him, and my mom about lost it about the whole situation. She was so worried about him! As we all were! She coached him on breathing really deeply to get his levels where they needed to be, and he didn't end up needing to go in. Brian helped me get the recording of my grandparents ready to put up on Youtube by evening time, and we sent the family a link. My aunts and uncles shared it with their kids as well, and we kind of all got to be in Grandpa & Grandma's living room for Christmas, complete with ticking clocks in the background!

We made pizza for dinner, and Ethan and Erika arrived!

After pizza, the kids frosted cookies for Santa

And we did our Christmas Eve program, which included a Zoom meeting with Grandma & Grandpa, watching the recording of Grandpa reading the Christmas Story, and a small live nativity. I'm kicking myself that we didn't record that zoom meeting because that nativity was quite hysterically adorable.

We had Grandma's pastry, only this time I made it. It wasn't as good as hers, but each year, I get better at it.

I did apple (instead of huckleberry) and cherry filling.

We opened our Christmas Eve PJs.

Our t-shirts were totally perfect for this year (Brian and I had been to Star Wars land twice, the kids once) and the words of Han Solo sum up what we've had to tell ourselves all year (Everything's under control, situation normal. Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine now. Thank you. *Blaster shot*)

Between all of us, we had a lot of presents! We kept them in boxes in the garage until Christmas Eve, and then we brought them all out!

So many presents!

After kids were in bed, we played Jack box games with all the adults, and it was a blast! Then we headed to bed so Santa could come. He must have spent a couple of hours getting all these stockings filled!

We decided to unwrap presents in shifts. The kids opened their presents first, and then the adults unwrapped theirs after the kids were all finished.

Santa likes to wrap his presents in really shiny wrapping paper that is really hard to rip. He wants you to have to work for it.

Rachel was so excited to get her American Girl Doll that she had designed named Anna Leigh.

Gabe got his remote control transformer.

They got books, clothes, toys, hugs, and smiles.

My mom and grandparents made special pillows out of some of my dad's shirts. Wyatt was the first one to open one, and he burst into tears. One of the kids liked that their shirt pillow had a pocket. When Gabe opened his, he protested, "What?! Mine doesn't even have a pocket!" Oh Gabe! How ridiculous it is to throw a fit over such a sentimentally special gift.

In attempting to get a toy out of a box, Rachel kind of punched herself in the face. Christmas was certainly an adventure.

I took a nap after opening presents, and Brian woke me up just in time for Christmas dinner. Grandpa & Grandma joined us since they'd had the virus for 10 days by that point. Also, none of us cared. If we caught it, we caught it. We weren't going to let them spend Christmas alone. They both seemed to be feeling better that day.