Sunday night was New Year's Eve! Since Kevin and Savannah and Ben were sick, the Grosland's opted out this year. Since I was still feeling healthy and wanted to party, I asked our neighbors if they wanted to come . . . and they did! The Koger's came for games all night and the Mill's came for the last hour. We played party games and had great fun!

My birthday was on Monday! To celebrate, we all went to the movies! We saw The Shift and liked it. I got to talk to Cali and Cheyenne each separately on my birthday and I loved that! The whole family came over for dinner and Sarah and McKay cooked! We had fajitas and they were super yummy! Megan made me a double-layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting--just like the kind my mom used to make for me when we were kids. I loved it! It was a great day.

Tuesday was Mariah's last day home. She needed to get back to St. George for track practices and for work planning St. George races. She spent the day with Megan, Sarah, and Beth getting lunch, eyebrow threading, and haircuts! Fun times! After dinner she headed back south! We miss her like crazy!

Savannah would have gone back to work this week but she has still been really sick! She needed to finish her independent study class this week with two recorded presentations. Presentations are normally pretty easy for her but not when she has lost her voice! So it was a challenge. But . . . she did it! She pushed through the pain in her voicebox and the mental voices telling her to give up. Her class is now finished! Yay! Way to go, Savannah!

Ben's tennis group started up again this week and he was so happy to be able to go! He has coughed all week long but in other ways seems to be feeling his usual self. He has connected with some of his friends through his VR headset playing Gorilla Tag and it seems to be his new favorite game. He and Bethany also bought a game together. It's a scary game where they have to make it through a haunted house without getting killed. They get killed a lot. There's a lot of screaming.

Beth and Ben were both able to go to karate this week! Beth said it felt really good to be back. She wasn't able to do everything but she is ready to start working her way back. She had a pretty good week. She's done some things with friends and was able to do a few English assignments. She is nervous about school starting next week but we have worked some things out with her before-sleep routine that we are both feeling hopeful about.

I was able to get back into school and work this week. I'm really loving the things I'm learning about helping people and love the opportunities I'm getting to help people. We've gotten a bunch of snow the last couple of days and it's really pretty. I made a fire today and it reminded me of how our dad used to make fires on Sundays. It was always a treat!

I also got to babysit a couple of times!

Kevin continues to keep busy creating online content, being bishop, and working on his health. He performed a wedding this week for a couple in our ward. He played tennis on Saturday and said he was able to push through the pain in his knee. He is still having house-shaking coughing fits and feels sickish quite often. Poor guy.