Did you know that it’s a new year? Whoa. Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you spurt your drink all over…in my defense, there was a pretty big deal made about the switch and everything. I have five humans that I pay attention to that kept changing all year! My favorite got grayer AND sexier (didn’t expect that 20 years ago, but I’m not complaining!!!). The oldest kid got more manly and independent. The oldest girl got taller and more independent. Girl #2 is speaking clearer and so makes her omnipresent opinions much more known. Baby girl got taller, more independent, and more opinionated. For the record, I did expect all of the kid changes. We rang out the old and rang in the new in our usual style: flour weirdness, jammies, games, outside stuff, and a show. But in keeping with the 2024 trend of “different can still be awesome”, some bits of the night were a little different. Not really noteworthy to anyone but me, but things that underscore the passage of time.

A real highlight in the winding down of this family filled winter break was going to the temple to do Baptisms for the Dead with Corra for her very first experience. It’s the first time I’ve been in that beautiful, sacred place with my five humans and it was…what was it? It wasn’t anything earth shattering. It wasn’t perfect. It was quiet and so right. It was a little bit chaotic and just messy enough to feel like real life.
I’ve been thinking about this since Garyn went through. I like that profound spiritual experiences are not meant to be so pristine and fragile that they some how feel like you have to save them for special occasions. They aren’t the good china and silver that only comes out at weddings and funerals. They are special, and at the same time absolutely worth having as a “common, every day” (to quote Little House in the Big Woods). The temple is like that too…a little piece of Heaven for the real messy, chaotic people that live here on Earth.

Happy next voyage around the sun! 2025 will have kittens, return to home school for Layna part day, home MTC, an Alaskan summer AND winter, silks, the school musical, and a whole bunch of stuff I can’t even anticipate. I’m here for all of it.