Happy 2025 From the Bloods

The Blood family had a bit of a struggle this holiday season (as you can probably tell from the fact that our Christmas 'card' is being written partway into January...). No neighbor treats were made. No drives to see pretty Christmas lights. I didn't even get our window wreaths hung. It was a bare minimum kind of holiday. But now that it's January and we can breathe again, here's what the Bloods were up to in 2024!

Elijah (5) started kindergarten! He's not the biggest fan of the long hours (neither am I), but he loves the social aspect. Hobbies include randomly punching his siblings in the back, Minecraft, and snuggling.

 
Elise (almost 9) keeps my calendar full with all her activities. Hip hop, sewing, soccer, piano, crafting, TikTok dances, playdates...this girl is NON-STOP. She asked Santa for "preppy clothes" this year. We are in so much trouble.

 
Aaron (11) has decided that soccer is life and is now playing year-round. Still my homeschool buddy who sleeps with a pile of books at the foot of his bed. Descends into barbarian raging at the sound of any Taylor Swift song.

 
Catherine (almost 14) has discovered Shein, Ulta, and TikTok dances. She was invited to join NJHS and is first clarinet for All-County Honor Band. She also figured out that saying "I love you, Mom" when walking out the door to school won't actually kill her.

 
Seth (16) teaches himself new programming languages as a form of procrastination (plus Mom thinks he's doing homework!). First year of cross-country, NHS, and setting up a refugee apartment with the International Rescue Committee. Loves to follow Aaron around playing Taylor Swift songs on his phone.

 
Megan has added "early morning seminary teacher" and "small business owner" to her previous titles of "homeschooling mother" and "piano teacher." Her guilty pleasure is reading all the advice columns Google News can serve up. Likes to blast Taylor Swift songs in the car even if Aaron covers his ears the entire drive.

 
Jon was quite happily released after serving in the bishopric for all of four months (our ward was dissolved and we were shipped off to a new one). Hobbies include programming algorithms to solve Wordle more efficiently, helping children with math homework, and yelling "Use Chat GPT!" every time they have writing homework.

 
Family fun this year included Elise's baptism, driving to Ohio for the total solar eclipse (SO COOL!!!!), Seth getting his learner's permit, hiking the Appalachian Trail with all the grandparents, Myrtle Beach with the Bloods, and dressing up as Studio Ghibli characters for Halloween.

 
Forgive us for being a bit out of touch. We are at the stage of life where having a single day without something scheduled feels like a miracle. Know that we love you and will hopefully see more of you when this stage ends (does it end? DOES IT?!).

 
Happy 2025 from the Bloods!

(Family photo featuring two family members about to get wiped out by the flu, plus all the glory of the church hallway because it was like ten degrees outside. Feels very appropriate for this year. GUYS, WE TRIED.)

...and a Happy New Year

Got to have Elise's bestie and her little sister come play!

Elijah LOVES having a friend over!

Maybe he just likes having someone smaller than him around?

Matching outfits for Christmas!

And Catherine got to spend NYE with her besties, partying until midnight!

All I did was buy pizza. 

The other moms did all the fun stuff.

Catherine must ask you a question...

We had our own party with friends at our house!

Happy 2025, everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

Despite what it looks like, Catherine was very happy with her Nike socks.

Stupid expensive socks.

Seth asked for a thumb drive.

No idea why.

Probably for nefarious hacker purposes.

Elise asked for preppy clothes.

Catherine had to help me because I'm useless.

Aaron got a new gamer mouse.

Hooray!

Elijah got a cool 3D printed snake

Christmas morning chaos (the best chaos)

Seth & Jason randomly got matching hoodies!

My friend Doug made the coolest crab nativity for the Community Christmas.

I loved it so much that he made me my own personal crab nativity!!

Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas Eve!

We got to spend Christmas with Daniel & Wendy's family, plus Jacob & Natalie! We love having them come visit. Much fun was having just hanging around together. And, of course, the traditional Nativity performance:

Katherine the angel and Elise as Mary

Riding the Evan donkey to Bethlehem

(with assistance from Joseph/Elijah)

Mary and Joseph at the manger

Seth & Megan the shepherds

Wise Men Jason, Catherine & Aaron

Natalie and I joined some friends for midnight mass at a local church. There were parts that felt a little used-car-salesman to me, but the music was beautiful. Looking forward to going again next Christmas. 

December Adventures

I'm a little embarrassed to say that it took us almost ten years of living in Maryland to finally make it to Ft. McHenry. Driving down to Baltimore is just not our favorite, plus it wasn't stroller friendly. But it correlated with Aaron's history studies this year, so we finally made it work! Plus it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous December day. 

Aaron + giant cannon

Aaron in lockup.

That kid's trouble.

I'm kicking myself for not going sooner and taking all the kids. It was a really, really cool place and they do a great job keeping the history interesting. 

Next adventure?

Annual Christmas trip to Kalahari with Knoxes!

Group photo right as we arrived

Elise wanted a photo to show her class

And those are the only pictures I took the entire time. Much fun was had by everyone. Elijah is the only one who can't run off independently, so Jon & I still have to take turns. Can't wait for him to get old/brave enough to go on all the fun rides!

Catherine Selfies

Time for another round of Selfies with Catherine! 

The church parking light in bright sunshine selfie!

This time featuring even more siblings!

The "we are laying on the ground for some reason" selfie:

Not a selfie, but definitely the work of Catherine.

Some sort of ketchup séance:

Catherine Selfie: A Series:

Such an impressive jawline.

Only way Catherine will ever look tall.

Huh. Usually our photos together have opposite expressions...

Sister selfie

Sneak picture of the one-gloved Aaron

Catherine and her Seth Pookie

...and another round, this time apparently on my bedroom floor?

One day soon she is going to kick herself for leaving all of these on my phone...

Random December

 I want a cat.

Jon will not let me get a cat.

Instead, I have to snuggle Marley's cat:

Good thing I have lots of friends with cats!

Another random and slightly disturbing Elijah drawing:

Montano's Christmas lights this year were FANTASTIC:

Said lights included a Rudolph that she may have found on the side of the road.

Rudolph did not survive one of our windstorms:

But the story doesn't end there! We had just returned from a long trip in the van. Elijah, of course, needed to pee. And instead of going inside like a normal human, he drops his pants right in the front yard and proceeds to relieve himself. All over Rudolph. 

Montano was absolutely not impressed. Despite the fact that it rained and snowed and was full of bright, sanitizing sunshine over the course of the winter, Rudolph was NOT allowed to return to her house. Ever. Which, of course, means that Jon sees it as a challenge. Let the games begin.

Seth and the bros driving to school on the last day before winter break!

Emily says she really loves these rides with the boys.

We tried our best to get Aaron and Luke on the same indoor soccer team.

We failed.

But they did get to play each other in the semifinals!

I can't remember who won, but based on Aaron's face I'm going with Aaron's team.

Also, we gave Elijah eggnog for the first time and waited for his reaction. He took a sip, pulled a face, and said, "Is this bad...?" Then after a brief pause, "No! It's GOOD!" I guess I've just never gotten past the "is this bad" phase of drinking eggnog!

Alivia & Catherine helped host at the Community Christmas!

We had our first Community Christmas program, spearheaded by my good friend. It was a bit crazy getting everything ready (music, website, nativities, setup, etc.), but it came together beautifully. Hopefully we can make this an annual tradition!

I also somehow got put on the committee for our ward Christmas party. Clearly these people know nothing about me and my sad decorating skills! I did a lot of whining, a lot of feeling overwhelmed and confused. But in the end it turned out beautifully and it went a long way to helping me feel more like a part of the ward. Still a bit of a struggle, though.