Sewing studio

Before Amber agreed to be a teacher, she agreed to host two of her nieces to help them learn to sew a dress. It was a little crazier than expected, but she managed to fit it in. Isabel came in early August.

And Amelia visited us in September.

It was fun to have them, and their dresses turned out great.

Heather and Rachel visiting

My niece Rachel is moving out of Arizona. Heather is helping them drive, and on their way to Canada via Virginia they stopped at our house. Their RV broke down along the way, so they ended up being a few days late, but we made it work.

We invited Dan and Hyde's family over. They were dealing with a tree that had just fallen on their house from a recent derecho, so I went and at least got Dan and some of the kids.

We had dinner, and Hyde was able to make it later that evening, too.

And of course, we couldn't have Heather here and not play Boggle and do a puzzle.

Marisa's visit

When I was visiting Marisa, she mentioned that she had some airline vouchers she needed to redeem, so I told her she should come visit us, and she did!

She came on Sunday, so we invited Dan and his family over so she could see him while he was at home from rehab.

Marisa's one main request was that we go to the beach, so I took the day off on Tuesday and we drove to Galveston for a beach day.

Amber needed to meet up with Crystal to help with the murder mystery party she was planning for Abby and Evie, so she arranged for us all to go to New Braunfels and go tubing on Thursday.

I drove back that night, but the rest of them stayed and saw the Alamo and another mission the next day before heading back.

On Saturday, I took Marisa and the boys to Space Center Houston.

They had opened it all back up since we went during COVID, so we were able to see all the exhibits and take the tour of Mission Control.

On the other days, Marisa had people she wanted to see in the area, and we played games in the evening, including a great round of Ransom Notes, where the winner of the night was my description of my imaginary friend: "My dude is Mr. Duck. He can fly, but also float."

Visit from Grandparents Roper

Amber's parents were in Texas to see the Leflers new house, so we met all of them halfway in Schulenburg TX for lunch. Our original choice for lunch was too busy, but we found this fun place in the former town hall.

We tried the schnitzel, which was ok, but my favorite was the fried sauerkraut balls, as seen on the placard.

After lunch, we took the grandparents back with us for a couple days. They helped us try out the new features and songs in my handbell software.

And we celebrated Grandma Roper's birthday while she was here, first by having some cake, then taking her to someone else's birthday party (Larry Manion).

Brothers

We had the fun coincidence of having two of my brothers visit within days of each other. Jason and Warren were both on independent work trips to Houston and made time to come to the house on Monday and Thursday.

We fed them a home-cooked meal and had fun playing games and chatting until they had to get back to work.

After Christmas

After Christmas we mostly just spent time doing various activities. The grandparents played a lot of games with the kids.

And did some model car and rubber ball crafts.

Olivia and Carmen eventually finished their Harry Potter Lego sets.

Amber and Coral found some time to play Christmas duets.

Grandpa Roper install a new faucet for us.

And we all looked over the old newspaper clippings he brought that chronicled Amber's achievements in Porterville.

Eventually, it was time to say good-bye to our visitors, and hello to the Christmas mess.

Christmas

The kids, led by Olivia, were up very early this Christmas. So early that we had to get up and tell them to go back to bed.

They were all pretty excited about their Santa gifts.

Eventually, we all awoke and started into our stockings.

Next we moved on to the regular presents. I made sure Olivia got lots of books.

And Carmen got lots of fluffy things.

Amber parents brought a lot of things from their recent trip to eastern Europe, like Bulgarian rosewater and Hungarian paprika and soccer jerseys.

One of my favorite toys was the superhero drones, that automatically fly up when they sense something under them.

We spent the rest of the day playing with toys.

Christmas Eve

We made gingerbread houses during Christmas Eve day.

We made our own designs again this year. New designs included Damon's factory (front right), Carmen's reindeer (back right), Grandma's lighthouse (back left), and my Empire State Building (right).

Amber had grand plans for a pagoda, but it didn't bake correctly and she never found time to bake another round of roofs.

After a delicious dinner of clam chowder in bread bowls, we acted out the Christmas story.

Afterwards we sand some Christmas carols, then finally the kids opened one present each from one of their siblings. They were very excited.

Eventually the kids were nestled all snug in their beds, and Christmas magic happened.

Roper Grandparents

Amber's parents came to visit us for Christmas this year. They came about a week early, and Coral also flew in a few days later. The kids were very excited and got Grandpa playing a game as soon as he walked in the door.

The kids weren't out of school yet when they arrived, so they were able to attend some of the kids' Christmas parties at school.

That weekend I took everyone to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which was awesome), and afterwards the kids went with Grandma and Grandpa so Amber and I could go eat on our own. We ended up going to Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet, while everyone else enjoyed Culver's.

As an early Christmas present, they took Olivia and Carmen to Painting with a Twist, where they painted some abstract owls.

And Carmen found some time to do what she does best, snuggle.