was somewhat hectic.  Tom picked up the grandkids Monday early afternoon after I had gotten off of work that morning.  They hadn’t had lunch so Tom made his (per William) best ever grilled cheese sandwiches.  They were thoroughly enjoyed.

Piper then started coloring the new book I got for her.

William let us know there was a cool rainbow outside.  So I headed out and got these photos.

It was really cool.  He had been riding his motorcycle and got quite muddy.

We went upstairs and played some Road Rash.

There is a sleeping beagle pup that breathes when you put batteries in it.  We brought it downstairs, put batteries in it, and laid it next to Ryeleigh.  She wasn’t impressed.

For dinner there was Kraft Mac & Cheese and Air Fryer Hot Dogs.

They were a big hit.

Piper put her latest coloring creations on the fridge door.  One is over her school photo.

That evening there were rousing games of Stadium Checkers.

On Tuesday, after the chores, William and Tom went out and found a new-to-him quad for William.  He had outgrown his earlier quad, so Tom sold it, and we bought this one as a replacement.  William is thrilled.

That afternoon we watched the UW Huskies lose their bowl game while Piper entertained herself with YouTube Kids.  Their mother picked them up that afternoon to go home and enjoy New Year’s Eve.  Tom and I managed to stay up after midnight and watched New Year’s Eve celebrations on TV.

On Wednesday morning (New Year’s Day), I was called into work to help out.  When I started my car that morning I noticed it was making an odd noise from the passenger side engine compartment.  I was debating whether to use it or not, but I opted to drive it to work.  When I returned the noise was still there.  It was worst when I first started the car and then improved.  I took this video to show Tom the noise.  But when he looked at my car, he identified that my alternator was going out.

 

Prior to the holidays I had watched a couple of Mary Berry Christmas Specials.  The Ultimate Christmas one had a lot of recipes that I was interested in making. Since I wasn’t making any dinners for Christmas, I decided that I would make these recipes for New Year’s Day.  (I had made the Christmas Pudding for Christmas Eve which was a classic plum pudding and the Pumpkin Tortelli for New Year’s Eve which hadn’t really turned out.)  So in the afternoon, I proceeded to make Brussels Sprouts with Peas and Cashew Nuts,

Christmas Gravy

Ruby Red Cabbage,

Lemon and Thyme Roast Turkey,

Roasted Parsnips and Carrots,

Twice-Roasted Potatoes,

and Christmas Apricot and Chestnut Stuffing.

Here it all is on my plate.  I was wanting to familiarize myself with vegetables I normally do not eat (Brussel sprouts and red cabbage) and use some of our farm products (turkey, carrots, parsnips).  It was all incredibly good.  Of course, Tom wasn’t quite as adventurous with the veggies, but he liked the turkey, potatoes, carrots and gravy.

I had thought that the grandkids would be brought back later in the evening after dinner.  But they were in the afternoon.  They were not interested in any of this food so had ramen instead, which they liked.

But then Tom started a fire in the Big Green Egg on the back porch.

This is so we could have S’mores for dessert with my leftover homemade marshmallows from Christmas.

They were really, really good.

Then Piper helped me taking the ornaments, garland and lights off the Christmas tree.

On Thursday morning we did the chores.  Here’s Piper and William feeding hay to the cows.

Tom cut the Christmas tree into two pieces to feed to the animals.  Here is Bambam enjoying one.

The weather has just been awful with lots of cold rain.  Indoor activities seemed attractive.  Tom watched part of the Meacham auction.  William did ride his quad around outside.

Piper and I made Stained Glass Cookies.  These were fun to make with her.  She chose which cookie cutters to use so there are lots of Halloween cookie shapes.

Here’s what they look like in the light.

Later she wanted popcorn and to watch Youtube Kids.  They had managed to forget their devices at home which was actually a blessing.

For dinner I made Tater Tot Chicken Pot Pie using leftover turkey instead of chicken.  The kids mostly ate the tater tots, and we mostly ate the filling.  But it worked out.

Then there was ice cream with all the fixings for dessert.  Here is William reacting to all of this.

In the middle of the night, our power went out. Fortunately it came back about 1 hour later.  This is good because I was fretting about what we were going to do without electricity with two kids.  But our neighbors were less fortunate.  As we were dropping my car off to be fixed, we saw the damage from a huge cottonwood tree that had fallen into the Samish River by the Highway 99 bridge and took out the electric lines.

It took all day for those neighbors to get their power back  The weather was especially awful today.  So apart from animal chores, it was an indoor day.  William did still get a  little quad riding in.  We were able to pick my now fixed car up too

Here is my favorite photo of them looking at Tom’s laptop.

We took them home this evening, fighting traffic from multiple crashes on I-5 in Bellingham.  We are safely back home again to a strangely quiet house.  Tomorrow will be cleaning day for me.  It was a great New Year’s week.  Happy 2025!