January 2024

Mikey headed over to a friend's house for New Year's Eve.

Katie decided to stay in.
She enjoyed her 12 grapes at midnight. 

Her eyes are closed so she didn't have to witness our New Year's kiss.

So old and so tired, and according to Katie, so gross.

Ralph was overjoyed staying up late to ring in the New Year.

He's old too.

A few more days of Winter Break remained.

This is what was left of the gingerbread house at the end of it.

Back to school, work and responsibilities.

Boo.

I headed to Goodwill to shop for dragon treasure for The Hobbit.

Auditions for the spring musical were held in December before Winter Break.

Cast announcements came right as the kids were returning to school.

Katie did not get a part. She decided to apply to be part of the behind-the-scenes Tech Crew.

Mikey was cast in an ensemble role.

The Friday after break, Mikey and I went out on a date.

He was in burger heaven.

Where were Katie and Huzbend?

They were taking a truffle making class!

A picture showcasing the perils of hand rolling truffles.

They were also able to make some other chocolatey creations.

Each got to bring home a box of chocolates.

Some of them might have looked sketchy, but all of them were delicious.

With only about a week out from opening night of The Hobbit, costume creation and set building was ramping WAY up.

Here's Nori modeling his purple cape.

Mikey lent a hand painting some scenery.

That same evening, we headed to our friend's house to celebrate Dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day).

Time to cut the Rosca de Reyes (King Cake)!

I don't think either of my kiddos found a Baby Jesus this time.

After Rosca, it was time to play Lotteria.
Many quarters were won.

More Hobbit.

Goblin masks ordered from Amazon were not going to make it on time.

We had to come up with a replacement.

Overnight paper mâché masks from Amazon and Home Depot paint to the rescue!

I cranked these puppies out in a day so they could have them for dress rehearsal.

Grocery Lad and Nori - ready for dress rehearsal!

And...it was Opening Night.

To say this show was pulled off by the hair of a tween dwarves chin would be an understatement.

IT WAS CRAZY!

But, in the end, through all the chaos and crazy, the kids pulled off an amazingly entertaining show.

"AT YOUR SERVICE!"

"Gee, Mr. Baggins! Dwarves! Hundreds of 'em! Like locusts!"

Opening weekend was a success and so much fun to watch.

It didn't hurt that I am a Hobbit superfan.
Most of the high school shows span over the course of two weekends.

With one weekend down, there was only one more to go.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Katie and I headed to Olympia for our state PTA Focus Day.

Focus Day is a day to meet with legislators and talk about advocacy issues that are important to us.
Katie was not shy about advocating for students.

The next day, we were hit with two disasters.

#1 - A giant ice storm rolled into the state and shut down schools for two days. This, in turn, cancelled a pick-up rehearsal AND one whole show for The Hobbit.

#2 - Katie came down with COVID and had to miss the last weekend of the show.

That totally sucked.

She took it okay.

I was a mess.

I'm glad that I took photos that first weekend.
That was the last time she was on the high school stage in an acting role.

Alas, the show must go on.

With Katie isolated in her room, we were able to keep Mikey healthy.

Here is Mikey in his goblin garb.

Fighting the good fight for Team Goblin.

Sadly, Mikey Goblin doesn't survive the fight with the dwarves and is passed over as a dinner option by Gollum.

Fooled you! It was all stage magic!

Mikey actually survived and played Mario Kart with Gollum backstage in the Green Room.

The Hobbit was the most monetarily successful show in the high school's history.

Amazing.

As soon as the closing night was over, all of the students work to "strike" the set.

They pull everything down and clean.

After they do that, they have a ceremony where everyone shares a special thought or memory.

They usually don't get home till 1am or later.

Katie had to miss it. Stupid COVID.

Some friends of ours made sure she got to celebrate as well by dropping off some allergy-friendly treats.

I am not going to lie.

The majority of January was all about The Hobbit.

After the show was over, the kids had a little more room in their daily schedules and life returned to its normal, busy (but not drama show busy) routine.

I share this picture below because it is gross.

Huzbend tried to make a chicken meatloaf and did not precook the sausage.

We call this

ZOMBIE LOAF.

Huzbend actually ate some.

After he microwaved it.

At the end of the month, we celebrated a friend's 50th birthday.

Jon was a friend that Mike, our friend from high school, met in college.

The day after the surprise party, we had everyone to our house for dinner and then the day after that, the guys went to see the Seattle Kraken hockey team play.