Christmas, 2018

Christmas, 2018 wasn't going to be anything big or special.  Mark and Allison were headed to Mexico with the Boss family, and we would be counting down the days until Glo left on her mission. Just a time to hunker down, play some games, and enjoy time together.

"Tater" was all bathed and ready to go in his Christmas finery.

However....

Glo had let me know that her boyfriend, Ethan, didn't have any Christmas plans.  That his family doesn't even put up a tree, but instead his parents just put a few unwrapped gifts on the couch Christmas morning for each of their three kids.  And Ethan had already received two of his gifts.  Knowing how much happiness we Kennedys feel around Christmas, and knowing how much we do to celebrate, Glo and I came up with the idea of inviting him to our house for the holidays.

There was a stipulation from Glo though--she can only take him in small doses, so she didn't want him staying for a super long time.

She invited him, and he immediately said "yes".

And the next day, he said "no".

And then he wasn't sure.

At this point, Glo was in tears.  She really wanted him to come, and she couldn't understand why he wouldn't.  And it was the first real indication that I'd gotten from her that she might actually care about him.

Glo sent this photo to me of Ethan.  He literally wants to spend every minute with her.  So while she's practicing her bass, he's happy to fall asleep on the floor in the practice room.  This is in addition to bringing her flowers, taking her out to eat any night she wants, and doing basically whatever makes her happy.

It took about ten days for him to finally decide that he would, indeed, come.  His parents gave him some of their frequent flyer miles so that he didn't have to pay for a last-minute ticket across the country at Christmas time, and our family got busy thinking of gifts to give him.

Glo, channeling Mac here.  And what beautiful girls I have, just getting ready to board their flight.

No major Kennedy event can occur without a t-shirt to commemorate the experience, so I sent the girls and Glo's Ethan (always necessary in this family) t-shirts to wear on the flights home.  I had mentioned the "Utah Entourage" to Hannah, and she came up with this very clever title for the three of them:

I think this might be the only time that Hannah has proudly worn anything regarding her residency in Utah.

The girls arrived a couple of days before he did, and it was a glorious reunion for Glo and Baby.  I'm not quite sure what either of them is going to do without the other for the next year and a half.

And knowing that we would have the help of the kids for only a short time, we got busy moving furniture and boxes out of the house in order to get it ready to go on the market.

Moving one of the many pieces of the many schranks we own out to the barn.

I'm glad I wasn't around to see this, because just the picture makes me nervous...

We went skating with the Barneys.

Christmas Sunday was good.  We took pictures.  Surprisingly enough, none of us were asked to perform in church, so we just sat back and took it all in.

Goll-EE, we are a cute family!

That night, Glo's Ethan arrived.  I wish I had a picture, but those don't seem to be in vogue with the younger set.  I was super excited to have him here as was everyone...except maybe Hannah and Glo.

The next day was Christmas Eve.  Crazy enough, we decided to head out and do some last minute shopping, and show Glo's Ethan a bit of downtown Ann Arbor.

I'm not sure Baby could believe that she could just walk around Cherry Republic and take food for free...

Good old Sandy--always good for a penny ride ;-)

Leave it to Hannah to find a store in the mall owned by an Ecuadorian!  And yes, her sweater has a llama on it as well...with a red scarf and antlers ;-)

One of my favorite pictures of all time.  John pulled her out of her bed in the morning when she woke up and tucked her in with Hannie.

Christmas Day was so good.  Everything was new for Glo's Ethan, and he was really great about just going with the flow.  We Kennedys can be a bit overwhelming (right, Rebecca?) but he was really chill about it all, thank goodness.

And Glo got him a very meaningful gift:  a Fossil watch with something engraved on the back that brought him to tears.

We spent a fun night at the church, playing with the new Nerf guns Poppie bought everyone.

Little Baby couldn't actually pull the trigger on her gun, so she ended up just running around and avoiding bullets.

The day after Christmas, we headed out for a run/walk.  I convinced Glo's Ethan and Glo to go with us, but Ethan didn't really dress for the event and ended up with big bloody blisters on the backs of his heels.  No worries.  We just forced him into Mill Creek where the water was just above freezing.  And a woman came by and took a picture of all of us with our coats on and our bare feet in the water.

We went to two different light displays:  the one at the Detroit Zoo, and another one at the Michigan Speedway.

The drive through light display that went for MILES...

...and the walk-through light display at the zoo.  Leave to Hannah to find yet ANOTHER llama ;-)

We visited Ready Player One, a restaurant combined with an arcade, which Hannah had never seen or been to.

Mark--always a draw as a cool kid.

We also played a lot of board games.  Glo's Ethan is surprisingly good as well as engaged in complicated games--always worth a couple of bonus points with the Kennedys.

And we danced a little.  Glo's Ethan was a competitive ballroom dancer just a year or two ago, and no sooner did Hannie and I start singing "The Merry Christmas Polka" than he grabbed Glo and took her around the living room like a pro.  She doesn't even know how lucky she is....

And I lectured Glo's Ethan about his poor eating habits when he downed four cans of root beer without even blinking.  I even bought him pineapple and sliced it up for him.  I mean, who doesn't like pineapple?  Him.  That's who. Him.

And Glo said goodbye to her Ethan for one final time.  I guess it was really emotional...for one of them.

Then it was off to an escape room in Wixom.

And the girls said one final goodbye since Hannah had to head back to BYU.