Goodbye 2018

How could we possibly say goodbye to one of the best years of our lives? Two parties of course!

We started out New Years Eve at Sa’s house with the Fosters, French’s, and Sanford’s. Everyone brought appetizers to share and it was loud and full of laughter! I was in charge of games and Mr Bill brought the fireworks. Jenn and Jessie even dropped by to top it off. We really had such a great time! 

At about 10pm everyone tired out at that party so the French’s and us headed over to the Monson’s house. We joined them, the Gruewell’s, Williams and Newman’s for more fun. Their were a whole bunch of girls there to play with so both Riley and Keagan had a blast. We played games and then did an insane amount of fireworks including some that were pretty massive and one that set off the neighbors car alarms! Riley even threw her very first lit flower! We had so much fun that before I realized it was 1:45 in the morning! To top off that party Miss April blessed us all with her awesome photography talent and got some amazing pictures! 

I have to admit, I was a little sad to say goodbye to 2018. It was just such an incredible year! It was full of trips (disneyworld, San Antonio, Hawaii and Chicago twice), Riley’s unbelievable Make a Wish, Keagan finding “her thing” at DPAC, lots of fun with family and friends, memories made, lessons learned, growth and SO much laughter. If I’m being honest I’m a little weary of 2019 and the possible challenges I know it will bring us, but I’m excited to see where it takes us. 2018 will be pretty hard to beat but we are ready to give it a shot! Bring it on 2019!

Christmas Love

When I returned to work from Thanksgiving, my friend Lily had a very interesting comment for me. She said “you know how there are some people’s social media profiles that you look at and you are jealous of their life?” Of course I knew exactly what she was talking about, we all do. And I was ready to respond with a list of the things in my life that are really hard that she would never be jealous of. But she continued with “well I am jealous of your posts because your life is SO full of love!” Until then I had never labeled my life that way but my insightful friend was SO right! It’s the reason I selected the Christmas cards I did that said “Christmas Love” as their message and the reason why despite all the hard that my life is so beautiful and fulfilling! It is a life full of the very special love that my girls and I share, the love that is showered on us by the incredible village we have surrounding us of family, friends who are like family, our church family, our school family, and truly friends all over the world! The three Kikuchi girls love, and we love hard! Plus we are  so loved! So it’s no surprise to me at all that we had such a joyful Christmas this year full of...you guessed it...love.

Living with my mom, we have the easiest house in the family to host family gatherings. Years ago having everyone over used to stress me out immensely! But slowly over the years I have relaxed and lowered the expectations I put on myself about it and this year I absolutely adored our Christmas Eve celebration! I made lots of food assignments and even bought the rolls and the scalloped potatoes from Costco. So with minimal work of setting up tables and prepping we had a day to enjoy! The girls and I took that extra time to sit down together (at the kitchen table that was moved to the entry for dinner), listen to Christmas music and build gingerbread houses!  It was seriously SO much fun, especially because I hot glued the houses together to eliminate the hard steps! Both girls took the creative task very seriously and we sat for almost 2 hours enjoying each other’s company! Their two final products look very different but we all had an equally great time! 

Our actual Christmas Eve turned out to seriously be an outstanding night! The Texas Ginns (who were so festively dressed), the Fosters (including Sami who is home), and the French’s came over. Everyone brought the most delicious food and the best moods! After the most yummy dinner we did our traditional nativity songs and reading with our nativity masks. It was really so sweet and not even a teenager complained! Then we got down to business with the games that had so many of our tummies hurting because we laughed SO hard! We played King of Christmas with wrapping paper. Keagan was thrilled to win the first two rounds and then Reagan and Riley as a team won the third round and I’m seriously not sure I have ever seen Riley so excited! The girl squealed, cheered, kicked, raised her hands in victory and even took a victory lap insisting on high fives from every single person! It was amazing! Then we competed for quite a while in head, shoulders, knees and cups which spurred quite the wrestling match between Kennedy and Kellie, sibling and parent/child rivalry at its finest, me nearly peeing my pants, Todd putting on Kirks amazing Christmas Story bunny suit and a ridiculous amount of laughter! We ended the night together with yummy desserts, a puppet show from Keagan and Campbell, gifts for everyone from Nana and lots more stories and laughs! 








SO sad I didn’t make the Fosters take a family picture too! 

Once everyone was gone we started tracking Santa on the official NORAD tracker and Keagan got very stressed that we all needed to go to sleep so Santa would come. So we put out cookies for Santa, Riley’s reindeer food and said big grateful prayers! Then once we were asleep wouldn’t you know it Santa came! 

Keagan was up Christmas morning by 8 but played nicely until we woke Riley up at 9. A fun Christmas morning followed full of way too many presents but the right amount of gratitude! Santa brought Riley a dancing Mickey Mouse and a Mickey steering wheel. He brought Keagan Mario Kart for her Nintendo Switch and turquoise Heelys which unfortunately are too small. Santa feels bad about that and we’ve already emailed about replacing them. Mommy gave the girls bow and arrows, the cutest jackets, scarfs and ear muffs as requested, games like mancala, a Buddhist water board for Riley to paint like she loves to at school, Keagans requested snorkeling set and a few more. Their dad got Keagan an iPad and case plus a candy making set and Riley two beautiful princess dresses, a real tiara and kinetic sand! The girls were also spoiled by Grandma Debbie, Uncle Brandon and Ty, Nana, Grama Linda and of course Sa had already done her traditional 12 days of Christmas for them! Their stockings were also stuffed full of things they loved like fancy Chinese fans, fake snow, whoppie cushions and personalized wallets! 

I was totally spoiled this year too! Without any prompting from me at all, two weeks ago Keagan coordinated with Miss Taryn to take her and Riley shopping for me! With her very own money Keagan very carefully selected a candle from Bath and Body works, a car air freshener and she even paid for Riley to pick out a hand sanitizer and key chain! Those three things will forever be my favorite Christmas gifts of all time because they truly were gifts from my babies hearts!! Oh I just love them SO much! Sa and Todd got me my favorite Sees candy and cinnamon bears and the cutest earrings, Linda got me cookies and a pedicure and Nana went above and beyond with generous gifts! Plus several friends dropped off sweet treats and goodies for all of us! 

After presents we spent Christmas Day with people we love! We went to the Fosters for our traditional Pakka breakfast. It was delicious and almost as good as seeing those three teenagers happy, Riley getting cuddles from everyone and Todd helping Keagan set up her new iPad. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of all that good stuff. Then we went to the French’s to exchange gifts. All their gifts were a hit with us! Light saber chop sticks and dip clips for Keagan, pretend cookie baking kit which Miss Taryn and Riley played with forever, and BFF cokes, a sign and an oil diffuser for me! After playing for a while we ended up staying there and helping them set up for Christmas dinner. The elders (one we loved) Sa, Todd and Sami joined us for a yummy Christmas dinner and a game of Disney Family Fued. Sitting around the Christmas tree and chatting was as peaceful and perfect as could be. We ended Christmas night exchanging gifts with Nana at home and then letting the girls stay up way too late playing with all their new toys. 


















Of course our Christmas was filled with love. That’s exactly as Christmas should be! Because the purpose of Christmas is to celebrate to strongest love anyone will ever know. That’s the sacred love of our Heavenly Father who sacrificed his only begotten Son and the love of our Savior who lived and died for each of us because He loves us even more then we can understand. For that love I am eternally grateful and I hope everyone felt it like we did this year! 

Merry Christmas and a whole lotta love from the Kikuchi girls!