Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - November 30, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our holiday weekend is winding down fast and we’re ready to get some sleep; so let’s get to the news of the day and weekend.  Ehlana and I had fun last night with our friends, cousins, and the next-gen kids that we took care of while many of our favorite parents were at Cassie and Michael’s house for Rowen’s birthday party.  We fed everyone; kept them entertained; and then we all eventually managed to get some sleep – though there were not any co-ed sleepovers.  Some of us still got up early for Tai Chi that was indoors due to the cold and lack of interest in bundling up for an outdoor workout.  The teens helped with the work around breakfast and helped to get the kids ready for church, but some of us needed to head over to the church early to get ready with the teen praise team.  The service was amazing; we loved sharing our music with the congregation; and the morning sped by through until we headed home for a quick break before we all headed to the Inn for the noon buffet.

While we were busy at the church before and after the service, many of the weekend guests packed and loaded up for their respective trips home, so by the time we went to the Inn; they were ready to leave after the buffet meal.  That wasn’t true for everyone, since some of the grandparents, Jonathan and his family, and others stayed for longer visits before heading home or to the airport later today.  As for traveling time, we should mention that the Everetts are home now from Granite Park; Violet, Dillon, and the kids came home last night so they could be here to spend the day with his family; and the weekend guests at the cottages were among the outgoing travelers this afternoon too.  We haven’t written about that yet, but the Malloys were among the weekend guests, but they came here on Friday after doing Thanksgiving with their own families; and we didn’t get to spend much time with them while busy with football and everything else.

The buffet dinner at noon was the culinary highlight of our day; we joined in on that first round of goodbyes outside of the Inn; and then Mom and Dad put us to work for the rest of the afternoon at home and at the cottages that needed to be cleaned up.  We worked until around six o’clock; had a snack dinner; and then we decorated the tree before doing some work in the office.  Time phasing allowed us to get a lot done, but in real time, Mom had us wrap up by nine-thirty; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time.  We’ve done that; and now we’re wrapping up the computer checks and twin chat fun.

On the world news front, we’re concerned with the reports about our armed forces ‘practicing’ for airstrikes against Venezuela; and the rhetoric is ramping up again too.  We will again suggest that attacking Venezuela is an insane idea – not to mention illegal on many levels without congressional approval, but our leaders have been ignoring the constitution and laws for decades now; and this will be another blunder that will just make things worse.  So much for our ‘peace’ president!  Western media is gaslighting the people about Venezuela – just as they are about every other important issue in the world.  That’s true for Ukraine, and this weekend is no exception as the western media hypes Ukraine naval drone attacks on two oil tankers and an oil distribution port while ignoring the ongoing destruction of Ukraine that is overwhelmingly more-damaging than the few successes that Ukraine is managing when they are also just gaining new enemies and risking even more-serious retaliations from Russia.

We really don’t want to get into anything else, since there is a never-ending stream of bad news, but we should mention a couple of stories that have made the headlines.  There has been another mass shooting in our country that is sure to get a lot of attention in the coming days – this one in California; and there have been at least four fatalities and ten injured in the attack.  That story is going to get more attention than the more-serious apartment tower fire in Hong Kong, but that story is horrific and there have been dozens of people confirmed killed and there are still hundreds missing.  Details are likely to take time to come out, but a fire like this one just shouldn’t ever happen anymore; and our hearts and thoughts are with all of the victims and their families and friends as they deal with the tragedy.

We really could go on all night with the never-ending bad news, but it is time to call it a night and get some sleep – so we will.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - November 29, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Rowen!

We aren’t getting to help very much with Rowen’s special day, but Cassie and Michael have been and are doing their best to make her day special while we’ve been busy.

The banquet last night was an experience.  The food was decent, but a bit disorderly; and it took a long time to get everyone fed.  Will Carter and I were named co-MVP’s for our game; and Will joined Coach Robinson for the championship award.  The small-school division gets the least respect, but then maybe that is deserved; since I don’t want to try my talents out against the players from the largest schools – or at least I’m not ready to do that yet!  Maybe I’ll have a different opinion on that in another couple of years when I’m a bit taller and bigger too – I’ll let you know when I get there.  I can assure you that the college scouts might have been impressed with me, but they aren’t interested yet either.  From their perspective, it is more-likely that I’ll get crushed before I have the chance to grow up anyway.  My favorite parts of last night were getting to share everything with Naomi at the banquet; and then we had fun back at the hotel with a group swim and some co-ed cuddle time in the girls’ room before we split up for non-co-ed sleepovers.  Mom and Dad attended the banquet and stayed overnight too; and we don’t need to comment on how they spent the rest of their night.

We all met up for Tai Chi and then breakfast; Aiden, Aaron, and I needed to head back home with the team on the bus; and Mom and Dad had four of the cheer squad girls with them for the drive home with one stop for a bit of shopping along the way.  Ehlana wants me to mention that we all missed out on the Black Friday sales and shopping at home yesterday, but we will still have the kids’ Christmas shopping trip coming up next weekend; so we’ll survive.  We also went along for the Christmas tree farm adventure today after getting home, and while we had to deal with a bit of rain while at the farm and picking out our trees, but we didn’t let that get in the way of the fun; and we were able to dry out and warm up in the store with hot drinks and treats.  We were part of a major gang of family and friends for that trip, so we didn’t get to spend much time with each person, but we all had fun; and were happy when we headed home with our trees and treats.  Aiden and I were put to work after getting home to deliver trees; Ehlana and Naomi took care of some chores at home – with part of their work getting ready to host a kid and teen night that is mostly for girls; and now we’re writing this update ahead of dinner and the rest of our day because we won’t have time for that later.  We’re going to be hosting some teens, but also doing some next-gen babysitting because Cassie and Michael are hosting a birthday party for Rowen that will include some tree trimming with family and friends.  The rest of our news can wait for our Sunday night report, but before we wrap this up; let’s cover just a couple of world news stories.

First up, President Trump released a social media post declaring that he is ordering Venezuelan airspace closed – and it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have the authority or right to do that.  It is apparently a warning ahead of an imminent attack of some kind from our armed forces – though we’ll still hope that he won’t authorize that insanity that would end badly for all involved.  That is especially-true for the Venezuelan people, but they also appear to have no control over what will happen beyond doing whatever they can to defend themselves against the neighborhood bully.  There is also news from Ukraine that is bad for the Ukrainian people as Russian forces push all along the front lines while the Ukrainian forces appear to be collapsing.  That might still take some time, but seems more-inevitable now than ever before, and while the western media is hyping a story this weekend about Ukrainian drone-boat strikes on tankers carrying Russian oil that will do nothing except anger other countries and affect the price of oil; they ignore the truth on the ground and the daily demolition of Ukraine by Russian missiles and drones that hit hundreds of targets every day.

That’s enough for today, and we really need to get ready for our incoming guests; so that’s all for this report.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - November 28, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our only news for today-so-far is that we won our championship game this morning – and did that convincingly by a score of forty-nine to zero over Hillcrest.  For the record, Hillcrest was an underdog team most of the way to the championship game; so they might have just run out of steam.  Ehlana wants me to mention that I had three touchdowns; three defensive interceptions; and over three hundred yards on offense.  Yes, that is all true, but everyone on our team stepped up today; which is why we were also able to start kicking field goals by the second half and kept doing that for our final seven scoring drives to avoid running it up on Hillcrest.

That’s really all we have for now.  The bus ride to Central State – or drive for the cheer squad members – was too-early and quiet.  The game was great; and we also watched the game that followed our win before heading to our hotel and getting checked in.  Mom and Dad were among the spectators, so we got to spend time with them this afternoon too; and they are also staying overnight so that they can help with the driving for the cheer squad in the morning.  We’re getting ready for the banquet now and will be busy for the rest of the day; so that’s all for this update.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - November 27, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

We’ve had an amazing day; ate too much food; and did a fair bit of work at the dinners we attended.  We were both at the dinner that Cassie and Michael hosted at noon for the Proctor and Stone families and did work on both sides of that meal; and then Ehlana went next door with Aiden for the Draper family dinner while Naomi and I went to Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s house for the Ayres-Johnson-Seager dinner.  For the record, the Johnson clan was split up among several homes today, with Josiah and Christina hosting a meal and the third dinner at the Carringtons’ home.  There was a lot of cross-party visiting going on and we made some cameo visits too, but we really didn’t have a lot of time for that while busy with everything else.

Now we’re getting ready to host our four best friends, and they are only at their own homes to grab overnight bags and everything they’ll need for the football trip tomorrow.  We’re going to miss out on a lot of fun at other homes, but we need to have an early night because we’ll also be up very early to head to the school to catch buses or rides to Central State.  Instead of trying to cover any world news tonight; we’re just going to stay happy and start focusing on what we need to do tomorrow.  Maybe we’ll save that part of our updates for Sunday night and just stay happy all weekend.

Our friends will catch up with us soon, so that’s all for tonight.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - November 26, 2025

 

Ethan, Naomi, Ehlana, and Aiden:

The holiday weekend is here and we’re tired; so this is going to be a micro update.

It is colder today and will continue to cool down toward winter over the weekend; so it is going to feel Christmassy.  Our school day was really just a wind down to the holiday; football and cheer squad practices were extended for the last workouts before the big game on Friday; and then the four of us helped out with incoming weekend guests at multiple homes and cottages.  Grandma and Grandpa are home, but we haven’t seen them much yet.  This is an ‘away’ weekend for the Proctors, so the Everetts headed out today after school; Violet, Dillon, and their kids left for Woodvale by lunchtime; and the Johnson clan has been arriving all day with grandparents getting here earlier while the parents with teens and kids are still getting here as we write this update.  We’ll note that Jonathan McEwan is here with his family for this weekend; and they won’t be here for Christmas this year.  We don’t have any weekend guests here – though we do expect to host one or two nights with teens – especially if some of our Johnson clan cousins want a break from gangs of boys playing video games.

We’re ready to relax and wind down from another busy day; so that’s all for this report.  Stay tuned; since this is sure to be a very busy holiday with lots of fun and adventure!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!