{"id":5286,"date":"2026-09-18T19:50:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/family.manandyak.com\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2026-09-18T19:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:51:12","slug":"winter-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/family.manandyak.com\/?p=5286","title":{"rendered":"Winter 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The holidays were quite whirlwind affair this year.  I had a small procedure on my right knee the day before Thanksgiving, so I was hobbling around a bit at first.  But it’s amazing how quickly I was able to heal and be back on my feet!  In time to fly to Colorado Springs to spend a few days with Claire’s family.  Josef enjoyed hanging out with her nephews and building gingerbread treehouses.  His highlight was definitely visiting Meow Wolf in Denver.  The space somewhat defies explanation, but perhaps the few pictures below will give you an idea. <\/p>\n

Next we were on to Ogden to spend Christmas day with Grammanette and James, where we went for a hike on Antelope Island and saw the light displays and dioramas at City Hall.  Then I flew on to New Zealand for a 2-week biking adventure with my mom, which was her birthday present.  I’ll try an post a little travelogue with some photos for that one.<\/p>\n

This tax season was the best one yet.  I feel like I have arrived at a special place where I just don’t worry about the work anymore.  I know what I’m doing, and I know it will all get done.  I’ve learned to put my wellbeing before the work, and I just proceed one day at a time.  Josef made my life easy by excelling at his school assignments and doing his chores without being asked.  The winter break must have been restorative for him, because he started the new year with a lot of maturity; he’s even starting to ask me about my day with actual care and interest!  Having someone to drive him to school every morning really helped me get in a good rhythm with exercise and work.  We even had enough sunshine to get in some good football games on a few Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n

Josef capped off the winter with his long-anticipated 8th Grade Project on animation.  It was truly impressive to see him put forth such effort to create the project, and I was honestly shocked at how good his animation was, especially the anime segment.  I will put a link to it below.  He had great poise during the presentation, and he seemed really pleased and proud of himself.  Afterwards we invited the whole class over for a PPPP (Post-presentation pizza party).  All of use parents were mighty proud.<\/p>\n