Hoxsie House Christmas Letter 2025

 Since the Christmas card template I picked has photos that go by month, that might be the best way to recap our year in words here with more details. Enjoy!

January ~ Tony stayed in Idaho for a few months to help care for his dad who was going through some challenging times with his health. That meant that I (Stacie), headed back to California solo and spent the next bit just managing things on my own. I took a trip to Disneyland, I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, then headed up to Utah to visit my sister and go to the ice castles in Midway with a friend. I then had friends in Utah that came to visit me in Ridgecrest! They were going on a cruise so I got to spend some time in Long Beach with them as well before they embarked. January went fast and of course I missed Tony a lot. I also worked on reselling, hosting Airbnb guests as well as some crafting with friends. No time to be bored.

February ~ I had a yard-sale at my house with a couple of friends to try and get things gone to new homes. I drove to St. George, UT and went to the Parade of Homes which was such a blast. I enjoy walking through the new homes and seeing the lighting, colors and design ideas. I made it back to Disneyland with a friend from Ridgecrest, had another neighbor paint night (these happened pretty much once a month all year), made Galentine treats to deliver to friends in town and took another trip to Salt Lake City. It was sad not to be with Tony in the month of love but I made it through!

March ~  Tony did finally come back from Idaho and we celebrated Valentine's late with going to a new to us restaurant which this time was a Ukrainian one called "Mom, Please" and that was a cool experience. I worked on crafting and reselling. I also volunteered at Alt Summit in Palm Springs again and had a good experience seeing friends and making new ones. I went to ASD Market Week in Las Vegas with a couple of friends and also Pinners Conference in St. George. There was another trip to Utah for me as well later in the month and I got to take my niece and nephews to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork which was tons of fun because I haven't been able to make it in quite awhile and neither had they.  I am not sure how I fit all of this into 1 month! Tony put down new flooring in his office and that turned out really nice looking.

  

April ~ this month Tony & I celebrated our 14 year anniversary by going to Las Vegas for a week. We found a place on Airbnb not far from the strip and it worked out nicely  We rented an all electric car in LA on Turo because Tony really wanted to give it a try. I was annoyed with trying to find charging stations because of the time that it took. It was for sure a learning experience. 

Some of the activities we did while in Vegas were going to a live show of BattleBots, walked around the Container Park, experienced the Arte museum, took a glass blowing class at LeFrancis Studios, spent a day in St. George doing fun things and tried a fun experience of kayaking down the Colorado River to see the Emerald Cave. It was exhilarating, tiring (our arms!), adventurous and out of our comfort zone a bit but definitely a fun day overall. We got to see Blue Man Group perform and went to a really cool ward for sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday.

A couple of food highlights on our trip was going to an event called FoodieLand and trying some neat things and also finding a restaurant called Gangam which was all-you-can-eat! I still feel my mouth watering when I think about how good that food was.

  

The other highlight of April was having my sister Julianne and her family coming to CA to go to Disneyland for my niece's band concert. That was a super fun few days of Disney & family time. I'm thrilled they were able to make it out and we could go together to the parks again.

I also got to be in Utah at the beginning of April and and was able to enjoy the blossoms at the state capitol with friends, pick up a funny April Fool's Day prank at Alisha's Cravings Cupcakes, meet up with a dear friend from Woodland who lives in Provo and we went to the UVU Museum of Art and more (the Utah trip actually started towards the end of March).

May - After years of talking about it, Tony purchased a kit for building a carport for our driveway. Tony hired a couple teens to help him put everything up. It took a couple days but its been really nice to have our cars shaded from the hot summer sun.

I took an overnight trip to Santa Barbara with a friend in Ridgecrest to see a friend from Craftcation, helped Tony work on fixing the neighbors fence, attended the Syracuse, Utah LDS temple open house, celebrated my niece's 9th birthday in Salt Lake, went to Dreamwalk Park in Orem with a couple of friends, went to a craft class with a friend in Salt Lake, checked out the Daybreak Community yardsales, ate at Cheddars with friends I hadn't gotten to see for awhile, went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point with a friend, hunted down Cherry Tru Fru at Target, went to Hash Kitchen with my sister and a friend and went to Zooluminate at the Hogle Zoo as well as a Star Party at a local library.

June - Tony & I were in Idaho for his family reunion which was going to Wahooz and participating in a lot of activities there. It felt good to make it to Panguitch, Utah to crew for our friend Jon from Arizona at a hot air balloon festival.  I've lost track of how many years we have been going to this! We got to hike around Bryce Canyon and stayed at a cute campground with cabins for the weekend. 

July - My birthday month! Which mean trying to pick up as many birthday deals as possible. We spent the 4th of July at Bear Valley Springs crewing for a friend and her hot air balloon. 

Spent some time in LA, worked on making mugs to give Camp Ritchie staff, girls camp was the week of my birthday and I enjoyed being able to work on rappelling staff again. Luckily I didn't have an ant invasion but I did have a mouse invasion in my car - twice! That was awful but I managed. 

Made it to Utah for birthday deals, the Parade of Homes, ate at some new-to-me restaurants, went on a new-to-me hike with my niece and nephews & Tony's cousin, went to a Silver Ceuticals backyard BBQ and other fun activities but those were the highlights. 

August - August turned out to be pretty special because Tony & I were able to go on a big trip and take my 16 year old niece along. Where did we go? Paris! The main purpose was to go to Disneyland but we also got to go to the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, catacombs, a hot air balloon ride, an outdoor museum of miniatures, walked our feet off, ate yummy pasta, went to a famous opera house for a tour, made our own perfume, Notre Dame, the LDS temple and the Palace of Versailles. So amazing to see all the history in Paris in person instead of in photos. 

 

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad Hailey could join us!

I also took a trip to Utah in August (don't worry..I did not go in September or October 😜) and it was filled with another Parade of Homes, seeing my brother and his family before they took a month long road trip across the US, attending a dear friend's family reunion and had such a nice visit with everyone I knew there, took my 9 year old niece for her first time to Music & the Spoken Word on Temple Square, and went to the Museum of Illusions. That place was so super fun and I'd recommend it if you are ever in the area!

September - 

Right after the Paris trip, Hailey flew back to Washington, I flew to California and Tony flew to South Korea to work there for 6 weeks. I did not sit still for long being back in Ridgecrest. I went to crew at the Great Reno Balloon Race, a memorial service for dear hot air balloon pilots the Temecula area, crewed at a new-to-me balloon event near Fresno, toured the Fresno Underground Gardens with friends, took a girls trip to LA and Long Beach with a friend from Ridgecrest and our friend from Sacramento, battled flooding in the backyard and a couple house leaks during a crazy rainstorm in Ridgecrest, worked on rock painting and reselling, 

October - Tony flew from S. Korea to....TOKYO! Where he picked up his niece Tiley & I from the airport and we packed all the things we could into the week, which went so incredibly fast. We went to a sumo wrestling practice, Daiso and DonQ stores multiple times, the Skytree during the day and at night, IKEA, the Shibuya Tower & Crossing, Denny's, a temple, a statue of liberty, Small Worlds, a failed attempt to go to TeamLab planets 😭, the Ueno zoo to see pandas + their cool park, a bird cafe and of course an OWL cafe! Checked out Koreatown and got Japanese fluffy pancakes + went to Costco!

November - 

The months fly faster as the holidays start getting closer together it seems. Tony & I were able to make it to the Page Balloon Regatta in Arizona which was a fun time. We got back on Sunday, I set up for the election on Monday, worked the election on Tuesday & drove to Utah on Wednesday.  Thursday to Saturday I was at Pinners Conference all day. So. Much. Fun. If you ever get the chance to go to Pinners (and can deal with the crazy parking situation), its quite fun. The shopping, the classes...it's a lot but worth it.  I drove back from UT on Nov 12, helped set up for a Relief Society activity at the church on the 13th and went to Disneyland (in the rain!) on the 14th.  A lot of back to back things happening! On Nov 19th Tony & I drove to Idaho for Thanksgiving and were there until the end of the month. We couldn't drive our regular route because of some bad weather that required chains so we went through Death Valley and a town with a clown motel (Tonopah, NV). Our time in Idaho with family for the Thanksgiving holiday was great and Black Friday shopping is always an adventure. We took my 12 year old niece with us again and she & I shopped until we dropped.

 

December - busy busy busy! Bunco group, orthodontist appointment, SCBA meeting, Boise State games, the Ridgecrest Christmas tree lighting, manning the Giving Machine, a final trip to Disneyland for the year, another neighbor paint night, a church activity cookie exchange, a friend also hosted her own cookie exchange, went to the Ridgecrest Christmas parade not to mention that Tony & I were on the committee to help with the ward Christmas party which was a 5pm dinner on the 13th. That went fairly smoothly and its nice to have it done. We head to Idaho on the 18th for Christmas and depending on weather, may squeak in one more trip to Salt Lake before the month is up. Time will tell.

If you made it to the end of this newsy Christmas letter, congratulations! Thank you for being our friend (or family) and for the love you show to us. We wish you a joyful Christmas season and renewed hope & best wishes in 2026!

Other Things ~

❤ Tony did some fence repairs throughout the year ❤ Stacie participated in neighbor paint nights ❤ Stacie completed various puzzles & became admin of the puzzle group for Ridgecrest on Facebook ❤ Both cleaned up tons of weeds behind our house in the alley ❤ Grew tomatoes in our bucket garden ❤ Stacie made it to bunco as much as possible ❤ Stacie is still serving as stake social media rep & was also put on the Relief Society activities committee ❤  Tony is still running Zoom for church on Sundays ❤ Stacie crafted as often as she had motivation to ❤ Stacie is on her last round of Invisalign ❤ Tony remains a Boise State football fan ❤ We enjoyed some beach days ❤ Stacie learned how to use the 3D printer at the local library ❤ Enjoy watching SpaceX launches from Vandenburg in our backyard ❤ Maintained our status of Airbnb Superhosts ❤ Stacie is helping with social media for the Southern California Balloon Association (SCBA) ❤ Tony was able to get a ticket to the FIFA game in LA in June ❤