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2016: Divisible by Four

Well, this is it...the last day of my vacation. I have officially forgotten what it feels like to go to work.  Or to wake up to an alarm. Or drive during rush hour. Should be a rude awakening (literally) tomorrow morning.

What a busy week this was...I got lots of stuff done on my to-do list. There were items that had been lingering there for a while, and being able to check them off that list was an incredible feeling! No worries, though, the list has been filled up with brand new tasks...it looks like I'll need to take some more time off soon to work through those (good thing I have another week off at the end of January!)

While I was off being productive, the kids had a great first half of the week. Ava went bowling, to the Mill City Museum, and to The Works with the Y group, and G continued to practice counting, learning his colors, and sharing nicely with others.

Love that quality mommy-son time!


And then we all packed up and headed south to ring in the new year with our very dear friends. We've been celebrating NY with them for the last 10+ years...the location may change, but we're always together!

Although there was food, there was also really, REALLY strong Jell-O shots. These were made with 99 proof booze, and absolutely burned as they went down. Sometimes, they didn't go down all the way, though...And they just kept multiplying...when we thought we were near the end, more would appear on the tray...


Nicely posed - you wouldn't believe what it took to get this pic


So much fun, with lots of laughing...the best way to end 2015!


Tiff putting on her responsible mom hat (figuratively...the literal hat was already taken) to talk to her daughter for a moment.  Love this with the shot in hand!


Friends forever!


Tiff and I stayed up until 4am chatting, and I didn't fall asleep once during the chat! Many people were proud of that achievement. Let's just say the next day was a bit tricky, and I was napping in my pjs by 8:30pm.

Ava and the other little girls stayed up to see 2016 arrive, and then we hustled them off to bed.  We noticed that this was the first time they all played really well together...they hung out in a fort, watched movies, and there was absolutely no fighting. Once G went to bed, we were able to have true adult conversation, without being interrupted a million times by bickering little girls.  Amazing!  It gave us a glimpse of what it means to have older, more independent children...

2016 started off with a beautiful morning on the farm


On Friday night, we had a yummy pizza dinner out, and a happy trip to Best Buy...we got a new sound bar, and the kids each got to pick out a new movie. Ava's been obsessed with the Home Alone movies lately, so we've added a little bit of Kevin into our movie collection.  And we have some new "Mi Mou" (MEE-mow, in the event you converse with G about this) to help with his addiction to the famous mouse and his friends.  We made popcorn when we got home and snuggled in for a great family night! Pretty sure Ava was the only one who saw her entire movie, since this was the night after NYE...

We celebrated our last Christmas yesterday, with Scott's mom, step dad, and brother. G was excited to give people "their" gifts, and it didn't really matter that he was actually giving away all of his gifts to open! It was a wonderful afternoon/evening spent with family.  I just realized our kitchen hasn't been used much lately, since everyone keeps feeding us!

G loves his little Mickey Mouse couch!


Loving Elmo!


Taking a break from opening a gift...


Near the end of the night G was using the couch as a gymnastics mat to flip onto and roll off of


I'm thinking about what I can knock off the list for today...G is looking pretty shaggy, so we're going in for a haircut this morning.  And I'm sure I'll find other things to do to fill my time before heading back to work tomorrow!

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