Skip to main content

Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas! What a wonderful week this was...the days just flew by! Darn it, we have to go back to work in two days. At least we’ll be refreshed and ready to go.

We spent a very nice Christmas Eve at my parents home...We all enjoyed the traditional butterball soup, except G (and Grandma) who decided he didn’t even want to give it a try. His loss, which turned into an extra butterball for Ava...lucky girl! We ate so much food...all good, but boy, I was ready to sleep it off when we got back home. Instead, we opened the traditional ONE gift on Christmas Eve...Ava has caught on and knows that it’s always new pajamas, but G thought he was going to get something cool, and he wanted a redo. Haha!

And of course we left a cookie, fudge, carrot, and eggnog out for Santa and Rudolph. G was very adamant that the carrot was only for Rudolph, and not any other reindeer. He insisted that Rudolph isn’t very big or strong, which is why he needs the carrot more than any of the other reindeer. I’m not really sure where he got the idea that Rudolph is weak, but I do like that he wants to take care of him...

Hi Lucky! (Lucky knows it's just pjs in G's gift...)


Matching jammies for families - "Naughty is the new Nice!" (Except Scott...he got something else)



All gone!


We hit the hay, and then...it was Christmas! The kids were so patient, as we only opened the stockings before breakfast. G was so excited to get his toy train from Santa! I was excited to see that the Booze Fairy (that’s what the tag said!) left a few gifts for me in my stocking, too. Thanks Santa and the Booze Fairy!

After a lovely breakfast of quiche, we opened all of our gifts. It was pretty awesome to watch how excited the kids were to tear into things. It was a very generous year, and we are very grateful for all of the wonderful presents that were given to our family. Ava made the comment that she has too much stuff, and has no more room to put anything. I advised her that we’re going to go through all of the toys and will be doing some donations in the near future. She agreed, and started to clean stuff out on her own. WOW!

We received some wonderful food gifts for Christmas, which are a treat...peach/berry crisps, cinnamon rolls, egg benedict sets, etc. Items we will definitely use, but will not take up space in our house. Love it!



The train set is bigger than he is!


G was the lucky recipient of a game where it's all about doggie poo...it's actually easy and fun. Who knew?


And then it was back to normal, non-Christmas life...daycare for G, release days for Ava. While they were occupied during the day, I did a TON of stuff around the house...fun things, like cleaning the fridge, cleaning the cabinets, cleaning out the medicine cabinet, etc. It’s so nice to get that all tidied up. Scott ended up taking a few days off, too, so we grabbed some lunch together, and went to the jeweler to get his ring re-sized so he can finally wear it again (he smashed his finger a while ago, and the ring won’t fit over his knuckle.) So glad we are getting that taken care of!

Mommy and G - and puppy!


They both decided to take a nap in the booth after dinner out one night...Ava doesn't look thrilled, does she?


Thank you, Santa! My mom and I split this and it was yummy!


Scott also snuck in a fun afternoon/night out with friends, which is great. He doesn’t often have time to go out and have fun since he works so hard, so I’m glad he was able to do that.

Scott and my dad worked hard on our basement yesterday...we now have recessed lights installed in the main room! Plus, the shop room is ready to go, so I think I can start organizing next weekend. It’ll be fantastic to have a permanent home for all of our things that have just been lingering in our basement. I sense a massive purge coming on...hooray!

We’re heading out to celebrate New Years with our dear friends tonight...Ava has told me several times how excited she is to see Isabel and Evie. And G really loves their blue house, so we all win! Haha!

Be safe, and if you’re in MN, stay warm...it’s -12 below right now. Brrrrr!

Happy New Year! Bring on 2018!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write.  As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated.  He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play.  Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down.  I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Grandparents, Birthdays, and Sprinklers, Oh MY!

What a whirlwind week we've had...I was trying to get everything wrapped up at work so I could take my 5-day "furlough" from last Wednesday, through tomorrow. Wednesday was my first day at home, so Ava and I had a ton of "fun" getting everything ready for the upcoming activities. I did have a wonderful massage, so that started my vacation off very well... Gramma Karen and Grampa Doug drove in from KC on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great evening catching up, and enjoying the nice weather (until the downpour that happened right as they were leaving our house!) On Thursday, Scott, Dad, Mom, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and Rochester to check out the areas for potential future homes/land for us. At some point, we'd like to move south of the Cities. Ava was a very good little girl, especially considering that she was stuck in a car for most of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We went to Applebee's for lunch, and the wait staff came out singing to someone else...I...

Waffles and Helmets

Ava, Grandma Karen and I had a great end to the weekend last Sunday.  We took a little adventure to Black: Coffee and Waffles, which is a small little place by the U which serves...waffles!  I chose to have a savory waffle, Grandma Karen chose a fruit and granola waffle, and Ava chose to build her own with cinnamon, caramel, whipped cream, and marshmallows.  Sweeeeeet! It was neat going someplace we hadn't been before, plus it gives Ava exposure to more than just her suburban life.  She needs that.  We then went and played at a local park, and Ava made a few new friends.  It was perfect weather to sit on a bench and catch up with my mom!  After 30 min or so, we rounded up Ava and headed off to the Wild Rumpus bookstore in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis (by Lake Harriet.)  We saw lots and lots of animals there (cats, chinchillas, rats, ferrets, birds) but no chickens!  Bummer!  It took forever to get Ava to narrow dow...