Goodbye 2018!

2018 was a pretty good year all around.

I beat my goal of books to read. Overall, I still read less than last year but I also gave myself permission to not finish books if I didn't like them this year so... that's still pretty good.

I got myself a job and had 24 bylines in my field of study! Which are a huge accomplishment for me and something that I am really proud of.

It was a year of faith, good health, new adventures, and fun. C started Kindergarten. M started preschool. Yes, 2018 was pretty good.

Here's to looking forward to whatever 2019 has in store!

Have a wonderful and safe eve tonight everyone! Happy New Year!

A Book I Enjoyed

So I have been reading some of the Resse Witherspoon book club picks. Some have been good. Some I have definitely not enjoyed, but this week I got her December pick from the library. It is:

One Day in December by Josie Silver.

I read this all in one night and absolutely stayed up way too late to do so, but I just could not put it down. If you like to read romantic comedies... this is the book for you! I liked it so much I will probably buy a copy to reread.

This book is sheerly entertaining, it's not going to educate you or change your world, probably. But it's a really good rom-com and my money is on this being a movie at some point so... there's that. Plus every year starts with a New Year's Resolution which makes it the perfect book for this inbetweeny season.

A Photo Dump Recap of the Last Two Weeks

So sorry to drop off the face of the planet there, folks. We went from one Christmas program right into the other and then the season kind of snowballed from there. So here are the highlights of life since last we met.

C had a Christmas program. It was cute but kind of long. Duly noted as since it's the K-4 program we will be attending until Christmas 2024.

We went to the Family Museum as a family. It's been a long time since we've made that happen and it did not disappoint.

M had a playdate where they made nativities out of graham crackers and candy. It was adorable and SO much fun!

C had his last day of school for the year and we drove to Minnesota that afternoon!

We made cookies.

We had early Christmas with my family and the first present opened was APPLES! (A long running joke between my dad and the kids.)

We played games. Like the Oregon Trail card game. (I literally died within the first two turns three times in a row.)

We had our annual Mario Party Party and for the first time, EVER Husband won!! 

We drove home and I marveled at how lovely it was to have new slippers in the house that we worked our tails off so it would be super clean when we got home. It was the best. Always clean your house before you leave, it's so so so so worth it.

Then it was Christmas Eve and we tracked Santa. C was thrilled that Santa was bringing the Rockhopper Penguins presents. 

C gave us a wonderful plate for a Christmas gift and insisted we open it early. I am glad we did!

It worked perfectly for the cookies we set out for the big guy. 

And he came! 

Christmas morning found us opening presents before dawn. Because that's how life works with excited kids! 

Then we went to Christmas morning Mass. 

And yesterday we went to the park because it was in the 40s, we played with our new stuff and we enjoyed our last day with Husband home because he has to work today. But that's okay because we don't have to go back to school until next week!!

I hope all of you had an equally jammed-packed and memorable last two weeks. And of course, Merry Christmases.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

I am wishing all of you the happiest Christmas!

Love, Madeline

Painting and Christmas Programs

Last Friday, I went with my friend to one of those "paint a picture" events. She is a teacher and her PTA was hosting the event. I was really excited because I had never been to one before but always wanted to.

It was a bust. I mean I had fun with two of my friends. But the painting experience was lackluster. Because it was a PTA thing, they didn't actually hire like a real artist. So all of the paintings looked like they were done by six-year-olds because the two teachers didn't so much teach as walk around telling everybody that they had good texture and "it looks great!" Spoiler: they didn't.

 Husband, who as an art major actually knows how to paint, thinks that they picked a picture that was deceptively hard because achieving subtlety actually takes skill. You can see what it's supposed to look like over on the left. Mine started out pretty good I think.

It started out okay, but by the time we got to "snow humps" it was all over. 

The final product. None of us were super impressed. Mine is the one in the middle. I had lights on my tree but they looked dumb so I painted over them and ran out of time. 

Today was the three-year-old preschool mini Christmas program. It was very cute. I got only awful pictures, however. 

Tonight is the big K-4 program and tomorrow as well. Husband is going to take C tonight and then M and I will go in the morning because bedtime is sacred to me and we are already messing with C's for the program. The kindergarteners are on first and then they are done, but they have to stay which quite frankly makes little sense but whatever. I am a rule follower.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread 2018 was this past weekend and overall it was a pretty amazing success. I mean, sure, we had our share of bickering and a few freak outs but that's par for the course. The kids were amazing this year, so helpful and so invested in their houses.

They turned out great!

And as for the adults, we conquered Gingerbread 2018 with our ridiculous 37 piece gingerbread version of our church.

It turned out so nice, and I think it was worth it but it was a harrowing journey. We are definitely going to take it easy next year! We've gotten a little out of hand and honestly, it becomes a little stressful. Here's a recap of all our years of gingerbreading.

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

As always, we used the same gingerbread recipe. You can substitute butter but margarine works best. When they say the batter will foam up, it absolutely will, so use a good sized pot! This gingerbread smells amazing! (For reference, we made 4 batches of dough for 2 small houses, a moderately sized house and all the pieces of ours.) 

We got back to our amazing royal icing this year. After a few years of meringue powder and pasteurized egg whites, we can safely attest that dried egg white powder is the best. A batch of royal icing is 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons egg white, 1/3 c water and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar. Whip it all together for 7 minutes and life is good.   

I love our tradition of from-scratch gingerbread houses, it gives me that hygge feeling deep in my heart and even with sugared up kids and stress over whether we've taken on more than we could chew, the joy and love was present.

What's Up?

It's already Thursday! I can't believe it. This week has gone fast. December always seems to fly by. 

Today is St. Nicholas Day. 

He visited the house last night and brought fresh Christmas jammies and two of those magic sequined pillows that are so fun and relaxing to play with. 

Season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was supposed to drop yesterday but it actually dropped Tuesday evening so we got the first five episodes and rounded it out last night. The second season is just as pleasing as the first. Gah, I love Amy Sherman-Palladino. 

And I wish I had more things to tell you about but really... time is just flying by. 

Advent By Candlelight

Our parish's Altar and Rosary Society has an Advent by Candlelight evening for ladies every year. It's a nice night to socialize and focus on the meaning of Advent and Christmas. This year I hosted a table, which meant that I put the table together.

I had never been to the event before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but it turned out quite well!

I tried to make it pretty with what I had. And then we did get a few things from the dollar store. My friend saved the day when I went to set up and realized that I didn't bring water glasses and we don't really have any.

Here are some of the other tables of the night.

It was a wonderful evening with some really excellent food! And most importantly some wonderful time with friends to focus on this month. The perfect first night of Advent.