Its a Season!

Christmas Eve and Day may have passed but we are still in the season so Merry Christmas!! 

We traveled to MN for the holiday. We went to Christmas Eve Mass. 

I don't know why exactly, but Christmas Eve has always been the big day in my family and Christmas Day is a little forgotten. After Mass we had a feast and opened all the presents you see behind us. 

Later that night we prepared for Christmas Day!

The rest of the day in MN were cozy and spent playing games and keeping low-key busy. 

This sweet senior citizen kitty was glad to have the under the tree nap spot back. I worry this was her last Christmas season, she's 18 and not in great health. But we will see. 

After we got back home we build a lot of Legos. Watched a lot of Amazing Race. Opened the presents we had here for the kids. 

And we're mostly in the putting things where they go stage. Every year we have a gift that multiple people buy without knowing it. This year, it was fire blankets. Both my mom and I bought them for all the guys! And then my dad said that he had them in his cart too at one point. 

One of the 3 in our house is now hanging right off the kitchen. I've read you should also keep one in your car so that's likely where we will put the other two. But who knows? 

And remember how I was a Grinch who didn't want to put the tree up? We did. I swear. It just is down already. (Yesterday.) I do genuinely miss the cozy lighting. But I have no regrets and the house feeling tidy. 

Luckily, it's a season and my decor or lack thereof doesn't directly correlate with how we celebrate. Looking forward to the New Year!! 

Christmas Break is Here!!

Well, I just got back from the school Nativity. 

And now, that means it's Christmas break! (Okay, in about 10 minutes!) 

Gingerbread 2024

Okay. I admit it. 

I didn't want to do gingerbread this year. I wasn't feeling it. 

But nevertheless. We persisted and Gingerbread Weekend 2024 has come and gone. 

We laughed. We cried. In full disclosure, we yelled. And we reminisced. The inspiration for the adult house was one from my memories. My great-grandma's house which is right by Lake Calhoun. The lake was renamed some years ago to the Dakota people's name Bde Maka Ska but it will always be Lake Calhoun to me. 

This beautiful lady shared her Clarice with me for my middle name. I loved loved going over to her house. It's really the coolest house. 

Great Grandma loved the Vikings. If you showed up during a game she'd answer the door but she'd ignore you. She would hang up on you if you called during a game too. She loved See's chocolate but would pretend to be mad if you showed up with some. She said "Oh goodnight!" as her fiercest exclamation. 

This year the kids really came into their own with their houses too. I am so so proud of them. 

Husband brought sandpaper into the process this year. Which is hysterical to me. And once again I question how the people on Bake Off can by themselves create gingerbread masterpieces in like 4 hours. It takes the two of us longer than that. 

Hopefully next year I can get excited about it again. We will see. 

We definitely need new cake boards next year. And more powdered sugar. And a plan ahead of time. That would be great. 

After 13 houses though I think it's okay that not every year is one that I will look back on fondly.

Surprisingly, Husband has really been taken with the house this year. 

And I really do think we will have a plan next year! 

We Made lt To Friday!

Wednesday night was our big Advent night at church. I took no pictures. But I also need you to know that I made, no lie, a minute-by-minute schedule for the night. And while we started a little earlier than I planned, we finished at the exact minute the last thing was meant to begin on my schedule, which basically means I am a wizard. 

You may never know the joy that I felt at that minute. But it was a lot. 

Yesterday was a busy work day, followed by M's biannual haircut. 

Because my ultimate Mom-Hack is that I book a haircut for right after school on the night of the Christmas program. And I let someone else do her hair! 

It was a lovely little program. And we stopped at Taco Johns for the most inauthentic tacos for Our Lady of Guadalupe on the way home. 

Today is the 6th-grade bazaar officially. 

After 8 weeks of business planning, prototyping, interviewing for a business loan, making commercials and advertising, mass production time... it's all led up to this. 

I went over right away with strict instructions from M to get a "cute bracelet" for her before they were all sold out. 

One of the bracelet creators assured me this was cute and also it was throwing some major MN Vikings vibes for me. I am glad I got it though because they shop in grade order and kindergarten almost sold them out already. 

C's dish towels only sold one. Now, the practical nature of the gift is far over a kindergartener's head. So there's that. 

And they only need to sell 25 to break even. So there's hope. 

Still to come this afternoon is Middle School Bingo. (And in all that we had going on this week I have to go out and buy some snacks for C's table.) 

Oh, and I am calling Bingo obviously. **This was probably as obvious to you as it was to me. Which is to say, it was a surprise but it should be good!**

And tomorrow, I shall sleep in. We made it. 

What a Week! (And it's only Wednesday!)

This past weekend was one of those where it doesn't seem like a weekend. You know the kind I mean. The going going going. 

We are nearing the end of this marathon. 

Last Friday I brought our sweet Goddaughter the manger for her nativity set. We gift her one piece a year so that when she's all grown up she will have a complete set. Next year she will get an angel. 

She added her own animals to the scene in the meantime. 

This is our Pastor's Nativity set. Same Fontanini set that we have and are getting for sweet H. 

Also on Friday my parents came to town. We ended up hanging with them in their hotel room eating pizza, watching a movie and making perler bead art. My mom had never done perler beads before and we have so many of them. And what hotel room doesn't have an iron and ironing board anyway? 

It was fun. 

Saturday we were up early and met my parents for a special pancake breakfast before going to the museum so they could see a specific exhibit. 

I got to show my mom my favorite room. The reflection room. 

I call it my "read my Kindle book room."

Later in the day C had his choir concert. 

It was great. 

Then we went for a Linner at Olive Garden and then the kids went swimming at the hotel. 

Sunday we said goodbye to them before heading out for another busy day for which there is no photographic evidence. 

This work/school week is also packed with stuff. Allowing me the chance to share these with my friends. 

The sky yesterday was lovely on the way out of piano lessons. 

And that's a little of what's going on with us. More soon! 

St. Nicholas Day and Other Things

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas everyone! 

That delightful Saint did find our house and I took no pictures to prove it. He brought Christmas pajamas as he always does, some chocolate coins, and a Switch game for everyone to share. 

Let's see what else happened this week. C screen printed 60 flour sack dish towels for the 6th grade Bazaar. Some at home. Some at school. 

They're pretty cute and a useful gift to bring home from the bazaar. Typically most of the stuff is junk. Even the dish towels where the print isn't perfect, well, it's still a towel. 

Wednesday I had the privilege of sitting with Jesus for a few hours. No one had  signed up for Adoration so it became "other duties as assigned." 

Actually, this was kind of a week for that. I also live-streamed two funerals and then went to a daily Mass with second graders as I typically do and ended up as EMHC. (Plus as it turns out C was serving and I didn't remember!) I am doing the Heather Kym Advent Study Encountering Emmanuel. 

As it turns out, He called me to Encounter Him this week. And every time my first reaction was to the other things on my checklist. But guess what? All the things on my checklists got done anyway. 

And I was able to help two families bury their loved ones. I got to sit with our Lord just me and Him and let his peace wash over me and bless my heart. I got to receive him at a bonus Mass. All of that is a real gift and such a better use of time than finishing tasks and scrolling or whatever. 

This Wednesday night was also First Reconciliation, it went well! 

Last night was the Choral and Band Concert. Painful. Just painful. But they made a rule that we could leave after your kid was done so we got to leave after 6th grade choir! (We are not a band family.) 

And now we've made it to Friday. C has to stay after school again today for musical auditions. I hope he does well but I am not really stressed about it at all. 

Anyway, Happy FRIDAY!

And Just Like That... December

I can honestly tell you that I am not ready for it to be December. Not one bit. 

I am for sure using Advent as my excuse right now for not getting the tree up. In reality, and don't tell M because she really wants the tree up, I would be fine without it at all this year. (I know. Scrooge and Grinch is me!) 

Certainly, this boils down to me wanting to control what I can. Holiday decor feels like clutter to me and I am just needing whatever tidy I can muster right now. With the flurry of activities this week and next it just feels like a little much to add holiday decor. 

Friday M and I went to the brunch showing of the kid's show at the dinner theatre. We had a really nice time together.

The rest of the weekend passed without much fanfare really. To kick of December and Advent we lit our Danish countdown candle! (I remembered to buy one months ago Billie Jo!!) 

And we paired it with a very non-Dansk but Slavic dinner of Chicken Kiev, Pierogi, Carrots, Green Beans, and for dessert... homemade Kolaczki. 

Please note of the full 30+ cookies I made this is the only one that even remotely looks good, and it's not great, but most of them didn't stay closed at all. Luckily ugly cookies are still tasty!! 

And by the time this posts it will be Monday morning. The bulk of my Christmas Cards will be off in the mail and we will take a breath and hope for the best with all the million things this week will bring. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's still November so I feel okay saying Happy Thanksgiving still! Right? Right?! 

Our Thanksgiving was especially low-key. 

My Thanksgiving enthusiast was up at 5:00 to rewatch the Festival of Trees Parade before the big kahuna began.

We had our traditional Monkey bread. 

C was particularly funny. There was a Macy's parade merch commercial that included the sweatshirt he was wearing and he still was like... "oooh, let's see what they have!" Like I hadn't looked at that category a million times in the last two months. 
. 

After the parade, we went to see Moana 2. 

I have no qualms in telling you that you can definitely wait to watch it on Disney +. It was fine. It wasn't great. Go see Wicked or Best Christmas Pageant Ever if you're looking for a family movie experience. 

In fact, the only song we were all humming was from the first movie!! 

Then we went home and prepared our own feast. We went with "4th of July" as our theme I guess. 

We grilled cheeseburgers and corn on the cob. Had fries. And two kinds of Minnesota Salads that aren't really salads.** Frog Eye Salad. Watergate Salad. 

**If you're not from Minnesota, it's very likely Minnesota Mom is not funny to you. But she's hilarious. And yes, I love both salads. I remember the first time I ever had Frog Eye Salad; it was life-changing. In fairness, I don't follow her specific recipes but linked the videos for context. For Watergate we skip the extra nuts because M doesn't like nuts. For the Frog Eye, the fruit we add is pears and peaches (canned and sliced). 

But you know what? Everyone ate their entire plate! No one had any complaints about any of it. And we can be thankful over any particular meal I do believe. 

And then M made this apple pie. She did almost all the work by herself with a little guidance. She is becoming a great kitchen helper! 

So that was Thanksgiving! Not fancy. But it was fun.