Sliding into Winter Break

Well we made it. We are grumpy. We are tired but somehow we are officially on winter break and we are excited at least about that. (In fairness, M is actually pretty mad that she "won't see her friends for two weeks!") 

As we limped toward the finish line I took very few pictures of value. So here is C's "gift exchange" present under the tree in his classroom. His is the stripey foil paper-wrapped one. 

It was a $5 gift card to a local ice cream place, but then we put it into an inflated balloon to throw people off the scent. The idea went over well and the kid who got to pop the balloon enjoyed that. 

It snowed a tiny bit this morning but then the glorious SUN came out for about an hour and Good Lord Baby Jesus did I need that. It's been so gloomy so dreary, rainy, foggy etc. for so long. I truly just looked at the sun through my window for a while. 

Before school got out, we had a big nativity. 

It was a nice way to cap off the 2022 school year. 

There's much to do before Christmas but the homework/getting kids ready for school aspect is over and done with! Yay for Fridays!

Sugar and Spice

Okay. Mostly sugar. It was just a sugar-filled weekend. That's okay. 

Friday night we celebrated our Family Movie Night with Home Alone. We had cheese pizza and ice cream sundaes to make it extra special. Now, obviously, my kids get ice cream sometimes. (And yes, I know two days in a row was a lot. But I think the last time they had it was at Disney World so I swear we aren't that crazy!) 

We rarely do an ice cream sundae bar though. And that's what we did for Home Alone. 

I got everything except butterscotch. Nothing against butterscotch but it's very similar to caramel and I had to draw the line somewhere. 

Anyway, it was fun. We had a good time. And even though I missed the tuck-ins that night because of going to my show... 

It was still a super low-key night which is what I needed. 

Saturday brought gingerbread 2022. And it was good. We got a late start because we (Husband and I) were so wiped from our busy week. But even still. We made 3 batches of gingerbread to make our 3 houses, we did have a bit left over but 3 batches would have been necessary no matter what. 

Amazingly, we only had to make 2 batches of icing. Brown and white! Which was awesome. It was weird because we were so tired, it was maybe the most phoning it in year of we've ever had. While I did send Husband to the store for a few tools as I made dough, but besides cotton candy, which we HAVE to buy annually because that stuff doesn't keep, we didn't buy any candy. We did buy a few kinds of sprinkles and then only used one set and stuff we already have. 

Next year I have instructed Husband to make me go back and read all the Gingerbread blog posts in mid-November so I can remember all the tips I've written to myself over the last 10 years. (It was our 11th house, but I wasn't blogging that first year.) We still didn't buy a sprinkles or food coloring tub. Which we need to do. 

I also need to buy more of the brown gel food coloring. And piping bags. Thanks blog for being my annual shopping list. 

Enough of that, want to see the houses? We all picked houses in specific color schemes this year. I kind of love it, they're very classy. 

C's house is browns, reds and white. (There is a purple pool for the hippo, because of course.) 

M went with a purple and gold theme. It did not help the Vikings yesterday though. 

The grown-ups went with a classic gingerbread and white house. I did make red hard candy windows, but I didn't add enough food coloring apparently so they're really more pink.

These are the nice pictures we take on Sunday morning. Here is the "it's super late and we need to go to sleep version." 

Because it was darker, you can see how the lights look in the windows a little better. Weirdly, this house was more stressful to me than most because I had a specific idea of what I was hoping for and then I just looked at a bunch of pieces of gingerbread and sprinkles and moved things all around. 

That's what we did over the weekend! 

Christmas Program Fun

 Boy Howdy. This week has been a busy one. 

I have had something in the evening every night for the past week, starting last Friday and ending tonight, so that's really 8 days in a row. As an introvert who mostly prefers to be home, it's been too much. The good news is that tonight I am just going to a show which doesn't actually involve me interacting with anyone, yay! 

And there has been good stuff. The kid's play. Advent by Candlelight. And both the K-2 Christmas program and the 3-5 Christmas program. 

Tuesday was the K-2. 

Endlessly funny and wonderful to me that they cast Mary as Mary and Joe as Joseph. It just makes sense doesn't it?! 

I admit Christmas programs are my own personal version of Hell. It's crowded. There's a lot of coughing and people bumping into you. And the cute factor only counts for so much. And God loves them, but the K-2 families are still bringing both sets of grandparents and a few aunts and uncles to see the kindergartener sing 3 songs. 

Things chill out by the 3-5 program. The scream-singing has calmed down, they play actual instruments instead of just shaking jingle bells, and the novelty has worn off so there are a lot fewer extended families so it's just not as crowded. 

Fourth grade got to showcase their recorders. The devil's instrument. (I am kidding. Sort've.) But then C was part of a small group that played between 4th and 5th grade. So that was kind of cute. And if he did get extra squeaky, I couldn't tell from where I was sitting.

Husband had a big work event yesterday so it was just me and the kids until bedtime. So in honor of the programs and the fact that our Dairy Queen is only open until Tuesday, we decided to stop for a treat after school.

And you know what? I am glad we did. Happy Friday everyone! 

Another Year, Another Advent by Candlelight

This past Sunday evening, after the kid's show closed, I again hosted a table for the ladies' Advent by Candlelight event. It was very nice and lovely. 

This year we actually started in the church and we had a large group Adoration for about 45 minutes. It was SO lovely. Do you ever just get overwhelmed with how much you love Jesus? And how much you have to be grateful for? That was me during the Adoration. 

After Adoration we all went into the church hall for our dinner and socializing. 

Here was our table after I set it up in the afternoon. 

And at the event: 

Because we started in the church I wasn't able to take as good of pictures of the other tables as I have in years past but here are the ones I took anyway. In case you're like me and like looking at beautiful tables and dreaming about how one day you'll set tables that pretty yourself. A tablescape artist, I am not. 

At the event, our Altar and Rosary society gifted us all a copy of Adore an Advent study. And I gifted my table guests the little bags of chocolate and "Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here" ornaments. (Used as napkin rings.)

It was a truly wonderful event as always and I am so glad we had it. Time spent with Jesus is never wasted and finding small ways to keep Advent as Advent is always fun for me as well. 

My Heart Could Burst

This weekend was the kid's performance of The Little Mermaid Jr. 

You never really know what to expect right? Especially since it was M's first time on stage. She is an avid theatre patron, she saw 14 shows this year! But how does that translate to being put on stage? Well, I needn't have worried. The director told me she was "spunky" and a "leader" who always made sure other people were where they were supposed to be. 

C was a rock star. Just an absolute rock star. He had a rather big part when it came down to it. And he did a good job. (Could he use more direction and coaching, yes. But he wasn't bad. And if I was wearing my critical hat, as someone who legit gets paid to review live theatre performances, there were some people who were not so great.) 

Saturday night he came on stage and I grabbed Husband and said, "what's wrong with him?" He assured me that C was fine but I knew he wasn't. He came back on stage a few minutes later and he had a bloody nose! But came on stage with his tissue and said all of his lines and did the show anyway. How's that for 10-years-old and learning about "the show must go on"? I was floored. And so impressed. What a guy! I am so so so proud of him. 

Honestly, my heart could BURST at how sweet they both were and even though they are the most tired, I am so proud of them.

That's a wrap on Grimsby and Tentacle #1/Sea Creature. But dang if I didn't enjoy watching them. I was just struck by how much I love and appreciate these kids of mine this weekend and I am so grateful God gave them to me. 

Hello December!

December snuck in quietly as though it were hoping no one would notice. I did, actually, notice but nevertheless. This weekend is a busy one. The kids have their show they've been working on all fall. I feel like it will go well but C has been especially emotional about it and I am not exactly sure why that is. He says he's nervous, and I guess that could be it, but I think really he's just sad it's ending and so he is preprocessing that. 

His class led Mass with the Bishop on Wednesday and he did a fantastic job with his part. Loud, clear, crisp, and excellent fluency. He truly excels at reading during Mass. Bishop's homily was long and so school was already over by the time Mass ended so his class didn't get to take their picture with him as planned, he was kinda bummed about that. 

It got cold here this week. But they fixed the boiler at work. On Tuesday, when I left my office it was 83! 

Why do I have a thermometer at my desk? Well at my old job, my desk was cold but my boss and coworker in my corner of the office were both going through menopause and therefore could not be trusted to accurately describe the temp of the office. So my boss gave me a thermometer to keep track of whether we should turn the temp up or down. They weren't to be trusted with that decision-making skill. 

Anyway, when I started at the parish I realized that I really missed glancing over at the temp. It has become part of my day without my truly realizing it. So for $7 I could buy the exact thermometer and still have something to glance at. (And it's better than a clock because then you're just wondering how much time you have left or worried that you're running out of it!) 

Anyway, it's December. And I am happy about it. 2022 was a good one. I have a few packages left to arrive. I had planned to be done with Christmas shopping pre-Advent but I had a package go rogue (unclear if it was stolen or not, though we were home and another package delivered that day wasn't...) so I had to wait the allotted time for a refund and then re-order. But I am closing in on being done. 

And that is about what I know!