2022 Recap in Photos

 So I saw this on Twitter. 

And I thought? Why Not? So come along with me for my 34 pictures of 2022. 

1. The First Picture Taken in 2022

2. A Happy Day 

3. Favorite Moment 

4. A Day With Pretty Sky 

This one gets a story. I was driving the kids to rehearsal and the clouds looked like this. C was like "Is that the second coming of Jesus?!" very excitedly. M took the picture. 

5. Favorite Picture of Yourself

6. Favorite Dish of 2022

Storybook Dining at Artist Point, all around BEST meal of 2022. 

7. A Pic with Your Bestie

8. Your Favorite Selfie

9. A Bad Day 

10. IDK Why I Took This 

11. Favorite Trip of the Year

12. Food Photodump

I really don't take pictures of food as it happens. But here are cookies from a big event and Husband designed the stencils. 

13. Your Favorite Person (I cheated and went with people.) 

14. Favorite Flower 

15. This is My Safe Zone

This is literally one of the only pictures taken from my COVID quarantine. A literal safe zone. 

16. Most Recent Family Picture

17. Something New I Tried

   

18. January You vs. You Now* Skipping this one since there are zero pictures of me from December and only one from January. 

19. 1 Pic with Me

20. This Makes Me Proud of Myself

21. A Place I Want to Go Again

22. This Makes Me Smile

23. Your Favorite Artist

24. A Pic I Never Posted

So when I had COVID my Miraculous Medal disappeared. We still haven't found it. I like a very dainty version you can see. Anyway, my replacement wandered off care of one child who won't be named and this picture is from when Husband found it!!!! And I literally cried because I couldn't even justify spending the money on a third version of the same thing. (It's not an inexpensive necklace even if it is tiny.) 

25. You in 4 Different Styles* Also skipping this because I do not have different styles or even that many pictures of myself. 

26. Must Have Item of 2022

27. A Meme for 2022

28. New Friends Made in 2022

So the guy at the end of the pew is my coworker and I consider him my friend. We just met this year. He wasn't why I took this picture but who cares! 

29. What Makes Me Grow Up 

30. Favorite Hobby in 2022

We learned to screen print. And I really enjoy it!!

32. You Spent the Most On This

Check out my screen printing handiwork! 

33. A Breath-Taking View

34. Sum Up 2022 in 6 Pics* Yeah, okay I am skipping this too because how many more pictures of Disney World can I post? 

Happy New Year everyone. Have a safe and fun night! 

Hello From Christmas

Hello from the 5th day of Christmas. Is it day 5? I think so. Christmas 2022 will henceforth and forever more be known as the year Christmas barely happened. Or the year I fully became disenchanted with holidays. Or the year in which I took barely any pictures. 

I mean, it came. Certainly. With amounts of joy and sugar and presents. But I was not feeling it. 

We put up our tree on Black Friday like we always do. And the nativity. And nothing else. We only hung stockings the week before. And while it's all still up... if I had to wager it isn't going to make it til Ephiphany because clean is just better. 

Winter break started without much fanfare. It was crazy cold. And there was that pesky storm. Which meant we needed to head to MN early to miss the storm. So we did. When I tell you that I packed my duffle bag the very morning we were meant to leave please take that as your sign that I just didn't care. (For reference I began packing for our Disney trip weeks in advance.) 

But we made it to MN with no problem. No one was traveling on Tuesday before Christmas. 

We also followed an Oreo truck which we all enjoyed. 

Wednesday it snowed pretty dang good. 8 inches or so. Up there schools were still in session but they called off. They wouldn't have needed to, it was super cold but didn't start snowing a ton until later that night. My kids went sledding which was a hoot for them. It was like -5° or something real temp so they only lasted about 20 minutes but I was happy they got to go out. 

While we were there, fun was had. Games were played. Pinatas were hit. (That may end up being a new Christmas tradition, to be honest.) But I just didn't take many pictures. 

The storm messed up all the plans. We were supposed to leave on Saturday but ended up needing to stay until Christmas morning. But we had already had "fake Christmas Eve" the night before. Which was good but then real Christmas Eve felt weird. But the roads were closed until about noon and at that point, it was kinda late to pack up and head back. But bonus, we could watch the Vikings game. And we went to Christmas Eve Mass in MN. (Not the Christmas Day Mass at home we planned.) 

And you know what? That first Christmas didn't go according to plan either. And still, He came. Mass was exactly what I needed and even not being home was okay because reading my childhood parish's bulletin gave me some ideas for work. The Mass was very moving and I really enjoyed the homily. I am ultimately really happy about how it all went. 

Driving home on Christmas day was actually great. The roads had really been cleared well, it was sunny and not as windy anymore, and there were very few people on the road with us. 

And while I took no cute pictures of their matching pajamas or even any pictures of them with their gifts... it's okay. All is well. 

This week has been a mishmash of nothing. We've all been home and just playing, sleeping, and not doing anything at all. Just how I would want to spend my days off. Perpetual Saturdays and all. I am sad that school and life start up again so soon but, overall, it was pretty good. 

One of C's big wants this year was more "fluffy pillows" 

Did he need them? Not even a little bit. But 6 pillows, with 3 different sets of Peanuts pillowcases is fine by me if it makes him happy. 

As it happens, today is 63 and sunny. All the snow here at home melted and I am not even a little bit sad about it. 

And so that is what we have been up to. It really really isn't much. Since it's so nice out we are actually grilling tonight. M and I made Scottish scones from one of her cookbooks this morning. 

We've honestly all been super chill but we are cooking something fun daily. Which is nice. Instead of one large feast, it's been a whole week of feasts in our own little ways. 

And just to leave you with a little smile. This has me legit cracking up. 

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!