A Cozy Christmas

Our Christmas was so quiet and cozy that I forgot to take almost any pictures. But I got the gist of it

Christmas is my favorite season on our street. The luminarias are a pain in the butt but they do make it all so magical.

I gathered the kids for the requisite Christmas Eve Matching jammies pic (after a quick alteration on Syd’s because she grew since Black Friday.) man, these are so much easier with big kids

Or maybe not...

Not to toot my own horn, but I KILLED it with the gifts this year. Each kid got at least one gift that blew their minds and a couple more that made them really happy. Syd got the iPad she was convinced was too extravagant to ask for. Eli got the TV for his room that we’ve been fundamentally opposed to for years (until we realized that between his phone and laptop, he already has access to a bunch of screens.) And Averson got a new bike with gears AND a kickstand and more legos than she knows what to do with. 

And it’s not a robe (and I actually got mine last year), but the whole family got the Sherpa hoodies. These might have been the all around favorites. 

All Girl Rock band! LOL!

It was declared to be “The Best Christmas Ever!” Movies were watched, the food was delicious (cinnamon rolls and tri tip chili), and everyone stayed in their jammies all day. We managed to talk to or FaceTime everyone we were missing throughout the day. It was perfect. No notes (except that I think C and I will start buying, wrapping, and hiding gifts for each other [or ourselves] in January. The SNL skit is funny because it’s true. I will say though that the gifts I got were really on the nose)

Tired, happy parents

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, however that looked. Five more days until 2021. We’ve got this! 

 

Festive AF

We’re having an outbreak at work (150+ cases in a week. It’s scary) and I thought for sure that my time off this week was going to get cancelled. But after working the weekend and Monday, my boss sent me away. I’m taking this gift and running with it, determined to fully enjoy the next week and make as much merry as I possibly can. When I left the house today my mask smelled like frosting so I’m pretty sure I’m nailing it 

My first foray into royal icing. Half my cookies looked adorable and the other half looked like a demented, inbred cousin of adorable. 

Eli and I went Christmas shopping and he bought himself this suit. He is FEELING it and has worn it for two straight days. I love how he looks like his first job is in the mailroom at the North Pole

C brought home a poinsettia from the school that’s bigger than any plant I’ve ever successfully kept alive

And then he hung my giant wreath on the house. But now I think it needs to be bigger maybe?

These two ❤️

MORE COOKIES

We’re watching at least one Christmas movie a day. Last night was The Night Before. HILARIOUS but maybe I could’ve skipped watching dirty bar sex and numerous duck pics with both my kids AND my mother

I just love these so much

This Snapchat filter brings me joy (and confirms that I was not actually secretly adopted.) Its all me, but the resemblance to my mom, my brother, and Averson are uncanny

My presents are bought (and wrapped!) My cards got sent out today. I bought the ingredients for our traditional Christmas Day chili. All I have left to do is make cinnamon rolls and eat all those cookies! 

 

Modern life

 I took all of these at 1:30 today. I’m on a training for work so I’m home this week. I’m camped out at the dining table, the girls are next to me, and the boys are in the living room. The dogs are quiet so I don’t care where they are. 

I don't even know what's happening anymore

 I haven't blogged in, basically forever, and I feel bad about that. Even if no one reads these anymore I really like having a scrapbook of our lives and I love going back and re-reading my posts. It's also a nice compilation of photos and has come in handy lately for school projects. Averson needed to do a Google Slide on a family tradition and copying birthday donut pictures from the blog was WAY easier than trying to find them all on our various back-ups. 

So all that to say... I logged on to do a photodump catch-up and maybe a little "Christmas Prep" broad stroke. But you guys? My phone is full of a bunch of bullshit. The girls have been using an old phone that still syncs to mine, and mine if I don't keep an eye on it, and they screenshot some real weird shit. And now I didn't delete them fast enough so all this nonsense is saved in at least three different places. Seriously. I give up. 

There are approximately 57 of this exact same picture

I think this is Syd? Maybe? Or else my nightmare of a creeper living in the crawlspace is coming true because that is 100% her bedroom wall behind her

Pictures of my TV during the Dog Show on Thanksgiving. MANY pictures of my TV

I don't know what Sexually dimorphic means and I have no intention of getting a ferret

No idea who this is or why she has a blob fish on her head. She must be important to the girls though

So yeah, we've been doing some stuff. We made salt dough ornaments. We took family pictures. Thanksgiving was lovely. The dogs laid in patches of sun like the cat-dogs they are. C and I took selfies. But apparently a lot of shenanigans have been happening too

#Halloween2020

I turned 40 yesterday and it was as perfect as 2020 would allow. C surprised me with a new coffee pot to replace our 15 year old Mr. Coffee. My mom had flowers delivered to the house (growing up in the country, I will ALWAYS be excited to have things delivered to my house.) The kids made and picked out sweet and thoughtful gifts. My birthday donut was pumpkin spice flavored.

We really struggled with what to do for Halloween. After a lot of thought and efforts to come up with ideas, we settled on “measured and thoughtful decision making.” We didn’t have people over, but we let Eli hang out with a friend and I took the girls trick-or-treating. And we decorated the hell out of the house.

Averson REALLY loves our skeleton collection and plays with them constantly

Case in point: the Morning After still life

Syd had a VERY last minute costume change that found me at Party City on Halloween morning and Thank God because otherwise I never would have impulsively bought a Bob Ross costume to make C laugh only to find out that it’s been his dream costume

Dr. Dolittle, Hermione Granger, and an inmate (OMG I had some feelings about this one until I remembered that I was a Playboy Bunny in 4th grade. At Catholic school.)

Trick or treating 2020 style. Our neighborhood did so many cool candy delivery systems. The girls were great about masks and overall it felt really okay

 

It’s Halloween somewhere

I still don’t know if we’re going to trick-or-treat or put on costumes and let the kids watch age inappropriate movies to stay safer at home, but our house at least is festive AF. It’s 2020. I might put up the Christmas tree next weekend