Christmas celebrations

This year I had to work Christmas, and the 2 days following so we celebrated early. 

First a Christmas dinner at my parents with my sister and her husband. 

Christmas Eve day we had Doug's parents over for lunch and presents.

Mama got her her first doll. And she ended up loving this Feliz Navidad singing and dancing cactus that was from G & G V to big brother.

Hoping this helps to jump some of his jiggles out!

Christmas Eve we went to the traditional church service at my parent's church. It was nice. It ended up being very healing for me as well, as this summer I had written a letter to someone that I had wronged as a teenager, and I saw her after service and we talked a bit. I asked, "did you get my letter? I'm sorry" and she said "you are forgiven!" It was one of those things where I could've just let it lie, but I had felt the Holy Spirit prompting me, so I had to obey! It is really an amazing feeling to be on the receiving end of grace and forgiveness. It is very humbling. 

The next day was Christmas and I had a pretty slow day at work. 

The next 2 days I was supposed to work, but it's been so slow at the hospital I actually got called off both days!

So Saturday we went over to Doug's parents to sled in their yard and see his brother. 

snowball fight shield 

She liked being held by grandpa more than sledding.

Sunday we went to church and had a pretty relaxing low-key day. Doug saw a movie with his brother and my parents came over for dinner (after they had also seen the same movie!) And now it's back to reality :) But it was a very nice break and wonderful to have those extra days with my family. 

sweets and Elf party

 

Made cookies for the neighbors and delivered them.

Then made some candycane peppermint bark. SO GOOD.

Made the same recipe without the mint extract and added peanuts at the end and OMG delicious.

We have a new member of our family, "robot vacuum". Thank you for the early Christmas present Santa! We debated if we needed this as we already have a couple vacuums, but this thing has been good so far. It has a timer, so everyday at 2pm it comes out and just does it's thing for about 1.5 hours before it goes back to it's base to re-charge. It just goes randomly, so it does miss spots sometimes, and it has gotten stuck several times in the same spot (which makes me wish it was "smarter" to remember and avoid those spots) like my brother said he has one that "maps" the house and then makes the same route every time, but this one seems good. It's the Eufy I saw some blog girl has and recommended. I chose one without a wi-fi and app and all those tech options.

This was after cleaning today, (and mind you, it cleaned yesterday too, so it seems like we do need daily vacuuming!) I still use our other vacuum for the carpets, this isn't great on those, but it has been good for our hard floors which do get dusty and crumby quite often. 

Nice! I wonder how long it will last with daily 1.5 hour vacuuming?? But it works well for now. '

This weekend we had a little Elf party. Our friend usually hosts one every December and invites tons of friends. With Covid, and quarantining to see her in-laws over Christmas, she didn't host. So we had a little one with just us and two other families. I made a vegan 7 layer bean dip, white chicken chili, cornbread muffins, Rachel made a cheese tray, and Liz made a yummy spring salad with fruit and pecans. 

The elves decorated and gorged on sugar cookies. 

My little elves standing on chairs eating theirs. 

Fun!

The elves enjoyed some time all piling on Mr. Mark Elf and jumping on him repeatedly from the futon. 

Our babies!

It was nice that we could have a little get together and celebrate time together. 

life lately

 Kids jumping off the coffee table and onto mama, great fun. (I made her little pants out of an old smartwool sweater)

Friends over for dinner and matching shirts.

Homeschool: gross motor skills- pumpkin rolling on a line

On a curvy line!

Riding a bike on the lines!

Fabric for crafts:

Used this pretty bee fabric to make an easy blanket for a friend having baby #4. 

I liked it :)

More homeschool fun, this boy loves to cut (and glue)

We made "snow" out of baking soda and conditioner

Reading time

Playing in the toy cabinet

Love my girl

Outside fun

This boy loves books

Starbucks at work, peppermint mocha, what a treat!

Life lately

 I guess when you don't post very often, there is a lot of random stuff to catch up on!

New fall table runner:

Ready for book club!

Funny things:

I was laughing so hard at these cake fails

The kiddos watching Bible stories together while mama did her BSF via zoom this morning.

Got a couple new 2 person games. Doug and I are trying to have some "stay at home date nights" after the kids are in bed. Played these last night, pretty fun!

Cold bundled walk last night to check out the Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

Book and snack!

This girl is just sunshine and happiness

Painting fun

Colored turkey masks for Thanksgiving

Popcorn and apples snack while mama made an apple crisp for a small get together at a friends' house.

This blog uploaded all my pics in reverse order and it's a pain to undo it, so things are all in reverse order. But a couple pics from our family walk at the nature preserve over the weekend.

Earlier last week in the nice weather and sunshine, he had great fun jumping off the porch into a leaf pile.

Saved this stacking rings toy for her until she was 18 months, and she did it like a pro! She is meeting most of her milestones, but not much talking. So we had to go to an Early On speech eval, her comprehensive development is at 22+ months (she's 19 months) but her language is 12-14 months. So she will be getting some speech therapy. They think she should catch up quickly. I hope so. My thought is big brother does enough talking for the whole family so there's not much chance for her to practice!

Anyone elses kids beg for radishes at the grocery store??

At a little birthday party last week, maybe will get her one of these little pets for Christmas!

He used to call it da' Buster, but now he says it correctly, growing so fast! 😭

Doug sent me this picture when I was at work, 💓, love them playing together!

Dinner out at Red Robin, so yummy. 

Dishwasher unloading help:

He's getting so fast on his balance bike! Might be ready for a 2-wheeler next summer?!