We loved every minute of the remainder of our Christmas holidays. For the first time in forever T actually had an entire 2 weeks off of work; best Christmas gift in itself!
AL and I had wanted to take a girls trip to watch the new Annie movie with Grandma. Grandma was looking after my nephew who was pretty excited to go too and that got JA excited to go as well. (JA can still be found singing the songs most days). I absolutely loved it!
Our time with lice this fall has made me CRAZY. To be honest the thought of going to a theater and coming home with it didn't sit well so much to my embarassed kids dismay I brought plastic bags to cover our seats (yup, I've gone off the deep end). However, I was able to just sit back and relax.
We got our Christmas decor cleaned up and I soaked in that empty, spacious feeling that comes with it.
WR was in need of a winter helmet like the big kids have so we hooked him up and he wore it around the house a lot lol. Sure love this cute guy. I love how he is so aware of what the big kids are doing and needs to copy their every move (good and bad)
Over the holidays T and I were able to escape for a little date night on the 30th. T's staff spoiled us with a few gift cards to Sorrentinos so we made use of one (delicious) and then headed out to do a little shopping through the post boxing day sales. T may laugh at this sweater I snagged at RW &co but I love it ;) I was so nice to just enjoy a relaxing meal together after the madness of the holiday busy.
On New Years Eve we enjoyed the amazing weather and hit the ice with friends. It was pretty busy but seriously so fun. Can you see all those hockey players down on the lake in the background?
JA with his best school Buddy.
AL with one of her favorite friends. The girls had a great time together especially since they don't get to see each other too much now that we don't babysit her anymore.
We never have anything too exciting going on for New Years and were excited to be invited to JA's buddy's house (from the above pic) for a little party. I've gotten to know his mom over the last few months and she is just the sweetest. I was a bit nervous going to her house to party with all their friends and neighbors that we don't know (a step out of my comfort zone) but wee had such a great time! So fun making new friends that only live a couple blocks away.
The adults visited, played games, ate food and the kids played happily upstairs most of the time.
They rang in the new year just after 10pm with an online countdown for the kids! It got pretty wild with all those noise makers ;) A great start to the new year.
On Jan 2nd after a month of barely any snow a storm rolled in (just in time for T to head back to work, yuck)
The kids were so excited to play in it (I was less excited to shovel all my mail boxes but I can't really complain after a month off)
I used the snowy day to destroy my kitchen and whip up some lasagnas and pizza buns. Nice to finally have motivation to work in the kitchen.
Felt good to have some motivation to get some lunches and dinners prepped. With a girl that doesn't love sandwiches in her lunch, it is nice to have something easy on hand for her.
The next day before I started my 4 hrs of shovelling I ran a load of bottles down to the neighboring town for a bottle drive for a 13 yr old from church. This sweet boy tugs at my heart strings often. He was paralyzed from the chest down when he fell over the handlebars of his bike (with a helmet on) going down a steep hill and has been in the hospital since July. His family is now starting the process of bringing him home which includes some mega house renos and vehicle and equipment purchases. A fundraiser had been ongoing to raise the $100k needed this past month. The out pouring of generosity has been incredible.
I decided to encourage some of our friends to send bottles with me and they packed every inch of my van! When I drove into the church parking lot I got tears in my eyes as I saw vehicle after vehicle pull in brimming with bottles. It was in the mid -30's and loads of people were headed out to go door to door. The bottle depot was over flowing inside along with a mountain of bottles outside by the end of the day. They said they had never seen anything like it. The pictures of the bottles looked like blessings being poured down straight from Heaven. Almost $12k was raised that day. People are so good and kind. I just glanced at this fundraising page and they are just a few thousand away from reaching their goal.
Sending the kids back to school on Monday was hard. I honestly loved our time together and the -40 windchill and pitch black outside made me feel bad to wake them up and drag them out. I did have fun cracking open my new Christmas present and giving it a go while they were gone though (my 40 yr old hand me down machine had seen better days). I'm excited to tackle some new projects at home instead of running to my moms every time I want to sew something.
The kids decided to make their own snow snack one day after school this week (syrup and snow is pretty yummy stuff). They couldn't believe that I was actually letting them eat snow!
The weather hasn't improved too much this week and I was a bit nervous about our preplanned trip to the lake for skating with the cubs last night. The winds were nuts and the snow was cold but those boys had a blast. In fact a couple kept asking if they could stay a few extra hrs lol. Gotta love it.
I'm excited to see what this year holds for us and to see which goals we accomplish and which goals arise along the way. Happy New Year!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment