Christmas Gift Continued

As it turns out, Billy bought me 6 months worth of puzzles, so I still have two more coming my way, when I thought it would be 3 months!

After the Rodeo with the Cornishes, the four of us finished the Route 66 game!  We didn't need any further clues, which was nice.

On a different weekend, Billy played the Austrailian Outback series with me.  We did pretty well, only needing help on one puzzle.  

The latest one we got just before the Cornishes came over this weekend, so we played the Beijing one, but I didn't care for it.  There was no booklet, it's strictly online, and even some of the puzzles are online.  We didn't finish it, but did quite well on most of them. 

We saved the rest for another day!

I'm really enjoying them, but if they have made the decision to move primarily online, I'm glad that I only have a few remaining.

later days

Christmas Gift: Finders Seekers: Florence

For Christmas, Billy bought me a three month subscription to Finders Seekers, and escape room style game.

The first one (a bonus) arrived a couple of days after Christmas, and was a National Park theme.  It was really fun, and we knocked it out in a night, but I found the final puzzle annoying. However, while taking in all of the elements, I found that they had music and recipes to enhance the experience!

My second one was a Route 66 theme, and arrived right before New Year's Eve, so we brought it to the Cornishes' and played about half of it after our pirate game.  We have plans to finish it with them this weekend!

All that to say this one came a week or so ago, and I wanted to really glam it up.  So, I downloaded Spotify, gathered my ingredients, even prepping the bread the night before! And Billy and I immersed ourselves in a lovely Italian holiday!

The bread was very similar to the other bread that I make in my dutch oven, but was a little on the salty side (I don't think my other recipe calls for any salt.)  It must have been okay though, because it was all gone by the next morning.

Kale and beans and beets and celery made for a decent soup.  If I were to make it again, I would throw in some sliced sausage!

I ended up looking up the answer to a couple of puzzles, one of which I still feel like was a bit abstract.  The second one I do wish I would have slept on and looked at with a less tired brain.  Despite those two puzzles, we were able to deduce the end puzzle answer and free the trapped archeologists. = )

There is still one more coming, next month, but Billy already bought me a new brand for Valentine's Day, to see if I like it any better. = )

It was a good way to spend a snowy Saturday!

later days

edit 2-11-25: backdated for continuity.

New Year's Eve!!!

We were invited to attend New Year's Eve celebrations with the Cornishes, so on New Year's Eve Eve, we made some foam number decorations!

Unfortunately, the girls went a little heavy on the paint, and so the numbers were still wet when we left for the party!

Each group came out super cute, they just had to hold them slightly away from their clothes, and then they went back into the box!

The girls helped me put glitter on mine!  The blue glitter is my favorite. = )

And my tub was full of all sorts of surprises this year, filled with the things that I'd collected, at yard sales and thrift stores, since last year were just tipped in, so we had plenty of new items to display, including the wall banner! = )

Poor Emily, her old phone died, and so we broke out Alice's old phone for her to use.  Unfortunately, her code was sending to her tablet, which was at home. = (

Steve and Natalie had a new pirate game that we played!  The rules were really long, but the game was fairly straight forward.  If Steve hadn't had bad luck, he wouldn't have had any luck at all, his rolls were awful, and I kept trying to, unsuccessfully, take a piece of land.  So, Either Billy or Natalie won this time!

Hopefully I can find some more plastic flutes this year, we didn't have enough for all of the kids, let alone the adults!

The adults played half of the Route 66 Finders Seekers game that Billy bought me for Christmas, but we were all tired, and so at midnight we headed home, adding our next meeting to the calendar to finish it up!

It was nice to ring in the new year with them again, and I'm sure if I compared this year's picture to last year's, every single one of them would look much older! = ) 

*****************

Grace was disappointed that we hadn't made punch for New Year's Eve, so she made it on New Year's Day.

Sometime between taking a picture of Juliet and taking a picture of Grace, they put up the banner.  I wanted the full set, so Juliet's picture was a remake of sorts.

I was putting the tub away in the basement, and was debating what to do with our homemade number banners.  They were a fun craft, but I didn't want to keep them for the next year.  So, I offered them to the twins' third grade teacher, because she has a senior this year, who will be having a party!  And if she tosses them, it won't bother me at all, because if she'd said no, I would have thrown them away myself.  = )

Looking forward to a great 2025!

later days

edited 2-11-25: backdated for continuity.