Christmas 2024

On Christmas morning, Alice was the first up, and had the gifts sorted into piles before she woke everyone just after seven.

We were all moving slow, but the kids quickly woke up as they went through their stockings.

William and I found this big pack of Reese's on one of our adventures, and it started a 'wow' candy trend for everyone.  I tried to get a giant quantity of candy for each of them, that they didn't have to share with anyone.  I think everyone ended up sharing or trading anyhow, but they didn't have to!  So Alice had Reese's, Emily got Haribo, William's was a giant container of peanut butter M&M's, Grace got the largest container of Ferro Roche that I could find, and Juliet got an entire box of Kinder Beuno.

A wheelchair for their American girl dolls was one of the few gifts that I bought new, but it was definitely a favorite!

Emily didn't get any needles or yarn for Christmas, but found the inspiration to start crocheting Amigurumi.

Not a bad first attempt!

Much to Emily and my disappointment, when I opened the freezer to get out green beans for Christmas dinner, we had none. = 0  So, no Christmas green beans for us.  I also neglected to order bread, but that was easily remedied.  They weren't amazing, but they were pretty good for a quick job.

The pressure was on my kids now to start eating the contents of their candy canes, so that I can use them again next year! = )

Once the bread was finished, we sat down, popped our Christmas crackers, and ate a ham feast!  The jokes were as corny as ever, and I think mine had the best trinket, a tiny screwdriver set!

It was a lovely Christmas for sure!  Merry Christmas y'all!

later days

12-30-24 backdated for continuity.

Christmas PJs

With the Exception of this year's Escape Room gift, the only gifts we open before Christmas morning are Christmas Pajamas!

I ordered these forever ago, like August or September I think, definitely while they had old stock.  I ordered adult smalls for Alice, Emily, and William, and [unspecified] larges for Grace and Juliet.  When they arrived, it turned out that they were Adult Larges, not child larges, despite their placement on the drop-down list. 

In any case, I contacted the company to return the two large ones, and was going to order two more adult smalls, even though the twins would swim in them.  When I filled out the form to return them, they indicated for me to just keep them! 

So, after dark, on Christmas Eve*, my children opened their very large, but also very cheap, pajamas!

Everyone approved of the Christmas dino!

But getting a good group shot this year was extra tricky!

"William, show off your shirt!" lol.

But after many outtakes, and lots of laughs, we did finally get one that fit the bill!

Alice was a good sport, but didn't care much for the material, and changed out of them as soon as the pictures were settled.

Thankful for another year of matching pajamas!

later days

*my mom had planned to take anyone who wanted to go to Christmas Eve service with her, then have a sleepover, but came down quite ill, so we didn't see her for the entire week!

backdated for continuity 12-30-24

Escape Room

This Christmas, Haley and I decided to mix things up a bit this year, and instead of buying physical gifts for one another's families, we would take that money and buy an adventure for our family on their behalf!  We did an escape room!

I found a Christmas themed room, and was able to schedule a convenient time online, though it was before Christmas, so we opened our gift early, which is something I don't usually enjoy, but this seemed like perfect timing!

We arrived our 15 minutes early, and had time to enjoy some of the amenities in the waiting area!

In the room, the kids listened well to our host, were very gentle with the props, and started solving puzzles!  This was the first room, that Billy and I had played, where we were truly 'locked in!'  There was a key if we needed it in an emergency, and our host said he'd come to our rescue if we needed it, too.

The room was listed as "hard' on their website, so I was nervous about the potential for failure, but we succeeded with over nine minutes remaining!  

We escaped!

The kids had a great time!  We got to peek in one of the other rooms, and it was filled with sand!  They can't wait to go back and do it again. = )

In the lobby, there was a 'mini' escape game, presumably to solve while you are waiting, but the kids worked on it after our game, since we were in no hurry to leave.

Another success!!

When we got home, Emily and Grace were playing a virtual Escape room on the computer.

Safe to say, we'll be doing this again!

later days

Spirit Week

All five of my dear ones had spirit week the final week of school, as is the meme.  They dressed up each day, but the twins were the only ones that I actually had time to photograph each morning.

I didn't actually start taking pictures until Tuesday, when I bought Grace and Juliet 'special sweaters' from a thrift store, to wear on Monday!

Grace's sweater dress was too cute, and was absolutely perfect, 

but I could only find a plain one for Juliet, so she got some bling to wear with hers!  They were both hairbows, but we used safety pins to keep one on her sweater, and she wore the matching one in her hair.  She looked adorable, and the little bells jingled as she walked. = )

That said, Grace kept trying to get Juliet to give her the matching bow, and I had to put my foot down and tell her that Juliet gets something special too!  I told her she could go through the Christmas wrapping bin, which also houses our necklaces, antlers, and Santa hats, and stays upstairs throughout the season.  She settled on these ornaments that I used as giant 'earrings' during an ugly Christmas sweater contest one year.  We pinned them in her hair, and I thought they looked cute! She said people played with them all day, which I think is totally understandable.

Sports day is always Texas Tech in this house.  I loved Grace's checkered pants with her shirt, but would have definitely picked Juliet's long sleeves in this weather!!! Wreck 'em Tech!

Grace wore black and white, with a beak, because she was a puffin. Juliet had a narwhal horn, that was much more apparent from the side.

The very snowy, slippery Friday, was pajama day, and everyone except for William, wore their pjs to school!

Go team!

later days

Snow!

The end of November started the snow, and Thursdays have been particularly snowy this year!

11-21 The first sticking snow was actually not much, and the snow gauge (truck) was not in place for a picture, so I snapped a picture of the snow dusted plants instead.

12-1 The first "proper" snow.  It was a Sunday, so no school to know how bad the roads were. lol.

12-5 No School for anyone!!!

William got up around his normal time, and worked on his math until Alice's band concert, but he finished!  Better than giving up his weekend, which is what the plan was before the snow day?

Post-concert snow art:

12-12  Snow Day for Emily and William, who had a field trip planned and really wanted to go.  No snow day for Alice, Grace, and Juliet who were hoping for a snow day.  So, I got whined at by everybody.

12-20 no one got a snow day, the snow was really thick, and I found the sidewalks and driveway quite slippery as I was shovelling! = (

One day, my car blower fan was not working in the front vents, which is a poor time of year for it to not work.  So, we took my car in, and I was just going to use Alice's future car, the van, to run my errands.  However, when I hopped in that afternoon to drive it to collect the twins, it wouldn't start! = ( We had just driven it a few days prior, but apparently that was the battery's final hoorah.  Luckily, I can walk to collect the twins, and didn't have plans to collect Emily that day, but I was late, and it was a cold walk!  I was able to call AAA the next day to get it started and get a new battery put in, but that is a whole other story.*

Not all was bad though, I saw a sight I'd never seen! I thought I saw a beaver, well, at first I thought it was a duck with its head underwater, but then upon closer inspection thought it was a beaver.  While there are beavers in Michigan, I've not seen any personally.  I have seen woodchucks though, and it turns out they can swim too!  So, probably a woodchuck swimming the river.

Alice and Grace went out to build a dragon sculpture in the snow.  The lines are hard to see, so this is just the head, but it looked pretty good with wide wings and a long tail!

One more interesting sight was this cool icicle outside of the bakery at MSU where my mom treated me to a bagel & cream cheese!  I thought it was a very cool shape & design, for an icicle.

My weather watching is temporarily on hold, since the kids aren't in school for the next two weeks, but I'm sure there will be more snow to add in the new year!

later days

*Which I will include right here, because I have no plans to put it anywhere else, as I took no pictures documenting the morning.

I was able to use Billy's car to drive Alice, Emily, and William in the morning, but he's gone by the time the twins go to school.  So, we bundled up and walked to school that day.  I called AAA as I was leaving their school, to get on the list.  I could have called much earlier, but I really don't have time to deal with someone else's schedule while I'm trying to get children out the door.

He came, but his battery jumper was dead, after helping people all morning.  Thankfully, we were able to use the Kia, which is 'in storage,' but kept in operating order, to juice it up.  Once he got it running, I took it to Walmart, where we always get our batteries, but they had no openings that day!!!! = 0

I tried to call Billy, but he was working and was unable to answer, so I called my mom to help me figure out a next step.  She recommended O'Riley's because they will help you put it in, if it's not too busy or too difficult.  Of course it was difficult, why wouldn't my car be difficult!!!!!  Luckily, they knew a guy, a local mechanic, in Grand Ledge (where I was) who was able to put in the battery that I bought, right then and there!  So, if you are in Grand Ledge, I totally recommend Scrib's Auto!!!