Advent: Week #3

Day 14: Try something new.  We used a cookie press I had inherited from my Grandma Jantzen.  Mom doesn’t remember her ever using it, but I saw it when we were cleaning out their house and thought I should try it.  So, we made spritz cookies for Ellie to share with her friends.  Some were easier to press out than others, but it was a good experiment. 

         

Day 15: Dip ritz bits with Grandma.  This was later in the day.  Madison had her last driving lesson with her instructor til 5pm, so they dipped Ritz at 7pm. 

Day 16: Shop for a food drive… which was actually over, so we donated the food to People to People at church.  We went to Sav-a-Lot and all got a stack of groceries to give.

Day 17: Get crafty.  We made a little puff ball bookmark with yarn.  Not sure anyone will use it, but it is kinda cute. 

Day 18: Snowman Pancakes.  We invited Bess and her four kids that are so much fun, along with Ben, Steph, Cale (didn’t come because he wasn’t feeling well), and Landen. 

Jeremy was out of town with work this year, so I learned to do sausage links in the oven (very good).  Ben helped me flip pancakes. 

And the kids (and adults!) went crazy with the toppings.

                                   

Day 19: Wrap gifts.  The girls like this one.  They wrap each other’s gifts and cousin gifts.  Because they wrap for each other, they do it in different rooms, but provide commentary the whole time.  It makes it a social experience.

Day 20: Postal elves.  We stuffed and stamped Christmas letters to send out.  This is a pretty efficient task with everyone working at their determined task.  We still send out about 80 cards to people in church and those farther away. 

Happy Birthday, Gloria!

In honor of Gloria’s birthday at the beginning of November, we we out to enjoy breakfast at a new place to us.  Gloria loved eating out.  She had special groups of friends she would meet with at different times throughout the week or even just monthly.  She loved treating us to great restaurants, too.  So, we checked out Gigi’s Diner in Marshalville the morning of her birthday.  The really cool thing is there were two of her friends from the condos/MCC that were also trying it out.  It was like they came to party with us! 

Madison had a delicious pancake, Ellie got a breakfast burrito, and I don’t remember what Jeremy and I got.  But we had fun sitting at the counter eating a birthday breakfast.  We love you, Gloria!

    

A Little Bit of January Mish-Mash

Before Christmas break ended, I decided I wanted to do some closet switching.  When we moved in, I remember Steph M (my sister-in-law) saying, “Oh my goodness!  You will have your own closet and it is so big!”  We have two closets – both walk-ins – in our bedroom, so she was right.  But we ended up putting my stuff in half of the closet attached to the bathroom and Jeremy’s on the other half of the same closet.  Then, the second closet was used for dresses, extra coats, and miscellaneous stuff.  But I thought I would just try combining all mine in one.  So, Madison helped me pull everything out of the one closet and all my stuff out of the other.  Then, she set to work organizing Jeremy’s closet – shoes, hats, and hanging stuff.  I set about doing the same to mine.  At some point when she was getting frustrated, I switched over to help her finish out the process. Honestly, I really like it, and I should have listened to Steph in the first place!  Here they are (first one is mine, the next two are Jeremy’s / miscellaneous side).

  

Also, right as we went back to school, Madison had an orthodontist appointment to have them put in her bite springs (aka forces!).  This was a process but didn’t involve as much residual pain as she anticipated, so that was good.  She will have to have them on for at least 9 months. 

One weekend, the girls performed “Town Mouse, Country Mouse” for us; a throwback moment from when they were really little and used to perform all the time.  It was fun to see them do it.

The girls are still cooking suppers once a week (depending on the week).  Madison cooked up Garlic Shrimp Scampi – delicious!

Gloria gifted us with cash at Christmas which I usually just tuck away and stockpile because I don’t know the “perfect” thing to use it on.  But this time, I decided I would use it to print all the blogs I have into books.  I had started this a few years ago and had printed 7 of the 16 years I had been blogging, but I really wanted to have them all done.  My fear is that one day Google will shut down Blogger as a platform and all my memories will just disappear.  So, I wanted to print them, so we can enjoy them in the future.  The website I use (blog2print.com) makes it painless and easy.  I could probably format it differently somewhere else, but I don’t really care exactly how it looks as long as the pictures are with the right post – and they are.  So, I printed the other 9 books I had to print (on sale at 50% off!).  And they are slowly arriving at our doorstep.  I spent most of one day looking at them already!

We are on snow day #2.  We went back to school on Tuesday this week (MLK day was Monday).  Then, we were cancelled Wednesday due to wind chills around –15F.  Thursday we were back in school.  Then, last night they canceled in anticipation of the winter weather advisory that was dumping snow.  Not sure, to be honest, if they would have canceled has they waited til the morning, but it is a beautiful snow and we will go sledding somewhere this afternoon to enjoy it.  With the second day home this week, the girls got a little crazy and decided they would have some wrestling matches – inspired by watching Cale and Sam wrestle a week ago.  They know nothing about the sport and are pretty comical to watch.  Jeremy joined in toward the end, and then I took him on – didn’t get pinned.

         

I started up my women’s volleyball league again.  We are all a little rusty, but last night (our first night back) was so much fun – lots of laughter!  I kept it to 10 people this time.  It is less coordinating if people can’t make it, and it allows for more conversation (get to know you talk) before and after playing. We will play for 10 weeks and then see what next.  I am so glad there are others that still enjoy playing (and can still play). 

Snowman Pancakes and December Wrap-up

We rescheduled our snowman pancakes with friends until December 27.  We had two families from church over – Bess Treisch and her kids (Miles, Luke, Amelia, and Briggs) and Steph McGinty and Landen (Ben and Cale couldn’t make it).  It was so. much. fun. 

We had all the toppings: M&Ms, Resse’s Pieces, marshmallows, chocolate chips, PB chips, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, blueberries, twizzler pull aparts, whipped cream (almost forgot that!), and pretzels.  Some people used all of the toppings.  Others were sparse users.  I think everyone enjoyed their pancake!  Here are the masterpieces:

                                  

While we got ready and as we cleaned up the kids burned up some energy downstairs, building train tracks, wrestling the big bear, playing kitchen, and getting to know one another.  The girls asked if we could do this again more often.  We will have to make time for it. 

Aruturo, Jen, and Gloria came to Salem on Christmas Eve and the last Sunday of December.  It was nice to have them there worshipping with us.  We realized we never took Christmas pictures at Gloria’s, so we took the chance to take some one Sunday morning.

         

Advent #3

Day 18 – Elf movie at Canton Palace Theater…. we like to watch Elf every year, so I thought we would view it in a different way this year.  The girls were slightly suspicious since I wouldn't let them watch it for nights when they asked.  But I think they were okay waiting.  The theater was a fun way to watch it.  There were no previews just a man on a magical organ and some amazing clouds.

    

Day 19 – Dip a treat… dipped some delicious pretzels for our teachers.  And the girls had made creative cards on the Canva platform for their teachers as well.  We did it with masks on since we were all feeling a little under the weather.

Day 20 – Make something aromatic… we tried our hand out shower discs – baking soda, cornstarch, and water baked in muffin tins, and then add essential oils.  We will see how they work out later.

Day 21 – Stuff and Stamp Christmas letters… I have all the things to do it, but we haven’t made time for it yet.  It is a pretty quick task when we all work together.

Day 22 – Pizza and game night… We invited Jen, Arturo, and Grandma Yoh over for this one.  Ordered East of Chicago subs and pizza and played four animated rounds of Christmas Scattergories.  It was a lot of fun!

Day 23 – Make Starbucks drinks…. this is today.  I have a couple options and we will see what they choose.

A few other fun things..

Christmas dress up was the last four days of school – pajama day, accessory day, Christmas movie character day, and anything Christmas.  For Christmas movie day, my co-workers and I worked together to make the Grinch – Kendra = Grinch, Christ = Max, Me = Christmas tree in Whoville and every house.  While I didn’t wear it all day, it did elicit a lot of smiles from kids that morning which made it worth it.

On our first day off of school, the girls decided to make a blanket fort.  It was bigger than when they were little and more involved, but it reminded me so much of their younger days.  It was fun to see them have time to play.