Last week was pretty low-key
considering we’re right in the heart of the holiday season. I think the reason last week was low-key is
because every single commitment we have for the holiday season is packed into this week and it is pure chaos. Seriously, we are right in the midst of aaaallll the Christmas dinners, Christmas parties, Christmas programs, and Christmas planning/shopping this week. It's been nuts!
Monday, December 9
Unfortunately I kicked off
Monday with a sore throat. Womp
womp. This is the first time I’ve been
sick pretty much all year so I really can’t complain, but it’s just unfortunate
that it had to happen right before Christmas.
Although, better last week than this week or next week, I suppose! Fortunately I didn't feel bad enough to need
to stay in bed, so I still managed to have a pretty productive day, getting
lots of blog work done.
I had a check-up with my GI
doc and he has officially released me!
That’ll be one less doctor in 2020, y’all! Cheers to that!
Monday evening was spent at
home. I cooked dinner and then spent the
evening solving some puzzles that Jacob created. He recently read a book about some kid who
solves mysteries and he got the idea to make these different puzzles. He’s been creating his own ever since and I
love it.
Tuesday, December 10
Tuesday morning I
volunteered at the school doing some data entry for raffle ticket sales for our
upcoming ball in January. The students
have been selling the tickets like crazy so we had lots of them to enter into
the system. I ended up being there for
about two hours, and then I ran over to our outreach center to drop our
Christmas gift donations.
On the way home I stopped by
the library to check out a new stack of books for Jacob. His AR requirements are more demanding than
ever this year so he is flying through books like it’s his job, and even though
he’s flying through, it sometimes feels impossible for him to meet his goal but
he’s been doing it!
Tuesday evening, I left B
and the kids at home to attend my first ever book club meeting! My friend Adrienne has been trying to get me
to join her book club for months, but I haven’t had the time to read since
school started in August. For their
December meeting, they didn’t read a book, and instead they had a favorite
things + favorite book exchange at a local Italian restaurant, so I thought
that would be the perfect time to join and meet the other ladies. Hopefully next month I’ll be able to get my
act together and actually read the book they choose. Haha.
The dinner went well. The food was delicious as always and all of
the ladies were super sweet. There were
ten of us altogether so we had a big group and I’m looking forward to getting
to know each of them better in the future.
Wednesday, December 11
Wednesday I spent the whole
day working on the blog. I’m so far
ahead on blog posts and I’m loving it!
It’s definitely made this week a lot less stressful.
Wednesday after school the kids
and I went home and got their homework done, and then we met B at the mall when
he got off of work. Even though we see
Santa at Breakfast with Santa each year, the kids also love to see the mall
Santa. We’ve been seeing the mall Santa
way longer than Breakfast with Santa anyway.
We always go on a random weeknight right after B gets off of work
because there’s never a wait and it works like a charm every single year!
We’ve been seeing the same
mall Santa since Jacob was born, and I was crushed to find that our usual guy wasn’t
there this year. I asked about him and I
was told he’s been having some health issues so he couldn’t do it this
year. Talk about a heartbreaker! We have eight years worth of pictures with
him, and I’m so sad that year nine had to be with someone different. I just hope he recovers, though.
The kids didn’t seem to
notice that he was different this year, although for the first time ever, they
did say something about the fact that the mall Santa looked different from the Santa
at Breakfast with Santa. I explained to
them that all of the store Santas are Santa’s helpers because the real Santa
has to be at the North Pole preparing for Christmas. :o)
Their visit with him went
well and they both said that they asked for the same things that they asked for
at Breakfast with Santa last week – a LEGO Star Wars Y-Wing and B-Wing for
Jacob, and a flower shaped pillow and a Hatchimals for Olivia.
After visiting with Santa
for a few minutes, the kids wanted to continue with their tradition of riding
the kiddie rides in the mall. Both of
them are getting so big they could barely fit in the rides, but they both
wanted to play on them anyway.
Haha. I have a feeling this may
be the last year for that, though! Olivia also saw her buddies, Anna and Elsa, in the window at Claire's and she walked over, posed with them, and asked me to take a picture. She is so my child!
After they rode a handful of
the rides, we walked to the food court and had Chick-Fil-A for dinner. We’ve had this same tradition for a few years
now, and it always seems to work out nicely.
Nobody wants to wait two hours to see Santa so it’s nice to walk
straight up and not have to wait at all!
Thursday, December 12
Thursday I had intended to
go to the gym, but I still wasn’t feeling well nor had I slept well all week
because of my cold, so I skipped it and did a bunch of work at home
instead. It was rainy and cold all day,
so it was nice to hole up with my hot tea and Christmas lights.
Friday, December 13
Friday was much of the same
– sore throat, tired from not sleeping well, rainy, and cold – so I dropped the
kids at school and then headed straight back home for hot tea, a warm blanket,
and Christmas tunes while I worked on the blog.
We had a wedding shower for
Jacob’s teacher Friday afternoon so I headed up there a little early before
dropoff to help out with that. The kids
all surprised their teacher when she walked in the room, and they all piled on
her for a huge group hug. I just love
those sweet kiddos. Jacob has such a
great class!
I also got this picture from Olivia's assistant teacher at school... there she goes calling me by my actual name again! Y'all, this girl. She is a piece of work!
Friday evening we had to
meet someone to make a sale on Facebook Marketplace, so while we were out, we
grabbed dinner at one of our local places.
B and I had some beers and I had my favorite hot dog with sambal aioli,
avocado, cilantro, and goat cheese, and the kids and B played ping pong. They’ve been eyeing that ping pong table for
months every time we go, but there are usually people on it, and they were so
excited that it was finally free! And
Jacob seems to be a natural at ping pong!
He’s probably better than me!
Haha.
It was a cold and rainy
evening, so we headed home after dinner, put a fire in the fireplace, and
snuggled up on the couch in our PJs while we watched Elf. Olivia wanted hot chocolate with peppermint
marshmallows and a candy cane and Jacob opted for some leftover Halloween candy.
After Elf, we put the kids
to bed and then B and I had our 16th annual viewing of Love Actually. My gosh, I love that movie so much! All the warm and fuzzies at the end! Fun fact, that movie came out just a couple
of months after B and I started dating, so it’s the same age as our
relationship. That makes me love it even
more. ;o)
Saturday, December 14
Saturday morning we had
cinnamon rolls and watched Home Alone. I
updated some lists in my planner and made one last long list of everything that’s
left to be done before Christmas while we watched. I also got a few Christmas gifts wrapped
while I sipped my hot cinnamon tea and watched the movie.
By the time I was done
wrapping I was feeling exhausted. I
think all of my sleepless nights and my stupid cold finally caught up with me,
and I knew that I would be regretting it if I didn’t take it easy the rest of
the day, so I gave myself permission to relax.
I curled up on the couch by the Christmas tree with my Christmas
Shopaholic book, Maui, and a snuggly blanket,
and I read and slept for the rest of the afternoon.
I woke up around 3:30 and I
felt like a new woman! I was still
snotty and coughing my head off, but at least I had some energy! We got ready and headed to 5:30 mass and then
went to our favorite Mexican place for dinner to celebrate my Aunt Joy for her
birthday. Unfortunately several other
family members went down with other illnesses and they weren’t able to attend,
but we still had a good time.
On the way home the kids
asked to drive around and look at Christmas lights, so we drove around our own
neighborhood for a bit. Our neighborhood
is pretty large, so there are lots of houses to see. By the time we arrived back at home it was
pretty late, so we sent the kids straight to bed and then B and I curled up on
the couch for another Christmas movie. We
originally talked about watching Die Hard because – YES, IT IS TOTALLY A
CHRISTMAS MOVIE! – but then B discovered that Daddy’s Home 2 is on Amazon
streaming, so we watched that instead. We
saw it in the theater when it came out and we remember thinking it was
hilarious, and it didn’t disappoint the second time around either. It’s a Christmas movie, too, so if you haven’t
seen it and you’re looking for something Christmasy that’s also funny, check it
out!
Sunday, December 15
Sunday morning was another lazy morning.
We made homemade waffles for breakfast and then we all piled on the
couch and watched Home Alone 2. My goal
was to take it easy all weekend and give my body time to rest and heal because I
knew the upcoming week was going to be crazy and I’d need to be at 100%. During our movie-watching, Olivia grabbed my phone and snapped a bunch of pictures of our coziness. :o)
We left the house around
lunchtime and grabbed some Five Guys, and then we made a quick trip to Walmart
to let the kids pick out some gingerbread house kits. They’ve been begging to do them this year and
I wanted them to be able to pick the ones that they wanted. Jacob chose the same Super Mario Brothers kit
he built last year and Olivia chose a Frozen 2 kit… surprise surprise. Haha.
We headed to the park after
that since we’d been cooped up the day before at home. It was a beautiful cool day and we stayed at
the park for over an hour letting the kids play on the playground and walk the
trails. We found a long vine hanging
from a tall tree and the kids took turns swinging on it like Tarzan. Brian decided he wanted to have a go and the
vine broke before he could even put all of his weight on it. Whoops.
Haha.
On another note, we found this beautiful little clearing in a park that we've been to tons of other times before... I think I may have found next year's picture-taking spot!
We headed home after the
park because Jacob had some serious reading to do to catch up on his AR reading
for the quarter, and he and I made it through the last half of one of his Diary
of a Wimpy Kid books while B and Olivia read her AR book together.
B and the kids piled on the
playroom couch to continue their Sunday tradition of Zelda on our old Nintendo
Wii after that and I got the house and things ready for Monday.
My Momma made beef strew and
beer bread for dinner and it was the perfect dinner to have after battling that
cold all week. I ate lots of soups and
drank lots of hot tea all week last week since it felt so good on my
throat. I’ve never had a sore throat
last for seven days like it did this time and it was just miserable.
Well, happy Thursday, y’all!!!! The most joyful week of the whole year is
upon us and I could not be happier! Soak
it all up!!
