Christmas Day 2021

Christmas morning was spent at home.

Here are the “read” gifts they received. This year we opted for “practical use” material.

The “want” gifts.

ETA 12/27/21: Shecklet #1 finished his LEGO set in no time, Shecklet #2 can’t wait to use his new ski gloves (he wore a hole in his old ones,) Shecklet #3 found the perfect place in her room for the fuzzy purple rug, and Shecklet #3 has been having fun taking pictures with her camera.

The “share” gift. I may or may not have gone a little overboard here, but the deal I got on Perler beads was too good. 40,000 beads should keep them busy for a while, right?!?

After lunch, we headed south to spend the afternoon/evening with Jake’s family. Everyone was there – including Tippi!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2021

We attended 4pm mass at our parish to celebrate Christmas. Aunt Larissa joined us for mass and afterwards we had heavy appetizers for dinner. Jake returned to church to run the cameras for streaming the 10pm mass.

Ping pong in the house

Jake and I have been talking about updating the basement space so the kids have more age-appropriate options for passing the time. Not that nerf wars and building random forts aren’t fun, but we recognize that if we want our kids to enjoy spending time at home (and welcome their friends,) we need to create an environment that supports those things.

We asked our friends if we could borrow their pickup truck and off we went to purchase a ping pong table. The boys had a hunch something was going on when we left, so since they were wide awake when we got back home, they were put to work with helping haul in the parts and assemble the table. We’re looking forward to lots of friendly competition over Christmas break!

2021-2022 Ski/Snowboard season

Mother nature gave us several inches of beautiful snow, so Jake took three of the kids on their first trip to Trollhaugen for the season this week. He went with Shecklet #3 last night and Shecklets #2 and #4 today.

Oh and Shecklet #4 found $20 on the slopes! She bought a treat to share and a hot cocoa for herself ๐Ÿ™‚

Pork chop stockpile

Costco had a great deal on pork loins, so I grabbed two so I could replenish our marinated pork chop supply. Gotta keep the grill master stocked with options!

Two loins sliced up = about 50 chops. I made up four different marinades (making multiple batches of my favorite, cilantro lime.) I’m looking forward to some tasty winter grilling!

Dinner at IKEA

We took Jake to the airport this evening – he is heading to Vegas for a conference. Since it was dinner time, I decided to let IKEA do the cooking tonight.

Trip to the mall

We went to the mall to make a return and found these sparkling ornaments for taking pictures โค๏ธ

November 23, 2021

Our friends, Melissa and Tom, treated us to delicious Vietnamese takeout to celebrate my latest trip around the sun (a few days before my actual birthday.) The food was delicious, the game we played was fun – and we laughed a lot! And I received thoughtful gifts of earrings and a puzzle. One of the most notable parts of the night was walking in and seeing my heads on the motorbike sign that they had for their little guyโ€™s reptile party a few weeks earlier. I never knew I was so adventurous!

My actual birthday was on a Tuesday and we were hosting our friends for a few days. I made a new chicken recipe for dinner and baked the famous Settergren chocolate vinegar cake with GF flour – and it turned out great! A few friends came to help me celebrate and see our visitors.

Moving help

Our SIL/kids’ aunt is in town and was planning to help her brother’s family move into their new house. We piled into the suburban and gave them a hand. The extra hands made short work of the unloading moving truck!