It's all good . . .

A Happy Christmas!

One side effect of our kids getting older, is that they actually sleep in on Christmas morning now, and so I got up and got Christmas breakfast in the oven and by then they were awake and ready to get things started.  (I had to take my picture of them of on the stairs, even though there were random unpacked and unhung things in the background, since our upstairs is still not all put together.  Oh well.  That is reality.)

Soon, it was time for stockings!  One of my favorite things ever is watching my kids open their stockings and get excited about all the random things in them.  I always end up opening my stocking long after they are done, because I just sit there and watch them.  Good times.

Then we had our yummy caramel rolls for breakfast, a family favorite and a tradition passed down from Kevin's family.

After breakfast, we all got dressed and ready, and then it was the main event - opening presents.

We surpassed our kids with tickets to see Hamilton, and each of them opened up presents with puzzle pieces in them, with the final piece that showed it was Hamilton in a box for the three of them.  They were so excited!

And soon enough, everyone was building with Legos - all three kids building theirs, and then Kevin built his Baby Yoda.  So much fun!!

We had a wonderful and relaxing rest of our day, playing games, watching movies and taking it easy. And then today, we all dressed up in our festive Christmas Sunday best, including a gorgeous new green dress my mom gave me for Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas program during sacrament meeting at church, and didn't have any of the rest of our classes, so we had extra time together at home. It was the perfect way to finish up our Christmas celebrations.

Leading Up to Christmas

The last few days leading up to Christmas were not only fun, but very full, especially since Kevin and I had been out of town for 4 1/2 days. We still managed to sneak in some holiday fun. We also very much enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous weather.  In fact, my mom enjoyed just sitting out on the front porch to enjoy it.

I also discovered my new favorite Christmas song, "Like It's Christmas" by the Jonas Brothers.  It is so fun and happy, and I just keep playing it on repeat.

We have also been watching as many Christmas movies we can fit in between other things. 

One day, my mom brought out some super cute ornament crafts to make with Arthur.  Lily even joined in and made some, and they each ended up with a cute little set of them.

That night, we went out in search of Christmas lights displays with the family so Arthur could do his Christmas lights scavenger hunt.  We didn't want to go anywhere too crowded, and so it may not have been the best neighborhood, but it still had some fun displays. And with driving around our neighborhood a bit, we managed to find everything on his list.

And since it was Christmas Eve Eve, the kids had their traditional slumber party by the Christmas tree.  And in what has also become a tradition, none of them actually stayed the night by the tree, all of them giving up and sleeping in their beds at some point.  Ha ha!

Christmas Eve was such a fun day. After making sure that all the presents were wrapped and ready, I worked on cooking our Christmas Eve dinner. We had ham and all the trimmings, and we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and our celebration. Arthur was so excited to break open our Christmas crackers.  (Earlier in the day I realized that I had completely forgotten to buy them, and had to send Kevin out to Hobby Lobby to get some. That was one disaster averted.)

After dinner, we played Christmas carols on the chimes, sang a few carols around the piano, and then read the Christmas story in Luke and Matthew while Arthur acted it out with the Little People nativity.

Then we had our dessert, curtesy of Costco - the tuxedo mousse cake for me and the vanilla cake for Kevin. Then the sister missionaries left and we settled to watch the Tabernacle Choir Concert I had recorded on PBS, which is another tradition of ours.

Then it was time for Christmas pj's.  Usually the kids are the only ones to get new pj's, but when I asked Kevin to find me some fun pajamas at Bucees, he ended up buying matching pajamas for the entire family, even my mom.
They were pretty hilarious, especially the back. We had to get pictures of the six of us all dressed up in them.  Good times!
After everyone was in bed, Kevin and I brought out all the presents and I filled the stockings, with Kevin and my mom filling mine.  And since one of the things that Kevin got me was way too big for the stocking, he got creative.

It was a wonderful few days leading up to Christmas, and an especially magical Christmas Eve together.

Merry Christmas 2021

The Brown Family Adventures of 2021

This past year was full of milestones and wonderful adventures for our family, but the biggest adventure of 2021 for our family, was one we had not anticipated, but has turned out to be a huge blessing for all of us. In August, we moved to San Antonio, Texas.

Arthur: Going to Extreme Escape Room with the family; Seeing the Broadway musical of The Lion King, Having Mom substitute teach at his school – in Pennsylvania and Texas; Making lots of great friends in Texas; but most importantly, getting baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Derek: Getting to see the Broadway tour of The Lion King; Being in the Dallastown High School production of Beauty and the Beast with Lily; Getting his driver’s permit and learning how to drive; and making lots of great new friends in Texas,

Lily: Graduating from High School; Passing all three of her AP tests; Her senior trip to Disney World with Lisa; Beating the video game, Origami King; Going to Aunt Cheryl’s family Halloween party; and going to college – Brigham Young University Idaho (even though it was scary)

Lisa: Getting to substitute teach for Arthur’s class (and teaching in both PA & TX); Having an amazing trip to Disney World with Lily; Taking my mom to visit her childhood homes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; starting a book club with my new friends in Texas; Celebrating 20 years of marriage with Kevin.

Kevin: transferring to San Antonio so that his commute to work went from 1 ½ hours each way down to 20 minutes; and a once in a lifetime golf trip with his dad and brother, Scott, where they played 7 rounds in 6 days, including a round at TPC Sawgrass and Harbour Town Golf Links.

We are so grateful for all of you, & especially for our Savior, Jesus Christ, His gospel, and the gift that He has given to all of us.  May you all have a very Merry Christmas & a wonderful New Year!

Get Away Adventure: A Fun Flying Visit to Maine

Because we had been making our plans for our trip as we went, we still had an open day on Tuesday to have some fun. First, we thought of going to another show, and went to get tickets to see the recent production of "Little Shop of Horrors," but the site kept doing funny things when we went to finish our purchase.  It turned out that it was because they had just canceled all their shows for the next week, since too many of their cast had Covid.  Plan B was to get tickets to see "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," and so we bought tickets, only to have the show canceled an hour after we purchased them for the same reason.  

At that point, Cliff turned to us and asked if we wanted to fly to Maine for the day to get some lobster.  Kevin and I, both having never been to Maine and having never tried lobster, decided that sounded like an awesome plan. And so we switched things around, checked out of our hotel in the city early and booked something closer to JFK for our flight on Wednesday.  Then we headed to Penn Station and hopped on the Long Island Railway to get to the airfield where Pamela and Cliff had their plane.

Cliff is a very experienced pilot and has been flying for over twelve years with over 2000 flight hours, which is amazing for a pilot who isn't a professional. In fact, he has flown in all fifty states, which is pretty cool. They have a six seater Malibu Jetprop (Piper Meridian), and it was so much fun to fly with them.

Cliff decided to take the route along the Hudson River so that we could not only get up close and personal with the city, but so that we could circle the Statue of Liberty, or as the tower called it, "the lady."  While we were headed out along Long Island toward the city, we passed Coney Island and even had two Hawkeyes, these cool military planes fly past us.

It was so cool to have this view of the Statue of Liberty!! Not to mention seeing Ellis Island from above as well.

And let me tell you, there is nothing quite like flying alongside all the gigantic and towering skyscrapers, especially since we were pretty high up, and many of them were still higher than us.  Craziness!

I also loved getting great views of the bridges and other cool things along the shoreline, like the floating park and the aircraft carrier.

We flew past Boston and up the coast, and before we knew it, we had already made it to the beautiful and snowy coast of Maine.

We flew into Portland, Maine, and aside from sneaking into a cool Stonewall Kitchen shop with Pamela, we headed straight to the Highroller to get lunch and for Kevin and I to try lobster. Kevin had a lobster cheeseburger and I had a fried lobster pop. I didn't mind the lobster, but I had made a mistake in what I ordered, because it was like a lobster corndog, and I really can't stand corndogs.  Sort of ruined the experience for me, but it's all good.  

Our next stop was the LL Bean flagship store in Free Port, Maine.  It was a giant campus of different buildings and was so cool.  I have always loved LL Bean and loved wandering around and finding amazing coats, and then reminding myself I don't need them anymore now that I live in Texas. (And probably even if I didn't, as I have a lot of coats.
We wandered through a bunch more fun little shops and found some cute things to bring home, and then stopped at "Wicked Woopies," a store that only sold whoopie pies.  They were such good whoopie pies, that we ended up buying some to take home, and I guess they are famous.  Who knew?

Before we left Maine, we had to visit the Portland Head Light House. I wish we could have seen it during the day, but wow, it was gorgeous at night all lit up. The only problem was that my phone camera is awful in the dark, and my pictures were blurry and black.  Luckily for me, not only did Cliff take some gorgeous pictures with his much better phone camera, but he shared them with me.

As we drove out to the lighthouse, the sun was just setting and it looked so beautiful along the shoreline and waterways.

We flew back to New York in the dark, which was a whole other kind of beautiful, especially the lights outlining the shoreline. Another favorite part of the flight back was learning so much from Cliff about flying and all the things that go into it.  It was so cool. And he is such a good pilot that Kevin and I weren't even nervous for a second.

It was such a fabulous and unique adventure, and we felt super grateful to Pamela and Cliff for inviting us along for the ride. It was the perfect way to finish off such and amazing few days of fun with them.

We said goodbye at the airport, and we hopped on the train to take us to Jamaica, New York to our hotel. By the time we got there, it was after 9pm and I was starving, as other than some French fries and a little bit of lobster - and the whoopee pies - I had been surviving all day mostly on the free hot cocoa at the small airports. We found a chicken place across the street from our hotel where we got a very late dinner.

The next morning was rainy and dreary, but we were up early and on the train to JFK with plenty of time.  And thank goodness we did, as the airport was insane, but then again, it was three days before Christmas. It reminded me once again why we usually never travel around Christmas, and definitely never fly places around then.  It was one of those times when we were especially happy that we had TSA precheck, as we were able to pass the hours long line for the normal security line.

Just like when we flew to NYC, our flight to San Antonio was delayed. And then delayed again. We did eventually make it back to Texas and my mom and kids, and we although we were so happy to be home, we will be forever grateful for the fun times we had and the amazing memories we will have of this fantastic adventure with each other and with Pamela and Cliff. 

Get-Away Adventure: NYC - Day 3 and Hugh Jackman Day!!

On Monday morning, after a quick breakfast at our hotel, we walked to Bryant Park to check out their Christmas market, but since we were already walking that way, we had to stop by the Macy's on 34th Street. It was decorated so beautifully and had really cool window displays, some of which were interactive, and Kevin and I played against each other. I even beat him one of the times.

The other windows told a story, and inside the store, the decorations were spectacular.  I was so glad we stopped by.

When we got to Bryant Park, it was lovely and fun, and I almost decided to go ice-skating, but instead I shopped. I found the most beautiful hand painted Christmas ornament, and I also found the prettiest navy blue felt hat. I was in love with it at first sight, but never would have bought it if Kevin hadn't encouraged me to do it. I ended up wearing it the rest of the day :). He found some warm gloves and a very nice scarf, and we were set for the rest of our adventures.

At one point, we walked past the New York Public Library, and although I have passed it many times, I was never able to go in before.  It was truly amazing, and I could have explored for hours. I did buy a book in their bookshop though, a lovely edition of "The House at Pooh Corner."

After that, we made our way to the shopping district, with all the cool stores, like the Nintendo store, the Lego store, and FAO Schwartz. All of them had lines to get in, and so we only waited to get into FAO Schwartz. I even found the Zoltar machine and had my fortune told.  Unfortunately, the other people in the store were so loud, I couldn't hear what it was - ha ha!

Then we explored Rockefeller Center as we hunted for the Giving Machines.  We saw the ice rink and the giant tree, and Kevin and I may have wandered around in the depths of the Rockefeller building as we followed incorrect instructions from the nice security guard on how to get to the giving machine.

Eventually, we finally found it, and we had somehow walked right past it without seeing it. It was turned sideways, and so you had to look hard to see it. It was so exciting when we found it though.  We called my mom so that she and the kids could help us pick what we were going to donate.  If you haven't ever heard of the Giving Machines, but our church puts them in cities around the US and they are like a vending machine of service for others from local and worldwide charities). For example, the things we donated as a family, were building a well (giving clean water to an area in need) which was $150 to change the lives of an entire community. The other two things we chose were 100 Polio vaccinations (only $20) and two chickens for someone to use to earn money selling eggs (only $25).  I can't tell you how exciting it was to get these things for others, especially the chickens.  Ever since I heard about these machines, I have always wanted to get someone chickens.

After the giving machine, we wandered around and visited different shops and things - like the store where I tried on the gorgeous sparkly silver shoes. Unfortunately, not only were they not in my price range, but they didn't have my size in the store.  Which I guess it made it easier not to get them. After a while, we walked to get dinner at Prince Street Pizza. It was so very delicious!! It was more of a deep dish type pizza, than the normal flat crust NY pizza. 

While we were eating, we got a message saying that it was our turn to go inside the Harry Potter store, and so we hustled back across town so we could go.  It was the coolest store, and yes, it is not as amazing as the whole village at Universal Studios, but it was pretty fantastic, and you could even buy butter beer. So much fun! We finished up just in time for us to stop by our hotel before we headed to the Winter Garden theater for our show.

We got to the theater early and got into line to get in. It was so incredibly exciting to finally be there to see the show, after almost 3 years of waiting. Pamela and I were giddy with excitement. And not only was it exciting to get to see the show, but it was the FIRST performance! They even passed out special commemorative pins to all of us.

The theater was beautiful, and once we got inside, it made it seem so much more real that we were REALLY going to get to see it - especially since shows on Broadway have been closing right and left because they didn't have enough healthy cast to perform. I was so excited, I was literally bouncing in my chair. And just look at the playbill - it even had a gold sticker on it saying "First Performance."

When the show actually started, I was entranced - really. But when Hugh Jackman stood up to say his first line, it was like electricity shot through the whole audience and we all started clapping and most of the audience stood up and cheered for about five minutes straight. really, his charisma was palpable, and it is no wonder he makes the big bucks - ha ha!  (And don't worry, I didn't take these pictures. They were screenshots from instagram. I would never have risked getting thrown out.  My phone was OFF.)
The performance was absolutely spectacular, and every single person in the cast was stellar, from the 6 or 7 Tony winners, to the young kids that were in their first Broadway show. We were truly blown away.  And seeing the joy on Sutton Foster's and Hugh Jackman's faces was amazing.  Just like we have waited forever to see the show, they have been waiting even longer to get to perform it. 
One fun side note, but during intermission, Hugh's wife, Deb, totally walked past us!! She was there to see the performance and it was so cool to see her in person. When the show was over, we joined the crowd by the stage door to wait for the cast to exit - AKA: wait to see Hugh Jackman. I was way back, but I held up my phone to video and take pictures, and it was so much fun to see how touched he was by all of us being there to see him.

After leaving the theater, we decided to celebrate by going to get cheesecake at Juniors. Oh, my goodness, it was so good!!! And Kevin's milkshake with a slice of cheesecake on it was epic.

After eating, we decided to walk back to the hotel so that we could see some more of the city at night. New York at night is so much fun to wander around - less people and all the lights and Christmas lights everywhere. We even got a picture with the library lions at the NY Public Library and the 2022 sign that will go up on New Year's Eve. It was so cold, but it was totally worth it. And luckily, earlier in the evening I popped into a shop and bought myself another new hat, but this one was a warm and cozy hat that helped fight the bitter cold as we explored.  It was the perfect way to end a pretty spectacular day.

Get-Away Adventure: NYC - Day 1 and 2

Way back in the summer of 2019, I bought tickets for Kevin and I, along with our friends, Pamela and Cliff, to go and see Hugh Jackman perform in "The Music Man" on Broadway in September of 2020. Well, we all know what happened to Broadway in 2020, and so it was pushed back to April of 2021, and then it was for December of 2021. And then we moved to Texas, which was no longer a 3 hour car ride from NYC, but we were not going to miss our show. so we bought plane tickets and met Pamela and Cliff in the city for a fun get-away. Let me tell you, traveling a few days before Christmas is no joke between the crowds and all the delays, and I wouldn't have done it for anyone less than Hugh Jackman ;).

By the time our plane finally arrived and we took the train in from JFK, we got to our hotel after 7:30 pm. It was misty and a little rainy out, but it made the city look magical as we walked through the streets. And I loved that our room was on the 17th floor, and so we had a cool view. (Oh, and it is hard to see, but behind the church in my picture, is totally the Empire State Building.  It was so hidden by clouds that I didn't even realize it was there.)

After getting unpacked, we met up with Pamela and Cliff in the city for dessert.  We got ice cream, because nothing says a treat on a rainy and cold December night like ice cream - ha ha! I forgot to get a picture of the four of us together. After getting ice cream, we went on a quest to find an Insomnia Cookies for Cliff, as he didn't want ice cream. After walking to the one nearest us, we arrived only to discover that they were refusing to serve people in person.  What?? The led us to walk all over the city until we found him one that was actually serving people. Along the way, we passed this gorgeous old building, and I was shocked to look up and see that it was a CVS. What the what?? I had to go inside and get pictures of the inside of what had once been a spectacular bank, and is now probably the fanciest CVS in the world. What a place to buy your vitamins.

Sunday morning, we started outright and early and looking our best for church. We took the subway to the Upper West Side to attend a scarament service at the chapel at the Manhattan Temple.  

Although I have attended that temple many times, I have never attended church there, and it was so cool.  I especially loved all the amazing and unique artwork on the walls of scripture stories and all done by the same artist. The meeting itself was a gorgeous Christmas program complete with primary children singing, but because of the location of this ward, the violinist who played was obviously in the symphony and the soloist was definitely from the Metropolitan Opera. Wow!! And there just happened to be a visiting member of the first quorum of the seventy, and he gave the most inspiring testimony.  We definitely left there feeling lucky to have been a part of it.

After church, I changed into jeans because it was FREEZING - especially coming from our beautiful Texas weather, and we walked across Central Park, exploring along the way. It was such a great trip, because although we had ideas of things we wanted to do, other than the show on Monday night, we didn't have anything set in stone, so we were free to do whatever. I love Central Park, and I loved getting to see some parts of it I hadn't been to before, like the little boat pond and the Alice in Wonderland statue.

When we got across the park, our first stop was Levain Bakery.  Kevin had never been, and their cookies are one of my favorite things.  Since it was essentially our lunch, I also got a yummy roll and a large slice of coffee cake, which was so delicious! I was so full after the roll and warm coffee cake, I got to save my cookie for later.

Our next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kevin had never been, I hadn't been in 11 years, and there was a really amazing exhibit there about how Walt Disney used European influences in his cartoons that Pamela and I really wanted to see.  It was spectacular, but we weren't allowed to take pictures there.  We did make sure to visit their amazing Christmas tree and village, as well as lots of other amazing things. (I even found a tiny snake for Lily.

And Pamela and I had to get a picture in the beautiful rotunda, and Kevin took a picture of Cliff taking our picture, as well as the statue that was behind us.

One of my favorite things at the Met, is the Egyptian exhibit.  It is so cool with all the mummies and sarcophagi, and especially the amazing statues.

After we finished at the museum, we sat on the steps outside and ate some more of our yummy baked goods, and then walked on, exploring along the way. Because we were walking around and exploring, we happened upon this small gallery that intrigued Cliff because of the instrument panels from cool airplanes. We came inside and ended up spending almost an hour there talking to the owner.  It was so much fun and super fascinating, but my favorite part was hitting the button that was on the one panel to deploy the nuclear weapons. Crazy!

After that, we were starving for a real meal, so we found this cute Italian restaurant for an early dinner. It was delicious, and while Pamela and I entertained ourselves trying to get the perfect selfie - and trying out silly filters, we had to laugh because both of our husbands were watching different NFL football games on their phones. Good times!

After dinner, we stopped back that the hotel to bundle up a bit more, and then we hopped on a train to Brooklyn to go to Dyker Heights to see their famous Christmas lights display.  Wow! It was spectacular.

The only bad thing was that I accidentally left my phone in our hotel room when we stopped there before leaving, and so I either had to borrow Kevin's phone to get pictures, or get them from Pamela and Cliff. The lights were so cool, and we had a fun, albeit freezing, time wandering around.  I may have splurged on the $5 hot cocoa because I was so cold, but it was totally worth it. I am so glad we got to experience it, and it made me happy we were there at Christmas time.

The train ride back from Brooklyn was really cool, as we road into the city after dark. I love looking at all the different sites.  And of course, there are always interesting characters in the subway stations, like the guy dancing with the lady skeleton. Yep.

When we got back to the city, we stopped at this fabulous Italian pastry shop.  It had too many amazing things to choose from, and I truly wanted to try them all.  I did cut myself off though, but maybe still got too many treats.

It was the perfect way to end a wonderful day in New York.

The Third Week of Christmas

What a jam packed and crazy week this has been. We had something almost every day, starting with Sunday, when the boys had their piano recital. They looked so nice, that I had to get a picture of them with grandma, and while I was at it, I got one of the two of us together as well, since we were looking all Christmasy.

Tuesday night was book club at my house.  I love Christmas book club!!  It is my favorite, and I loved getting to host it, partly because I love having parties, but mostly because it meant that my house (at least the downstairs) was fixed enough to have people over. Hallelujah! And in true book club fashion, I took pictures of the food, and forgot to take pictures of the people.  We were having too much fun - ha ha! And to make it all better, my mom even joined us.

On Wednesday, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, which was so much fun! They are just awesome, and it was fantastic having things settled enough to have the missionaries over for dinner.

After they left, I rushed like mad to get ready for Activity Days. My new calling at church (other than teaching the four year olds at church on Sunday) is to be an activity days leader for the girls.  For our activity, we invited the boys to join us to go Christmas caroling.  It was wild and crazy, but they had so much fun!! And they brought so much joy to the people to whom they caroled. And let me tell you, that we were in short sleeves and shorts on a night in the middle of December.  I love this weather!

Thursday was an extra special day - my sister, Wendy, and her daughter, Megan, as well as Megan's two babies, Avery and Jack. Avery had so much fun meeting her great grandma. My mom took her for rides on her walker, read her stories and gave her fun presents.  They had a blast.

Since Derek didn't have a second final on Thursday, he was home when they came, and so he even got to play with Avery, which he thought was so fun.

In between all of that, we had a yummy lunch of lemon chicken orzo soup and homemade bread. Then I made Christmas cookies with Wendy, Megan and Avery - that is, when she wasn't playing with her great grandma ;). We made some of Wendy's favorite nostalgic favorites, like spritz cookies and coconut drops.

And when I wasn't working on baking and frosting cookies, I was cuddling my great-nephew, Jack. He was squishy and cuddly and kissable.  And he was totally obsessed with Kevin's beard - ha ha!

All too soon, it was time for them to head back to Austin. After they left, Kevin, my mom, and I went to the San Antonio Temple. It made an already fantastic day even better.

Unfortunately, in all that goodness, there was a very stressful thing going on throughout the day. Lily was supposed to get on a plane in the morning and to be home right after dinner.  That morning, she sent me a text saying that her first flight, the one to Salt Lake, was canceled!! Cheryl was there trying to help, I was calling and messaging trying to figure things out, and they were saying that it would take two days before she could get on another flight to SLC. Craziness!!

That was when Cheryl decided to take Lily to the airport and talk to someone in person, and they said that they could book her on a later flight out of Salt Lake if she could get there on the bus, the Salt Lake Express.  That was one miracle. The other miracle was that there was a no-show on the earlier bus, and so Lily was able to get to Salt Lake with plenty of time to go through security and eat before her later flight. Lily arrived around 12:30 pm, and Kevin had to joke with her that her first day home, and she was already staying out late.  Ha ha! We were just so grateful that she finally made it home.

Friday was another crazy, but good day. I was in charge of Arthur's class party, and it was so much fun! We started things off with me reading them "The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza" by David Shannon. Then we had a super fun book exchange, where I read the a version of Twas the Night Before Christmas with a bunch of extra lefts and rights written in there, where they would pass the books around.  They loved it.  Then we played a fun winter bingo game while they had snacks. 

When we got home, it was time for me to finish preparing for Derek's early birthday party, since Kevin and I are going to be gone for his birthday. I made him a special Cookies and Cream cake that was delicious, even if I messed up the ganache and so it didn't look quite right.  He loved it though.

To finish things off for the week, Friday night, we received an anonymous gift - a manger and a treat.  I have a feeling that we were going to be getting pieces of the nativity each night.  So much fun!! What a great way to end a fun and crazy busy week.

The First Week of Christmas

Being sick over Thanksgiving break did not only mess with cooking the feast, and all my plans to get things done around the house (can we say so many house projects!!), but I usually have my entire house decorated for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. And delaying our dinner was only one of the reasons I couldn't decorate right away. The biggest being that I had boxes all over of pictures and decorations that still needed to be unpacked and put up. And I couldn't do that until Kevin finished making the awesome shelves (that IKEA still doesn't have in stock) so I had somewhere to put all the decor.  Good times.

Finally, this week, I was able to go to the storage unit with Kevin and get all the Christmas boxes, and the decorating began. The tree was first, and we found the best place to put it - in the middle of our front entry room. My rug came just in time, so that I could hide the extension cord under it, and it looked awesome. I do miss having a tree in the living room, but I love how it is in our front room.  So pretty!

We made our trip to Hallmark to get our yearly ornament, which was also late, as we usually go in October or early November so they aren't sold out of our favorites. Luckily, their website helped fill in the blanks, and soon we had a new fairy for Lily, Paw Patrol for Derek, Link and Zelda for Arthur, and some new Star Wars ornaments for Kevin.

I had lots of new ornaments that I had found throughout the course of the year - a beautiful Harbour Town one from Kevin's golf trip, a Salt Lake Temple, a cute Peruvian one I found at Ten Thousand Villages, a fun Texas one my mom found to celebrate our move, two from Lily's and my Disney trip, the Alamo - because we moved to San Antonio, one of the Bedford Springs Resort in Pennsylvania where Kevin and I celebrated our 20th anniversary, and two from our trip (the lighthouse in Portland, Maine and a handprinted one of Bryant Park in NYC). I love them all!!

This year, I also found cute little trees at IKEA - during one of my many trips there - so that the kids could each have a tree. Arthur loved getting to decorate one, and my mom especially loved having a pretty tree in her bedroom.

To start out December, and to help me cast off some of my worries and stress, I decided that Arthur was the perfect age to read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," so we will be reading it throughout the season. So much fun!

I am also loving the gorgeous 70 degree weather we are having in December, and that it isn't too cold for early morning walks. The other day, I saw the most beautiful sunrise while I was out exercising. 

This week, we were also able to get to the San Antonio Temple.  Kevin and I went with my mom to do a session, and when we went in, it was misty and foggy, but we came out to bright sunshine.  I love how we get these misty mornings. And I especially love how close we live to the temple.

In fact, we were able to attend the temple twice this week, as we had a baptism session for Derek and a few kids in our ward on Friday night. It was so fantastic to be there with Derek, and Derek even got to baptize his dad for some of his ancestors, which was wonderful, even if it made him nervouse to do it.

We finished off the week with some parties. First, we had a yummy breakfast Christmas party for our ward. They served breakfast burritos - such an awesome part of living in Texas, and we had a great time talking to many of our new friends.  Later on, Arthur and I went to get his second Covid shot, which he was not happy about.  He hates shots, and had a full on panic attack - I guess I didn't give him enough advanced warning. After he tried to escape from the room a couple times, I finally told him that he had to calm down and get it, or he couldn't go to his class party that night.  It worked.  Hallelujah!

That evening, we finished off the day with a special Christmas party given by Arthur's primary teachers, one of which is named Sister Brown, which is super fun. They had dinner, played games, and she even gave them sweet gifts.  It was a blast, and he loved it. It was the perfect way to finish off the first week of Christmas.

A Corndog Thanksgiving

When I got back from Idaho with my mom, I had to go back into fixing up the house and unpacking mode, but in all of that, I needed to get ready for Thanksgiving as well. Arthur was pretty happy for the "autumn weather" we have been having, and took it upon himself to rake up all the leaves in the back yard. But his plans were thwarted when he got sick and threw up all night on Thursday. Luckily, he was feeling much better by the next day, and since everyone else seemed to be fine, other than cleaning up a giant mess, all was well.

That is, until Monday afternoon, when I started feeling worse and worse. I got to the point where I could barely move, and I felt so ill, and that night I ended up throwing up that night and the next morning. But then, when I wasn't sick anymore, I was so wiped out that I still couldn't move for two days. By Wednesday, all I could really eat were the little applesauce packs I buy for Arthur's school lunches.  I was so weak, I could hardly get out of bed. 

Wednesday night, I managed to make a simple dinner, but that wiped me out.  Needless to say, my normal baking day did NOT happen. So, I made an executive decision to postpone Thanksgiving until Friday.  Everyone was fine with that, which was great, since otherwise there wouldn't have been any food on Thanksgiving anyway, since I didn't get anything done at all on Wednesday - no pies baked, no turkey brining, no finger jello made, no roll dough ready, etc.  And so on Thursday, the day that everyone else was eating turkey and celebrating, I pretending it was Wednesday, my baking day.

I sure missed Lily, as I don't think I realized how much she would help me on baking day.  I did pull the boys in to help get the Oreos ready to make the crust for the chocolate peanut butter cream pie though, which was great.

And helping me earlier in the day must have really worn Arthur out, because he curled up on the couch and fell sound asleep in the middle of the day.  That never happens, and I was worried that he was sick, but luckily he was fine.  Just tired.

But back to dinner, because of everything, instead of turkey for dinner on Thanksgiving (since I was way too tired to make anything for actual dinner after prepping all day for the actual feast on Friday) we had corndogs. Or rather, I fed my whole family corndogs, and I ate something else (I hate corndogs - ha ha!). Kevin has already started joking about it, "Remember that Thanksgiving when you fed me corndogs." Ha ha.

We couldn't go the day without eating pie though, and since the apple pie was still warm out of the oven, we all had a slice. So very yummy!!

On Friday, when everyone else was shopping Black Friday Sales and when I normally put up Christmas, we were having our feast. It was delicious, and definitely worth the wait. Although, there were a few things forgotten since I wasn't totally back on my game again, like the fact that I completely forgot to make a vegetable. Oops. Nobody seemed to care, as they were pretty happy to have turkey.

And lots and lots of rolls - yum!!

And let's not forget all the pie. I had to take a picture of my mom's plate. She had three kids of pie, but you couldn't tell when she was done spraying the whipped cream, as it looked like a giant piece of pumpkin pie under there.  Ha ha!  (And after pie, I took my mom to Hobby Lobby and Target, because she was super sad to miss out on all the Black Friday shopping. Good times.)

Thanksgiving also meant playing games together, which was another place we really missed Lily, but the boys had a great time playing Five Crowns with Grandma Lynn. She taught Arthur how to play and they had a great time.

As for our Lily, who we all missed desperately, she was at Grandma Valerie's and Grandpa Dennis's house in Twin Falls for Thanksgiving. She got a ride there with some kids from Twin, and had a wonderful few days with them, and a very happy Thanksgiving. I was so happy to know that she was enjoying her time with her grandparents, since the break was way too short to worry about her coming to San Antonio.

And so our Thanksgiving this year was not at all typical in any way. Luckily, in spite of life throwing us curveballs, we were able to make the best of it and have a wonderful time. And we hope and pray that all of you, no matter how it may have looked, had a fabulous Thanksgiving as well.

More Home Renovation Adventures

What a crazy adventure it is to renovate a home - especially as completely as we are renovating it. And especially having to live in the home during it all. And did I mention that our awesome contractor had to go to the hospital twice this past month and almost died? Poor Dan. Between that, lack of available supplies, and random extra issues with the house we keep finding (wiring in weird places or not there, no water softener, and almost no insulation in the attic, just to name a few), things are not moving as smoothly or as quickly as we had hoped. And so when there was nothing I could do to deal with all the issues, I would get a sub job and escape or find a small project I could do - like painting our front door blue and the ugly brass hardware black.  I love it!

One of the big projects that I could do, was to build all the kitchen cabinets.  We got them from IKEA, and they came in a million boxes. I had Dan, our contractor, hook them to the walls and floor, but before he could do that, I put together each and every one of the cabinet frames (except the one giant pantry one, which was too big for me to do and Kevin had to put together for me). Dan got them all put on just in time for the granite countertops to get installed. Our new double oven stove even arrived right in time, which was awesome. I am loving seeing it come together.

Once the counters were on, it was time to build all the drawers and put on the doors.  That was quite the adventure, and I may have even dislocated my wrist from using the screwdriver so much - oops. I even had help a few times, which was amazing!! My dear friend, Megan, brought me lunch and helped me out for an afternoon.  I am pretty sure that without her help, I would never have figured out how to use four different instruction manuals to put together the garbage pullout - so confusing!! And then my friend, Michelle, and her oldest son, Andy, came over to help me put together drawers, which are not easy - especially the big ones that really need two people.  It was such a huge blessing, but the best part was having someone to talk to and laugh with.

When we got enough done, Dan, Kevin, Lalo and Lalo Jr. were able to install the microwave. Hallelujah for having a microwave to cook in!! And the closer we got to finishing cabinets, meant the closer I was to getting to unpack the millions of boxes shoved into the kitchen and living room.  Ha ha!

The more I worked on the cabinets, the more it looked more like a real kitchen - although with turquoise plastic on all the drawers and doors - ha ha! So glad that wasn't their real color. It may have confused people when they came over to the house.

One of the other projects we had to do, that we weren't quite anticipating was replacing all the switches and switch plates throughout the house.  Many of them were broken, and some of them were just plain disgusting.  Have I mentioned that our house was a rental for many years, which led to very little maintenance being done, and very little cleaning as well. In fact, the filthy baseboards disintegrated when Dan took them off to install the floors. Just look at how gross this switch is. Eww.

Things got a bit more complicated when our belongings arrived.  Luckily, they had just finished installing the flooring, but since there was still a ton of work going on, we had the movers just make stacks of boxes and furniture in the middle of the rooms, so that work could still be done around them.  Good times.

So now I had all these things I wanted to unpack, but was unable to do it, because we still didn't have closet shelving, not to mention the fact that none of our furniture was in the right places yet. So, once again, I would escape to sub jobs at the school, or start new projects. One of the projects was to stain the furniture for Derek's room a really pretty ebony color.  I love how they turned out!!When enough of the work our contractor was doing was finished, it meant that Kevin could finally start working on building the shelves in all our closets. And once they were built, it meant that I was busy painting.  It was messy, or maybe I should rephrase that - I was messy, and managed to get paint in my hair and all over me.  That may have been because of the way I had to practically crawl into the smaller closets.

My friend, Megan, even came and helped me paint one day, which was so fun. And wow, even though it was a lot of work, the finished product was AMAZING!! Just look at our master closet - so big and pretty.

One of the priciest ones to paint was the pantry. I had to snap a picture when Kevin was doing the caulking, as he could barely squeeze in on the ladder to get those high shelves. As for me, I squirmed in and sat on the top of the ladder to get those higher shelves painted, but it was totally worth it. It may be an eighth of the size of my last pantry, but I am so very grateful to have it.

And finishing projects also means unpacking, which is the best thing to get checked off the list.  Every empty box means we are one step closer to normalcy and being settled in our home.  And someday, when it is all finally put together, I will do some pictures of the whole house . . . but that will probably be after Christmas - ha ha!