2017: Week 51

Sunday, December 17
We spent this afternoon frosting and decorating our Christmas cookies. I made a batch of cinnamon buttercream, and the girls each got to pick a color to complement the white (Ellie chose red and Elaina chose green). Josh contributed his artistic flair, too, and helped the girls at the table while I worked on cookies at the island. The cookies were a tasty and beautiful hit!

Monday, December 18
The girls have been on something of a game kick lately, so tonight after supper we played a few rousing rounds of Zingo. Their enthusiasm for shouting out the pieces on their cards was quite amusing. Elaina took to shouting out whatever pieces showed up, regardless of whether or not they were actually on her card. After losing some significant hearing in my right ear, I told her if she did it again, I was taking a piece off her card. This seemed to magically improve her ability to shout out only when there was a piece she could use.

Tuesday, December 19
A couple of exciting happenings for the girls today. Their school is having "Winter Spirit Week", I'm assuming because, unlike many schools in the area, they are in session through Friday. Today was Pajama Day, and nothing seems to excite them more than the opportunity to wear jammies to school. Then, during dinner, Elysia's loose tooth was bothering her. She gave it a quick tug, and out it came!

Wednesday, December 20
Josh and I treated ourselves to breakfast out after dropping the girls off at the bus stop, and the clouds were lovely for our drive. We ran several errands and came home with time to do a little relaxing before the girls got home. After they had a snack, we walked over to Hans and Jo's with some of our cookies, and thankfully timed the visit well as they were leaving for an extended visit with family a day or so later. We love Hans and Jo. They are so good to us and our girls. We had a nice visit an the girls opened their Christmas present with much delight. On our way home, the same clouds we'd enjoyed in the morning were now bright pink. Very lovely, indeed.

Thursday, December 21
The sunrise was brilliant this morning, and Josh was sweet enough to go outside and take some pictures for me. For school, the girls got all bundled up for "Winter Wear Day" in their mittens and hats. We had a busy day of errands and wrapping, but it sure was nice to be out of the office.

Friday, December 22
A busy day of wrapping, preparing, and, unfortunately for Josh, a last minute trip to get a gift we bought but apparently came home without. On the bright side, I was able to finish up nearly all the wrapping I had left to do--just a few items for the next day, and I was officially done before Christmas Eve!

Saturday, December 23
One more busy day before our Christmas festivities commenced. We went to Pearce in the morning, and in the afternoon I worked on various baking projects (from-scratch banana cream pie, from-scratch black-raspberry pie, and roasted spiced nuts). Meanwhile, Josh and the girls created a gingerbread house masterpiece from the kit Hans and Jo had gifted them.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a festive hat for Yuna to despise!

2017: Week 50

Sunday, December 10
One of Josh's coworkers is kind enough to pick up some of our favorite beef sticks when he's in St. Louis, and helped me get extra for Josh's birthday as well, so today I made baklava for him as a thank you. I wish I could say I was completely and utterly gracious about the whole thing, but as it turns out, baklava's an even bigger pain in the butt to make than pie crust. All the same, I'm told it was a big hit, so it was well worth the effort.

Monday, December 11

For the past few days, Elaina's been working on a secret project. Tonight she unveiled her hard work: she made a 3D rendering of our family on Splash Mountain as a thank you for our Disney vacation. She is, quite simply, one amazing little girls.

Tuesday, December 12
Tonight Josh went through several of his old video games to trade in on one of our days off. He had quite a pile going by the end of it. I asked him which he was the saddest to see go; the Zelda Collector's Edition won that prize.

Wednesday, December 13
Each day after school, the girls get themselves a drink while I ready their snacks. This afternoon Elaina's ice cubes stuck together, much to her amusement.

Thursday, December 14
I thought a lot about Sandy Hook today, about how the babies who died five years ago were the same age as Elysia is now. Five years have come, and five years have gone. Ellie was still drinking from a bottle when it happened. She's now a whipsmart first grader with a big smile and a big heart, who came bounding off the bus with stories to tell this afternoon. I hugged  her a little closer today, thankful that I could.

Friday, December 15
Josh and I enjoyed a productive vacation day today, with several stops and several items ticked off of our to-do list. The girls came home with exciting news--Elaina finally lost her loose tooth, right before the end of the day! She was so excited and kept exclaiming how much better her mouth felt (well, no wonder--that tooth had been barely hanging on for several days!) After dinner, the girls helped me cut out some lemon sugar cookies--they were pros by the time we finished up!

Saturday, December 16
Each year, Mario and Rita take the girls and Arcadia out to see the Festival of Lights in East Peoria, and follow it up with dinner at Golden Corral and a sleepover. Josh and I took advantage of this by enjoying our first date night in quite some time. We went to Industry Brewing for dinner; our friend Brian is the brewmaster and it's exciting to be able to support him in this big step in his dream. Whether due to popularity or to working out the opening week kinks, only 4 of the 9 beers were available, so we were there a bit less than we'd anticipated. We decided to have a spirit of adventure and went downtown to go ice skating, a great decision since the evening was cold but not cold. It was so much fun, even with the group of teenage girls who must have posed for 10 minutes straight trying to get the perfect selfie (I have to admit that Josh's snark each time we skated past made this infinitely more enjoyable). We came home and continued the skating theme by watching The Cutting Edge. It was such a fun night--exactly what we needed as we enter into the final busy weeks of the year.

Very impressed with his packing skills

2017: Week 49

Sunday, December 3
Since we didn't get our fill of Thanksgiving turkey, Josh decided to roast one over charcoal. It took several hours of babysitting, but the end product was well, well worth it. He even went a step further and made a delicious broth from the bones, which we'll enjoy later. After dinner, the girls settled into their new week by watching America's Funniest Home Videos. Elysia used Yuna as a pillow; she was surprisingly cooperative--perhaps still recovering from her "vacation".

Yuna was very interested...

Living his Medieval Times dream

Monday, December 4

The weather was warm for an early December day, so we went for a walk before some rain set in. We decked Yuna out in her elf ears (which she hates, and which I find hilarious), but she was rather uncooperative, so they didn't stay on. At dinner, the smell of leftover turkey lured Winston out from the other side of the gate. Yuna made the poor decision of chasing him and was sharply reprimanded; she spent a good portion of the evening sucking up to apologize.

Tuesday, December 5

Tonight we had the privilege to enjoy the girls' Christmas program. They looked so beautiful in their dresses; Elaina was particularly excited because she got her first pair of "high" heels to go with it. Dad was able to come up for it, and we met Rita at school. Our choice of seating was a bit unfortunate, as the music teacher stood directly in our line of sight for both girls, but it was a very enjoyable program all the same.

Showing off their shoes

Wednesday, December 6
After enjoying a half day of school and extra time with Gramma Rita and Arcadia, today we took the girls to see Santa after work (since the real Santa is at Bass Pro every year....). They also got to see the huge fish tank, which I think may have excited them almost as much.

Thursday, December 7

This evening, the library hosted a Winter Reading kickoff, complete with ornament making, cookies, and carols. We had a lovely time--I love that our little town offers activities like this!

Working hard on their snowflakes (popsicle sticks, gems, and glue)

Bead snowflakes--all of us made one and they are now on our tree

Friday, December 8

Tonight Josh and I celebrated one of our longest running and most beloved December traditions: watching Bridget Jones' Diary. We watched it together on the night he proposed, and December wouldn't seem complete without laughing at the many quotable quotes or the fight scene near the end of the movie. I sure do love him and am so thankful for these little traditions. 

Saturday, December 9

Elyisa's best friend, Teegan, invited her to a special showing of The Polar Express tonight (complete with snacks and suggested attire of jammies), so Josh and I brought Elaina for a date of our own and sat a few rows away. I'd never seen the movie but really enjoyed it. Afterwards, the girls got to see Santa and sit in his sleigh. It was a great night!