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We love being home for Christmas.  It felt surreal to have school scheduled the third week of December so that our first day off would be December 23.  I’m sure a lot of people were happy that December 22 ended up being an online learning day due to bitter cold.  I had planned on Friday being the day to bake festive sugar cookies and baking seemed perfect for a snow day that was too cold to play in.  Before Christmas Even when my parents came over there was time to wrap presents and put together puzzles.  Hubby went shopping and prepared a magnificent prime rib for my parents and our family.  My mom gave the older three crisp $50 bills in holiday holders from the bank along with candy and bought Natalie a Lego marble run kit and Little Woodzeez and they all were super happy that Christmas was finally upon us.  My dad loved his annual calendar I made and my mom was able to muster a smile for the 1,000 piece Christmas Carol puzzle I bought for her. ...

Remember me talking about the Holiday Show at Michelle's dance studio?  Well, to my surprise, we were given photos from the dress rehearsal and I am so grateful.  Here are a few of them. Friday I was lucky enough to have the day off and got to watch Natalie receive two awards at school.  One she doesn’t even know how she got but she gets to eat lunch with the principal and this one was the Spirit award complete with certificate.  I promise she was smiling before I got the camera out.  Ha!  It was fun to be at the school and see my kid’s former 4th and 5th grade teachers, give my youngest a hug, and say hi briefly to her friends in her class as they walked out of the gym.  I’m savoring these elementary school memories while I can.  Only one and a half years left can be hard to believe sometimes. My guys headed to California for Danny’s first out of state basketball tournament. I was so sad not to go with them but wanted to be in town for the things...

All the Thanksgiving decorations came down and Christmas decorations went up and Hubby and I did some shopping to get things like this blanket and pillow for the sofa.  Well, it’s really for the dog and to cover up the messes she has made but Natalie and I will often use the blanket to snuggle while we watch tv. (With the days getting so dark so fast it just seems like perfect watching weather.) I might have spent too much on new decorations online for Black Friday but I’m loving having the play house and garage door area decorated for Christmas. And I almost bought this Immanuel Wreath advent calendar last year so just decided to go for it this year. (It has a different name/title for Jesus and a scripture for every day.) We even managed to put together one of our Christmas puzzles before having to head back to work and school. Only 4 more weeks of semester one.  Seems like so long and so short at the same time. Hubby had to say goodbye to his favorite pet of the week but A w...