Our Week - The One with a Day Date, a Dinner Date, a Teddy Swims Concert, Frozen the Musical, Olivia’s Guitar Recital, a TS Party, and Poker Night

Whew!  You can probably tell by the title of this post that we had the most festive and fun week, y’all!  I have so much to share today, so settle in and let’s get started!

Monday, December 8

Monday, Brian took the day off so he and I could have a shopping day date redo since Olivia was sick on our anniversary the previous weekend.  We dropped the kids off at school together and then we hit the ground running – the gas station, a Starbucks run, Target, Michael’s, Lowe’s, HomeGoods, Barnes & Noble, the bank, Hobby Lobby, Chick-Fil-A for lunch, Kohl’s, Sephora, and Walmart.  WHEW. 

We were super successful on our trip and we wrapped up almost all of our Christmas shopping – we only had a couple of items left to purchase after that trip – and I also grabbed a couple of super cute ornaments for my favorite things tree + something to finally fix the rug issue in our bedroom… it’s been inching underneath our bed for months despite using a really good carpet/rug tape, so we purchased some very heavy stone pavers that we’re gonna wrap in plastic and lay on the rug underneath my side of the bed.  Fingers crossed it works because it’s been driving me nuts.  Haha.

But anyway, I felt so relieved after our day together because we got so much done, and it made me feel even more ahead of the game!

While we were out and about, I saw this sweet picture of my girl receiving Communion that the school had posted.  And then when I checked my email, I saw that she had emailed me to tell us to enjoy our anniversary day date!  She is just the sweetest, y’all.

Typically after Brian’s and my shopping dates, we go home and dump everything, but we were running super behind, so we had to throw everything in the very back of the car and cover it all up so Olivia wouldn’t see it when we picked her up.

We waited in the car line together and I did some more online shopping, and then the three of us went home as Jacob had to stay after school for e-sports.

When we got home, I chatted with Olivia for a bit and then I headed to my office to get things done since I’d been away from home all day.

First up, I needed to go through all the purchases, update my Christmas gifts spreadsheet, and hide all the gifts that needed to be hidden, and then I gathered all the gifts for others and stacked them up in a pile to be wrapped at a later date.

Olivia finished homework and then I let her play Minecraft for a bit because I knew if I didn’t, she’d be all up in my business while I was trying to get all the gifts organized and put away.  Haha.

When I was done sorting gifts, Olivia and I headed downstairs, and I got started on dinner while also tidying the kitchen and living room.  Brian left to pick up Jacob from e-sports and then when they got home, we all sat down to eat beef and parmesan pasta with zucchini and garlic cheese bread for dinner.

The kids “chillaxed” together (as Olivia likes to say) and Brian and I cleaned the kitchen after dinner.  Then, while the kids showered and got ready for bed, I did a mixed cardio workout and then tackled a few more tasks on my list – sorting all the dirty laundry, tidying our bedroom and my office, watering the indoor plants, prepping for Tuesday, and getting ready for bed. 

Once I was in my pjs, I did my quiet time and then made my to do list for Tuesday, and then all four of us watched some more of that Disney Christmas special that we started forever ago.  It’s two hours long, so we’ve just been watching snippets here and there as time permits, so it’s taking us forever to get through it.

After we turned that off, we saw that ESPN was doing their NFL football game live with Monster’s Inc. characters, so we watched that for a while, too.  Have y’all seen that?!  It’s crazy and so hilarious.  They take the current NFL game that’s on and they show it in animation… but it’s live and they have special announcers that talk in Monster’s Inc. terminology and stuff.  I have no idea how they do it, but it’s so cool.  We ended up watching that for a while because it was so funny – the kids were cracking up – and then we got the kids in the bed.

I did my Advent meditation after that, and then Brian and I watched some more of the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live before going to bed.

 

Tuesday, December 9

Tuesday morning was a catchup day since I hadn’t gotten much done around the house or for the blog since I was gone all day Monday.  It was freezing and dreary for most of the day, so I snuggled up in my blanket and got to work as soon as I dropped the kids.  My day was spent alternating between working on the blog, Christmas shopping, and doing laundry as I had four massive loads to get through.  I finished my blog post for Wednesday, bought the last of the Christmas gifts online (aside from a couple of small things for the kids), and I also paid a few bills and tidied my office again. 

I got a big chunk of the laundry put away after that, and then it was time to head out the door to pick up Olivia… but first, the library to pick up two holds that had become available… because of course they all become available at the same time and then I don’t have time to read them all.  Haha.

I read in the car line and then Olivia and I headed home since Jacob had e-sports again.  Brian was already at home when we got there because he’d had a work Christmas party and they let them go home when it was done.  I hung out with Olivia for a bit and then she had some studying to do before dance.  While she studied, I read some more of my book so I could try to finish it and start on my two new holds, and then I left to take Olivia to dance.  She had to be at dance at the same time that Jacob had to be picked up from e-sports, so Brian went to pick up Jacob along with his friend WJ.

We all met back at our house, and then after Jacob got changed, Brian and I drove all the way across town to drop Jacob and WJ at their Teen Advisors Christmas party. 

Brian and I had a very small window while the boys were there and Olivia was still at dance, so we headed downtown to eat at a new-ish upscale Mexican restaurant that opened a few months ago.  I’d already been with my girlfriends and I enjoyed it, so I wanted B to try it since we love Mexican food so much. 

The downtown area was crazy packed – because ‘tis the season! – but after driving around for a bit we got lucky and someone backed out of their spot just as we were driving by.  Thankfully, the restaurant didn’t have a wait although it was pretty full, and we were able to enjoy some margs and dinner, although we had to be quick.  I think we had about 45 minutes from start to finish, but it was nice to have uninterrupted time together!

As soon as we got the check, we hightailed it out of there because it was almost time to pick up Olivia, and even though we were running right on time to get her, we decided to swing through the Chick-Fil-A drive through to pick up dinner for her since she was the only one who hadn’t eaten.

We ended up getting there a few minutes late, but it was not a big deal as there were still other teachers and dancers there taking classes.

When we got home, B and I sat with Olivia while she ate, and then I got in my pjs while she showered.  I helped her dry her hair – it’s soooo long right now that she struggles to do it by herself – and then when we were done, she asked to go to bed… at 8:20.  Hahahaha.  That’s my girl!  She loves her sleep and she knows when she has reached her limit and she’ll put herself to bed the second she’s tired.

Jacob wasn’t even home from his Christmas party yet, so Brian and I turned on Friends while we waited for him to get home.  His friend’s dad dropped him off right at nine and we chatted with him for a couple of minutes before he got showered and in bed.  Brian and I started an episode of The Morning Show, but I think we only watched 10-15 minutes before we were ready to get in bed, too.

 

Wednesday, December 10

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to get organized for Christmas.  I texted back and forth with my aunt about hosting, food, and all that stuff, and then I called and talked to my mom to make sure I had all my info straight for Christmas Eve and deets for when my brother is arriving and leaving, etc.  Brian and I also had more discussion about plans for Christmas with them.  We have such big families on both sides now that it’s sometimes hard to orchestrate everything to make sure everyone can make it to each get together, and it was nice to have everything settled.

Once that was sorted, I finished my blog post for Monday, and then I started this post and got it completely caught up.  I spent the rest of the afternoon tidying the house, turning on all the Christmas lights, and photographing the house for my Christmas home tour. 

By the time I finished photographing the ground floor, it was time to pick up the kids from school, so I headed there and finished my book in the car line.  I also started a new one – The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff – and it is wonderful.  Her writing is beautiful.  The book is fiction, but her writing is so descriptive and beautiful that it’s more like poetry.  I am enjoying it so much.

When we got home, I went over Olivia’s math practice test with her to make sure she was ready for her test and then the kids did some studying.  While they did that, I read for a little longer, and then I went for a two-mile walk.  It was sunny and a bit warmer (upper 50s) on Wednesday, so it was nice to get the chill out of my bones finally. 

When I got home, Olivia was practicing guitar, so I listened to her for a few minutes and then it was time to get her to dance.  When I got home, I watered our outdoor ferns that have been hanging out in the garage for a couple of weeks since it’s been so cold.  Usually at the end of fall I toss them and get new ones in the spring, but I’m going to see if I can keep them alive through the winter this year.  I’ve never attempted to do that before, so we’ll see how that actually goes.  If anyone has any tips, please let me know.  Haha.

Brian got home right after that with a couple of bags of groceries from Walmart and I helped him get those put away before reheating beef and parmesan pasta with zucchini leftovers and garlic cheese bread for dinner.  Brian, Jacob, and I all sat down to eat together and then the boys decided to start a movie since Olivia was still at dance.

They’ve been working their way through the Transformers series, so they started the third movie Wednesday night.  While they watched, I showered and got in my pjs and then I spent some more time reading.  I was pretty drained and didn’t feel 100% all day Wednesday, so it was nice to just relax.  I really wanted to do something productive while the boys had their boy time, but lately I have been prioritizing just being still over productivity. 

Brian left to get Olivia from dance around eight and Jacob jumped in the shower, and then he and I spent some time together before Brian and Olivia got home.  When Olivia got home, she showered, we got both kids in bed, and then Brian and I enjoyed Manhattans in our new Christmas glasses while we watched some more of The Morning Show.  I should have snapped a picture of the glasses because they are too cute.  They’re dupes for the Anthropologie glasses, and they’re so beautiful.  We found them at Hobby Lobby and they were 50% off!

 

Thursday, December 11

Thursday morning, as the kids and I were getting into the car, I noticed the most beautiful rosy glow all over the neighborhood.  Our garage faces west, so we couldn’t see the sunrise until we pulled out and got on the road, but I had a feeling it was going to be beautiful.  However, I was not prepared for what we saw… it was absolutely the most stunning sunrise I’ve ever seen.  I tried to get a picture from the sunroof in our driveway, but our house was in the way, so I pulled out into the street and then onto the main street.  We had such a beautiful view that I stopped the car in the middle of the road and got out to take a picture because it was just too gorgeous not to. 

And this picture isn’t edited in any way.  The colors were truly that vibrant and that saturated.  It was spectacular.

I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to try to get as much stuff done as possible since we were going to be gone all afternoon and evening at the Teddy Swims concert.  I sent the picture of the sunrise to Brian as he’d left earlier than us and likely missed it since he drives west the whole way to work.  He told me that lots of people were posting pictures of it on social media, and sure enough, when I checked, my whole feed was pictures from the sunrise.  God is a phenomenal artist, and he surely impressed all of us in this area that morning!

When I got home, I did some more Christmas shopping… there’s one thing that Brian and I have been searching high and low for and Brian finally found what we were looking for so I ordered it.  I also caught up on this post, I spent some time getting organized in my planner / list app, and Brian and I texted back and forth about a few things Christmas gifts related. 

After that, I started and almost finished my blog post for 12/19 (I love to be ahead of the game!), and then Brian came home with a couple of gifts that I had to put away.  The rest of the afternoon was spent prepping for the evening, making sure I had everything done at home since we’d be getting home super late, and then I had a few minutes to start putting together Christmas gifts for the kids’ teachers.

I read in the car line, and then when we got home, we had just enough time to change, freshen up, and use the hair waver on Olivia’s hair before we had to leave for Atlanta.

Traffic was insane on the way, so it took us longer than usual to get there (which is typical, especially this time of year), but we were treated to a gorgeous sunset that almost rivaled our sunrise from earlier that morning.  I tried my best to get a picture of it through the sunroof, but it’s hard to do when we’re moving 70 mph.  (And Brian was driving… not me!  I wouldn’t try to take a picture while driving in Atlanta traffic at 70 mph.  Haha.)

We arrived at The Battery with plenty of time to eat dinner before the concert started, but we weren’t sure exactly where we wanted to go.  We always eat at Superica while we’re there, and we’d been looking forward to having it, and then we found out that they had a small fire and they were temporarily closed.  Boooo.

My cousin had told me that Yard House and Walk Ons are both places in the area that we could take the kids, so we decided to try Yard House first.  It looked great, but the wait was 45 minutes to an hour, and we didn’t want to risk missing the beginning of the concert, so we walked down to Walk Ons to check it out.  They appeared to have a couple of open tables, but it didn’t pass the vibe check, haha. 

The kids had already seen Shake Shack and were asking for that, so we just decided to go there since it was a special night for them.  I know a lot of people will hate me for saying this, but I have never understood the hype around Shake Shack.  The food is very basic, and I’d much rather have Five Guys or In and Out… or even Culvers.  Haha.  But we all grabbed burgers and Brian and I grabbed whiskey gingers from the bar, and we ate dinner together.  The kids both wanted shakes afterwards, because when at Shake Shack… so Jacob got cookies and cream, and Olivia got their seasonal chocolate peppermint or something like that.  And look what number they chose... LOL

Once they were done, we walked to the venue, and we made it inside right at 8 which was when the opening band was supposed to start playing.  We got in our seats just in time for them to start.

This concert was a benefit to raise money for the Atlanta Foodbank and 100% of the proceeds went to charity, so not only was this a win for us being able to see live music, it was a win because it was also for a good cause!

Teddy Swims had two opening bands – Penelope Road and Heavy Chase – but we only saw Penelope Road as Heavy Chase must have started before we arrived.  Teddy came out promptly at 9 PM and the four of us enjoyed it all thoroughly.  He was dressed like Santa Clause with a Jack Skellington face, and the background was decorated like The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

We wondered if he’d perform any Christmas songs since he has a Christmas EP, but he didn’t.  He did walk out on stage to a Christmas song that merged into music from The Nightmare Before Christmas, but his setlist was all his original music.

The kids have been to two concerts in their lives – Mannheim Steamroller (which they don’t remember much because they were little) and Pentatonix (which was very family friendly and in a larger venue, so the music wasn’t terribly loud), so they were both surprised at how loud the music was at a real concert.  And the bass was vibrating the seats, so they thought that was wild, too.  Brian had brought ear plugs for both of them, and while Olivia opted to use hers, Jacob did not, so I guess the sound level didn’t bother him too much. 

Teddy Swims played for an hour and a half, and the kids enjoyed every second, although I think they both did start getting a little tired towards the end since it was way past their bedtime.  We walked back to the car after that, and they were both chattering about it all the way back.

We made it home shortly after midnight (which was actually earlier than I thought it would be), and we all crashed.

 

Friday, December 12

I’d gotten both kids to check with their first and second period teachers to see what they’d be doing in class Friday so we could try to sleep in a bit and get to school late, and thankfully neither of them had anything important in first period, so we were able to skip it.  Jacob had a test in second period, though, so we had to get them there before that started.

I ended up sleeping in until 7:30 which was glorious, and after I jumped in the shower, I went to wake the kids at 7:45.  I was shocked to come out of my room to see Olivia already up, dressed, and putting on mascara in the bathroom.  Her Christmas lights were all on in her room and it looked like she’d been up forever.  Haha.  She told me that she’d just gotten up 15 minutes before that, and I was just happy that she’d felt like she’d gotten enough sleep.

Jacob, on the other hand, was still sound asleep, but once he was up, he was good to go… not tired at all!

We all got ready and I got them to school at 8:45, which was plenty of time for Jacob to make it to his second period class, and then I headed to Publix to pick up a couple of things that we needed for the weekend.  I also had to swing by the donut shop and get a dozen donuts to be decorated for Olivia’s Taylor Swift party that she was going to Saturday night.

When I got home, I unloaded the dishwasher and did the morning chores that I usually do before I take the kids to school, and then I retreated to my office with a cup of hot tea and a protein bar in hand. 

I caught up on this blog post, chatted with my girlfriends in our group chat, finished my blog post for the following Friday, and started and finished my blog post for Christmas Eve.

In the car line, I caught up on some work and organized a couple of lists, and then the kids and I headed home.  They both said that they felt great all day, and not at all tired after being out so late the night before, so that was a relief.

When we got home, Olivia presented Brian with an early Christmas gift that she’d made for him… a Demogorgon from Stranger Things since that’s his favorite show!  While the kids have never watched the show, Olivia’s art teacher’s daughter is actually ON the show, so I’m sure she was able to inspire Olivia.  It is seriously the coolest ornament.  She did SUCH a great job.

Once we got settled in at home, the kids both got showered, and I read and did my quiet time. 

The four of us headed downtown late in the afternoon because we had tickets to see Frozen: The Musical, and we wanted to go out to dinner first.  We ended up eating at a local place that has excellent pizza + several other cuisines and a beer wall, and Brian and I got Manhattans from the bar.  Dinner was delicious, and it was nice because we didn’t have to wait for a table even though the place was busy.

We had some time to spare after dinner, so we walked around downtown and took in all the holiday decorations and the lights.  We took a picture in front of the big Christmas tree for the first time in a few years.  We’ve been taking pictures in front of that tree since the kids were tiny, but we hadn’t been downtown around Christmastime to see it in a while.   

We also walked along to see all the Christmas trees decorated for local businesses.  Every year, live Christmas trees are lined up downtown and local businesses can sponsor a tree and decorate it.  The kids found the tree for their school and there were so many other creative trees.  Chick-Fil-A sponsored one and they put their Christmas cups all over it along with some Chick-Fil-A stuffed cows.  Haha.  The kids also found a Pokemon tree, and of course, they had to take a picture with that one!

We walked to the theatre after that because the show was about 25 minutes from starting.  We hadn’t been to this particular theatre in years, and I was so excited to be back because it’s so incredibly beautiful.  It’s over 150 years old and it’s a National Historic Landmark, and it’s said to be haunted… they even do ghost tours, which I had the privilege of doing when I took acting classes there as a tween!  I was telling the kids about that since they hadn’t been to this theatre in a while, and they both said that we need to do the ghost tour there next year.  ;o)

When we arrived, we stopped by the snack bar to grab some candy for the kids, and then we all swung by the bathroom before heading to our seats.  Brian had gotten sixth row tickets, so we had a great view!  The theatre was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and it was just the most festive little evening!

One of Olivia’s best friends is young Elsa in the play, so we were thrilled to see her perform.  She’s not even my child and I was tearing up because I was so proud of her.  She has a beautiful singing voice, too. 

The kids’ theatre teacher at school played Olaf, and he was fantastic, too… seriously so much fun!  We all loved the show… it was wonderful!  And it snowed in the audience at the end, which is exactly what Olivia had hoped for.  ;o) 

After the show was over, we headed to the lobby to wait for Aubrey and the kids’ teacher, and they were able to take pictures with each of them at the step-and-repeat.  And Olivia brought flowers for Aubrey for a job well done!

We were all exhausted by the time we got home at ten because of our late night the night before.  Olivia said on the way home that it felt like it was, “fifty-leven o’clock” and I couldn’t have been prouder.  She’s been hanging out with me too much and apparently, I quote the song Get Low by Lil Jon often.  Hahahaha.

When we got home, the kids got straight into bed, and then Brian and I ended the night with an episode of The Morning Show. 

 

Saturday, December 13

Saturday morning, we all slept in until nine.  I could have slept longer, but we had a lot going on Saturday, so it was time to get up and get rolling.  Since we had a weird schedule Saturday, I knew we were going to be eating lunch at a weird time, so I didn’t cook anything for breakfast, and instead, everyone just grabbed whatever they wanted individually.

After breakfast, Olivia got started on a Taylor Swift themed snack for her TS party later in the evening.  One of her friends invited her and a few other girls over to celebrate and watch the new Eras Tour documentary, and they were all asked to bring a TS themed snack.

I searched Pinterest and saw an idea to decorate donuts like friendship bracelets, so I purchased all the items for that, and then Olivia took it and ran with it.  She made a donut for each of Taylor’s twelve albums, and she did them in the colors of the albums as well.  She put a mirror ball ornament in the middle of each for the girls to take home, and they turned out SO DANG CUTE. 

While she did that and practiced guitar, I unloaded the dishwasher and tidied the kitchen, and then it was time for me to get showered and ready.  Olivia had her guitar recital at noon, so we had to get going! 

She got all dressed up in her new dress and cardigan, she put on a little bit of makeup, and then I used our hair waver to wave her hair and then pull it up halfway, so she didn’t have to worry about her hair falling all over her guitar.

Once everyone was ready, we scarfed down something small and quick for a light early lunch / snack, and then we headed to the church for her guitar recital.  When we arrived, I had a sudden thought that I had forgotten to shut off her hair waver.  I knew I had turned off my curling iron because I’d moved it out of the way for the hair waver, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember if I’d turned off the waver.  The waver doesn’t have automatic shutoff, so that worried me even more, and when my parents arrived, they offered to go check it for me.  I felt soooo bad, but thankfully, Olivia was 17th out of 21 kids, so it was going to be a while before she was even scheduled to play.

My parents were able to make it to our house and back in less than 30 minutes and they only missed the first few kids.  My mom texted me when she got back in the car and told me that the hair waver was actually turned off AND unplugged and that I hadn’t left it on at all.  LOLOLOLOL.  So, I had asked them to go all the way there for nothing, but it did give me peace of mind and I was able to truly enjoy Olivia’s performance rather than worrying my head off that the house was going to catch on fire.  Thank goodness for moms and dads… they are truly the best.

After singing in her voice recital a few years ago, Olivia decided that stage performance was not for her aside from dance, of course, so we didn’t think she’d ever do a guitar recital.  I was thrilled when she said she wanted to do it this year, and I was even more thrilled when she decided to play the theme song from Interstellar by Hans Zimmer.  That’s her guitar teacher’s favorite song, so I think that pumped her up to do it, and she was so dang great, y’all.  I am so proud of her for overcoming her fear because she was truly fantastic.  Her piece was very dramatic and beautiful, and it was, by far, my favorite of the whole day.  (I know I’m biased, of course, though, haha.) 

The last kid to perform was a boy who is probably 9 or 10 years old, and he played Master of Puppets by Metallica, and y’all, this kid was truly incredible.  He played the HECK out of that song, he didn’t need sheet music, you could tell he wasn’t nervous in the least, and he looked like he’d been playing guitar on stage for 30 years.  He is the definition of a child prodigy… you just can’t teach that kind of natural talent, and I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be famous one day if that’s what he decides he wants to do. 

After the recital was over, we took pictures with Mr. Steve, and he introduced Olivia and me to his wife, and he told his wife that Olivia is his favorite student.  Haha.  He’s always telling her that, and I think he loves her the most because she’s so sassy and silly with him.  He raised three daughters, so I think she holds a special place in his heart.  :o)

My friend, Jeannine, and her family walked in as we were leaving because their son, Buckley, had his voice recital.  I was so excited to get their picture together… look at his festive plaid jacket, y’all.  He is the cutest!

We headed outside after that and chatted in the parking lot with my parents, Brian’s parents, and Brian’s sister as they’d all come to watch Olivia, and then Olivia asked if we could go to Dairy Queen to get a treat.  Of course we obliged, and she opted for their brownie sundae since it’s one of her favorite things.

The kids wanted to get their treats to go because they wanted to try to squeeze in some downtime before we had to be at our next event, and I was grateful because I needed to go clean our disaster of a house.  We’d left in such a hurry that morning that it looked like a tornado had blown through the whole house and it was in need of some serious TLC.

Once the house was tidy-ish, the kids settled in for some screen time, and I photographed and videoed Olivia’s donuts for a Reel before finally sitting down to upload some of our adventures from the past couple of days to social media. 

Brian left to drop Olivia at her party a little after four, and I had to grab pictures of sister in her Eras Tour tee with her donut creations.  She is just the most festive gal, y’all. 

After they left, I cleared out my email inbox and got a couple of other things done, and then it was time to change clothes and head to Khristina and Ian’s house for poker night.  Olivia was sad to miss since it’s always one of her favorite nights each month, but she was happy to be with her girlfriends watching her favorite singer on her favorite singer’s birthday.  ;o)

Poker night was great as usual.  Ian had made chili and hot dogs and mac n cheese for all of us, and then we sat around the table all night and played poker and talked and laughed and goofed off like we always do.  Ian also pulled out his guitar and strummed along to the 90s mix that played, and that was my favorite part.  Give me live music any day!

We had to be at Olivia’s friend’s house to pick her up at 9:30, and it couldn’t have been more convenient as she was just two streets over from where we were playing poker.  We chatted with her friends’ moms for a bit before heading home, and again, the kids got straight into bed because it was yet another late night.  Three in a row!  Olivia had a BLAST with her friends, though, and she even took pictures with her camera.  So sweet!

 

After the kids went to bed, Brian and I watched the end of the episode of The Morning Show that we’d started the night before, and then we watched the first episode of The Eras Tour documentary.  Normally I’d watch that with Olivia, but she’d already seen that episode earlier in the evening at her party.

 

Sunday, December 14

Sunday morning, I was up at 8:45 and then I made waffles for breakfast.  After everyone had eaten and the kitchen was clean, I went to my office to play catch up since we’d been so busy for the last few days.

I watched my Sunday sermon while I got my planner ready for the week ahead, and then I transferred all the photos I’d taken during the week from my phone to my computer.  I was able to get about half of them organized before it was time to get ready for lunch at my mother-in-law's and step-father-in-law's.  And the kids got their laundry done for the week ahead, too.  Oh, and I finished photographing the rest of the house for my Christmas home tour, too!

We went over there at 12:30 and hung out for a couple of hours.  We had a delicious lunch as usual, and before we left, my MIL had us all look through her nutcracker collection and take whatever we wanted since she no longer used them.  We were able to take home the most beautiful set of king and queen nutcrackers and they’re big!  I’m honestly not sure where we’ll store them, but I couldn’t turn down the chance to have something like that… I love sentimental old items that get passed down from other family members.  I have a few items from all my grandparents, so I was excited to receive something from Brian’s side of the family.  I didn’t take a picture of them for this post, but I’ll have to share them soon.

After we left their house, we swung by the gas station and then on home so the kids could get showered.  I finished organizing my photos, and I made to do lists for the week ahead as I had very specific things that needed to be done each day before the kids get out of school.

We went to Mass at five, and then we swung by to pick up Mama Cass for Sunday dinner with my parents.  Momma made a delicious spread of barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and bread, and then we had peppermint cookies for dessert. 

A cold front came in Sunday, and it was freezing all day, so we had a fire in the fireplace, and it was the coziest little evening at their house. 

When we got home, everyone got ready for bed, and then we got the kids in bed early since Jacob has first semester finals all this week.  Brian and I watched some more of The Morning Show before heading to bed early ourselves.

And that was our very fun, festive week!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!