Welcome back and happy Wednesday! I'm still a bit behind but family time comes first. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a great week leading up to Christmas enjoying our college kids being home and prepping for the big day. It did come up more quickly than I would have liked but that tends to happen. We also seemed to have more shipping issues this year which was stressful and forced a bit of last minute juggling. The upside to that it will be a Christmas that keeps giving as the delayed presents trickle in.
Until then, here's a peek at last week's pictures:
Day 352- Monday, 12/18/23
The rain continues so that means a rainy start to the week. The campus was super wet and unfortunately I needed to run between buildings in this mess plus our coffee place was shut down because the students are on winter break. I guess the employees don't matter. Bah Humbug! At least back at home we had a comforting warm family meal to end the day right. This was our first one at home together since the boys returned.
Day 352- Tuesday, 12/19/23
The rainy weather continues with thunder and lightening this time. I'm happy to be working from home today. Rusty even helped me check email by tree-light. Later that afternoon when the rain stopped I ventured out to do some more shopping--mostly stocking stuffers and ingredients for baking. I'm pretty sure it won't be my last trip to the store either as we readjust to having hungry boys at home again.
This should be the final day for rain until next week anyway. I had a full and busy day at work but then got to spend time with Justin as we started making our holiday treats. Today it was Christmas Crack and tomorrow we'll start baking cookies. I also found a cute new green and gold woven tree decoration and a new snow globe at Target while waiting on a prescription to be filled for John. My polar bear globe turned a funny color a couple years ago and I've been looking for a new one since that had just the right scene inside. This one is perfect--looks like John and I skiing. He wants to give skiing a try agin this winter and has been conditioning at PT. Hopefully this snow-globe find will help us manifest that.
Day 355- Thursday, 12/21/23
No rain today so I was able to get out for a short walk after work and had fun collecting some leaves before settling in to wrap presents and begin baking with the boys. John was also wrapping gifts out in the garage and put up a sign to help keep us out. We didn't realize how often we needed to go out there for various reasons until we couldn't. LOL!
TGIF! Last full day of work for before the New Year. I'm mostly off all next week and am so looking forward to a much needed break. After work we continued with the baking and marveled at how much better the tree looks with present under it. We have also been receiving a lot of holiday cards from family and friends which is a great way to catch up especially with those that live far away. Later John used those yummy lemons we recently picked to make lemon-drop drinks for us to kick off the holidays right. Cheers to the weekend!
Today I finished up our Christmas cake and Justin & Brandon helped finish up the last bit of baking and decorating treats for our cookie plates while Rusty snooped under the tree. He was very curious about all the new items and fun ribbons piled down there.
Day 358- Sunday, 12/24/23
Cookie plates were pulled together and delivered by Justin today while one last trip to the store was made to acquire the finishing touches for the big day. We also all pitched in to make our traditional homemade pizzas for dinner, drove around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights, and then opened one gift before heading to bed. Sweet dreams boys and Happy Christmas Eve!
That's it! Thanks for stopping by and next week I'll catch you in the New Year. Have a safe and happy entry into 2024.
