Skipping Town

After a chaotic morning of the cleaners being here (trying to prepare the house for cleaning when arriving home the night before at 11:30pm was not fun), Andrew worked and the girls and I prepared for tonight's Welcome In with Mom, Dad, Molly, Jeremy, and Luca. I really just like calling this event a Welcome In, even though everyone has already arrived and we've all seen each other. But we did get to Welcome In Jeremy's mom, who we were happy was able to join us. We had appetizers and Andrew's delicious shrub mocktails in the Long Room, in front of the fire, and then had soup around the dining room table. The kids gave us a viewing of a short movie they'd made at Mom and Dad's house yesterday. I gave a reading of some of the Situation Stories (moralistic tales meant to illustrate the lessons in religion textbooks) that I wrote when I was fifteen, and made the kids answer the "discussion questions" I'd written to go along with them ("What would...

Post-Christmas! We have all been so excited for this--our Post-Christmas celebration with Molly, Luca, and Jeremy. We drove to Connellsville this morning, dropped the kids and Farrah off at Mom and Dad's, and went grocery shopping at Martin's, hoping groceries would be a little cheaper there (they were, but not by very much). Mom, Dad, and the girls played gin while we were gone. Molly, Luca, and Jeremy arrived around lunchtime, and the Post-Christmas festivities began. After lunch, we had our family gift exchange. I don't know how other families do it, but our exchange takes a very long time as we instruct each person on which gift to open, and then provide context into the gift, and then admire it together. Then the next gift. We all received wonderful things, as always.  Then we had a break to play a few rounds of No Thanks, and then had a big Christmas dinner with wedding soup, pesto, rosemary chicken, and all the sides.  After dinner was the long-awaited exchange of ou...

We spent the day at home doing a lot of preparation for the renovation: carrying stuff down to the basement from the kitchen, family room, and mudroom; organizing the things in the basement; cleaning up the chaos in the basement since we're having people over for New Year's Eve and someone always wants to play ping pong.  We have a mountain of empty boxes in the basement right now, waiting to be filled with kitchen things to store, and I spent some time today pulling out the packing material to throw into recycling. Lo, at the bottom of a large box, underneath miles of packing paper, was a t-shirt Andrew had ordered me back in October for my birthday, from Calamityware! It was completely hidden. An exciting find. It says "GO UNSPECIFIED SPORTS TEAM" and features a ridiculous sports-logo-like image of an octopus. The rest of the day: Andrew and Lucia finished their homemade gifts, Andrew made a ham for dinner, and we watched the second Lord of the Rings. A nice day of ...

Friday, December 26 The day after Christmas is always such a relaxing, fun, family day. We all went out to do some post-Christmas shopping in the morning at Target and Gabe's. Target Christmas things were 50% off--not enough to wildly buy more Christmas decor we definitely don't need--but we of course picked up a couple of things. The girls both found some jeans at Gabe's.  We spent the rest of the day at home, playing games. We played No Thanks a few times--very fun--and more Centry Spice Road. Andrew, Mom, and the kids played Sorry (which they'd also played on Christmas Eve). The girls continued to focus on their sticker therapy and acrylic cubes. Andrew and I took Farrah for a walk. We relaxed and read. Dinner was leftovers from Christmas.  Molly and Jeremy stopped over on their way back to Bethesda, so we got a little visit with them. The girls continued to play the old, three-string guitar. It was a lovely day at home. Saturday, December 27 After the kids and Andre...

Christmas in Connellsville. What a great day. The kids slept in--no more middle-of-the-night sneak peeks at the gifts; I was downstairs drinking coffee with Mom and Dad when they finally came down. (Andrew slept the latest.) They opened their stockings first, loved everything of course, then opened their gifts. Some of their gifts this year: Funko Pops of Powerless characters Games: No Thanks and Century Spice Road running leggings puzzles sticker therapy packs hamster Warmies books OPI polishes & NYX lip glosses weighted bagels acrylic blocks purple hair dye (Lucia) maroon Uggs mini boots (Lucia) botanical Lego set (Greta) Theragun (Greta) jeans from Pacsun (Lucia) Taylor Swift Midnights cardigan (Greta) inchworms with Santa hats (plushies) and more! Andrew and I exchanged gifts as well, and the kids gave us the gifts they'd chosen for us. A wonderful selection. (We'll do our exchange with Mom, Dad, and Molly next week during Post-Christmas.) Mom made pancakes for breakfas...

Tuesday, December 23 A final day of Christmas preparations, and work (from home) until 2pm. Then--free. Lucia went to Kards Unlimited so she could pick out a gift for Greta (and I bought final stocking stuffers). We made and decorated gingerbread cookies. We went to the club for dinner--it takes some convincing for Andrew to get any of us to leave the house, but we did, and had a nice time. Then we watched Rudolph. We are ready for Christmas proper to begin. Wednesday, December 24 Christmas Eve! We loaded up all the gifts and bags and both pets and headed to Cville around 1pm. Molly and Jeremy, who are spending Christmas with Jeremy's family, are staying at our house and we crossed paths when them briefly. Lucia and Andrew went for a run before we left, so Greta and I loaded all the bags into the car.  We were halfway to Cville when Andrew realized he forgot his Christmas Eve outfit on the coat rack by the front door. "If you hadn't loaded the car, I wouldn't have forg...