Anna: I really like the Zero version. 4/5 stars
Jen: I am not a huge flavored pop fan but I give the regular version a 3/5.
Tom tried both and liked the Zero version better. 4/5
We have consensus that it needs vodka. 😂
It was hard saying goodbye because we had soooo much fun and soooo many laughs and we all get along soooo well.
But we’re counting the days until Kelly hopefully comes back to Chicago this ssummer—and we have a birthday girls weekend to plan for September!
Our friend Kelly really needed our support during a rough patch so we decided a girls long weekend was in order!
Somehow we managed to have the only empty seat on the plane in our row! We definitely took advantage!
Northern Illinois Music Conference
Thankfully it wasn’t too far to Highland Park Middle School—and they looked pretty alert for 8am.
Between performances we just hung around the library/cafeteria area with Lucas’ parents. It’s a really nice school.
Owen’s big ensemble did The Entertainer and it was really good!
After the performance, the judge gives them a few tips and suggestions and has them practice some bars again to see the difference. It’s really neat.
Drinks on the couch under comfy blankies — not getting drunk but having fun.
Owen wanted to go to Portillos with his friends. We sat across the room from them but close enough we could keep an eye on them. This is what they looked like the whole time.
I’m so excited about the Christmas ornament project I finally finished today (with moral support from Anna)!
INSPIRATION PHOTO:
I wanted to do this because we have soooo many ornaments that we don’t always get to use but I miss seeing. And I didn’t want a wreath because I had lots of big ornaments that wouldn’t have fit well around a wreath. (I used a deep mirrored tray.)
So the ornaments range from things I grew up with on my parent’s tree to handmade ornaments from both grandmas to mementos from family and vacations to favorite TV shows and hobbies and favorite things…and more!
I am soooo thrilled with how it turned out!
We had a list of about 12 names we were considering, but Ivy won by process of elimination! (Some of the last to get eliminated were Sissy, Sadie, and Ruby.)
And of course Anna and David came over to meet her! Olive couldn’t get enough of her.
And as soon as Ivy got up… Olive took her place!
We’ve been to a BrickFest before in Virginia and it was AMAZING. So we were excited to go again… Except this one was a complete dud compared to that. Super SUPER disappointing.
There were basically NO displays—the previous one had city blocks, automation (think roller coaster), big things, little things, selfie stations…
This one had some giant creations:
and a very small area of smaller creations like this:
but that was about it. Most of it was lame (for older kids) stuff like “make and race a Lego car”
or “create a glow in the dark Lego” (which Owen did to at least do something).
The kids also did one square of a bigger design—which we would never see.
But man did the store and checkout lines take up a ton of space (conservatively 1/4 of the venue):
This was the best part for me—a local artist who did lilacs. I’m going to need that ASAP.
What was even more disappointing is that we were supposed to go with Anna and family—but long story short they got there after us and got stuck in a huge line and then we discovered it sucked so they just gave up and never made it in.
After we got home I decided to look up the last one we went to…and discovered it wasn’t BrickFest, but was BrickFair. UGHHHHH.
I really got back into reading this year after about 20 years of NOT reading. (I aimed for 12 on the #goodreadschallenge2022 and am likely finishing with 80!)
I very much enjoyed reading my friend suggestions when I did The Trevor Project fundraiser this year so when I saw this challenge come across my timeline I knew I wanted to do it in the new year!
I took the first 12 books listed by 12 different people in the comments. I can’t wait to get started! #goodreadschallenge2023
Anna and family went home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning but came back for Christmas dinner! Tom had wanted to smoke a prime rib…
It was delicious.
Otherwise known by most as Chex mix. But it’s not your basic recipe from the back of the cereal box.
My mom has been making this for probably 45 years — though now it’s on a much smaller scale than before. She gifts each family a small container every Christmas and it’s never enough… So this year I decided to make some myself! I’ve made it before but it was so long ago I can’t even remember when it was.
The best part about making it yourself is putting in whatever you want! This is what I chose (the last box is peanuts).
All buttered and seasoned and ready to bake!
Laying out to cool…just like mom does on brown paper bags!
To be honest it wasn’t the best, but it was still damn addictive. I bagged up 7 small bags for some of the moms and the rest was gone within a week!
Anna gave all the moms Golden Girls glasses. I randomly got Dorothy and she got Blanche. We used then for a margarita recipe we’d been wanting to try.
You know I love a margarita but it was only meh:
Anna wanted to do our makeup together and then Katie wanted me to do hers…
She can stop growing up now.
We were looking forward to great food at the Shanty Christmas party…but long story short we were idiots and didn’t realize that “passed plates” meant hors d’oeuvres and not family style so we were all bummed. The things we had were decent, but not worth the wait or the cost. At least we got to meet up with a friend of ours for a little bit.
Anna, David, and the kids came over to stay with us for a few days! The impetus was a huge storm that was supposedly coming (the kids’ last half day of school was preemptively cancelled because of it) but also because we generally spend a lot of time together so why not just stay in the same house?!
Of course, Anna brought one of Kai’s old sweaters for Olive… But he got dressed up as well.
If you love caramel corn but hate the hulls… We usually get it from Grannie every year but I made it this year!
She was whining to get up in my lap so… Yeah.
Admittedly I bitched a lot beforehand about Anna making us go to Lightscape (I’m turning into a major homebody as I get older!)…but it ended up to be super cool and I have apologized.
Every. Single. Time.
If we’re holding Olive she becomes so frantic we literally cannot hold her. The sound of pawing and barking and yipping is deafening.
We usually let her free as soon as we get inside — and then shoo all three outside — but today we just let them do this.