Honey loves her Mr. Tom
Mama hold my carrot!
Napping with her new favorite toy.
TRUTH.
Olive finally giving Anna some serious cuddles.
Christmas dinner!
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.
Already tuckered out!
My view on Christmas morning!
Presents have been opened. Katie was thrilled Santa got her the Ouija board she asked for but was upset it “didn’t work.” Tom liked seeing what he bought me…and everything we got the kids. And now the kids have disappeared…so Tom is napping and I’m reading a book with a cuddly dog.
Nuts and bolts!
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!
Besties
Margaritas in Golden Girls
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:
Playing with makeup
Anna wanted to do our makeup together and then Katie wanted me to do hers…
She can stop growing up now.
So this happened out of nowhere.
Tom randomly found a Facebook marketplace listing for a used GE Profile double oven for a price we could kinda afford…
So out with the 20yo original oven and in with the new! It’s super fancy! But now all our appliances match!
Anna christened it with seven layer bars and white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies! Tomorrow I’m making Chex mix!
Honey & Katie
Christmas at the Shanty
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.
Let Christmas begin!
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.
The best caramel corn ever!
If you love caramel corn but hate the hulls… We usually get it from Grannie every year but I made it this year!
Look how cute I am?!
Olive likes e-learning days.
She still loves his ears!
Our first ever visit to urgent care
Owen came home from school complaining of a sore throat. He said the dreaded words: it feels like swallowing glass.
Unfortunately… there were no appointments available at the hospital as everything was shutting down for the storm. So…I researched which urgent care we could go to and off we went!
Thankfully it was just minutes from our house and we got in quickly. We had to wait for a rapid strep test plus they took a Covid test. Strep was negative so it was off to Target for some throat drops. We did a rapid Covid and it was negative…so I just think he had a cold with nasal drainage causing the sore throat.
Death and destruction!
And Olive said let death and destruction reign down upon that hedgehog.
I have to admit things like this make my blood boil.
I was looking for something in the upstairs hallway cabinets when I found this.
You have got to be kidding me.
So instead of putting her clean clothes away… Katie decided to stuff the entire bag into the cupboards. By process of elimination I figured they’d been there about a week.
Who needs a slow feeder?!
This works just as well!
Get a puppy they said.
It’ll be fun, they said. This right here is why I don’t get anything done. because how can you resist? She just wants up in my lap.
A cat nap. Dog nap? Boy nap?
She found the sun!
And a pillow!
Two sleepers.
We’re in front of the fire
These are DANGEROUS!
I innocently took a sample at Sam’s Club because I couldn’t imagine what they tasted like. I’m not a huge peppermint fan either.
And holy hell were they good. Dangerously good.
Members Mark Peppermint Almonds: https://www.samsclub.com/p/members-mark-peppermint-almonds-20-oz/P03010806