With travel on the agenda for next weekend, we had a little family Christmas extravaganza today. There was bowling, and cookie-making, and presents, and puzzling, and yummy food, and a Christmas movie. It was all so perfect. Days like these make me love the holiday season and even more.
Two of my favorite thing: Christmastime and escape rooms! And this round some of my favorite friends joined us, too. It was a fun, but challenging room and we managed to escape with about ten minutes left. The boys are practically experts now that they’ve solved their first two escape rooms.
Drumroll, please…the boys and I are excited to announce that we collected 291 books for kids around the Chippewa Valley. We didn’t meet our goal, but sometimes it’s important to set goals too high to accomplish, you know. Growth mindset or something. Haha.
We’re once again grateful, speechless, and inspired by the generosity everyone showed us. In this season (not only the season of Christmas but also our season of life with little ones), it’s been so important for us over the last two years of doing this project to really feel and internalize the importance of giving back. As you know, reading is something that fills hours upon hours of our days and to think we could give even a little bit of that joy to a friend who doesn’t have the luxury or opportunity for books in their house—it just warms our hearts. I hope it does the same for you.
From the bottom of our warm hearts to you–wherever you might be–thank you. THANK YOU. Not only did you make this a special Christmas project for us, more importantly, you made this a special Christmas for a child who will receive a new book of their very own this year.
Robbe dropped off his letter to Santa tonight. Can you imagine a more picturesque letter drop-box? We even squeezed in an impromptu snowball fight on the way home. It felt like we were in a Hallmark movie!
More snow photos, as promised. Beautiful couple of days taking advantage of the fresh snow and sunshine.
It’s looking pretty dreamy around here. I think we’re at about 10 inches of snow so far…and it’s still coming! Man, I love a good snowstorm. There will be more happy snow photos tomorrow, I’m sure!
It turns out Flopsy loves Christmas. He spends his days laying under the Christmas tree and occasionally nibbling on its needles. It’s about the cutest thing ever.
This guy can blow bubbles now. That’s a serious accomplishment! Perseverance and determination pay off once again for our little man.
Happy St. Nick’s Day, everyone. I hope you all woke up with coins in your shoes and a bit of extra holiday cheer this morning.
Another big night out in the city for us! We saw the tree lit up and enjoyed the fire rings and some delicious hot cocoa. Also, there were about six of us there (during an organized evening!). There are definite perks to small-city living.
Look how cute our sweet downtown is! Perfect evening for a holiday stroll.
We wrapped up the book donation project on Tuesday and we’re excited to report some of our final results. We won’t know total book numbers until we go shopping this weekend (one of our favorite parts!!), but I’ve got three updates for you:
We ended up with 52 total donations (whether book drop-offs, gift cards, or monetary). Slightly down from last year, but there’s still hope for making our goal!
Sixty-one books showed up at our door. Significantly down from last year—it’s interesting to think about why that might be the case.
Donations came in from 15 different states. An increase from last year…thanks to all of you out-of-state supporters!
We’ll be in touch when we’ve done some of our shopping. :)
While our library is under construction, they’re hosting some of their normal activities at off-sight locations. Tonight, they hosted a glass ornament workshop for kids at The Glass Orchard. It was very cool. I’ve been meaning to get out to that orchard/glass shop for years and I finally had an excuse. They make such beautiful pieces. It’s super inspiring.
It’s hard to say if our ornaments will turn out decent (we had to leave them to go in the kiln), but I’ll keep you posted.
One of my favorites turned fourteen (14!!!) this weekend. Sheesh. She’s taller than me and everything. I’m so glad we could help her celebrate the big day in person. I can just tell it’s going to be a really great year for her. ❤️❤️
Just one day left for our little book donation project. Can you believe it’s been two weeks already?!? The project has looked a little different this year—we’ve had fewer in-person drop offs, for example—but it’s been such an enjoyable experience. I have a sinking suspicion we won’t meet our goal, but we’ll see how close we come when we get all the shopping done. Stay tuned!
For those that have donated, thank you! Still thinking about it? You’ve still got time! Click here.
We’ve had a lovely weekend with family but I haven’t taken any photos! Here’s this one, at least, of the boys (and their cousin!) with some books for our donation project. We’re even working hard while we’re on vacation!
There’s nothing better than spending the day with family you don’t see enough, you know? It was a day full of fun, laughter, and delicious food. You can’t beat that. I hope your Thanksgiving was just as lovely.
The official countdown has started. And we have a paper chain to prove it. Robbe wants Santa to come tomorrow. I want at least 10 more weeks of prep time to get all of my Christmas to-dos accomplished.
We got to spend a good chunk of our day with this little nugget…my nephew, the boys’ cousin! I forget how much work six month old babies are, but we had such a fun time with him. And, I have to say, it gave me all the feels to be pushing a baby in our old stroller again.
Robbe and I played this fun game at the library this afternoon. Have I mentioned how much I love the library? We’ve managed to successfully transition to the temporary space but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish for it to be within walking distance again! Only one year left!
small city | BIG DAYS
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