Day 2625 | Teeny Tiny Christmas

We watched a Netflix movie about a Norwegian Christmas celebration and decided to start a new holiday tradition today. The day before Christmas Eve will, from this point on, be referred to as Teeny Tiny Christmas. Today’s festivities included: ice skating in the fog, finalizing Christmas baking, puzzling, playing games, listening to Christmas music, extra video game time, and more.

Yeah, this is clearly a tradition that is going to stick around. Happy Teeny Tiny Christmas, everyone!

Day 2624 | Baking Day

Holiday baking 2023…check! My mom and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon making some of our favorites. And the boys helped with the Hug/Kiss placement. A real team effort.

Day 2624 | Brownie Cookie Cutouts

We couldn’t have our little family Christmas without at least one delicious treat. I tried out these brownie cookie cutouts (https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/brownie-roll-out-cookies/) and they are just as amazing as they sound. Maybe the most perfect version of a cookie (in my opinion). They’re soft, chocolatey, festive…AND can be made into ice cream sandwiches. What more could you ask for?

Day 2623 | Family Christmas

Another low-key, but very Christmas-y weekend in the books. Man, I love this crew.

Day 2622 | Bell Ringing

It’s been a crazy week around here. We’ve had something every single night. Thank goodness the weekend is right around the corner.

Tonight’s adventure was bell ringing for the 4-H club. We had a fun time doing it with friends this year and we even got to celebrate a birthday at the same time.

Day 2621 | Cheer

From dance competitions to cheer competitions! We’re super excited to continue to be part of Anni’s fan club.

Day 2620 | Ice Skating

We spent a lovely winter weekend at the lake house. There was ice skating, puzzling, hot tubbing, reading, pinballing, and lots of relaxing. As a bonus, some friends come up for a visit AND we even got to enjoy some huge snowflakes. This time of year is pretty magical.

Day 2619 | Mug Season

Tell me it’s cold in Wisconsin without telling me. Here’s my version. This is after one dishwasher load.

Day 2618 | Sunday

We did go for a nice wintery hike today but otherwise most of our day looked a lot like this.

Day 2617 | Holiday Decorating…

…can be exhausting. Even the bun agrees.

Day 2616 | Thanksgiving-Take 2

What happens when your husband misses out on round two of his favorite meal of the year? You make up for it five days later, of course.

And it was delicious.

Day 2615 | Feeling Festive

A dusting of snow this morning helped kickstart our festive day. We continued decorating the house, procured a tree, watched a Christmas show, finished our first Christmas puzzle, listened to lots of holiday music, drank hot cocoa (my best yet, I’d say), and just enjoyed each other’s company.

I think it’s going to be a rough transition back to real life tomorrow.

Day 2614 | Low Key Weekend

It wasn’t the weekend we thought we were going to have, but we’re making the best of it. Lots of downtime, warm beverages, puzzling, lots of reading, and some shopping. The holiday decorating has started and there’s talk of a tree tomorrow. All kinds of crazy stuff, I know!

Day 2613 | Happy Thanksgiving

Always thankful for these folks (and the family who wasn’t with us today). Feeling grateful on so many levels today.

Day 2612 | Fun with Friends

Big day over here! We went thrifting. We went book shopping. We ate bagels and puzzled, and had a Tiny Tee party, and read, and watched a Christmas movie. We laughed a lot and came up with a bunch of inside jokes for the group. We even tried out the Wish Paper (https://www.flyingwishpaper.com) I’ve been saving for over a year. It was well worth the wait. We all made our wishes and we’re feeling pretty hopeful about them coming true.

Day 2611 | Good Friends

You know what’s even better than a quick getaway? A getaway with some amazing people. The boys have been having a great time with friends they haven’t seen in EIGHT years. Somehow I knew they’d get along without any issues. It makes my heart very happy. :)

Day 2610 | Michigan!

The boys and I did a thing! It’s fall break for school so we decided to jump on a plane and head to Michigan to visit friends for a few days. We had flight vouchers from a cancelled Covid trip that were about to expire so it was the perfect excuse.

Day 2609 | STEAM Fair

Robbe rocked his STEAM Fair presentation today. His station was so busy we had a hard time even seeing his work! I learned a lot about the Mariana Trench and if you’re interested in learning more about it, just spark up a conversation with Robbe. He’ll be happy to share his knowledge.

Day 2608 | Recorder [Take Two]

That’s right. It’s the little one’s turn on the recorder. And he’s working hard!

Day 2607 | Owl Houses

The boys made owl houses as a project after their 4-H meeting. Yes, 25 kids building owl houses with drills was just as intense as you might guess.

They were pretty pumped about it, though.