Long Weekend at Home

My family Christmas in Nebraska was postponed last weekend due to a gnarly snowstorm down there.  I was bummed, but it opened me up to see some friends from high school.  We met up at Brianne's new house, then headed over to Riddler's Escape.  We were grouped with a family of 5 to tackle the Spellbound room.  We worked great together and got out with almost 10 minutes to spare!

Troy, Chelsey, Dani, Brianne, Me

We followed that up with drinks and dinner at Brink & Bourbon.  I got a mango wine slushie and it was amazing!  They had a fun bourbon and bacon flight that Troy and Brianne tried.

I got the PB & Jay burger. A handcrafted burger patty covered in habanero jack cheese and topped with our extra thick cut bacon. Served on a speciality made honey glazed donut lightly spread with mayo, tart Pomegranate Sriracha marmalade and homemade creamy bourbon peanut butter.  I love mixing sweet and savory, so it was right up my alley!

The kids were home with Jimmy that evening and got a special treat from Dunkin Donuts.

I had taken Monday off with plans to be in Nebraska, but we just had a fun family day instead.  We put in a new light fixture over the sink to match our other kitchen lights.  We also played with trains, visited the indoor playground and broke out Huskeropoly after the kids went to bed.

We're ready to celebrate the New Year now!

Children's Museum Date Night

We were gifted a Children's Museum membership from my brother and nephew for Christmas, so we headed there for family date night on Friday.  It was pajama day for Parker at Adventure Club, so it ended up being ok that he was in his Curious George ones because there was a special Curious George exhibit.  It's been a while since we had a membership and it was fun to see Esme really explore and play.

Their next special exhibit is on Hot Wheels, which both kids will really love!

Christmas 2019

It's finally Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve with Jimmy's family.  The kids were spoiled as usual and got so many great toys and clothes.

Esme got almost the whole Lion King clan from her cousin, Grace.  She was so excited about them and her Frozen 2 characters.

Parker's favorite gift was a new keyboard.  It has a much better sound than his cheap one and lots of pre-programmed songs. Jingle Bells is his favorite by far.

Grandma Cherry did an amazing job on their embroidered pillow cases.  I helped Esme draw a snowman and helped Parker with his washing machine.

We attended Christmas Eve service and Parker joined us.  He did a great job playing with his iPad and staying calm during the service.

We headed to my parents on Christmas morning and promptly got in the hot tub.

I made some Christmas tree cinnamon rolls for breakfast before opening presents.

Esme helped hand out presents to everyone.

Esme completed her Lion King collection with Nala and Jimmy got a new Nebraska shirt from my dad (that I made.)

We didn't stay too late since my dad was recovering from surgery, but it was a great little Christmas.

More Christmastime Activities

Our church youth group celebrated the holidays by caroling at a local apartment complex that also houses hospice patients.  I dressed up in my "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" get up, so I let a couple of our interns use the cow sweaters I got from my friend Laurie.

 It was our first adventure with our new youth director, Christian.  We enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies afterwards.

Friday was my work's annual potluck and festive holiday attire contest.

Delicious food and lots of festive sweaters as always!

Saturday evening we celebrated with Jimmy's extended family and even managed to get a picture of all the kids!  This group has grown a lot in the last 5-6 years!

Sunday was our final advent gifts to the kids.  Esme got a new "alarm clock." I am hoping she will stay in bed a bit longer with it, instead of waking me up at 5am.

Parker got a NASA shirt and also got a holiday seek and find bag from his buddy from church, Celeste.

The latest Star Wars movie opened recently, so we've been talking a lot about it at home.  Esme has some sweet Rey jammies and can wield a light saber pretty well!

 My mom offered to watch the kids Sunday night so we see the new movie.  My dad and nephew tagged along as well.

My work was open today, so I made a little hot cocoa bar and brought in a couple trays of cookies.  We were running a skeleton crew, so there was actually some left over.