Bits and Pieces: November and December

Lots of people are posting end-of-decade retrospectives, and while it's true that a lot has changed for me over the last 10 years (moving, two children, buying a house, new friends, hard losses); I don't have the energy to do a thoughtful post about these years. At least not today, the morning after Clare had a sleepover with a friend and someone was doing donuts in the parking lot next door at 2:30 in the morning.

So, I'll stick to recapping the highlights of the last two months.

November was busy with birthday parties, girl scouts, swimming lessons, basketball (Christopher) and of course, Thanksgiving. I also had my Fall girls' weekend away, which was relaxing and much-needed. We spent the entire Saturday of our weekend in our pajamas watching movies. Hard to go wrong.

Christopher's basketball skills have greatly improved since I last wrote! He is dribbling much better. He liked it enough to sign up for the next session this winter. He is also very into Minecraft and Legoes right now. (Lucky kid got five new Lego sets for Christmas.)

Clare and I went to Feed My Starving Children with her Girl Scout troop. It was a great service project, and I am hoping Clare got something out of helping others. The girls also earned their snack badge and their pets badge. Clare is bargaining hard for a cat (have I written about her presentation? Yeah, she did an entire presentation, complete with chore schedule). I am resisting, for now. It is hard to say no. Clare is playing soccer again this winter, but it is only once a week. She was thrilled with the polaroid camera Santa brought her for Christmas, and has been taking many pictures. (She also got Legoes and doll stuff.)

Thanksgiving was here. It went well, and Ben's aunt even emailed me to say it was the best Thanksgiving dinner she'd eaten. I'll take it. Ben took the kids to deliver Meals on Wheels on Thanksgiving morning. This was great for me. It was less great for them, because it wasn't very well organized. At least they tried to do something service-oriented!

December was busy with the usual Christmas festivities. I struggle this time of year. It is fun, and I enjoy the parties and buying gifts, but the emotional load is a lot. I am kind of glad it is over, even though I always feel a bit said when I take down the decorations.

The kids slept over at Aunt Katie and Uncle Andrew's one night this month, so Ben and I got to go to a Christmas party and out for a drink. It was lovely. We also went out to a fancy hotel for my friend Cindi's 40th - the Hewing Hotel in the North Loop in Minneapolis. We had a babysitter and took an Uber, so Ben and I went a little wild. Wild for us, anyway. It was fun to see old college friends.

We also had the Exley family party, a Rae Lane North cookie decorating party, my "Office" party (day drinking with friends) and my friend Sarah's Hot Drinks party. There were also all of the family Christmas celebrations, which actually aren't totally over yet. We had a nice time. We're spending New Year's Eve and New Year's Day just the four of us. I am looking forward to some quiet family time.

And now we are moving on to 2020. It seems impossible, but here we are.

Found on my phone. Or maybe my mom's phone.

Clare and I at my friend Anna's birthday party. We packed boxes for a food shelf.

Clare, in a dog cage!!!! She has come a long way with her fear of dogs. This was when she was working on her pet badge at the Humane Society.

Cousins seeing Frozen II on a snow day. (Clare: "The third grade girls all decided we are not into Frozen any more, but we all want to see Frozen II." Okay then.)

I didn't get any family pictures on Thanksgiving, but I did get a shot of my homemade pies.

My sous chef on Thanksgiving day. She made the corn casserole all by herself.

Lunch at Ben's office on the day after Thanksgiving.

Clare got her first pedicure! 

Introducing the kids to the Garfield Christmas special. This gem is available on YouTube.

Decorating our Christmas tree. The tree lot next door was shockingly quiet this year. I am not complaining.

We took the kids on the Santa Train out of Union Depot. They had a blast. Especially Christopher.

Telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Fun face paint.

Ben and I at Due on our night out.

Cookie time!

A wise woman and a camel.

All four of us went to the Nutcracker this year. A friend's daughter was one of the Bon-Bons!

First day of Christmas break.

Scenes from Christmas morning...

   

My mom with some of her grandchildren on Christmas Day.

Playing at a park near my parents' house. We spent a few days there after Christmas.

Ready for New Year's Eve games.

Bits and Pieces: September and October

These have been a whirlwind two months. I have fallen off the monthly posting, but still want to try to post an update every two months, at least. I like being able to go back and look at old posts. I have been feeling especially nostalgic with Christopher starting Kindergarten, and I think I will appreciate having these posts.

I try to keep these mostly positive, but right after school started Ben was given a scary health diagnosis. He has had treatment, but we are still waiting to hear if it was successful. The prognosis is good, but this is a chronic condition that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. Luckily, he is expected to have a normal life span. It has been extremely stressful.  Ben feels fine, though, and is taking it all in his usual laid-back fashion.  I am the one who has been a wreck.

Other than that, we have kept ourselves busy with our usual fall things, including, oh, let's see - the first day of school? Is it possible I am just now writing about that? So yes, we had the first day of school. The year is off to a good start for both kiddos. We have conferences next week, so we'll see what the teachers have to say. I don't expect any surprises.

We went camping with our usual camping crew at William O'Brien State Park. What a nice place! If you want to camp close to the Cities, I highly recommend it. And not having to drive 2-plus hours on Sunday afternoon was an added bonus. (Also: nearby shopping in the super cute Marine-on-St. Croix.) We had a fun time, and were only yelled at once by the park ranger. (According to Ben, this was my fault. I was allegedly laughing too loudly. Imagine that.)

We celebrated Christopher's 6th birthday in early October, complete with a Ghost in the Graveyard-themed birthday party. He had a ball. We also made the trip to the Snuffy's in Bloomington for his birthday dinner. (They still love that place, even though it is no longer right down the street.) His local grandparents came over for cake on the Sunday following his birthday. It was a good celebration.

No fall would be complete without a visit to the apple orchard, which we did in mid-October. It rained a bit, but that didn't stop us. (I complained about it the most, if I am being honest.) 

Clare finished her first soccer season. Her team only won one game, but she enjoyed it. As long as she is having fun, I am happy to let her keep playing. She didn't seem to care all that much if they won or lost. She may not have much competitive fire. All well.

Christopher started playing basketball at the Y. He loves it, but oh boy. He is not good. Maybe his skills will develop as he practices more. Again, he is having fun, which is all that matters.

I was busy with the school's annual fundraiser. It was another successful year for the PTO! I also chaperoned a class field trip to the apple orchard with Clare's class. I always enjoying seeing her class and meeting her friends.

And of course, Halloween. We had lots of Halloween fun, including trick or treating at nearby businesses, my friend Heather's annual Halloween party, trick or treating in our neighborhood, and trick or treating at the amazing Sargent Avenue block party. Clare went as a butterfly and Christopher was Batman for the party and a Storm Trooper on Halloween.

Last thing: why can't we wait for a few weeks after Halloween to start thinking about Christmas? Seeing all of the stuff in the stores makes me start planning for that holiday, and I am just not ready! If I start thinking about it now, I will be so sick of it by the actual day. I am going to resist society and not think about it for at least two more weeks! End of speech.

First day of third grade! (With an almost-Kindergartner photo bomb.)

Kindergarten!

Go Blackhawks! Clare is in the green headband.

Celebrating this guy's 6th birthday.

Cousins.

At Crosby Farms Park over MEA weekend. You really forget you are in the middle of a city at this place.

Apple orchard fun! 

Ice cream with Meema after a play at Stepping Stone Theatre. I love living in the city!

Green hair. Perfect look for when he joins a boy band. (I say this because he frequently sings in a voice that reminds me n'Sync.)

Christopher and his friend Shepherd at the school fun run.

Clare and her best friend Natalie on the apple orchard field trip.

Halloween fun!

This is 40

Now that I am 40, I thought I should look back and assess how my life is going so far. Just kidding! I am not opening that door.

It seems like I should be more anxious about turning 40, but I feel calm. Between Christopher starting kindergarten and this milestone birthday, a new chapter is about to begin. That is exciting.

Instead of having a party, Ben and I took a trip together to celebrate both of our 40th birthdays. We spent five days in Michigan. Just us, no kids. We really needed that time together. (And even though Ben would tell you that I was really boring with my conversation topics, we had a nice time. Conversations topics included: how the less than stellar weather didn't affect our activities, and how busy each restaurant we walked by was.)

We first went to Traverse City. We climbed dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Man, I am out of shape. It is beautiful, though. We took a wine tour on Old Mission Peninsula. You don't have to be in shape to do that. The wine was good and the scenery (bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan) was incredible.

We traveled to Mackinac Island, which is just lovely. Situated on Lake Heron, no cars are allowed on the island. I felt like I had traveled back in time. We spent time hiking, exploring the old fort, shopping, hot-tubbing, and eating and drinking delicious food.

It was lovely.

A few years ago I created a 40 x 40 list of things I wanted to try to do before I turned 40. Well, I only did about half of those. Some of the things are probably never going to happen (knit a hat), while some things might happen before I turn 50? Either way, it doesn't matter. It was fun, but I am not going to get too worked up about it.

I celebrated with my best friends on Monday with a trip to an Escape Room and beer at Lake Monster, which was a super fun way to start the week. Today, I celebrated with a pedicure with my friend Krista, lunch out with my mother-in-law, and dinner out with Ben and the kids.  It was a nice day, and a great way to start my forties.

At Sleeping Bear Dunes. 

Lake Michigan.

Wineries on Old Mission.

Getting our history on at Fort Mackinac.

Ben likes reading signs.

Famous limestone arch on Mackinac Island.

That's not apple juice.

Our hotel on Mackinac: the historic Island House Hotel. We had a view of Lake Huron.