Week 52 Around Here {2019}

Spending... time with my parents who came to stay with us after Romy's adoption.  It was the first time they met our new dog, Grady and I was so excited for them to see him.  We grew up with German shepherds.  First Buddy, then Kramer, so my dad is a huge fan of them.  And my mom loves all dogs.  So they were really happy to pet him and get to know him. They brought their dog Juno, who thankfully got along great with Grady, and they had so much fun playing together!  Carly adores Juno and spent nearly the entire time my parents were here in Juno's crate with Juno, singing her songs.

Seeing... Jumanji at the theater with my mom, Logan & Wyatt while my dad and Jack went to see the most recent Star Wars movie.  Logan vacillated about what to see until we got to the theater and saw a warning that the Star Wars movie had some light scenes that could trigger seizures in certain people and the decision was made for him.  (He has light sensitive epilepsy- during his EEG the light part triggered seizures in him) For that same reason we couldn't see the newest Incredibles in the theater.  As a mom, I'm just grateful they have those warnings out for kids like Logan.
And luckily he really liked Jumanji.

Ice skating... with my parents and my sister's crew during their visit.  We had so much fun! I was not sure if it would be a good time.  Especially when Carly said she wanted to come along.  (She's never been before!) But it ended up being great! She did awesome, as did my other three, and we all had a blast skating around together. 

Grateful... for my sister & her husband's thoughtfulness when they came to meet Grady for the first time.  They brought antlers for him to use as chew toys and he LOVES them!! Merry Christmas, Grady!

Hosting... a dinner for my mom's birthday (the 23rd) for my parents and sister's family.  Josh did the cooking while we were ice skating with the kids.  The night before, my mom and I made pumpkin pie and pudding pie.  Carly was disappointed we didn't have an actual cake for dessert since it was mom's birthday. Ha!

Opening... books on Christmas Eve, per our family tradition, and making cinnamon rolls while the boys read them.  Then we watched Home Alone and had pizza (our other Christmas Eve tradition) with four of us in matching jammies. (thanks mom!)  I bought Josh a special edition of The Giver quartet by Lois Lowry, which includes all four books in the series so he can read the additional three to the boys.  (He read the first one, The Giver, to them last month.)

Celebrating... Christmas with early morning present opening (hello 6:30am) and cinnamon rolls.  Yum.  It was a great, cozy, slow moving morning.  I spent nearly all of it on the couch watching back episodes of Alaska The Last Frontier and napping as my cold from the week before was coming back with a vengeance.
Then we hosted Josh's parents, brother and his girlfriend.  Again, Josh did all the cooking that needed to be done on our end.  He's just the best. His parents brought a lot as well and we enjoyed quite the feast.

Soaking... up all the snuggles and slow mornings while the kids are off school. It's so nice to wake up and stay in our jammies for hours while hanging out together watching TV, reading and playing games.  I know I will be ready for our routine when the new year comes and school starts back up, but for now, I am enjoying every relaxed minute.

Feeling... so blessed to have had such a beautiful holiday with everyone, all sides of our family.  I'm so grateful that it worked out for my parents to come up for some of the holiday for Romy's adoption, and that Josh's parents are living here where we are now.  It's been so amazing having them here.  And Josh's brother, too.  We're just so, so lucky.

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