The window of time between Christmas and New Years is often just a blur. I had lots of things I wanted to accomplish, but very few actually got done. ;) But I did manage to make time for games and craft projects with the kids, and those memories will be more valuable than house projects completed anyway.
Before I forget what happened before Christmas and the blur to New Years, I want to be sure to jot it down. :)
Mid-December we enjoyed a night out at Josh's company Christmas party. Every year there is some sort of theme at the company party. This year, it was a dance party, and a couple of Josh's co-workers were the DJ's. They played a lot of fun old music from our high school days. I kicked off my heels and we had so much fun dancing! Selah snapped our photo before we headed out.
We took the photo booth pretty seriously.
Josh and I have a little tradition of ending the night by taking a photo by this tree in the lobby.
We always drive home feeling really blessed. We have so much to be grateful for and always want to remember that!
A couple days later we celebrated this handsome boy's 8th birthday! It was a great day and I shared about it here in my last post.
We spontaneously went out for pizza one Sunday with lots of family, on both sides, and had a great time! Josh and his brother razzed each other a bit and made us all laugh. And of course the kids loved playing with cousins.
We had a game night at our house with our friends Paul, Stephanie, and my brother Matt. (Poor Gina was sick & Caleb couldn't make it.)
We probably played five different games that night, but our favorite was 6 Nimmt! We keep trying to buy it, but it's always sold out when we check. If you haven't played it before, it's worth checking out.
The kids played laser tag, watched a movie, and made some stop motion movies together.
Josh, Matt, Gina and I have really enjoyed getting to help out with the worship team at our church. We're the newbies, and have learned so much from the team. Most of them have been playing music together for quite a while. This photo was taken one evening after practice, and I love the personalities coming through. :)
Josh spontaneously drove us through the "Pepsi lights" a few more times. ;)
We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with both sides of our family, and at home with the kids! I'll have to put all of those photos in a post all it's own since there's no shortage of photos. ;) 💚
Matt and Gina had us and Caleb over Christmas evening for games and snacks. Good times.
You know those people you meet who instantly feel like a kindred spirit? That's what my friend Hannah is like. She's a gem and I'm so thankful for her friendship.
We had our friends, the Smiths, over for lunch and Spades (card game). We had such a great time catching up and Selah loved having the girls here.
We spent a sunny afternoon at the park, letting the kids drift on their scooters.
And we found a beautiful walking path! We want to visit this one again in the summertime.
See my purple scarf? Selah stayed up each night, after bed tuck-in, for weeks before Christmas knitting it for me! It was a huge surprise Christmas morning. I love it! She's an amazing girl with a very sweet heart.
We stopped by our friends' farm to visit their cute new puppy.
He's only 8 weeks old, but he's already so big!
We stopped by Dad and Janet's that evening too, and had Thai take-out with Dad and Lucy the cat. We missed Janet, as she was at her mom's, caring for her. But it sure was fun getting to catch up with Dad and listen to good music together, and enjoy Lucy snuggles.
We spent a day working on our garden, cleaning it up, and prepping it for winter/spring. We have a dozen raised garden beds that I'm excited to garden next year!
Our friends, John & Hannah, and their cute kids, joined us for dinner and hang out time on New Year's Eve. We celebrated East Coast time this year and loved how chill it was.
Pearl's face in this pic is priceless.
Our kids have enjoyed the adventure of our back creek a lot this winter. The water is higher and rushing a bit more. They find snails and little fish and sometimes tiny eel in the creek.
Other than our field, much of our (almost) six acre property needs some cleaning up still. Things like tree removal, brush/ivy cleared out, yard landscaping, etc. We're avoiding buying a tractor since our plan is to only live here another year and a half, but we're still trying to figure out what to hire out and what to do ourselves. This property has more potential since it has a forest, field, outbuildings, orchard, garden and creek. I'm great at visualizing what can be done with a house interior, but when it comes to the outdoors, it's not so easy. I've been trying to study up on it more, so we can zero in on what changes we'd like to make and where. We want it to feel clean and inviting, but not spend every weekend on it either. We'll get there!
We have a couple little waterfalls along the creek, which I love. This one has a tree growing in the middle of it. :)
There's the same waterfall behind Selah in this photo to give some perspective.
Sheri & her boys came to visit for a day before their school started back up. The kids always love being together. They brought Ben a Lego set for his birthday. So thoughtful!
They made funny little videos on Sheri's phone.
The kids also spent lots of time playing around the property with walkie-talkies, and they got dirty building forts. A sign of a good time! Sheri and I were content to stay indoors where it was warm. We sipped on our tea and coffee while she caught me up on all the current details in their lives.
Even though it's winter, there's a lot of beauty around us. I'm thankful for how dry it's been, for the most part.
Josh showed me this the other day and I liked it. It's a good spot to end as we reflect on the year ahead.
Happy 2019!
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