So Much to Celebrate

We had another really fun weekend! Friday night, we went over to help Nana with her giant tree since she needed our big ladder:

Kai got to experience decorating Nana's tree, which was hysterical on so many levels. We had no idea he had never decorated a tree before. His family has the cool tradition where the parents decorate and then reveal the tree Christmas Eve. Nana has the world's most organized tree, so it was hysterical. We all laughed all night, but Kai's final evaluation was "it wasn't very efficient." I'm still chuckling.

Dad also started rearranging the snowmen so they can admire the tree:

Saturday we had the neighborhood cookie walk:

It is such a fun event, and this year was even lower stress!

And, Issa's college decision was officially announced on the school's social pages:

 It has been so fun to see so many people in her village repost and celebrate her!

I'm officially off work until January, and today is the kids' last day of school. We still have wrestling, but we are so looking forward to settling in for a very merry Christmas.

All's Well That Ends Well

 Yesterday afternoon and evening was just a hot mess express!

Issa and I got caught in an accident on the way to our facials, so we were late. Thankfully, they were still able to give us our full treatment because we were their last clients of the day! Amazing! That meant we would have to book it home to get Issa to dance and make it to Evan's wrestling tournament.

We walk our from facials and the car battery is dead. We hadn't left anything on; it had just reached the end of the road. Not amazing. We call AAA, but it will be an hour until they get there, and where I am parked it's impossible to get a jump. We let the studio know Issa will not make it to dance, and Brad comes to tag in to wait for AAA so I can head to the meet. 

AAA comes and can jump it but can tell we also need a replacement, so Brad goes to Advance Auto, who was awesome! They replaced the battery and were super nice.

Issa and I missed Evan's first exhibition, but we got there to see the second. He lost on points in the first and got pinned in the second. This team was incredible, and Evan now has a goal to learn more cradle escapes. That was their move, and all but two of our Varsity guys got pinned last night.

It was not a stellar night on a lot of fronts.

BUT:

The car is good to go, and while we missed some things, it was also not the world's worst timing. No one missed anything mission critical.

Evan was in good company getting pinned, and he is still able to view his freshman year as a growing season. I so appreciative of his attitude.

I got some extra time with Issa, which I will always take as college gets closer and closer.

And...we got word last night that Stephanie went down with a stomach bug. It's been going around the studio--so much so they closed Wednesday to try to get ahead of it. But Stephanie was the one who cleaned, so I'm not sure how successful that was. I'm glad Issa was spared another exposure.

We all got to sit around the table when we got home last night and catch up. Everyone was good, and we are ready for the weekend.

Book 36

I finished book 36 this morning:

I love this series, and I'm very invested in the characters. There is nothing remarkable about the book, but it's just a nice, easy read, which is really lovely at this point in the semester.
 

Life is a blur right now-- a good blur, but a blur none the less. So...this is a random dump!

Our tree is finally decorated. Issa hung the first ornament, her new Meredith one:

I love our tree. Every ornament is a memory, and it makes me blissfully happy just to sit and look at it:

Buddy the Elf is still bringing much holiday happiness, and I love that my teenagers still wake up every morning and look for him. They are also both fully invested in whatever the day's activity is:

But the biggest news is Evan got to do two official varsity matches this weekend, and he got a pin in his first:

 He got pinned in the second, but coach was impressed he held in as long as he did. Only two of our starters won their matches against that team. He learned something in it, though, and he was still so excited. 

Book 35

I received this whole series of books for Christmas years ago, and I am finally making time to read them:

I loved the television series, and the books are every bit as good. It's a great period piece set in the late 1700s in Cornwall. I'm already half way through book two, and I'm so grateful I have the complete set to look forward to!
 

Big Weekend

We had a huge weekend around here. Evan competed in a wrestling tournament Friday night and got his first two official wins of his high school career:

His first match was over in 43 seconds; he won with a massive pin. His second match he won on points 5-3 after two blood delays for the other guy's busted lip. He has gotten so much better since his first tournament a couple of weeks ago. He is learning how to be more aggressive and just try something.

Saturday, Issa had her team dance pictures:

It went so well, and we actually finished early!

Sunday, we had the town holiday parade:

Issa was so excited to dance in her last parade:

It was bizarrely warm for December, but we stayed dry!