Updates

Life continues to be a bit of whirlwind! Evan is wrestling his little heart out. He is having a great season, and his team if currently 15-1, which is amazing:

In the midst of the the crazy, I am really trying to soak in the Christmas season. I'm living for the twinkle lights, and we made a special trip to McKay's to pick up Christmas vinyl. There is just something different about the crackle of records and familiar voices:

I also finished Book 31:

This is book two in the second series by one of my favorite authors. I love these characters and the relationship between them, and I know she has almost finished book three!

 

Book 30

I finished book 30 for the year yesterday:

This is the third book in this world. It's not really a series, but there is some character overlap among the books. All of the books are sweet love stories in a really interesting world, and this one absolutely did not disappoint. I didn't see the end coming at all, but it was absolutely perfect. These have a space on my forever bookshelf. 
 

Cancelled Plans

Brad and I were supposed to go to a UNC game yesterday. One of his friends got some comp tickets, and we were both really excited...until yesterday. We would have had to use a park and ride, and we were looking at a six hour minimum adventure. It's been a long week, and I just didn't want to deal with big crowds and navigating all of the things. So we cancelled.

We went to the grocery, ordered pizza, and decorated the tree:

The naked tree was making me sad, and unpacked all of the ornaments is always my favorite part. This year, we bought fake popcorn and cranberries from Williamsburg and only put non-breakable ornaments on the tree. We just didn't want to tempt fate with Bella.

Today, we have a snow day, so I'm grading by tree light and snuggling the pup. Sometimes cancelled plans really are the best.

 

I Finally Did It

I have had a morning date with this home gym for almost a year now:

I've had a couple of short breaks when I was sick, but four days on, one day off, I've been lifting.

When I started, there was so much I couldn't do. It took me months just to get the reps with zero weight, but I've been slowing adding weight, and this morning I finally added five pounds to the last exercise: barbell rows. It took me forever to just be able to row the bar, and it feels huge to now be adding more weight.

It feels good to feel strong.
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving long weekend. I started cooking Monday, and Issa came home Tuesday. By Thursday, we were able to just settle in and enjoy the holiday. My Thanksgiving table is always my favorite:

Silverware and glassware from grandparents, dishes from a friend's antique store, pottery napkin rings and gravy boat I made, and the new addition this year:

A Lego centerpiece assembled by the kids.

My turkey finished an hour early, but I really think it was our best yet:

The whole meal was actually perfect, and the beautiful weather let us venture out for a walk before settling in to watch Wicked and graze on leftovers:

Friday morning, we started with breakfast at our new favorite little spot before heading back to the fire station to get our trees:

It was a bit chilly for Issa's liking:

But we did get beautiful trees:

And we got all of Nana's outside decorations up:

Before we set our tree up:

We made balls from the Thanksgiving leftovers for Friday dinner, which we delicious, and Saturday we went to see the second installment of Wicked before trying a new taco place that is stellar!

Sunday, we all just rested, decorated, and generally enjoyed being. Even Bella slowed down a bit:

I also finished book 29:

This book club read is a Hallmark movie in book form. It was just fun and a great way to kick off the season.