A New Outlook

After months of waiting, we finally got our new kitchen door installed this week:

Our old sliding door was literally falling apart. Brad had a mallet handy to tap the frame back on the glass, and the sliding function had become lift and pray. We are thrilled with our new door, especially since we ditched all the little squares and have just clear glass:

 The kitchen feels so much bigger, and we love being able to see the yard even more! Now we just need to stop panicking because we think we left the door open.

The Beginning of Holly Jolly

Following tradition, we headed to the Fire Department Friday to be there right when they opened the tree lot! They had some more unusual trees this year, and Brad really wanted one:

I think Issa's face sums up how that went. We did use Evan as a measuring stick to be sure we got the perfect sized tree:

And we did!

Nana also found a huge tree:

We got Nana's up:

And then ours:

After a pizza dinner, we got out the Christmas dishes:

And Saturday Issa and I got the rest of the decorations out, with some help from Inks:

As always the teddy bear tree was first, and it moved downstairs this year:

I love this time of the year, and I love unpacking all of the memories with each decoration!
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a really, really lovely Thanksgiving! Issa and I spent a lot of Wednesday prepping, which made Thursday a dream. I love our little table filled with family dishes and linens (and a vintage set of plates I bought from a friend's antique shop):

The gluten-free pie crusts actually cooperated, too!

We finished cooking while watching the Macy's parade, and then Shannon and Mom joined for lunch:

Brad did the traditional carving with an assist from Issa. My turkey got finished nearly an hour early, but it was probably the best I've made:

We also have Mom her annual Nespresso Advent calendar:

She was delighted:

We spent the afternoon playing board games, watching Christmas movies, and just being. It was truly lovely. 

 

A Full Kitchen

This year, Brad joined the HOA Board with the sole goal of trying to move the Board to be more community minded. Pre-covid, we had a pretty active little neighborhood, and now we are trying to bring that back.

Last night, we hosted a group of Board members and couple of extras to start planning our first big event: a holiday cookie walk. People will put treats out at the end of their driveways, and neighbors will wander the neighborhood looking at the lights and enjoying treats. The board will have hot beverages at the two playgrounds. It should be fun!

But what was surreal was having people gathered in my kitchen again. We did a got cocoa bar and cookies. We had to pull in extra chairs. At times I was distracted because there were so many conversations in my kitchen. It felt good to gather again, and I can't wait to see this event come to life.

What a Weekend!

We had an absolutely incredible weekend! Friday night, we headed back to the Chinese Lantern Festival, and Nana joined this year:

We thought there might be a new lantern or two, but we were shocked to discover it is a completely new display every year. The first segment was all birds, which made Nana very happy:

Where the cherry blossoms had been last year, a huge imperial palace stood:

Very rarely do the kids play at exhibits any more, but they both had a blast Friday night making stars change colors:

And popping smoke filled bubbles:

We got some great pictures with some of the lanterns:

The dinosaur lanterns had us all having too much fun and laughing way too hard:

It was a very cold night, but it was so fun. It will definitely be an annual tradition now!

Saturday, Issa and I went to DPAC to see Hairspray:

We had started at Mellow Mushroom and did some Christmas plotting. It was just a fun night out!

And we ended the weekend at the ballet:

They did Balenchine's Emeralds and then an original work to Beethoven's ninth that broke my brain. In addition to a full orchestra, they had a full chorus singing. Almost the entire company was on stage for Ode to Joy, and it was truly spectacular. I've never been to a ballet that also had a chorus, but I hope they do another soon!

We all have two days of school before we start the Thanksgiving cooking, and we can't wait!

 

That's Real

This came in the mail yesterday:

Issa has been getting college mail for a while now, but this was the first piece that came to Brad and I. We are deep in the college search, and Issa has narrowed it down to three to tour this spring. It's just all getting very real...

Well This Is Exciting

After a full day of stalking the website and making sure my computer never went to sleep, this happened:

Issa, Allyson, and I are going to see Taylor Swift in Chicago this summer! We are crashing with Shannon, who will join us for the concert. This should be our view:

They are not the best seats, but they are far from the worst, and we will be there! I entered the waiting room at 8:30, and I finally got tickets at 4 while sitting in the carpool line! This will be one of those weekends none of us will ever forget!

 

The Chickens Crossed the Road!

This picture isn't awesome, but it finally happened yesterday:

The chickens crossed the road! There is a flock of free-range chickens beside the middle school, and yesterday they decided to cross during morning carpool. I was a little too delighted, which cracked Evan up. We've been there for six years, and this is the first time we have actually seen the chickens cross the road!
 

A Trip to the Highlands

We spend an absolutely blissful weekend near Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. We returned to the same little cabin we had last year, which is just perfect for the four of us. It's nestled in the woods and has a great porch that is just meant for coffee sipping:

It also has a lovely creek for enjoying:

But the real draw is it's a ten minute drive from Grayson Highlands:

We spent Saturday morning and early afternoon hiking in beautiful 50 degree weather:

Evan got to do some tree climbing:

Issa enjoyed a much improved knee over last year (it was shortly after this trip that we started PT last year):

We hiked a little farther this year:

And we climbed a lot more rocks:

We also followed the pony trails rather than the main trails, and we were rewarded with some great views of the ponies:

Evan also found some great rocks in this stream:

Back at the cabin, we played two new games we picked up on the way. Salem requires some thought but is really fun:

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza requires no thought but is super fun! It's a combo of BS, charades, and slap jack. Only minor blood was spilled; Issa's nail impaled Evan's palm. We ate cozy food and just enjoyed being together, and Sunday morning we woke up to snow flurries:

The temperature was in the high 20s, but the ninjas had to say goodbye to the creek:

I love these cozy weekends where we can get away for a bit!
 

A Practice in Gratitude

 

Every once in a while I realize that what I do at work could only happen because I lead an education department. One of my big goals as department chair is to help people take time to celebrate and create a true team culture. Thanksgiving is a great time to do all of that, and so I launched two gratitude activities yesterday!

To celebrate our individual gifts, I made hand turkeys:

We will each draw a random person and write what we are grateful for about them on the feathers. We will then exchange them at the last meeting before Thanksgiving!

Our students have also been driving us nuts; it's that time of the semester, so I made a giant turkey for the office door:

Faculty are adding things we appreciate about our students to the tail feathers, and by Thanksgiving we should have a full tail.

I was giddy, and people are excited to participate. It's simple, and it's a great way to model these kinds of activities for our students. And really, who couldn't use a little more practice in gratitude.