A Very Merry Christmas Break

We had an absolutely lovely Christmas break. I literally did not turn my computer on the entire time, so this will be a big catch up!

We started the official festivities the day Aunt Shannon landed on Thursday with our annual sugar cookie adventure. Kai joined this year, and it was his first time making this kind of cookie:

The siblings humored me with one decent picture:

And we created our usual crazy assortment of cookies:

Nana did request one plate of normal ones to take to the neighbors, and we managed to make that happen.

Saturday poor Nana went down with a stomach bug, so Shannon and I took Issa shopping. We did get plenty of dressing room door footage to share, and Issa humored us with a full fashion show! 

Christmas Eve was at Nana's house:

Our pajamas celebrated Issa's college choice this year:

We had a great evening of mashed potato bar, gift giving, and watching Frosty the Snowman for research purposes (more to come on that later).

Christmas morning saw Santa's arrival at our place:

Evan has a pretty big ask, so he was surprised to still see three packages under the tree for him:

Santa brought his requested VR headset along with some video gaming fuel in the form of chips and soda.

Issa's Christmas started her college preparation, and Santa brought her all things coffee, including a Nespresso, pod drawer, and cups:

Nana and Shannon joined us for a charcuterie lunch:

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing a Christmas version of Dungeons and Dragons and cooking. Brad smoked turkey and pork belly, and Mom and Shannon brought sweet potato latkes and brussel sprouts.

The next day Shannon went down with the bug, so our final celebrating was delayed until Thursday when we did a Frosty themed Cake Wars.

Brad and Shannon's team stuck to the central character with their stacked cake pops and rice krispie treat hat:

Mom and I recreated the green house scene where Frosty saves his friend but melts in the process:

We had a tough team of judges, but they ultimately awarded Brad and Shannon the win:

New Year's Eve found us back at our place finishing the D&D campaign while munching all the things: cheesy potatoes, potato skins, and Greek nachos. New Year's Day we finished the whole to-do list at Nana's house before Shannon flew home! I managed to take not a single picture.

The rest of the week was a lovely combination of cozy and chaos. There were snuggly fires:

I finished book 37:

I'm still enjoying the series, and it was nice to have some extra time to read! I also started cross-stitching again, which has been lovely.

We also had two wrestling tournaments:

Both were two day tournaments with top teams from across the region. Evan learned a lot, but he didn't get a win at either one.

I will be forever grateful for this coaching team, though:

They have to be exhausted by they just keep showing up and coaching! Evan is still enjoying wrestling, and he's excited to have the varsity starting position at the meet tonight!

Brad and I are back to work, and the kids went back to school today! It's looking the 2024 is going to be a great one...