Winter 2017

Now that it's officially spring, let's look back on winter!

It was a very mild winter, but in early January we did get one snow day out of it!  Lissie's school cancelled after I attempted the snowy drive in, but luckily I turned right around before making it onto the highway because it was a massive mess.  I was afraid that I wouldn't make it back up the hill to go home, and I had only traveled about a mile and a half!  The snow was quick in coming, and it was great snow for sledding in - we started off using makeshift sleds and transitioned to real ones when our neighbor came over to play.  Of course we had hot cocoa and cookies to warm us up in between bouts of outside playtime.  But the best part was that it melted quickly and didn't put too much of a damper on life!

A round of Scrabble, Jr. between playing in the snow

Winter was also the season for road trips, starting with a visit to Chattanooga over MLK weekend.  It was a halfway meeting spot from Lissie's godmother who now lives in Atlanta, and we also met up with another mutual friend from Nashville.  We had fun eating good eats, visiting the Aquarium, and seeing Rock City.  And I discovered my new favorite hotel chain: Staybridge Suites.

I also went on a silent retreat in Alabama with a close friend in early February.  It was probably the best thing I have done for myself in a while.  It was actually quite invigorating and eye-opening to be silently contemplative for a weekend, and I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat.

Then over President's Day weekend, we trekked up to Cincinnati so that Justin could get over his snowboarding itch, and I could visit another Staybridge Suites (haha).  The weather was milder than he would've liked, so he only got one day on the slopes in but got to hang out with us - and our Cincinnati (and Nashville) friends for the rest of the trip.  We took Rupert this time, and he was actually a decent traveller!  We checked out the Cincinnati Children's Museum, Loveland Castle, a few parks, IKEA, and hung out at the hotel pool.

This past winter we also hosted a few Meatball nights and family playdates, which are always fun ways to pass time with friends.

Lissie also had her Three Piggy Opera and her birthday.

The cutest little straw peddler

And a post-show Sweet Cece's treat for a job well done!

And, just like that, the season has ended and another one has begun.  Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

All things Christmas-y 2016

This year's Christmas PJs!

I know, it's almost Easter and I'm just now finally getting around to reviewing Christmas.  This post has been looming over my head, and I've been wanting to do it if only for the purpose of having something to look back on later.  But, alas, busyness happens and the blog gets pushed further and further down on my ever growing to-do list!  But here goes - a recap of Advent, Christmas, and all that good end of the year stuff from 2016!

As usual, I tried to incorporate "church-y" Advent activities along with secular Christmas fun.  We did the Advent chocolate calendar along with the little Advent book tree that tells the story of the Nativity to help countdown to Christmas.  We went to the Christmas parade downtown on the same day we met St. Nicholas at St. Mary's Bookstore.  We participated in the Christmas Basket Program at St. Philip and also saw Opryland ICE!  We celebrated St. Lucia Day and we also went on a tour of Christmas lights around town with hot chocolate in tow.  We saw about a gazilion Santas, while we also made Christmas blessing bags to give to area homeless.  We made Christmas cookies and decorated a gingerbread, but we also made Happy Birthday, Jesus cards and a birthday cake.

Along with the cookies for Santa, we also made a birthday cake/cards for Jesus

 

Sunnyside Christmas Lights


St. Philip Christmas Basket Program





Xavier's Christmas Party at school


Lissie's Christmas play

Christmas Card time

St. Lucy

 

 

Christmas Parade!

How many pictures with Santas and Christmas Trees can we get?  I'm pretty sure there are more, but who knows what happened to them!

 

 

 

Christmas itself was lowkey.  Justin worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, so aside from Christmas Mass we lounged at home and ate and played.

Waiting for the "OK" to check out their loot!

Reading Santa's letter

She was actually quite thrilled by the gift of new uniforms, haha.

The rest of Christmas break was spent having fun checking out possible venues for Lissie's birthday party (we tried Sky Zone, Glow Galaxy, Above All, Monkey's Treehouse, to name a few) and taking a mini-trip to Memphis for Lolo's birthday.  We also saw went to the movies and saw Moana and Sing!

 

Lolo's birthday was a perfect excuse to try
a banana pudding cheesecake in the Instant Pot!

New Year's was pretty uneventful.  We celebrated the Noon Year at the library and then stayed up "late" having a Game Night.  We ran in the new year early, thanks to Netflix's countdown videos.

Happy Noon Year!

Blokus

 
 

And, with that, now it's 2017.  Keep on keepin' on!