A Week In Review

Tonight I return to work after being off for 6 days. The best thing about being off was being able to spend time with my family. Naturally, I had my camera ready and caught many wonderful moments.

Wednesday

We were very minimal with the ornaments we put on the tree this year. Ella is all about the tree and the lights already. The special ones we did put up were more toward the top of the tree, while the “generic” ones were toward the bottom of the tree. Ella can reach over the gate that we have around the tree and gets to those. It was probably smart to keep the extra fragile ones in the box this year.

We did make sure to put AJ’s ornament close to Ella’s matching ornament from last year, though.

Wednesday, my brother sent a package to the kids with a few outfits from the Disney store. I am pretty sure that my kids first Disney trip will be accompanied by Uncle Chris! He sent Ella a Christmas Minnie Mouse, who she has been hugging on since she arrived.

My wife is a “Pinterest Mom.” She is always on there looking for things. She found a recipe for homemade Play-Doh. It was messier to make than to play with. It consisted of cake frosting and powdered sugar. Once it was made, Sam gave Ella a rolling pin and cookie cutters and they were playing with it. She certainly had fun.

Thanksgiving Day

Our family stayed home this year. With Covid numbers rising, we felt it best to just celebrate at home. A few years ago, I bought a silly turkey hat at the Christmas Tree Store. Ella took pictures in it last year, and naturally, I had to pull it out again to get more!

Last year’s picture is her in this same hat in front of the Christmas tree, too. AJ is just too small for the hat to fit him, but I had to get at least one of him in his “First Thanksgiving” shirt near it …

Once the turkey was in the oven, I sat down to watch the Detroit Lions lose another game. It seems like they always find ways to lose! It looked like they actually might win this one, but as usual, stupid penalties helped them add another “L” to their record.

Friday

I can say that in my entire life, I have only been Black Friday shopping once! That was enough. We spent the day relaxing at home on Friday. My wife went out briefly to run a couple errands, but no shopping was done!

We’ve been trying to get AJ as much “floor time” as we can. As I sat next to him on the floor, Ella came over and decided she was going to lay next to him. There was lots of laughter and giggling.

Saturday

I picked Dimitri up in the afternoon and he pretty much stayed in his room playing on the X-Box. He brought over some game called Halo. It’s one of those “kill the aliens” games. While he was doing that, I was watching the U of M/Ohio State game. As a Michigander, whether you are a Michigan State fan or U of M fan, you ALWAYS root for whoever is playing Ohio State.

I wasn’t really sure if the Wolverines were going to pull off a win, and there were many sports folks saying that Ohio State was probably going to win. I was happy to see Michigan walk away with the win. So was AJ, who celebrated on Ella’s U of M blanket!

Sunday

It snowed pretty much all day on Sunday. Dimitri usually stays with me until evening, but said he wanted to go home around 2:30 that afternoon. When I returned home, I noticed that the snow was perfect “Snowman making” snow. I grabbed Ella’s snow pants and got her dressed and we went outside.

She walked around the yard and wasn’t sure what to make of things. I made a snowball and started rolling it for the bottom of our snowman. She watched me and I tried to get her to help me. She was more interested in just sitting in the snow or laying in it. The snowman was never completed.

Instead, we walked around to the front of the house, where she sat and pointed out the colors of the oversized Christmas bulbs. She then returned to the back yard, where I grabbed the sled that Sam’s dad gave us. I placed her in it and pulled her around the yard. At first, she seemed confused by it, but by the middle of the ride, she was all smiles!

She eventually walked back to the trampoline, which was covered in snow, and wanted to jump on it. Why not!? She had a blast! I could see that her nose was red and I knew it was time to bring her in the house, but that was a challenge. She loves being outside! I eventually talked her into going to see mommy inside. I had so much fun with her outside! Hopefully, next snowfall, we’ll finish that snowman!

Monday

I had my physical Monday morning. It went sort of how I expected it would. I will probably blog about it in more detail separately.

The highlight of the entire day was close to bedtime. I was reading Ella some books, which as soon as I was finished with, she’d take them to mom to read. As I took this picture, and reflected on Thanksgiving, I realized just how lucky I am and how thankful I am for my family.

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A COVID Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020 is now a memory. It was very different from Thanksgivings of the past, to be sure. It was, however, a very wonderful day!

Thursday – Turkey Day

Ella was up bright and early! I had to put the turkey in water to finish thawing it. We got her dressed and ready for her “First Thanksgiving” pictures, which came out great!

Once the turkey was thawed, prepped and in the oven, I realized our meat thermometer was broken. The last thing I wanted to do was head to the store. I didn’t even know if there were stores open! I lucked out and the little grocery store down the road was open. I walked over to the aisle with the kitchen stuff, only to find that all the meat thermometers were gone. Someone had even stolen some from the packaging and left the open package on the hook.

I went to the deli and asked if there would be any other place in the store that there might be a meat thermometer. She said no. I began to walk out of the store when a guy tapped me on the shoulder. He asked if I was looking for a meat thermometer, and I said yes! He had one in his hand and told me to follow him. He explained that they had just moved to the area and they actually had one, but they couldn’t find it because it was still packed in a box. He said it was his only reason for being in the store! He took me over to the candy aisle, where there was a small rotating rack with a few kitchen utensils on it – and two meat thermometers! I was so grateful! He wished me a happy Thanksgiving and we parted ways.

While I let the turkey cool, Sam finished up the mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. Ella sat in her high chair and anxiously awaited her first feast!

By the time she finished, she was wearing her meal! She had mashed potatoes in her ears, her nose, and her eyes!! She really enjoyed her dinner!!

Thanksgiving was typical in that the Detroit Lions lost miserably! This led to the GM and head coach being fired. One can only hope that someone will finally hire the right people. I would love to see them reach the Super Bowl (and hopefully win one) in my lifetime!

Friday – Black Friday

I am not a Black Friday shopper! However, I was this year – not by choice! I needed to get tires for our car. I shopped around getting prices and found that Belle Tire had some Black Friday rebates, and had the best deal. I used to go to this mom and pop tire place who did great work, and had great prices, but sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has put them permanently out of business.

I was shocked at the line of people waiting to get in at 7am! I was lucky to be fourth in line and I was in and out in just over an hour! Kudo to those folks!

When I returned home Friday, I checked off another project I had on my list. We bought some canvas pictures to hang in the baby’s room months ago. They have been sitting in the box, awaiting me to hang them. Before I went to pick up my son, I measured it all out and got them hung up on the wall. I just love these pictures!

We spent the evening last night watching Christmas movies. My son and my wife had both mentioned that the sequel to The Christmas Chronicles was now on Netflix. We had all enjoyed the first one (Kurt Russell stars in it) and we decided to watch the first one again before watching the second. I found that I still enjoyed the first one very much. I can see it easily becoming a Christmas tradition.

Recurring Dream With a Twist

I am closing in on test time for my Bible classes. I have a week’s worth of classes to finish and then four tests to take! I mentioned this to my wife, so it must have been on my mind when I went to bed. At any rate, I often have a recurring dream where I am at school and I sit down to take a test and my mind goes completely blank! I panic! I freak! I usually wake up with my heart racing.

So I had a dream last night that was similar. Sure enough, I am sitting in a classroom (which is odd because my classes are on DVD and I take them at home) and the teacher passes out the tests. The first thing I notice is that the tests are about 45 pages stapled together! I open the test and I can’t even read the thing. I turn the page and there are some words I can make out, but nothing makes sense. With each page turn, I feel more and more scared. I have no idea what I am looking at! I begin to pull my notes out and try to cheat!! The teacher comes over and obviously has caught me . Needless to say, I wake up at this point with heart racing and glad it was just a dream!

Now I’m wondering how hard these tests are going to be!!

I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday!!