Winter Break
Winter break was a good one overall- no school so that was very good; hosting Christmas so that was good for the kids, a lot of work for Donnie and me; hosting out of town family was good; going to bed super late and sleeping in was good for a few days but I knew that would not be good when school started; dealing with attitudes that at times were less than stellar- not good but normal(ish) I suppose with life with two and 11/12 teens.
The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated Jacob turning 18 (oh my!) with extended family. The five of us tried to celebrate Jacob's 18 birthday on his actual birthday but that was a fail. We went to the Pine Club on Thursday, the 20th. The Pine Club doesn't take reservations. We arrived there at 4:55 pm and there was already an hour and half wait. This was on a Thursday. We couldn't bear the thought of waiting that long (Donnie had met us at the restaurant after work meaning if we waited that long to eat, we likely wouldn't get home until 8:30 ish and then Donnie would have been gone from home for well over thirteen hours and he still had to go to work the next day). We tried another steakhouse but we didn't have reservations for that one (since we hadn't planned on eating there). So... we ate fast food. It was disappointing to not have a nice dinner at a steakhouse but we did have a tasty, if very much not classy, meal for Jacob's 18th.
We celebrated with extended family on Sunday, the 23rd. My brother John came on the 22nd and spent the night so that he could be with us to celebrate Jacob's birthday. My brother Joe and Kacia came, too, to celebrate and Donnie's family members who are in town (or close to town) came.
I wrote about Christmas Eve and Christmas here.. Both days were good. Busy but we got everything done that we needed to. We enjoyed spending time with family... and enjoyed the quiet and calm when everyone was gone on Christmas evening.
The next few days after Christmas were pleasantly uneventful- there was no meal to prepare for a crowd; in fact there were leftovers for the 26th meaning I didn't have to worry about making meals for lunch or dinner on the 26. Donnie took the 26th off of work, one of the rare days of the year, besides holidays, that he takes off. We didn't go anywhere except to run mundane errands. We enjoyed being at home- the kids had their new Christmas "things" and we were all in good moods from either all the things or all the sugar (in my case it was the latter)). The 27th and 28th were much like the 26th except that Donnie went to work.
On the 29th, we did things outside of the house (shocking, I know). Jacob and I ran an errand in the morning and then had breakfast/ lunch before heading home. In the early afternoon, the girls and I traveled up north (just one county north- we didn't go wild and crazy with travel) to shop in Kettering. Found some cute things for Alyssa's room including a desk chair and rolling cart thing.
In the late afternoon of the 29th, my sister and her girls arrived from Canada. They stayed for two days. We had a very nice visit. The one full day that they were here, the 30th, we talked about doing a number of things but in the end, the girls wanted to stay at home and play/ hang out together. Staying home was fine with Katy and me. The next day, we all went out to lunch together and then Katy and girls headed north to Indiana stay with friends and visit family there.
After the New Year, the kids only had two days off of school. Oh, this was cause for much complaining. The weather warmed up and I wanted to do something outside with the kids before they headed back to school. We decided to go to the Miamisburg Mound. We had never been to the Mound before. The Miamisburg Mound is an ancient burial site of the Adena Indians. It is the largest conical mound in Ohio and second largest east of the Mississippi River. While the weather was warmer than normal for the time of year, the day we went was overcast and windy. We climbed to the top of the mound (162 steps) and the wind was way worse at the top. We didn't stay long at the top due to the wind. We will definitely go back on a nicer day. After visiting the Mound, we drove to downtown Miamisburg. We hardly ever to go the city of Miamisburg despite it only being about 15 minutes away from our house- parts of it are charming and we want to go back and explore more on a nicer day. Our destination in the downtown was a candy shop called Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop. I know, we needed candy like we needed holes in our head but I wanted to check this store out after I read online reviews about it and I knew the kids would like it. This was a really charming candy store with a huge variety of all sorts of candy, novelty items and soda pop. We bought a few items and then headed home.
All too soon, the break was over. Back to reality. I'm really grateful that we were able to have a lot of downtime at home and were able to spend time with family and could experience celebrations like Jacob's birthday and Jesus' birth. This break was the calm before the storm of a busy winter and busier still spring: Alyssa started indoor soccer games this past weekend, will begin outdoor soccer practice by the end of January, weekend dance practices for Abby in addition to her weekly practices. Abby will be performing in the spring musical at the school. Spring will be a whirlwind of soccer games some of which will be as far away as South Carolina, Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh. Dance competitions will be in Indiana, Kentucky and in early summer, Tennessee. And then there's high school graduation at the very end of spring/ early summer.
Happy Birthday, Bubby! I made Jacob a cake and we also had fixins for an ice cream sundaes- chopped up Oreo's, peanuts, M&M's, Reese Cups and Rolos.
The icing that I made wasn't the, er, icing on the cake. I mean, it was literally the icing on the cake but it was not the icing on the cake in a good way. I messed up the recipe a bit... I think I know what I did wrong- we'll find out at Alyssa's birthday I guess.
Cousins
Girl cousins + Jacob
We had lunch one day at Las Piramides. Our favorite Mexican restaurant is closer to our house than Las Piramides but I had BOGO coupons to Las Piramides. With all of the expenses concomitant with the holidays, I figured any little bit of savings helped :). In addition, we do really like the food at LP 😃
Plus, the history is cool- the building is the site of Centerville's first high school. The building was constructed in 1885.
Cousins (and tortilla chips with homemade salsa) are the best!
The Tiny Hands Game was good for a lot of laughs...
Said good-bye to a pair of faithful fake trees, one of whose lights stopped working. These little guys looked nice on our small porch for many years; I am sad to have to replace them but thankful for their lights when they both worked.
The Miamisburg Mound
part of downtown Miamisburg
Candy- we didn't buy too much candy at the candy store; we showed some restraint :).
The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated Jacob turning 18 (oh my!) with extended family. The five of us tried to celebrate Jacob's 18 birthday on his actual birthday but that was a fail. We went to the Pine Club on Thursday, the 20th. The Pine Club doesn't take reservations. We arrived there at 4:55 pm and there was already an hour and half wait. This was on a Thursday. We couldn't bear the thought of waiting that long (Donnie had met us at the restaurant after work meaning if we waited that long to eat, we likely wouldn't get home until 8:30 ish and then Donnie would have been gone from home for well over thirteen hours and he still had to go to work the next day). We tried another steakhouse but we didn't have reservations for that one (since we hadn't planned on eating there). So... we ate fast food. It was disappointing to not have a nice dinner at a steakhouse but we did have a tasty, if very much not classy, meal for Jacob's 18th.
We celebrated with extended family on Sunday, the 23rd. My brother John came on the 22nd and spent the night so that he could be with us to celebrate Jacob's birthday. My brother Joe and Kacia came, too, to celebrate and Donnie's family members who are in town (or close to town) came.
I wrote about Christmas Eve and Christmas here.. Both days were good. Busy but we got everything done that we needed to. We enjoyed spending time with family... and enjoyed the quiet and calm when everyone was gone on Christmas evening.
The next few days after Christmas were pleasantly uneventful- there was no meal to prepare for a crowd; in fact there were leftovers for the 26th meaning I didn't have to worry about making meals for lunch or dinner on the 26. Donnie took the 26th off of work, one of the rare days of the year, besides holidays, that he takes off. We didn't go anywhere except to run mundane errands. We enjoyed being at home- the kids had their new Christmas "things" and we were all in good moods from either all the things or all the sugar (in my case it was the latter)). The 27th and 28th were much like the 26th except that Donnie went to work.
On the 29th, we did things outside of the house (shocking, I know). Jacob and I ran an errand in the morning and then had breakfast/ lunch before heading home. In the early afternoon, the girls and I traveled up north (just one county north- we didn't go wild and crazy with travel) to shop in Kettering. Found some cute things for Alyssa's room including a desk chair and rolling cart thing.
In the late afternoon of the 29th, my sister and her girls arrived from Canada. They stayed for two days. We had a very nice visit. The one full day that they were here, the 30th, we talked about doing a number of things but in the end, the girls wanted to stay at home and play/ hang out together. Staying home was fine with Katy and me. The next day, we all went out to lunch together and then Katy and girls headed north to Indiana stay with friends and visit family there.
After the New Year, the kids only had two days off of school. Oh, this was cause for much complaining. The weather warmed up and I wanted to do something outside with the kids before they headed back to school. We decided to go to the Miamisburg Mound. We had never been to the Mound before. The Miamisburg Mound is an ancient burial site of the Adena Indians. It is the largest conical mound in Ohio and second largest east of the Mississippi River. While the weather was warmer than normal for the time of year, the day we went was overcast and windy. We climbed to the top of the mound (162 steps) and the wind was way worse at the top. We didn't stay long at the top due to the wind. We will definitely go back on a nicer day. After visiting the Mound, we drove to downtown Miamisburg. We hardly ever to go the city of Miamisburg despite it only being about 15 minutes away from our house- parts of it are charming and we want to go back and explore more on a nicer day. Our destination in the downtown was a candy shop called Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop. I know, we needed candy like we needed holes in our head but I wanted to check this store out after I read online reviews about it and I knew the kids would like it. This was a really charming candy store with a huge variety of all sorts of candy, novelty items and soda pop. We bought a few items and then headed home.
All too soon, the break was over. Back to reality. I'm really grateful that we were able to have a lot of downtime at home and were able to spend time with family and could experience celebrations like Jacob's birthday and Jesus' birth. This break was the calm before the storm of a busy winter and busier still spring: Alyssa started indoor soccer games this past weekend, will begin outdoor soccer practice by the end of January, weekend dance practices for Abby in addition to her weekly practices. Abby will be performing in the spring musical at the school. Spring will be a whirlwind of soccer games some of which will be as far away as South Carolina, Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh. Dance competitions will be in Indiana, Kentucky and in early summer, Tennessee. And then there's high school graduation at the very end of spring/ early summer.
Happy Birthday, Bubby! I made Jacob a cake and we also had fixins for an ice cream sundaes- chopped up Oreo's, peanuts, M&M's, Reese Cups and Rolos.
The icing that I made wasn't the, er, icing on the cake. I mean, it was literally the icing on the cake but it was not the icing on the cake in a good way. I messed up the recipe a bit... I think I know what I did wrong- we'll find out at Alyssa's birthday I guess.
Cousins
Girl cousins + Jacob
Plus, the history is cool- the building is the site of Centerville's first high school. The building was constructed in 1885.
The Tiny Hands Game was good for a lot of laughs...
basement shenanigans
I got quite a bit of work done around the house after our guests left- including trying to pick up every pine needle from the real tree. Man, those needles are sharp and painful when stepped on.
Said good-bye to a pair of faithful fake trees, one of whose lights stopped working. These little guys looked nice on our small porch for many years; I am sad to have to replace them but thankful for their lights when they both worked.
The cute candy store in Miamisburg
Candy- we didn't buy too much candy at the candy store; we showed some restraint :).
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