Cinnamon, Part 1

The littles and I decided to make cinnamon ornaments again this year. 

The recipe is simple - 

1 cup ground cinnamon (it’s better when some of it actually gets in the cup . . .)

and 1 cup of applesauce. 

Distract the little boy

while you stir and mix 

and roll and cut

and make the biggest mess you can. 

Then bake for 2 hours 

until the whole house smells heavenly.

Tomorrow we decorate!

So Exciting

“Grandma! Grandma! I found Lily!”

So much excitement!

The cat would rather tolerate Donovan being within touching range - she usually avoids even being in the same room as the littles -

than give up her treasured spot under the Christmas tree. 

Either Lily is mellowing or that plastic tree tastes a lot better than it looks. 

Best Day

Celebrated another trip around the sun with what turned out to be a very nice day.

 

Lunch with my best buddy for the past 30+ years (how can that be when I’m only 39??)

and the first of my birthday cakes. Love this so much.

A beautiful, delicious chocolate cake from Breanne and Garrett,

tulips from my sister - Jac says they are rainbow flowers - and a sweet note (Teena, I found the note - it was taped to the outside of the box under the mailing label!),

and to top it off, dinner with the family. The only way it could have been better was if Rachel, John and Addy were here too. Maybe next year? Crossing my fingers . . .

Lazy Saturday

While the big boys did guy things in the garage, 

Leia, Donovan and I took advantage of a chilly day to light a fire, 

color ornaments, 

watch movies

and play games (dinosaurs, Sequence and Roblox) all afternoon. 

Pretty sure we had the better end of the deal. 

No Nap Crafts

Donovan arrived Thursday morning, ate a quick breakfast and promptly fell back asleep on Pop’s chest.

Jac spent Wednesday night here and slept in til 10 am.(yay!)

So the question became how to entertain a toddler and a big girl (Jac insists she’s not a little kid anymore) when they would normally be taking a nap?

We started with dinosaur play-doh  - good for 1.5+ hours of play-together fun -

while I cut pretty paper 

and gathered glue sticks

for our first try at Christmas garland. 

Donovan went back to his dinosaurs almost immediately, 

Leia and Jac got bored fairly quickly - 

Jac isn’t a big fan of anything that gets her hands dirty - 

but Leanne - my crafty girl - kept going and going until she had a huge, gorgeous chain. . . that she promptly took home with her. Wonder if I can talk her into making another one for our house . . .

Frosty

Jackie had more fun decorating herself than the tree. 

Early Finish

With the exception of one gift card, all our Christmas shopping is done.

I’m pretty sure this is the earliest we have ever finished. (One year we did all the shopping on December 23. It wasn’t pretty.)

My plan was to start wrapping next weekend . . . but I started unboxing, and checking gifts off the list . . . and discovered that all but four three items are already here . . .

Six hours of TV watching later, everything is wrapped, ribboned and ready to go. 

Last year we came up with a evil genius idea for what to do with the wrapped goodies. With two curious toddlers, two nosy pre-teens and a cat that eats (and barfs) ribbons, they can’t be under the tree. So, high on top of the bookshelf they go, where the grandkids can see but not touch. Win win!

Swimming With The Sharks

Another round of swimming with the sharks. 

Jac tried to teach Donovan to hold his breath, but he just laughed. 

I love watching these two play. So much imagination and fun.

Merry Early Christmas

It’s been a long year of watching movies at home instead of in a theater. 2021 doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better, so hubby and I decided to treat ourselves to an early Christmas present. 

A 65” LG OLED 4K TV. 

We opted for Best Buy’s professional installation and that turned out to be a very good decision. The TV is a glass screen no thicker than a pane of window glass. Beautiful to look at but easily damaged. Hubby helped get it out of the box and on to the cabinet to the installer’s steady chant of, “don’t bend it, don’t bend it.” 

The original plan was to remodel the shelving unit once we saw the TV in place. I’d like to have the TV set back a little further, both for aesthetics and safety, but I’m not sure it’s worth shifting the TV around. Then again, hubby is braver than me, so I may wake up one morning to a finished job. Or a lot of swearing. 

Thankful

Donovan: A chicken!

Jac: No, Donvey. It has a hat so it’s a turkey. 

We are thankful for all our grandkids, who make us laugh and keep us on our toes. 

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Playdoh and Pianos

We’ve had all four grand-darlings all day, every day this week and keeping them entertained has been fun. 

Today we fell back on the tried and true - 

playdoh! 

Easy, creative and fun. 

There’s a reason it’s been a crowd pleaser since 1955.  

Leia wasn’t feelin’ the ‘doh, so she provided musical entertainment. 

Schools going online for so long ended her piano lessons but she still likes to plink around. 

And once she was done, Leanne and the littles demanded equal time, 

 Leia took these shots

which was noisy loud great until Jac decided she need “more light” and I caught her just as she started falling.

 Watching the scary part of Mulan (the animated version) while sharing Grandma’s lap

There’s a reason my hair is turning pandemic gray.