My favorite Christmas decorations

As I'm getting ready to put away the Christmas decorations, I find myself thinking about my favorite decorations.  While there are so many that are filled with memories, and there are plenty that are over 40 years old, my favorite decorations are the photos.  I have 16 frames filled with Christmas photos from various years.  Obviously, not every year is represented, but I love not only looking at the memories, but I love the decorative nature of the frames.  I added this year already.  I've actually run out of room on the shelves where I keep them, but I've worked it out to expand a bit.  It makes me so incredibly happy when I get each photo out each year.

I undecorated the trees this evening.  I needed to separate Catherine's ornaments this year.  It seems like our trees might be pretty bare next year!  As I was putting the ornaments into their own bin, I couldn't help but think about how much I'm going to miss them next year.  I thought it wouldn't bother me because we've already had Thomas take his.  But, I realized this evening that some of the memories were still there because seeing Catherine's ornaments would make me think of the memory.  For example, one year, all seven of my grandmother great-grands visited Disney.  She made each of the kids a Disney related ornament that year by making them cross-stitch ornaments.  Those kinds of memories are so dear to my heart.

And speaking of my grandmother, today she turns 95.  My sister saw her today and said she is definitely fading cognitively.  My mom, sister, aunt and I are going to see her Saturday and bring in lunch.  I am nearly certain this will be her final birthday.  I am so, so grateful to have had her in my life for so long, but I know this is not how she wants to be living.

An entire week into 2026...time is still flying!

These last six weeks

Six weeks ago, it was the Sunday beginning our Thanksgiving break.  Andrew arrived home with his mother, and we were kicking off the beginning of the holiday joy.  There are only two of the last six Mondays where I had to work the next day, and on one of those, I was pretty sure it would only be one day before a snow day (I was right).  In the last six weeks, we have had 12 school days.  That feels pretty darn good.

We still have tomorrow off, but then Tuesday we go back to work and the students will arrive on Wednesday.  There is no snow in sight, so it will be all in.  To be honest, I'm not terribly sad to be going back to work.  I love my job (but I'm just NOT a morning person...and ironically I have the earliest report time at the office), and of course I need a paycheck.  I think what I'm most sad about is that the holidays are coming to an end.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!  My MIL wasn't here as much as she has been in past years, and at age 86, we can't ever be certain that next year she'll be here.  I loved having all the kids here.  Catherine has let us know that next year, her boyfriend's family is planning a week-long trip.  And of course, it is nearly certain that this was my Grandmother's last Christmas.  Oh, the memories of Christmas with her are so treasured, but I suspect she will love Christmas in Heaven next year with her parents, all her siblings, and of course Grandpa and my dad.

Life is good.  I do not fail to see that.  I love my job, and I am grateful for it, but there is a big part of me that still wishes it was six years ago.  I would love to get to do the holidays all over again.  I am so grateful for the time we had together and the memories we made!

All is calm

For just about the first time of this break, things feel calm.  Andrew just left to take him mom home.  Leading up to Christmas, I had things to get ready, including three trips related to getting my mom's house ready.  The day after Christmas, we were back up in that area to visit family in honor of my cousin Natalie's wedding, and Saturday we were gone all day for another wedding.  That will be another post, but suffice it to say, it's been tiring.  Yesterday, Andrew didn't feel well so we didn't go to church, which delightfully meant we had no where to go all day.  A frozen lasagna fed us dinner, and that was that.

My MIL told me that she really enjoyed being here, but I'm not certain how that could be the case.  Other than seeing some lights Tuesday (that were absolutely lovely), it feels like all we did was run here or there, and when it was finally time to be home, I needed to get school and church things completed.  But, I'm grateful that we did have the time we had.  We watched some TV shows, we visited the lights, we had an incredibly lovely Christmas Eve with the kids here and playing games, and an equally lovely Christmas morning.  We had a fairly nice afternoon at my mom's house, and there really were so many lovely things about this past week.  At the same time, I'm not sad that the house is quiet, and I'm not sad that I still have a week until I go back to work!! 

Christmas 2025

This has been a mostly wonderful Christmas.  If the truth be told though, I'm physically exhausted and emotionally drained.  It all just feels like a lot.

Our Christmas Eve plans were scrapped as our friends' kids started getting sick.  We were disappointed as we love our time with them, and we love to see their kids from out of town.  And we also had literally nothing in the house that would feed seven people for dinner!  Domino's Pizza solved that problem though, and the kids all gathered here by 6:00.

Catherine had come with us to church, and it's always a challenge for me.  We go to a Catholic church because it is what needs to happen with my MIL, but I regret not being able to fully participated in the church, especially on Christmas.  It causes a pang.  I also saw a family I've known for a long-time, and I adore this large family, but I also know there is heartache there.  It left me feeling emotional.  I was so glad Catherine came with us though.

After the kids all arrived here after church, I gave our Christmas Eve gifts of pajama bottoms.  We played an incredibly fun trivia game, and then we watched the Polar Express.  I don't love that move, but I do love when my kiddos (and wife and boyfriend) are all safely asleep in my home.  Our morning was also incredibly lovely, and I'm so grateful for the photos we took of our family.  We all loved the gifts from each other.  We were on the road before Noon for lunch at my Mom's house.  My sister went to visit my grandmother, and we sat down to eat as she returned.  Unfortunately, she was overcome with emotion and ran out of the house.  I get it, she is exhausted.  She worked tirelessly to get my Mom's house ready, it's an incredibly busy season at her job, and she is almost solely responsible for things that happen with my grandmother.  And today, Grandma was incredibly confused when my sister was there.  As my sister was dealing with her emotions, my mom and my MIL began to tell stories about the passing of other relatives, and suddenly there were a lot of tears.  I attempted to change the subject, but there was a damper on the afternoon.  Fortunately, my sister regrouped and we were able to finish with a lovely afternoon.  There were more gift exchanges, and it was all so very nice to be together.

We had all driven separately as the kids had other places to be, and I wanted to visit my grandmother.  She has chosen to stop wearing pants (ugh) so I am not in a rush to take others with me to visit her.  I took her some chocolate and we had a short visit.  It was a bit heartbreaking as I know with certainty this is going to be the last Christmas with my grandmother, and even though this isn't the woman I've known, and I know this isn't the woman she would want to be, it's going to be so awful when she's gone.  It was hard leaving her today, but it's also really hard being with her.  As I drove home, I thought of so many wonderful Christmas memories shared with her.

I am grateful for so, so much.  I am incredibly grateful that my kids woke up here today and I don't take it for granted at all.  I know this next year is going to bring some changes, and I'm working really, really hard to embrace them.  Truly, it's been a lovely Christmas, and even the emotions are because of how amazing my life really is.

Songs take me back

I am definitely a person who "feels" songs. I can hear a song and it can take me right back to what feels like a different lifetime.  Christmas is definitely a season where it happens often.  We've been listening to a lot of my grandparents' records on their old Admiral console stereo that we've had for 4-1/2 years.  They are traditional songs sung by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Irving Berlin, etc.  My heart has felt so full listening to these songs.

As I was driving home from my mom's house this evening, another song came on.  To back track a bit, I need to explain that my paternal grandmother's family gathered every year on the Sunday before Christmas.  I was the oldest great-grandchild.  I loved those gatherings.  They lasted through 1995, and I have absolutely wonderful memories from them.  Anyway, in 1992, we all traveled about an hour away as my great-aunt & great-uncle had moved to a lake house.  As we were driving home that day, the song "Daddy's Hands" by Holly Williams came on the radio.  I didn't love my first semester of college which had just finished, and I was so grateful to be home for break.  I was especially grateful to be home with my Dad with whom I was so very close.  I remember that song coming on, and I remember my eyes filling with tears in the car.  I was so very lucky to be my father's daughter.  As I was driving today, I realized the date, and realized it was exactly thirty-three years ago today...Dec. 20, 1992, that we had that Christmas celebration.  That's pretty ironic I would hear that song again this evening.

Andrew is off getting his mom tonight and they'll be back tomorrow.  I'm enjoying the quiet tonight.

So happy to get to school break, I thought I might cry

I had been counting down the days, then the hours, then even the minutes until school was going to be finished yesterday for break.  I don't think we had ever earned a break like we had this one.  Work has turned into a daily "what now?" situation.  We had one pop up at the end of the day Wednesday that required I put in an extra hour, we had ANOTHER one pop up in the morning before school even began, and then we had one that was a bit less of a surprise closer to the end of the day.  I felt weary to my core.  The hard part is that none of them can really be resolved right now.  Ugh.

We had a staff gathering at the end of the day, and I was happy to be there but was the first to leave.  It was a really wet and windy day, and although I was supposed to attend a meeting last night, I decided I was coming home and officially beginning my break.

I spent my day just kind of doing my own thing.  I wrapped a few presents, I cleaned a bit, I took a nap, I just kind of hung out and did my thing.  Maudie, the cat we inherited from my grandmother has been very clingy and wanted to curl up with me throughout the day.  Catherine had her last day at school and then left town for the weekend.  I've appreciated the relatively quiet day.

We got a bit of hard news today.  My sister informed us that this seven-day course of antibiotics will be the final antibiotic for my grandmother.  My grandmother has faded tremendously in the last couple of months.  Even if this round of antibiotics takes care of the current infection, it is recurrent and this life is not what my grandmother ever wanted.  She is 94 years-old, and I know that she will be ready whenever the time comes, as it's been apparent she's been ready for quite some time.  I'll be sad when she's gone, but honestly, she hasn't been the same woman for years.

Tomorrow, Andrew is going to get his mom, and I'm going up to my mom's.  Quite a bit to do over the next several days, but I'm so grateful to be on break!

Seventeen years of blogging

I started this blog 17 years ago!  I'm so grateful for each memory recorded here.  I especially love the December memories.  Eight more school days for me this calendar year.  I know that tomorrow is never promised, and I plan to soak up the holiday memories as much as I can this year...and hopefully I'll write about them here!

This day will be one of my most favorite memories

This day is definitely going to be one of those days that remains a favorite memory forever.  I got to sleep really late, which is always a great start to the day.  I had some quiet time until the Ohio State game, and the Buckeyes finally broke the four game losing streak against that team up north.  It was a great game.  Catherine arrived home during the game after spending a couple of days with her boyfriend's family.  Not long after the game, Thomas and Lyndi arrived.  Thursday after they left our meal, Thomas had reached out and said that Lyndi wanted to help us put up the trees.  I was not about to turn down help!  And by doing it this evening, it meant that we were all going to be here to do it together.  Even without Thomas's ornaments, we did a pretty good job of filling both of the trees.  While we were decorating the trees, the predicted snow began to fall.  It was beautiful.

As if that wasn't enough, our evening continued.  Thomas and Lyndi decided it would be best to stay over because of the snow.  Our family decided to watch Christmas Vacation, but first we made a sweet family memorial toast.  Andrew's aunt in Vermont, whom we all adored, passed away in July.  Her drink of choice, somewhat comically, was Fireball.  For her funeral, they had small Fireball printed with her name on it, and Andrew's cousin sent us one (Andrew and his mom went to visit her in June, so they didn't return for the funeral).  Andrew poured us each a bit and we toasted to Aunt Mary Ann.  We even took a picture and sent it to Andrew's cousins.

I'm so grateful all of the kids are under our roof again.  Andrew is meeting his mom's neighbor for her return tomorrow.  My plan is to do lots and lots of laundry tomorrow, to enjoy the house that is fairly much put together, and to get ready for a what I hope will be a beautiful and lovely December to lead the Christmas season!  And I also plan to enjoy the memories we made over this break!

Putting away Christmas

I have started to put away the Christmas decorations.  It is breaking my heart a little bit this year.  It always fees a bit sad anyway, but this year I've actually had to fight some tears.  Andrew is working today so it's just me, and I'm grateful for the quiet opportunity.

The first thing I did was take down Thomas's ornaments so they would be separated.  Thomas took a few of them with him, but the majority were still on our tree this year.  This is the very last year that my baby's ornaments, and all of those memories, are going to hang on my tree.  The last year of his "new driver", or football, or tennis ornament.  The last year of the special ornaments from family and friends over the years.  This is what we want in life, of course, for our children to grown up and be independent.  But I can't deny I'll miss unwrapping and hanging those memories each year.

I've also been a bit emotional as I've put away the pictures we have out each year.  I miss the little people in those photos so much.  Again, I'm grateful they have grown into who they are, but I miss those little people.  And as hard as the last year was, I miss the simple little problems they had back in those days.

We also have a lot of Christmas things that are beagle related, and we miss our sweet Abby so much.  There were tears on Christmas morning as we still had Abby related memories as gifts, and it's hard to think about her without crying, even now.

I was sick for a week right after Christmas, and between that and they kids having their own lives, it all just felt different and not very "Christmas-y".  There were no lights that we went to see, no fun TV episodes or movies, no family games.  While I have strived so hard to accept this is the way things are now, it still felt, well, less than.  I'm working on that, and I'm hoping it had as much to do with being sick as anything else.

Tomorrow is the last official day of break, but there is a massive winter storm heading our way.  Neither Andrew nor I are supposed to have students on Monday anyway, but our boss has let us know we'll probably do a Zoom meeting and then work from home.  I don't have that much I can do at this point, but I'm sure I can find some things.  While Catherine won't have to work, Thomas still will, so snow days are tougher than they used to be for my heart.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to having a less cluttered home, and I'm hoping that will lead to a less cluttered mind.  And I'm working on remembering my blessings and being grateful for each day.

The end of 2024

I'll be honest, I had high hopes for the year 2024.  Overall, I'm going to have to say it was not one of my favorites.  It was a really hard year with my kids.  Some of it was certainly of their own doing, and some of it is the fact that they are struggling to adult in a world that isn't really set up for young adults to adult effectively.  They are learning, and I am grateful that we are able to help as we can.  We'll miss Lincoln and we'll definitely miss Abby from this year, but overall we are healthy as we head into 2025.

This year has flown by faster than I thought was possible.  I know I wait all year for the holidays, but they will be here again before I know it.  These holidays felt like I blinked and they were done, but I know even though it's another year to go, they are just around the corner.

I've been sick for several days so we are staying home this evening.  I regret not getting able to hang out with our friends, but I'm completely okay ringing in a quiet New Year with just Andrew (and Maudie, our only remaining cat).  For today and tomorrow, I'm completely okay with just vegging on the couch and enjoying football.  And we don't go back to work until next week!

I didn't take any of this Christmas for granted

This has been a really nice Christmas, and I don't take that for granted.  My heart was so full last night as I went to bed, and both Thomas and Catherine were sleeping here.   I loved it when T told me that Thomas really wanted to wake up here on Christmas morning.  It was so sweet.  We had a lovely morning exchanging gifts and getting ready before heading to my mom's this afternoon.  My sister and mom and a family friend joined us for lunch and then we all exchanged gifts.  By this time, I was fading as I've had a cold for a couple of days but had continued pushing through.  We gathered our things and headed home.

Yesterday was an even better day.  I went with our dear friend to pick up her oldest from the airport.  We went back to their house and joined our families together for a wonderful dinner.  I loved having all of kids together and I especially loved that the significant others have joined.  The food was good, but the company was even better.

It's been a truly wonderful couple of days filled with many people I love, and I don't take that for granted!

Break has arrived

I am officially on break!  I don't go back until January 6, and this is just a great feeling.  I'm the only one home this morning and I have my candle lit, the trees are on, and the TV fireplace is playing Christmas tunes.  It's a perfect morning, or at least it would be if I didn't have a bit of a migraine.

I am leaving in a few hours to go get my MIL.  I'll spend a bit of time finishing the house before I leave.  I'm so grateful for this break and the family with whom I get to spend the holidays! 

A great weekend for getting in the holiday spirit

This weekend has been wonderful.  It's been a fabulous way to get into the holiday spirit.  I only work three days this week, and I'm ready to get them over with and enjoy 18 days off.  I'll have things to do and some payroll to run, but it'll be greate to have some down time.

It started Friday.  Andrew and I decided to meet at a local restaurant that always has really festive holiday cocktails.  We decided to go ahead and have some dinner as well.  We came home and watched an "okay" Christmas movie.  I was in bed early and happy to sleep.

Yesterday I woke up early and couldn't sleep.  Andrew had to work at a basketball game during the day.  Once Andrew arrived home, we made the trip north and our first stop was to see my grandmother.  We took her a swag for her door, and it was lovely to visit with her for a bit.  Then we had an absolutely wonderful family Christmas at my cousin Mindy's house.  There were about 27 of us there all together, and that included two-year-old Reid, who was just adorable.  Thomas and his girlfriend brought her niece, and it was a blast to have her as well.  It was such a fun evening.

Today we had lunch and met some friends half way at one of our favorite restaurants.  We hadn't seen them since March.  It's a chilly and very wet day, but now that we are home the Steelers game is on and it's a lovely evening.

I'm so very grateful for this weekend.  It's really helped to get me into the spirit of the holidays!

It's my favorite thing about our church

This evening we handed over the gifts for the Giving Tree that we do at our church each year.  Over the years, this has become "my thing".  I am the one that gets the information from the school, creates the gift list, and gets the gifts to the school social worker.  Our church has members that are becoming much older each year, and many of them wish to simply give a financial donation.  That means I am also the one that does the shopping for those gifts and wraps them as well, then gets everything sorted and handled.  I love it!  It is my absolute favorite thing we do at our church each year.  I am so grateful that our church is so supportive and generous with this activity.  This year we were able to provide 61 gifts to two families that included a total of seven children.  It is such a blessing!

An unexpectedly lovely Wednesday evening

We've made it over the hump of the week.  And the best part is that there are only five more working days remaining in the calendar year for me!  Yay!!!

Wednesday is the day we get out of school early, and I only had one quick errand to run before coming home.  Unfortunately, Andrew has to work at a basketball game this evening, but Catherine is here with me.  I was able to finish up the gifts for the church Giving Tree and accomplish a few other things.  The trees are lit, the balsam candle is lit, it's snowing outside, and we put the fireplace with Christmas music on TV.  Catherine was making a dessert for her school carry-in potluck meal.  I had to smile as it reminded me of so many memories of past holiday seasons.  Catherine even mentioned that she wished Thomas was here.  At first she mentioned it was because he was a big help with her dessert, but then later she admitted she enjoys having him around.

Two weeks until Christmas.  Looking forward to down time and hopefully a good amount of family time!

Sixteen years of blogging

It's my blogversary!  Sixteen years of recording memories here on the blog!  I'm so grateful I started this sixteen years ago, and I'm so grateful for the memories recorded here.  I can't really think of a better way to have recorded my kids' childhoods.

We are well into the holiday season.  Today was one of those days when I began to wonder if I'm going to find time to sleep at all between now and Christmas.  In addition to my jobs, this is the busy time with the church job with it being the end of the year.  I'm also in charge of the Giving Tree at church, which I love!  This year, though, most of the gifts are being purchased by financial donations to the church rather than members doing shopping.  It is truly, truly a privilege to be able to provide Christmas for two families including seven children.  It brings me great joy.  I think almost everything is purchased, now I just need to get everything wrapped.  I love seeing the stacks of gifts pile up!

We had lunch with our good friends today.  We haven't been able to get together since August, and we didn't want to wait until Christmas Eve for our next visit.  Friday evening was a gathering with some of Andrew's colleagues.  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

December has arrived again

As Thanksgiving week comes to an end, December has already arrived.  My shopping is almost entirely finished, so I really get to relax and enjoy this month.  I only have 13 official working days this month!  Granted, I'll have things that have to still be done while we are off for the holidays, but that is done on my schedule.  I'm looking forward to doing things...all things Christmas!

Our family has started watching the corny Christmas movies, and we absolutely love them!  I especially love sharing them with Catherine and my mother-in-law also really enjoys them, and I'm looking forward to her being back in a few weeks.  I'm enjoying looking at various Christmas crafts, and I'm hoping to create a few over the next several weeks.

The only downside to Thanksgiving weekend is that it brings the end of the college football season.  Those Saturdays in the fall are my absolute favorite days of the entire year!  I can't even begin to explain what happened yesterday to our Buckeyes.  It was just crazy.  Still plenty of good games to watch in the next couple of weeks!

Happy December!  May it be full of jolliness and lots of merry moments!

Making memories

Here we are, at the day before Thanksgiving, and I am looking at my nicely decorated Christmas tree.  I have ALWAYS refused to decorate before Thanksgiving, but since we ate on Sunday, and especially since Thanksgiving is so late this year, bring it on!

It actually happened in an unplanned way.  I was working on getting the trees up for planned decorating this evening.  Thomas texted as he was off work early and they were actually in the area in early afternoon.  I was happy to accept extra help in getting the trees put together and with lights, and Andrew was happy to have some help with the outside lights.  Everyone worked all afternoon, and after a quick break of pizza for dinner, the trees were all decorated by 7:30 last evening.  Thomas's fiance specifically mentioned how much she had enjoyed helping and sharing in this tradition.  The tree is full of so very many memories.  Andrew became a bit emotional as there are so many ornaments for our sweet pup.  She was included every year.   Thomas wanted to take some of his favorite ornaments with him.  It was fine, but I insisted on taking pictures! We laughed, but those memories are important to me as well.  In fact, apparently he was complaining to his fiance (let's call her Lynn, going forward) that the tree at their apartment only had "generic" ornaments on it.  I'm grateful these traditions and memories mean as much to them as they do to me.

How we spent our break

The last two weeks have been awesome in that I rarely had to wake to an alarm.  Sadly, it was not good sleeping most of the time.  Due to some scheduling snafus, I ran out of my maintenance medication.  Not being able to regulate my thyroid really took a toll.  I've been able to resume my medication for about a week now, and things are going slightly better.  I spent two days traveling to pick up my mother-in-law and she was here for nine days.  I enjoyed having her here, but it's also tough at times.  There was also drama with my mother and sister on Christmas, and that made the day particularly challenging.

As my children are adults, I understand that they won't be at each and every holiday event anymore.  I had hoped for a bit more of some compromising when it came to Thomas and his girlfriend, and that is also made some times challenging.  Andrew and I are struggling with having the young adults living here, but who want to live here as though they are still teens.  They need to be responsible and they need to pick up after themselves.  The attitude was bit much at some times.  Those are the drama we could do without.

The first Saturday of break was the extended family gathering.  Last year there were over 30 of us, this year there were only 16.  I was the only one from our house there, and that was the case with many others as well.  Hopefully next year there will be more able to make it.

There were good things, though, and I do want to remember those.  The Friday night before Christmas, Catherine arrived and was here for a week.  We had a lovely dinner with the five of us, and then drove around town through various neighborhoods looking at lights.  It was a fun evening.  We also had an evening where Thomas's girlfriend joined us for dinner, and then we played a fun trivia game.  We laughed a lot, and it was one of my favorite memories of the break.  I'm also really grateful that my mom made an effort to get us together with my cousin and her family.  I'm so glad the kids could have some time together.

We also had a lot of fun on New Year's Eve.  We stayed over at our friends' house, and we laughed so hard that my muscles still hurt today.  We really needed that evening.

In twelve hours I'll be back at work.  I'm ready for a routine again, but I'm not super excited about early morning wake up times.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to have a great year!

Christmas 2023

Christmas definitely had ups and downs this year.  The good news is that I'm convinced we can still enjoy some time together.  My favorite part was yesterday morning, and opening our gifts together as a family.  My kids gave very thoughtful gifts this year, and that was very sweet.

I still have a week off of work, although there is plenty to be done before I go back next Wednesday.  Looking forward to some quiet time and of course, New Year's Day!