That's what we do around here.


Soon, the living room will be back to normal and we'll be in the swing of 2018 schedules.  For now, however, we lounge around and enjoy the downtime.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

We had some visitors Saturday and these four kids had lots of fun running around playing:


Fake Auntie Chisty brought over the TJ's Ugly Sweater Cookie Decorating Kit and these two went to work decorating while everybody else went to see The Last Jedi Sunday morning:


I forgot to take a pic until more than half of the resulting masterpieces were gone, but they sure are....BUSY!

The girls made an early trip to the airport on this Wednesday morning. Miss C and I dropped off this lady at 7:45am for her trip home:


Hard to believe she was here for an entire two weeks! The end of the year always flies by!

We decided to have a mom/daughter "fun trip" on the way home from the airport to The Place Where Dreams Come True (aka Wegmans). It was delightful: I seriously didn't see another customer for at least 15 minutes after we got there.  It was just all quiet and serene with employees everywhere, stocking shelves and soaking in the calm.


We've just gotten home.  Since the LA crew left yesterday afternoon, we are now officially done with the family-hosting part of 2017.  Onward to six more days of....laziness?  eating?  organizing?

WHO'S TO SAY?!!!!!

Good morning!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration yesterday!  We knew the older kids would be up before their California cousin...but it turns out they woke up even earlier than we expected.  Kind Daddy BG let them get up so they could scamper in and see what Santa left them:


The B-man immediately got down to building a little Lego thing he got-- apparently it had just been "so long" since he'd done that!


We waited patiently...


And then they appeared and we got going on the business of opening prezzies:


Clearly there was some Miss C yogurt-eating before this pic!


 Her day was made with the arrival of a large Hatchimal:


Watching it peck its way out of the egg!


May you still be in the same pajamas you wore yesterday, just as we are here today!  :-)

My view coming back in from dropping off Miss C at dance class yesterday afternoon:


Just sent the kids (and the teacher) off to the last day of school for 2017.  Hooray! Christmas is almost here!

Happy Friday!

Aunt Nicki made soup!  And my kids make weird faces!


The other 3 in my family have to be at school/work all the way through a (full day!) on Friday so we're partying while they're gone.  And by partying, I mean going for walks, out for lunch, and the library.  :-)

I keep feeling like it should be Friday but alas, 'tis only Thursday.  Hope it's a great one for you all!

We had originally planned to get away over Saturday night but then got an email that the B-man needed to be in the pool for his winter swim "meet" at 8am on Sunday!  So we moved our trip back to Friday night, which meant that we were then free to attend a cookie exchange party on Saturday eve. 

Having all these cookies sitting out has NOT been good for my health:


The BG took Mr. B to his early-morning meet and then the girls came a bit later.  Miss C also was swimming, but her group didn't start until 10:30, so she could snuggle in the stands for a bit with Grammie:


And then, a few hours later, it was time for her (and her bestie) to hit the water!


Somehow missed getting a pic of B but they both did a great job!  (I mean, who needs to be legal in breaststroke, anyway?!)  :-)

With Grammie being here, the BG and I scooted off for a little city adventure. Since we had lots of weekend activities, then school all week,  and then boom, it's Christmas-- Friday night was our only option.  Of course, it started snowing/freezing raining in the middle of the afternoon making our trek down there take way longer (with a few more white knuckles) than it should have. But it was all good and we had made our way into our hotel room by 4:30...and found these beauties!


We took the metro to the waterfront where I'd made reservations for dinner.  I was delighted to find some holiday libations:


And...POLPO!  (aka octopus):


We were so stuffed after our homemade pasta that we couldn't do dessert at the restaurant, but after a train ride and a walk, we were ready for some late-night treats:


Saturday morning, we were out in the pre-dawn 30-degree temps for a long walk around some fairly recognizable sights!


We planned it (of course!) to end our walk at a local bakery upon its opening at 7am.  We were totally successful in that but apparently my photographic evidence was unsuccessful.  Just picture a really cute wooden table strewn with warm bevvies, egg sammies on fresh-baked croissants, and a tasty cinnamon roll!

After all our eating, we visited The Newseum for a couple of hours-- definitely worth a visit!  I was kinda bummed not to take advantage of all the restaurant options for lunch but we were still really full from brekkie so headed straight home to real life.

THANK YOU, GRAMMIE!!!!!!

She arrived late Wednesday night (on a $42 flight!) after the kiddies had gone to bed so they were very excited to run into her room yesterday morning.  In a shocking development, the B-man's first activity was to read her the Christmas letter from our card that we had waiting for her:


(had to block the card since the mail hasn't delivered most of them yet!!)  :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

From exactly five years ago:
 And they still enjoy snuggling to this day!  (It's possible their mother has nurtured a hugging culture!)  :-)

NOT MY FAULT IF STAMPS AND/OR LABELS ARE CROOKED!  ;-)

Saturday afternoon, Miss C and I went to a local ballet theater's performance of The Nutcracker with another mother/daughter combo.  A 1st grade friend was an angel in a (very brief) scene, and it was fun to enjoy some holiday cheer amidst our first snowfall of the season:


Sunday evening, the B-man's children's choir at church performed in a Christmas Cantata with two other choirs.  He was eager to pose in the " faux living room corner" of the church lobby afterwards:


'Tis the season for lots of red and black!

Last weekend, I chauffeured a group of women to a dinner-and-movie night and one of my new friends took note of the BG's pickup I was driving.  (My car has been having some noise issues of late so I didn't want to use it as the transportation vehicle.  Fast forward to an end-of-week visit to a repair shop that successfully removed both the noise/safety concerns AND all my money, but that's a different story.)

ANYWAY, said new friend, upon hearing that the BG wanted to go back to a pickup in large part so he could be "the guy with the truck" who helps out others, asked if we could find time to drive about 25 minutes to pick up a queen mattress and box springs that someone was donating to a cause this woman was organizing. We were happy to do it and it worked out perfectly to get it done while the kids were at their weekly swim lesson yesterday, a day that another mother was driving the carpool!

His ability to solve any problem continues to amaze me:


We figured no one was going to try to steal those honking things from the truck, so we took advantage of being near a restaurant that's been on my to-visit list for years: the home of the SUSHI BURRITO!

The BG won acclaim from the employees for being one of the first customers to recognize that most of the item names are from Kill Bill:


The Sofie and the Beatrix....SO GOOD:


This place also won big points for the cashier saying, "This is your first time?  Drinks on the house!"  I got to enjoy a bevvie that was lychee/coconut/mint (and delightful!) and also some basil lemonade. 

This week is Parent Observation Week at Miss C's dance studio and all three of us went to watch her yesterday! (Confession: Brother and I snuck out after about 40 minutes to go next door to Safeway for some groceries and hot cocoa!)

I liked this shot of her next to the teaching assistant:


I just went back into ye olde blog archives and found this photo from last December (2016):


And this one from December 2015!


Her first two years were in a "combo" class which means they do half ballet and half tap.  She's now moved up to the next age range where the disciplines (is that the right word? we're going with it) are broken into 30-minute sessions and you can pick and choose.  She probably would have elected to do a tap class and a jazz class but, alas, the way the schedule worked out, there was a ballet and a tap back-to-back so we stuck with that.

I'm not gonna lie: my head and legs couldn't stop bopping during their tap portion-- I'd love to take a tap class!  :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Did you see this announcement?


I never actually tried one when we had them since everybody else in the fam said they weren't good. I think the BG called Fruity Pebbles from the beginning, although the young sir's guess was Fruit Loops!

Also revealed this holiday season:


PIG DEER!

Both kids are playing this year.  We're fortunate to have a 1st grade girl and a 4th grade boy because a very active parent friend has those exact same progeny and he set up a team for each!  Since he's coaching both of them, he secured back-to-back practices on Tuesday evenings!

 

For all of you (ha!) who have been DYING to know where my brother's "commenter name" came from...

Did any of you play this game back in the day?


A spin on the classic board game, it was an interactive adventure where you'd watch clips and then "play a round of cards" based on what you'd just seen.  The main characters were all there (you know they all have "color names," right?) with the addition of some new peeps like Miss Peach, Sergeant Gray, and Madame Rose.

It's where we learned Mr. Green's first name:


And, in answer to the innocent question, "What kind of business?" he obviously retorted:

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

Yes, we Moores are a crazy lot.  Still using these expressions 20 years later...and digging up video clips on YouTube.  (Geoff sent me the video from which I took the above screenshot....yesterday!)  :-)

Miss C has started leaving messages for her daddy on a white (er, pink) board that was unearthed during a recent room clean-out. She attached it to the fridge over the weekend and has been updating it.

I giggled when I saw the board this morning because I thought, "Wait, there's no way the B-man got involved willingly in anything that involves writing."


Then I noticed the message in the lower right ("its me camille")-- ha ha ha!  Clearly Daddy was NOT fooled!

We literally needed to trim the tree to make it fit this year.  We have for years now supported a local Lions Club tree lot and the guy working the other night when we went commented that they couldn't believe how full and beautiful the trees are this year.  Full and beautiful = doesn't really fit next to the couch as is custom.  Instead of taking a chainsaw to it, we decided to do some furniture swappage.  So, if you come to our abode, things might look a little....off.  But darn it-- we have a gorgeous tree!

The kids worked on ornamentation last night.  Mr. B was pretty pleased to put on the FIRST one.  (Big D-- be sure to let Kathy know which ornament it was!)  Clearly, he is focused on others and not himself:


(And yes, he still has chicken in his cheek from dinner....sigh.)

This ballerina didn't change out of her dancing duds after class so she was pretty excited to pose with her matching ornament:


(And yes, that's a slightly freakish photo angle!)

We still have the other surfaces to make festive and then it'll officially feel more like the holiday season.  Guess we're just in time since it's actually DECEMBER now.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

They're not award-winning short films, but these videos were each requested by the child involved!



And:

During my pre-trip research, I stumbled upon the fact that not only was there a local science museum, but also it was having a "Snakesgiving" event on Friday!  How could we not go?!


There was petting of snakes:


And wearing of snakes:


(And now the constant request for a snake for Christmas...!)

B's favorite part of the whole museum was the drawer of polycephalic animal specimen:


From there, we walked to a local brewery/restaurant and had a fantastic meal (not pictured)!

There was some PM Jenga action:


But soon enough, it was time to walk a few blocks for the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting.  Miss C REALLY wanted a close-in view, so she and the BG stood in the crowd for the entire thing, while the B-man and I roamed around a bit and then got caught up in the hordes of people and decided to go way back and stay out of the way.  (Note: is it scary being short in a huge mob of people.  When I discussed this with the BG, he just had no understanding of this predicament!) :-)


Post-festivities card playing:


And then it was bedtime for the kiddies and we got to enjoy our late-night delivery of dinner from a local noodle house:


Saturday morning, we hit the streets early again and this time, it really was BRIGHT!  (although you can see they hadn't yet picked up the trash from the previous night!)


Once it got a little later in the AM, we set out for one more stroll around town:


And made sure we went to one particular store when it opened on Small Business Saturday.  B and I had discovered this shop the night before when killing time before the tree lighting and he COULD NOT WAIT to go back in the AM.

I'm sure you'll be SHOCKED:


So many homemade soaps to sniff!

Check-out was at 11am and we just went ahead and left.  I would've loved to spend the day browsing all the cute little stores but alas, that's harder to do with a less-interested crew in tow.  All in all, though, it was a FABULOUS little getaway!!!