Morning Carline Fun!

I take the girls to school each morning and in the past, students have been able to enter the school as early as 8:20 and wait in the gym, all congregated together, until 8:35 when their teacher came to get them. Well this year due to Covid, students go directly to their classroom when entering the building and they cannot go in unitl 8:30. The girls like getting to school early, so this means we get there about 8:20 and wait in our car until the bell to open the school door rings. We have a fun time talking, singing, or hanging out the window during this time. (Lucy is SUPER embarassed when Molly decided to hang out the window!) :) 

One day Daddy had the day off work, so he took them to school in his car! That was a super fun treat for the girls!  

Twinning!

One day Lucy and I had matching red shirts and blue jeans on. Lucy was excited to see that we were twining! :) 

Christmas Fun

We've had some Christmas fun so far this season. One Saturday we made cookie cutter cookies and everyone got in on frosting them. They did a great job and always make the cookies look so festive. Laster that day we went to the Japanese Stroll Gardens here in town to look at all their lights. My parents came along, too, and we enjoyed seeing everything decorated to nicely! 

Little Trevor And Little Cody

One night the girls wanted to look through my big photo album, which is our wedding photo album. It was fun looking through the pictures and this picture in particular stood out to me:

It's a picture of my nephews, Trevor and Cody. They were the ring bearers at our wedding 10 years ago. At the time Trevor was eight and Cody was five...right at the ages Lucy and Molly are now. Trevor is now 18 and Cody is 16. I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if little Trevor and little Cody could play with Lucy and Molly now! Little Trevor and Lucy would probably get along well, but I have a feeling the might end up fighting a big over who gets to be in charge! And little Cody and Molly would probably have an awesome time playing together with all their little people! It would be so much fun to have them be able to play together! 

Meals On Wheels!

I'm now delivering meals to seniors on Thursday mornings! I think it's just called "meal delivery service" but I like to call it Meals on Wheels! I remember when I was little my Mom talked about how my Aunt Marilee (her sister) used to deliver Meals on Wheels and I thought that was really neat. I've always wanted to do something like this but felt I couldn't commit to it until both my kids were in school all day. 

I searched online to find a place that offered a service like this and contacted them saying I wanted to volunteer. It took a few months for them to contact me, but they did and now I'm lined up to deliver meals once a week. 

I report to a local senior center, load up my car with the meal bags, and head on my way to my route. It takes about one hour to complete and the stops are pretty much all lined up in a logical manner. Some places I just drop the meals on the porch, other places I have to bring the meals into their house for them. I'm not a fan of that, but oh well! I am a fan of helping others when I can, so I guess I can deal with that part of it. :) 

Exterior Illumination!

We decided to up our holiday exterior illumination game this year and I think it looks good! We have always put net lights on our bushes and two lit up trees on our porch. For quite a few years now we have been talking about putting more lights on the house and finally followed through this year! We have lights around our front door, our garage door, and we have a wreath in two of our downstairs windows and a snowman and tree in the other two downstairs windows. Maybe next year we will add something to our upstairs windows, but for now we like what we have! 

Chrismtas Potpourri

 I've been making this Christmas Potpourri every year at Christmas for quite a few years now. I found the recipe on Pinterest and absolutely loved it. I've also lost track of how many times I've given it as a little Christmas gift to friends. In fact, some of those friends get it every year and are so happy to receive it because they like it just as much as I do! Some have even told me that they've made it themselves or have given it as gifts, too. Here's the recipe: 

1 whole orange or 2-3 cuties

1/2 cup cranberries

1 Tbsp whole cloves

3-4 cinnamon sticks

Quarter the orange and place it (or just the orange peel) along with the other ingredients in a small saucepan. Fill the pan with water. Place the pan on the smallest burner on the lowest setting. Refill with water as needed. Enjoy! 

It will make your house smell so yummy! I often keep it on the stove for a few days before dumping it out and starting over. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

Christmas Pictures

We had Christmas pictures and family pictures taken last month. I love pictures and am so glad my family puts up with all the photos we take! Enjoy! 

2020 Santa Visit - Covid Style

We visited Santa a few weeks ago - Covid style! It really wasn't bad at all and I'm so glad this is a Christmas tradition that has not been canceled this season. We always go to Bass Pro to see Santa because he's just a nice Santa and it's free! We signed up online for a specific time and no one was in line when we got there so we walked right up to Santa. He was sitting behind plexiglass and the girls had to stand to the side to talk to him. They said it was a little hard to hear him because of the distance, but they were still able to tell him their wishes! For the picture (which was free!), the girls sat on a bench in front of Santa and you really can't tell that the plexiglass is there. I was impressed with how they made this happen! I think the plexiglass could go by the wayside in the future, but really wouldn't mind if the box remained for kids to sit on instead of sitting on Santa's lap! 

Bass Pro also has a Winter Wonderland with a carousel, games, and activities for kids to do while seeing Santa. That was scaled down quite a bit this year, but they did still have the carousel and we had a fun time taking a ride on it. 

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a nice Thanksgiving day last week! Since 2004, I have been doing the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning, but this year due to Covid the Turkey Trot was "virtual" and didn't really happen. Lucy was sad about this so we did a little walk around our neighborhood that morning for our own Turkey Trot, and then later in the day we did a Covid Trot after our Thanksgiving dinner!

We spent the day at my sister's house in Joplin with her family, her mother-in-law, and my parents. It was a really nice time with good food and good weather. Lucy got everyone organized and got their race bib numbers on them for our Covid Trot and we did about a one mile walk around their neighborhood! It was a nice day and we do have so very much to be thankful for! 

Birthday Fun!

 My 42nd birthday was three weeks ago today and it was a fun day. It started off with a surprise on our porch from our neighbors! On October 21, I gave their son (who I used to watch after school) some cinnamon rolls for a birthday present. Whenever I make my homemade cinnamon rolls I always give them some because they love them. Mike, Cameron's dad, joked with me that his birthday was November 2 and that I could give him some cinnamon rolls. I told him well my birthday is November 7, so you can get me something, too. He said that he'd make sure to find me something from Amazon. Well, I did give him some cinnamon rolls for his birthday but they were store bought instead of homemade. And he did give me a bunch of <<empty>>boxes from Amazon for my birthday! This was the funniest thing to come home to and see on my front porch! 

Ross and the girls gave me breakfast in bed on my birthday and then we just hung out at home. We ran a few errands and had lunch out. I took a nap that afternoon and then my parents and my sister and her family came over for dinner. My dad brought his flat top grill over and Ross made us a yummy Japanese steakhouse dinner. You can watch Chef Ross making our dinner here! After dinner we opened presents and had some cookie cake for dessert. Lucy gave me some very special homemade crafts as presents and they were just perfect! :)