You may have seen absolutely everyone and their mother online throwing Grinch parties this Christmas. While it may seem a touch cliche, I jumped on that bandwagon! I have a million kids, plus a best friend who LOVES the Grinch! So a Grinch party was obviously in order! The kids got well into the spirit of things and helped prepare and set up on the day!

Cher brought the bulk of the decor. While we blew up balloons around the house, she brought a handful of stuffed Grinches to adorn our tree, as well as Grinches on canvas to put on the walls and a projector for when it got dark out! Ron Swanson drinking whiskey by the fire was not part of the Grinch, but he’s always welcome over here.

Rowan was the man when it came to helping me in the kitchen. Maybe it was being part of cooking club in the fall, or perhaps he’s slowly realizing how good it feels to be purposeful and intentional, but one way or another, he jumped into all the food jobs!!

Now if you’ve looked at the Grinch parties in detail, they all have similar menus. However, I couldn’t find all the “right” things, so don’t come for me and all the sugar when I tell you the details, ok?

Ok.

So the punch. Here is Rowan mixing the punch, which became his baby. He LOVED making the punch. We made it with pineapple juice, gingerale, and limeade. We were supposed to add different things that would make it green, but try and I might, I could not find anything that was working! Sooooo in went a packet of lime jello powder and it worked, lol! A frozen ring of juice and pineapple pieces went in last minute. Poof! Grinch punch!

Naturally, we have next to no pictures of the food, so this is the menu we came up with.

Roast beast – we served two beasts. A beef beast and a pork beast. Both just cooked until they met their second death in a crock pot all stinking day. They fell apart beautifully. Perfect. Delicious.

Who hash(brown casserole) was provided by my mom. Everyone loves it!

Green bean casserole, because green.

Fruit skewers that looked like Grinches. Again, no pictures 🙄

Everyone and their cute Grinch desserts can bite me, because I could NOT make anything cute work! So rather than something Pinterest worthy, I blobbed chocolate pudding into cups, topped it with vanilla pudding that was colored neon green, topped that with chopped up funfetti cookies I made with cake mix the day before, plus whipped cream, plus a cherry and heart sprinkles 😅 Don’t come for me.

We ate ridiculous amounts, but it was SO good and SO worth it.

The matching jammies didn’t hurt either 😍

We watched the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch while we ate, and then the first batch of kids went to bed. When it was just the adults and the oldest three, we cracked out Home Alone and watched until it was good and over and everyone was half asleep. And food logged with the extra punch and Grinch popcorn in our already-full tummies.

We had Grinch dishes. Grinch colouring. Grinch nail polish. Everything was green and bright and cute and happy, and I think I can safely say the party was a total success 💚

The house is still a mess, but the aftermath speaks for itself.

What a fun day we had. It was fun to see some of the kids eager to wear their new jammies again today after church. It all felt like it was worth it. It was nice to make those memories and all work together to pull it off. This day was a really special one 💜

Hi, Laela here again! I’m so excited for today! First day off from school! I bet all the kids are excited. School’s great, but a break is good sometimes. Today I’m going to have so much fun! I’ll eat good food, give good gifts, and get good gifts. (I hope.) And mom is making delicious treats! Candy cane bark, peppernuts, Chocolate oreos, lemon oreos, jam-jams, puppy chow, 2 different kinds of party mix, cranberries with a fun coating, and dehydrated marshmallows. WOW!🤩 Don’t you want her to bake for you?!

Well I know you probably have things to do for the break, so just reminding everybody, “You better watch out! You better not cry! You better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Clause is coming, to town!” Merry Christmas!🎄

Thats a wrap for the 2025 portion of the school year! 🥳 The kids are home for the next couple of weeks, and fuuuuull weeks they will be! Hopefully with some rest thrown in there. Little bit 🤏 Maybe. We’ll see.

The Christmas play was really cute. The music was SUCH a win this year. All three of my children sang ALL of their songs, did ALL of their actions, and even danced playfully at the right times. No one struggled or bailed or even stared blankly. They all did GREAT. I was super proud of them. And it didn’t hurt that my mom hung out at my house so Brady and I could go to the play together 💜 What a gift. Thank you, mom 💜

Speaking of gifts, we got all the teachers gifts out the door this morning. Rowan was our Santa, and loaded up a big bag of treats and cards for a bunch of select people, and distributed them himself. Of course Wavy and Solly gave to their teachers, but the rest was courtesy of Rowan. Meanwhile, the day continued at home! Cher was over, helping me keep things afloat. She cleaned and helped with the kids, and I had a bath and baked even more. It feels good to be productive. Thank you, Cher 💜

The floors are cleaned. Carpets are vacuumed. Bathrooms are cleaned. Windows are cleaned. Switches and handles are cleaned. Oreos are baked and filled. Funfetti cookies are baked. Popcorn is popped. A yummy drink for tomorrow is half done. Groceries are ordered. Legs are even shaved. I think that is enough for today.

Oh except supper. Thats next. But Brady is on the books for supper today 💜 Thank you, Brady 💜

Thank you, Lord, for all you’ve given us 💜 I love you.

It is that special time of year where the kids bring ridiculous things to youth and trade them out for other ridiculous things 🤣 Its fun. I LOVED youth gift exchanges as a kid, and they are no different. They anticipate them so much, and get nervous beforehand about whether their gift will be liked.

Last night, Dekker was gifted a small toy catapult. A CAT-a-pult. As in it flings little plastic cats. And the only reason I write a blog about it is because this boy is his dads son.

READING THE MANUAL before actually playing with it.

Anyway. He flung some cats, laughed a LOT, and is now brainstorming how to weight them so they can go even further 🤣

Love that kid.

It was a snow day today. School was CANCELLED! The kids were obviously totally stoked, haha!

However! Life still had to go on! 😅 So the kids played downstairs for the bulk of the morning. Cher came over to work. Brady left for work for most of the morning. And I continued to wrap gifts and do things in the kitchen.

The highlight of the worky part of the day was courtesy of Wavy, who took it upon herself to shovel the ramp. Which was totally redundant and completely adorable 😍

She came back inside after she was done, all rosy cheeked, and told me she made a path for the Amazon guy 🤣

May she always be THIS sweet 🙌 It was indeed the cutest little thing.

Good luck digging out tomorrow morning, everyone! Maybe if no one does, we can rock another snow day…

I spent the bulk of the day wrapping gifts. I like to try to blitz it in one day, but time FLEW and there was absolutely no way. However, I think I can confidently say I wiped off more than half of my gifts for the kids, so that counts! Meanwhile, Cher occupied and played with the babies, got them fed and tucked in for naps so I could just keep my head down and work. It was SO helpful! I really enjoy wrapping gifts, so it was nice to do it without chasing anyone around or anyone climbing up on the table to “help” me.

Meanwhile, a loving friend stopped by with gifts for our entire family 💜 Customized ornaments with everyones names – all TEN of us! Just for funsies 💜 To show us love. And to recognize that most of my kids will NEVER find an ornament in a store with their name on it. And now, they can each have one. They’re already on the tree 🌲

Now we continue to plug away at everything else around here! Most gifts to wrap. My decorating to do. More baking, obviously.

Oh and a visit in the city tomorrow! But I’ll run errands while I’m out. Got to pick up pictures at Walmart, med supplies at UROmed, and I’m not confident what else 😅 Thats future Hailey’s problem.

Goodnight, all! 💜 Sleep tight!

I called through the Echo this morning “Time to get up, folky folks!” And this is what it heard.

Nice.

Kids are off! Work needs to get done! Today I aim to clean off some space on my extra table in the kitchen so I can spread out a bit more and have more space to work. I hope to get more peppernuts going and maybe one or two other treats. That oven might be trucking all day long.

I did, however, just discover that my Christmas card list of addresses is gone. 😭 Just makes me want to cry. So not only do I need to send cards, but I need to try to remember who I have all sent to in the past and somehow not forget anyone. Color me overwhelmed.

Wrapping gifts HAS to be this week, but today isn’t the day for it. Though I have almost every single gift acquired for the kids. Still a handful of loose ends to tie up but I think I’m doing mostly ok on that home front.

Today’s goal is going to be baking. Pretty sure thats number one for today. I think. Plus keeping the babies alive. Hopefully they’re excited to bake as well.

Every fibre of my being wants to say that the countdown to Christmas is on! Its creeping up on us now! Home stretch! Because its the last week of school before Christmasbreak!!!

Except I know I’ll feel even more so this way on Friday, because its the last weekend I have to get ready!

And then on Monday, it’ll be my absolute LAST few days!!!

Whew! What a crazy time!

Today, my mom came in the afternoon and we worked on pumping out some more peppernuts. It was cut short because I made a poor meal plan and needed the oven 😅 But such is life. I did some at least, and some of my dough that hadn’t quite done what I wanted was able to be fixed, courtesy of aforementioned mom. Thank you 😘

This week holds some school things, some foster stuff, and some appointments. Also baking, wrapping, decorating, and ideally even prepping some blogs so I can have a couple of easier writing days over Christmas. But we’ll see how that all winds up. I also really want to rest. But maybe that comes a little bit later, and that can be ok, too 💜

First 🙌 we SLEEP. Then we do the things. Bring it on 💪 All the NEEDS will get done. The rest can happen or not happen.

Rest well, friends! The first chunk of the last lineup of countdowns begins now! 😅

This year, we had our two recitals one after the next!

Yesterday was ballet. Many people had their hands in this one. I got the girls ready quickly after school. My mom picked them up and brought them in for their early drop off. Cher stayed home and spent the evening with the babies so the rest of us could actually enjoy the performance! Goodness these girls are SO unbelievably beautiful!!

They did SO well! Though I think everyone who saw the whole performance would say the baby sheep were the highlight 😂 But I digress. It was VERY cute!

And then today was the Christmas piano recital! Also VERY cute. My three piano kids did a beautiful job! Laela beat herself up a bit for getting a bit lost in one of her songs, but she really did very well 💜 She had just psyched herself up a bit, thats all. It was a very lovely recital. I love having kids in piano!

One more lesson before Christmas!

In between all the busy stuff, I have been pumping out peppernuts, organizing everything under the sun, making party mix, and even trying to put together a couple of new treats over here. Still lots more to do, of course. One more week to get teacher gifts put together and Christmas cards out the door!!

Good thing Christmas arriving actually doesn’t rest on a single one of these things being completed 😅

Cher and I had corn dogs for lunch today. Mostly because we had them for supper yesterday and there were leftovers 😅 While we ate them, we watched an episode of the Try Guys series “Without a Recipe” where they made beef wellingtons without a recipe. And it felt verrrrry similar.

I present you with – Pork Wellingtons on skewers!

With a tomato glaze for the finish!

I know. We are very fancy 😎😎

‘Twas a yummy lunch. I’m calling it a win.

🌽🐶