Twas the morning before Christmas and all through the house No one was home because one of the foster kids had a visit.
Just rolls off the tongue, am I right? 🤣
I am wrong. Anyway.
This morning, we got up as a family, had a quick breakfast, and loaded up into the van! One of our little ones had a family visit today, so we dropped off mid-morning and headed out to run a few errands. Christmas errands, lol! In jammies, as has become our new theme.
Coffee ✅
Bringing our friend, Scott, a birthday gift and a Christmas card ✅
Picking up Tupperware ✅
Shopping for dressy winter footwear ✅
Back to the visit for pickup! I have a really nice relationship with this particular mom, so I lingered a little bit and waited for one of the other kids to be picked up, as their worker was running a little late. We always have a nice little send off and walk to the van together. It was nice. And oddly somewhat heartbreaking, knowing that this was their Christmas. But I’m glad they got it at all 💜
Then it went home – lunch – naps!
Final loose ends are tying up.
Others are wrapping their gifts. The driveway is scraped very clean. Another round of party mix is made. Labelled the end of the Christmas cards.
I think I’m about tapped for what I have to do today. I think.
Pick up medical supplies at UROmed Bring coffee and Christmas treats to Brady at work Put family pictures in frames Pack 5 boxes of treats to gift out tomorrow Go to Mission Thrift (didn’t have what I wanted) Go to Value Village (got a couple of kid gifts) Arranged another pickup for tomorrow Said no to another placement for Christmas 💔 Wrapped all gifts I had access to LD closed themselves into the pantry Rowan delivered papers
Things that didn’t get done today:
Delivering a handful more Christmas cards Empty fridges of old leftovers Wrap final gifts Fold laundry Get kids to wrap their gifts Bathe the baby that needs a bath before their visit tomorrow
😅
Goodness. Not enough minutes, guys. What I can say is that the kids were super patient with me while I ran errands today, and no one complained for things they wanted. We even all went into Bradys work, just for funsies.
Tomorrow, Brady is off work!! We have to go into the city for a visit for one of the kids, and we’ll run a few errands while that is going on, but otherwise, hopefully we can let down a little! Its almost time…
Today was all around a pretty lovely day, but the end of it got a bit more challenging and its currently a little hard to remember the highlights. So I’m going to list them here.
LD discovered pants pockets. Happiest little thing I’ve ever seen.
Rowan playing hard with the babies, posing for pictures, smiling wide.
Laela sitting under the piano and the toddlers sitting with her, looking at books, while I meet with a social worker.
Delivering a Christmas gift to our doctor, only to read her genuinely thankful text shortly thereafter.
Dropping in on one of our pharmacies that we frequent and having the owners run to hug me.
Failing to pull out anything real for supper, and having no one complain about all the veggies I added to the non-meat meal.
Doing a thrifted puzzle that had all of its pieces.
Putting Munchie Mix down for night with NO tears.
Speaking of party mix, snacks are also a high point. I should start eating some of the fruits of my labour soon…
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 🤣
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.
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.
