What do you do when your new furry friend loves the Christmas tree so so much (as a sleeping spot and snacking zone) that you feel bad putting it on the curb now that the holidays are over? You make a little cave with some trimmed branches so he doesn’t have to say goodbye quite yet. And he’s a big fan!! Chris for the win!
So…2021 happened. I’m not sure I’d go back to relieve this past year over again if I had the choice, but some pretty great things came out of it. I got to spend oodles of time with my favorite people (but I also missed spending time with lots of my other favorite people). My family and I stayed healthy amidst a global pandemic. We’ve got jobs that we enjoy and a beautiful house that we’re thankful for every single day (not exaggerating). I could create a list of the hard parts of 2021, too, but we’ll focus on the bright-side, right?
In the spirit of ushering in the new by reflecting on the past, here’s a list of…
Fostered six cats. Fostering is kind of the best, by the way. I'm hoping we can start up again once we figure out if our bun is interested in furry friends.
Went gluten-free for three months and then happily (and healthily) added it back in without a problem. Woohoo!
Was vaccinated and boosted to keep me and the folks around me healthy.
Began substitute teaching at the boys' school.
Started seeing a therapist every month. I highly recommend.
Started paddleboarding. It's kind of my thing now.
Successfully marketed eight book festival events.
Got a bunny. You remember Flopsy (pictured above).
Read 27 books. My goal was one a month...I blew that one out of the water! I'll post a list of some of my favorites soon.
Wrote 230 blog posts. Not quite a photo a day (my vision from seven years ago), but not too shabby.
See ya, 2021. We’re ready for you, 2022! I’ve got a good feeling about this one.
This year’s holiday card display brings me so much joy. Thanks to all the friends and family that included us on their lists this year. I just love holiday cards.
We’re all hoping Santa stops by tonight. We’ll hope the same for all of the little ones out there. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Wishing you and yours the very best that Christmas has to offer. Whether you’re celebrating with a large family gathering or a quiet evening at home, I hope this season brings you peace, happiness, and love. I might be a bit absent from the blog as we celebrate with our families. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon, though!
We’re officially four days from Christmas and the bun continues to love the holiday season. His favorite spot is under the tree and his favorite snack seems to be pine needles. We’re a little worried about what’s going to happen when the tree has to go on the curb. We might be stuck with an indoor pine tree all year long.
With travel on the agenda for next weekend, we had a little family Christmas extravaganza today. There was bowling, and cookie-making, and presents, and puzzling, and yummy food, and a Christmas movie. It was all so perfect. Days like these make me love the holiday season and even more.
Two of my favorite thing: Christmastime and escape rooms! And this round some of my favorite friends joined us, too. It was a fun, but challenging room and we managed to escape with about ten minutes left. The boys are practically experts now that they’ve solved their first two escape rooms.
Drumroll, please…the boys and I are excited to announce that we collected 291 books for kids around the Chippewa Valley. We didn’t meet our goal, but sometimes it’s important to set goals too high to accomplish, you know. Growth mindset or something. Haha.
We’re once again grateful, speechless, and inspired by the generosity everyone showed us. In this season (not only the season of Christmas but also our season of life with little ones), it’s been so important for us over the last two years of doing this project to really feel and internalize the importance of giving back. As you know, reading is something that fills hours upon hours of our days and to think we could give even a little bit of that joy to a friend who doesn’t have the luxury or opportunity for books in their house—it just warms our hearts. I hope it does the same for you.
From the bottom of our warm hearts to you–wherever you might be–thank you. THANK YOU. Not only did you make this a special Christmas project for us, more importantly, you made this a special Christmas for a child who will receive a new book of their very own this year.
Robbe dropped off his letter to Santa tonight. Can you imagine a more picturesque letter drop-box? We even squeezed in an impromptu snowball fight on the way home. It felt like we were in a Hallmark movie!
More snow photos, as promised. Beautiful couple of days taking advantage of the fresh snow and sunshine.
It’s looking pretty dreamy around here. I think we’re at about 10 inches of snow so far…and it’s still coming! Man, I love a good snowstorm. There will be more happy snow photos tomorrow, I’m sure!
It turns out Flopsy loves Christmas. He spends his days laying under the Christmas tree and occasionally nibbling on its needles. It’s about the cutest thing ever.
This guy can blow bubbles now. That’s a serious accomplishment! Perseverance and determination pay off once again for our little man.
Happy St. Nick’s Day, everyone. I hope you all woke up with coins in your shoes and a bit of extra holiday cheer this morning.
Another big night out in the city for us! We saw the tree lit up and enjoyed the fire rings and some delicious hot cocoa. Also, there were about six of us there (during an organized evening!). There are definite perks to small-city living.
Look how cute our sweet downtown is! Perfect evening for a holiday stroll.
We wrapped up the book donation project on Tuesday and we’re excited to report some of our final results. We won’t know total book numbers until we go shopping this weekend (one of our favorite parts!!), but I’ve got three updates for you:
We ended up with 52 total donations (whether book drop-offs, gift cards, or monetary). Slightly down from last year, but there’s still hope for making our goal!
Sixty-one books showed up at our door. Significantly down from last year—it’s interesting to think about why that might be the case.
Donations came in from 15 different states. An increase from last year…thanks to all of you out-of-state supporters!
We’ll be in touch when we’ve done some of our shopping. :)
While our library is under construction, they’re hosting some of their normal activities at off-sight locations. Tonight, they hosted a glass ornament workshop for kids at The Glass Orchard. It was very cool. I’ve been meaning to get out to that orchard/glass shop for years and I finally had an excuse. They make such beautiful pieces. It’s super inspiring.
It’s hard to say if our ornaments will turn out decent (we had to leave them to go in the kiln), but I’ll keep you posted.
small city | BIG DAYS
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