Christmas 2023

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Tessa

Another Christmas has come and gone. A joyous, family-filled, sugar induced holiday affair. This year Barney and Lorie flew out from California to join us for the festivities.

It has been a slow week post-Christmas. I had to work for a few of the days, since my new job does not include a week off between Christmas and New Years. It was weird to work this week, but not bad. It made for a slower cleanup and less reading/puzzle time, but it’s all good.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve. We’ll be doing our usual games and late night fun. We have a few friends coming over to ring in the new year with us! Then New Year’s Day off, then we all go back to school and work. Except Lex, who gets another whole week off!! Lucky college boy. LOL.

Oh Christmas Tree

Posted on December 9, 2023 by Tessa

Today was a pretty perfect, festive, holi-day. Alan came down to visit and we went to get the Christmas tree. Lex is still at school and River was at an event, so it was just me, Eve, and Alan this year. We found the perfect tree in a matter of minutes! I’m not sure if we got really lucky, or if just few voices make for faster decisions, or what. But whatever it was, the tree is lovely and we were efficient.

Small group this year, but having fun nonetheless!

When we got home we turned on a livestream of the WPI basketball game Lex was performing at. Lex was on snare drum and easy to spot in the crowd. The basketball game was a good one (WPI won!) and went quickly, like most basketball games do. After the halftime show, which is just the band playing, no marching, we brought the tree in and set it up.

Three videos in a playlist. Hit play once and let it run through all three.

Eve and River went off to play DnD with their friends, Alan headed home, and I went to have dinner with a good friend. It was her birthday yesterday so we got carrot cake for dessert. Yum!

When the kids got home, Eve and I put up the star and the Christmas lights. We also each put up one ornament. We decided to do the rest tomorrow. There is a storm warning for tomorrow, so it will be the perfect day to cozy up at home and decorate the Christmas tree. I’m excited for it already.

Eve’s favorite birds. They always have a special place on the tree.

Next weekend Lex will come home and my house will be full again. <3

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Tessa

Another one on the books. This year, despite the pandemic overhead, we were able to gather all together. 🎄❤️

Santa came while all the teenagers were still awake. They didn’t help though, and didn’t even leave any cookies for Santa!

Cookie time

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Tessa

Eve and I decided to host a cookie party this year. We decided many weeks ago, before the Covid case numbers started skyrocketing again. I did lots of internal debating and talking withy friends (who were they party guests!) and decided to proceed anyway. Everyone is vaxxed and boosted, so I’m hoping for the best!!

We had a really nice time. There were none moms and eleven kids, mostly teenagers but two younger ones as well. We had a lovely time and everyone left after about two hours. (Because I set the end time in the invite! ?)

3-Day Christmas Tree

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Tessa

This year Christmas decorating has taken a little longer than usual. We went on Friday afternoon to get a tree because Alan was here that day. When we got home everyone was tired from school and tree getting, so we just put it in the stand and left it. On Saturday all three kids had plans, which even overlapped by two hours so I had a little time home alone! :) I wrapped some presents, got out the Christmas decorations, put up some house decorations, and put the lights on the tree. This morning the boys put lights on the big tree outside while Eve decorated the porch (and I dealt with a broken water heater). This evening we were all finally together and ready to decorate the tree. You know the meme format “Tell me you have ____ without telling me you have ___.” Tell me you have teenagers without telling me you have teenagers. We decorated the tree at 9:00pm and no one is even remotely ready for bed. Myself included!

Friday afternoon tree cutting, trying to pick one and get done before dark!

Tomorrow hopefully a plumber will come fix the water heater and maybe I’ll even get a few errands done as well. 🎄🎁

Merry Christmas – 2020 style!

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Tessa

Merry Christmas! We did it. Christmas in a pandemic, divorce, foster care lifestyle. For the most part, everyone had fun! The pictures are a bit limited (due to the third item above), but here are a few.

Make your own pizzas for Christmas Eve dinner.

The kids got creative with stuffed crust pizza!

This cutie wanted pizza too!

Santa made it! With help from family and friends, we had a well stocked Christmas with gifts that wrapped around the tree.

Merry Christmas, Eve. :)

Lex, trying to figure out his dad’s present labels.

We had a great time with these beautiful wooden puzzles from Mema.

Some of the pieces are animal shaped. That was a fun discovery.

I made the traditional Christmas lasagna with a side of veggies. Eve made her now-traditional holiday frog bread. I got out the fancy table cloth and napkins….

… The kids ate nothing but frog bread! A nice balance to the candy they (we) ate all day. :)

It was different this year, for sure, and I missed the Collier family like crazy, but with the extra kids around we all did ok. :)

Here’s to a happy, healthy, family-filled 2021!!

What’s Making Me Happy

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Tessa

Christmas this year will be very different, for many reasons, but I’m determined to make it a great Christmas anyway. I am basking in the love I feel all around me, and the love I am able to share. Here are a few holiday memories we are making.

Can you guess what audio book we were listening to while making gingerbread cookies last week?

We have been playing a lot of board games lately! Although I’m not very competitive, I do ok sometimes. :)

We couldn’t have a holiday party at school this year, but our “Sunshine Committee” put together a safe, festive, inviting holiday Hot Cocoa Bar. It warmed my heart and my stomach!

Every last detail was thought of, right down to the to-go mugs for those of us who were on the go!

The super adorable preschooler on our street has been offering free snowballs all week. Sometimes people leave him little thank you gifts in exchange. 💖

Not exactly Christmas related, but we got a lot of snow last week and there are a lot of big boots in my mudroom! I tried to organize them. Jasmine “helped” in her own special way. :)

A few of our musical neighbors organized a socially-distanced holiday caroling event. It was mostly fun. :) The teenagers were not interested at all and I’m a terrible singer, but it was a lovely idea and reminded me once again how awesome my new neighborhood is.

Speaking of neighbors, there has been a lot of porch deliveries all week, with candy and trail mix and fun ornaments going around. :)

Eve and I took a little Christmas Eve drive with a loaded sleigh. She is my favorite co-pilot in the world and quick with the camera when we see cool things — like this blue driftwood horse.

A quick, masked, in-state, out-doors holiday gift swap. So many rules this year, but we snuck in a few hugs. I can’t wait to spend unmasked time with these amazing people again, in post-covid times!

The house is warm and filled with goodies. The children are happy. The Alan is here for the day. The Tessa is at peace. This Christmas will be different, but it will be ok.

🎄 Merry Christmas to all of you and best wishes for a happy (Covid-free) 2021. 💖💖

Friends

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Tessa

I have the nicest friends in the world. In case anyone was wondering. I have been mostly out of school this whole week, going in just a little bit some days (foster care reasons) and each time I go in I find a new little note on my desk. ❤❤ Here are just a few of the sweet, supportive notes:

And a few funny ones too. :)

This afternoon another friend brought over a fully constructed gingerbread house, frosting to decorate, and homemade lemon curd. And a bag of “extras” for nibbling on!

She said she might so Eve and I bought candy last week — just in case. :) Today she did and we had so much fun decorating it!

I have the best friends. Have I mentioned that already? :)

We are starting to feel a little Christmasy here.

Christmas 2019

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Tessa

Merry Christmas! This was somewhat a usual Christmas, but also felt somewhat unique as the kids are growing up and I realized I have more pictures of the pets than of the kids this year.

Santa came!

Christmas Eve in the dark.

This year the kids each bought each other presents. Lex bought Eve a laptop so she could play Minecraft with him more easily. Previously she had been playing on my computer, which isn’t exactly a gaming machine. Now she’s got an awesome computer and they have been having fun playing together.

First things first, presents from each other.

Eve got Lex a Settles of Catan expansion pack, and the promise to play the board game with him! :) I love that both presents involved playing with each other.

Lex was excited to watch Eve open her present.

This year I was the first one awake (not counting Mema and Tom because no one can beat them!) and when the kids woke up I had to remind them about opening stockings! They were weirdly not eagerly awaiting present opening. Or they were, but they are now more mature about it and not jumping on the be at 6am in pure excitement. In fact, they laughed at me because I was the one eagerly bouncing with excitement while waiting for the whole family to arrive in the morning. :)

This about sums up Eve these days.

But don’t you worry, we opened those presents!

Silly girl.

We also had phone calls with family from one coast to the other, and we did some Facetiming with Barney and Lorie.

Facetiming with the CA crew.

The present theme this year turned out to be cozy clothes and board games. We all enjoyed several (hours long!) games of Catan, and many more (minutes long) games of Otrio! I’m eager to play Prime Climb soon too. We have a NYE game night planned and the kids are already picking out the games. I think all three of those games are on the agenda, along with Apples to Apples and Hearts.

We played Catan for hours!

Eve got a stuffy puppy to match our puppy stuffy.

Stuffy and puppy

Christmas dinner was lasagna, salad, and bread. I the first proper meal I’ve cooked in a long time. My friend and her boys came to join us again and brought a delicious chocolate cake with a drawing of Huxley on it. :)

Christmas dinner. I think Alan has a better picture on his phone.

A family picture. We’ll try this again next year when (hopefully) Eve will smile for the camera and I won’t be as huge. :/

The rest of my pictures are of Huxley. Imagine if this cool portrait mode setting had existed when my kids were babies. Sigh. At least I still have one kid who will smile, an adorable dog, and two beautiful sisters.

Lex and Huxley

Rosy and Huxley

Huxley and the aunties

Post-party pup

Huxley and his lovie

The true purpose of vacation! <3

Merry Christmas to all of you. We have a lovely two week vacation from school this year, and we are enjoying every day of it. We went to an awesome theater yesterday to watch the latest Star Wars movie. It was a fun family outing. Today Alan ran some errands, but the rest of us snuggled in and avoided the winter storm. Tomorrow is NYE and we are excited to play games and eat Cheetos. Yep, that’s our family tradition. Bring in the new year!

PS. Hi Greg!!