a whole lot of hustle and bustle...and relaxing

 last monday ashford's class celebrated his birthday. it's not until after the break starts, but they have a lot of december birthdays in his class (including his teacher), so they each got their own day. i asked him if he wanted to bring in a celebratory treat for everyone and he said no. almost 10-year-old boys are funny. :) that afternoon they did gingerbread houses in class, which was a surprise activity from his teacher, so that was fun. 

it looks like there is a chicken nugget on top, but it's a cookie. haha! 

tuesday evening ashford went to karate with arlo and his mom. wednesday morning we were treated to the most beautiful sunrise. 

thursday morning i met vanessa at 'sabine' for a little holiday brunch before her family travels for the holidays. in the evening i took ashford and arlo to karate. ashford has been cracking me up lately because he asks to drink his milk out of a wine glass. 

friday was the kids' last day of school before the break. i ran around ballard doing lots of errands including getting a 'salt and straw' gift card for azalea's friend's birthday gift, which earned me a free scoop of ice cream. gingerbread cookie flavor, it was so good! 

they both had parties in class to celebrate. azalea's was a waffle bar and white elephant gift exchange in her homeroom and ashford's was a potluck and trivia. i always remember loving the day before break at school. they got out of school an hour early too and they don't go back until january 2nd. we ended up meeting thatcher at 'uneeda burger' for dinner, which was delicious as always. then we watched 'christmas chronicles' when we got home. 

saturday morning i took ashford to get his covid booster, then thatcher took azalea and her friend clementine to their friend tyler's bowling birthday party in shoreline. azalea and tyler have known each other since preschool, which is super sweet. she had a great time at the party. 

in the afternoon, kay and fritz came over. the boys played video games and the moms had wine and snacks :) after they left, we ended the night with watching the new animated movie 'leo' which was hilarious. 

sunday thatcher went up to the property to hang our address sign by the road and bring stuff up to our new shed. the kids and i did some errands in ballard (and a trip to starbucks to cut down on whining, of course) :) i cleaned the house and prepped pork shoulder for carnitas taco dinner with friends that night. we also made more cookies (m&m and andes mint), then we watched 'christmas chronicles 2". thatcher's coworker chris, his wife misty, and their daughter penny who is in between my kids' age came over in the evening. we joke that we see them every december for dinner and never in between. we should fix that. it was a really fun night. the food turned out great, good conversation, and twinkling christmas lights makes everything feel cozy. we have been so bad about having other families over since the pandemic, but i really do enjoy it. i forgot to take any pictures. 

now we are officially on winter break! lots of time to fill with the kids, which can be challenging, but i will do my best to soak up the rest of the holiday season because it really is the best.