It’s been a busier than usual and fun week around here! Steven has been on inpatient call this week, but we’ve still packed in plenty of holiday and regular activities. We started off last weekend celebrating closing on the new ranch property with a little fire pit hot dog and s’mores roast and a mini cattle drive. When we moved all the cattle from the old property to the new, we unloaded them into the pens and a large trap attached to the pens, so we moved them from the trap into one of the grazing pastures via one of the amazing travel lanes between pastures we now have.

On Sunday, we grabbed a quick barbecue lunch with our besties after church, and then headed to our first Little Dribblers basketball practice. Olivia had a lot of fun and has asked to practice every night since then, so we think she likes basketball!

To practice at home, we got an adjustable height basketball goal and finished assembling it Monday night. Steven and Olivia broke it in right after we finished putting it together with an inaugural slam dunk.

Tuesday night was a family night fundraiser at Liv’s school to raise money for a playground cover. They had dinner, a silent auction, Santa, cooking decorating, Christmas story time, and a chance to make reindeer food, plus a door decorating contest between the classrooms, which was essentially between the moms because we did the decorating. Our team consisted of four of us who are founding members of the Over-Committed Moms Class of 2036 and are probably more competitive than we should be, so we spent a fair amount of time doing it, but it turned out really cute! The kids voted that they wanted the Grinch theme and we placed second overall. The one thing we’ve said is that next year, we’re starting earlier!

Wednesday was our church Christmas meal and special service. Everyone brought a finger food to share (I brought pigs in a blanket and caramel toffee bars that I’ll share next week), and then each Wednesday night class of kids sang a song for the congregation. Last year I was heavy on 1st grade boys and they left me basically soloing on “Away in a Manger” because they couldn’t remember the words. I worked hard to find as simple of a song as I could since my class is all kindergarteners this year. They did four verses of “O Come Let Us Adore Him”, and did a great job! I love all these kinder babies, but one especially 😉 Preschool did a great job with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, but Henry decided to sing from behind the podium so no pics of him.

To add to the wildness of this time of year, we have a week and a half of spirit dress up days leading into Christmas break. Monday was Santa/ Red Day; Tuesday was Reindeer/ Brown Day; Wednesday was Elf/ Stripes Day and Thursday was Grinch/ Green Day. We get to finish out with Tourist Day (Christmas Around the World), Pajama Day (Polar Express), and two days of Christmas attire before we are out until 2024! We love a good theme!

Henry looks like we all kinda feel right now- a little worn out! He was down for the count halfway under his desk when I picked him up from preschool and I was so jealous- I’d love an all out nap like that right now!

It’s hard to believe we’re already going into the weekend before Christmas break- I feel like it really snuck up on me this year! We’ll be resting up this weekend because next week we have our monthly Bunco game, the kinder Christmas music program, both school parties, and the end of school for 2023! Have a great weekend!