The Saturday 7

I have so much to report this week!

1. First up: Christmas Eve, continued. Due to the blizzard, church was canceled, so we went over to Niki's at dinner time for snacks and games. For the past few weeks I've been buying $1 mystery packages from the bin store. Then, I came up with a game for us to exchange them. Using Pinterest as a guide, I came up with a bunch of "trade with someone who" prompts. 

Once all the trading was done, we opened our packages. I was worried it'd be a bunch of stupid stuff like air filters or cabinet handles, but we got some fun and hilarious surprises! 

My dad got a single badminton birdie (at least it lit up!), Madi got a multi-corded contraption that came with a light bulb, but it didn't do anything when she plugged it in, Braden got a pair of women's sandals (that ended up fitting Madi!), Tristan got throw pillow covers, Libby got a phone purse, Nash got toothbrush heads, Mike got a shower shampoo dispenser, Tater got a light-up showerhead, I got a single wall sconce, Nova got a light up unicorn kind of like this:

Rieley and Brandy got these lovely shirts:

The white one is Lucky brand, and the tag said it was $80!

Tyler got a single bottle of nail polish:

Lucy got this silicone "love" mold:

Levi got some electric tea-lights shaped like eggs:

Niki got this mug:

My mom got the dud:

This plastic contraption that came with a USB cord. Any ideas what it is?

And Justin got the funniest one:

Not too bad for $1 a piece! Definitely worth it for the laughs. 

Then we tried out a game Lena got for Christmas from us: Grounded for Life. Almost everyone joined in and we had some good laughs with that as well. (It's like a clean/kids' version of Cards Against Humanity.) My favorite was when I first got the game out and asked if anyone had played Grounded for Life before. Tristan immediately responded, "Played it? I've lived it!" 😂😂😂

Cove enjoyed the game as well.

Lena emerged as the champion, much to her delight.

Saylor enjoying the tea-light eggs

Retrieving the badminton birdie from the rafters after a game of catch went awry

2. The kids and I spent the night at Niki's that, per tradition. Levi didn't fall asleep until 11:45, and was up at 6:02 a.m. 🤦 (There's a reason for the cliche, "Like a kid on Christmas morning.") He played games on my phone until 8:00, when we were allowed to go downstairs. I hid the kids' stockings extra hard this year, but they all eventually found them after a few hints.

Once everyone arrived, we did the annual "kids in front of the tree" pic. There's always one uncooperative one. See if you can guess who it was this year. 😂

Best we could get. 😄🥰

Then Dad did a vintage felt-board Christmas story with the kids:

The rest of the day was spent opening presents:

The long-awaited drone!

Wrestling and doing gymnastics:

Playing with new toys:

Snuggling babies:

And bears:

Eating the best homemade pizza I've ever had (courtesy of Luke and Esther):

And playing games:

My mom did the "treat under the cup" game for the kids. They got slime, candy, fidgets, and money! 

Lucy played cards with us for the first time ever, and she won!

Finding the pickle

So very thankful.

It was a wonderful Christmas, filled with all my favorite things. We got home around 6 that night, played with our new stuff for a while, then Levi sat down on the couch next to me and promptly fell asleep. I can't remember the last time that happened!

A sure sign of a successful Christmas!

3. The kids spent the rest of the week playing with their new toys:

4. On Tuesday, we met up with some cousins to go bowling:

We had the entire place to ourselves!

They ended up scoring in age order. Lucy got first, Lena second, Levi third, Nova fourth, and Nash fifth. 

Niki, Libby, and I bowled without bumpers. It wasn't pretty. Lol.

5. I saw a meme that said the week between Christmas and New Year's is supposed to be the least productive week of the year, and I took that to heart. Lol. Truly, I spent a lot of time making room for new toys and cleaning up after the constant messes kids make when they're home from school. I got into a good rhythm of forcing myself to do 4 main things a day (a load of laundry, load of dishes, pick up the main floor, and make dinner), plus one thing off my never ending to-do list of extra things (like take down the Christmas stuff, organize the piles of stuff to get rid of, etc.). Once my chores were done, I let myself sit down and be lazy. I got addicted to Yahtzee on my phone this week. It's so dumb, because there's almost zero skill involved, but I am completely enthralled by it. I told myself I could play through the rest of the year, but tomorrow, I'm deleting the app from my phone. Ain't nobody got time for that much Yahtzee. 

6. I also read 3 books from Connilyn Cossette's Cities of Refuge series. I read the first one years ago and really enjoyed it, but then never finished the rest of the series. This week, I saw the second one on Kindle Unlimited so decided to dive back in. After I finished that one, I read the last two as well. The third one was my favorite, and my third five-star read of the year. I loved it so much. I highly recommend the whole series. Biblical fiction is so fascinating and inspiring, and this series covers a rarely-explored part of Biblical history: the time between Joshua conquering the Promised Land after Jericho and the beginning of the rule of Judges. Check it out!

7. And then today, to round out 2022, we did something very exciting . . . 

Meet Stella!

Levi is obsessed.

Levi's teacher sent an email to the class a couple weeks ago saying that they were getting rid of kittens. Levi has wanted a pet so badly for so long, but Lucy is allergic to dogs and we're not spending thousands of dollars on something hypo-allergenic. Justin and I have talked about getting a cat for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

We picked her up this morning, and Levi has hardly done anything except chase her, play with her, hold her, and cuddle with her since then. He insists that her full name is Stella Rascal. 😂 She's super playful and fun, and he's loving dangling yarn in front of her face and delighting at the way she jumps and scampers to get her toys. 

Forcing her to watch a show with him on his tablet. 😆

I got the heating pad out a couple days ago after hurting my back hauling the Christmas totes in from the garage (🙄), and the kids have been enjoying laying on it. Levi set up this blanket spread, and turned the heating pad on to entice Stella to lay on it. She took the bait almost immediately, and once she fell asleep, he covered her up with a blanket. 😄🥰

Well that's probably enough for today! 10,000 useless bonus points if you made it all the way to the end! Are you a glutton for punishment? Looking for more? Don't miss my 2022 Year in Review. 

Happy new year!