How was everyone's holiday? Are you of this week with kids or back at work? Any gift hits or misses?
DD is back at daycare and we're back in our routine after the three day weekend, thank goodness. My ILs are coming this weekend for another long weekend. Hopefully we will have all recharged enough to handle it.
We hosted my family on Monday. Prepping the house and a big meal with three young kids felt like a mistake, but I'm really glad we got to see everyone and also didn't have to travel anywhere.
December's been really crazy. DH's father passed away, the kids were sick for days and days, we had an at-home gingerbread bday party for my 10 year old, we had 2 funerals and hosted some Christmas events, and now our furnace went out! Just SO GLAD it stayed on through the totally bitter cold we had just before Christmas, and through the actual holiday. SO GLAD. We actually did great with a couple electric space heaters and it worked out fine last night.
We're supposed to go to Chicago today for 2 nights but DH is behind so the whole thing has been screwed up; I'm going to try to go with the kids. I am sure it will be fun, but I will never again plan something like this during Christmas break week. It's kind of too much but I'm plowing ahead and making it happen this time.
Hits: Lots of hits. American Girl continues to be a hit over here. The coffee shop for all 3 girls is really cool. New Barbie Dream House to add to "Barbieland" is a hit. I love this one--it's really cool and fun. My 10 year old really likes her stilts and her new Koolaburra boots. For DS, he got the Star Wars Rebellion game and LOVES it, and I was grateful my brother played it with him yesterday. It's one of those 3-4 hour strategy games that I hate playing, but DS loves it. He also got several Lego sets that he's excited about and some Star Wars collectible guys. Misses: So far, no one has shown much interest in the fort builder set that I was really excited about, but we've been super busy...I have hope that they will get into it after this trip and have fun making hideouts.
Hits: duplos and a marble run set for DD (3). We already had a marble run set, we just got more to expand the set. And both were purchased for $10 on marketplace, so I'm pretty proud of myself there. I'm sure she'll really get into the other things she got too once we have time to really get into everything. Roomba from my parents. We don't have time to keep up with sweeping as much as we should, so this has been great already. Automatic laser pointer - purchased for the cats, but DD and our dog love it 😂
Younger twin is at daycare today. Day 3 of only underwear- he woke up to pee in the little potty over night so sent him to daycare since there's only one other kid there to try to get him used to using the bathroom there.
Home with just older twin now. He's not doing great with the PT, and we just had a virtual consult from a potty training physical therapist (recommended to us by her colleague who is his normal physical therapist).
Daughter spent the night at my sister's house last night because it was niece's birthday. We'll go over there for birthday dinner tonight and bring her home.
I'm off all week which is a win, but preparing stuff for our accountant is sucking up so much of my time. We bought a house this year that we rent as an airbnb and when DH proposed this I said, "....that sounds like a lot of work for me on the business end." And yeah, it is. I'm working hard to own my agreement and not be all martyrlike about it.
DD's 3D printer was a win. She had asked for the Toybox, but after reading online a lot I got the Monoprice Cadet for around $160. It's not been seamless but we're getting there and she has printed several things already. It's easy for her to use.
Post by minniemouse on Dec 28, 2022 12:58:42 GMT -5
I’m in a suburb of Buffalo. It sucked. We had a travel ban from Friday at 9:30 am until Monday night, and are still under a no unnecessary travel advisory. The city is wrecked, they still have a full ban. The loss of life from this storm was devastating. It’s not over, the death count is rising. Despite all that, we had power and heat the whole time, plenty of food, and Santa made it through! My older dd had a cold, so we would have had to stay home from family parties anyway (she’s better now). It’s very weird, I feel like Christmas hasn’t even happened yet. ETA- im working from home, kids are dh are off this week.
We had the storm Thursday/ Friday last week, so work was closed. It was very blowy, but we only got 2 inches so for a blizzard it wasn't that bad.
I spent Thursday vegetating. Friday I finished up some work I was doing in the basement. I was putting up wallpaper tiles over our super ugly cistern. It does look better now, and I also put up some twinkle lights in the basement. Saturday, we watched Home Alone and I did a bit more cleaning in our guest room/ office since my mom was going to come this weekend. It looks like she is not coming now but oh well. On Christmas, DH made a really nice brunch and then we had restaurant fried shrimp for lunch which was really good.
Family is visiting this weekend, and I decided not to take Friday off to clean and buy food. The party is at 1 on Saturday, so I will just buy food in the morning, I guess. Since i cleaned last weekend, I will probably just do the toilets and call it done. Hopefully my family isn't super messy in between time. I just didn't feel like taking a day off to clean since I just cleaned recently.
I'm at work. DH is working from home with the kids ha ha.
waverly I'm doing the same re: cleaning. We did a pretty good job cleaning on Saturday, so we just need to finish putting away stuff from Christmas #1 and #2 and clean the bathroom. Oh and wash the guest bed sheets. I'm leaving food planning up to H since that's his thing plus it's his family.
DS2 threw up last night, not sure if it is what DS1 had last week but I am worried I will get it too. Several of my side of the family have covid and most for the first time. We had a small Xmas at our place with DHs side of the family and it was relaxing. We did take out on NYE which I will never not do lol. Who wants to do a big clean up on Xmas eve. Xmas stuff is still up. Our tree still looks great so maybe this weekend we will take it down.
Post by turkletsmom on Dec 28, 2022 15:33:59 GMT -5
We had a great holiday with just the 5 of us because of the weather. I think going forward I'm going to say we'll do family get-togethers on the weekend before Christmas like we did this year. It was so relaxing and stress-free to not host.
Kids are 9, 6 & 6 and seemed to love all their gifts. Only misses so far are all the books I bought them LOL. I'm sure once we get back to school and regular routine we'll get back to reading.
We're having a "Noon Year's Eve" party Saturday with all of our friends with young kids so I need to clean up and get ready for that. I'm debating whether to leave up the Xmas decorations for the party. I'm ready for them to be gone.
We drove Monday to my parents and then are at BIL’s tonight. My kids don’t go back to school until the 5th so we have a couple Of days next week still of break to assemble Lego sets.
Big hit was the tabletop air hockey table. Also the Minecraft stuffies from Costco. Kids even brought 2 of them with us.
I work at their school so we're all home. DH took this week off which is nice. Tomorrow the kids go to a one day outdoor camp and I'm so excited for some quiet. 4 boys = loud. I'm going to paint our built in bookcases.
All the stuffed animals were hits. Goo JIT zu were are so so but they also didn't ask for them. Watches are a big hit (Garmin and fit bit). A Tetris board game has been fun. New water jug things from Costco were big hits. They carry them everywhere.
I am so grateful we have aftercare next week. I feel for all of the parents who have kids home for 2+ weeks. The girls will end up being home for 12 days with no family help and it’s a lot of unstructured time. Takes me back to 2020 in a bad way ðŸ˜
The Nintendo Switch was a hit - though DS is not impressed that it's a family gift vs his own personal Switch. But we spend enough time battling to get him off his ipad, I was not 'giving' him another screen.
Hits for DD Lego Dots sets Unicorn Warmie stuffy Bead overhang for her bedroom door Giant stuffed unicorn Aquabeads Instax Camera unicorn headphones
Hits for DS some crazy remote control car that drifts over the door double pop a shot thing a chair for his room gaming headphones Puppy Warmie Stuffy Minecraft for the switch
DS hasn't fully jumped into the Mario lego sets. I don't know that it's a miss, just that he's too focused on other presents at the moment.
No major misses - though my SIL bought each DD and DS a knock off virtual reality gaming thing. The kids thought it was the real deal. It is not (I mean, I get it, it's super expensive so of course it's not real). They need mine or DH's phones to work with it. It's glitchy and has led to a lot of frustration from both kids because it doesn't work like their cousin's VR (the real Occulus).
My vent - my company closes between Christmas and New Years. But I work in finance. And it's year end. So we all are working. Usually we get a day or two between Christmas and year end crap. But this year we had to get going right on Dec 26th, I worked 8am to midnight. With no acknowledgement from upper management. All December they sent out cheerful reminders, 'Everyone enjoy the long break - everyone rest up for the new year'. But then required year end numbers on Dec 28th, so CLEARLY there's a chunk of your company busting their ass to meet that deadline. I'll get to take these as vacation days sometime in 2023, but I'm so fucking burnt out. I needed some of that time off now.
kdubs923 my DS(6.5) was also unimpressed that our Nintendo switch was a family gift.
We also got the switch sports games. H and I have enjoyed playing them together.
kdubs923 my H works in accounting/finance as well. He's been crazy busy! Thankfully the whole company closes for 4 days for Christmas and 4 days for New Years or it would be worse. The company he worked for the first 5 years we were married was nuts! The accounting/finance department had to work late the day before and after Christmas every year.
No real misses, he's already gone through his stages of preferring one truck to another (garbage, monster, dump truck, car carrier), but seems to like them all.
I don’t know if anyone remembers my post (I deleted it) about getting the presents under the tree before we left but it was a success! I loaded the van and the kids and I got in and then DH ran back in to use the bathroom.
I had been really worried because it was the first Christmas without my parents, but our decision to staycation was perfect. We spent 12/24-22-26 at Disneyland and we stayed at the Grand Californian for the first time. Absolutely perfect.
All the gifts were a hit! DH and I gave the kids a trip to Aulani on Oahu and I bought a puzzle on Etsy that said where we were going. We wrapped half the pieces for each kid and gave it to them in the hotel on Christmas Eve.
I don’t know if anyone remembers my post (I deleted it) about getting the presents under the tree before we left but it was a success! I loaded the van and the kids and I got in and then DH ran back in to use the bathroom.
I had been really worried because it was the first Christmas without my parents, but our decision to staycation was perfect. We spent 12/24-22-26 at Disneyland and we stayed at the Grand Californian for the first time. Absolutely perfect.
All the gifts were a hit! DH and I gave the kids a trip to Aulani on Oahu and I bought a puzzle on Etsy that said where we were going. We wrapped half the pieces for each kid and gave it to them in the hotel on Christmas Eve.
Yay!!! I’m so glad.
Any tips on holidays at the Disneyland/grand Californian? We are staying for new years.
When my kids were very little, I called stormwater drains "No"s. Like, "Don't go near the No." I don't know, somehow I thought it would help them stay away from them and not fall in. I cannot explain how I thought this was a concern or made sense.
ANYWAY, I was out walking with my 12 year old and he said, "wow, did you see that squirrel? It almost went in the No." LOL I had to explain that's not what they're really called, etc. It was pretty funny. He was like, "....it's not called a 'no'?"
I don’t know if anyone remembers my post (I deleted it) about getting the presents under the tree before we left but it was a success! I loaded the van and the kids and I got in and then DH ran back in to use the bathroom.
I had been really worried because it was the first Christmas without my parents, but our decision to staycation was perfect. We spent 12/24-22-26 at Disneyland and we stayed at the Grand Californian for the first time. Absolutely perfect.
All the gifts were a hit! DH and I gave the kids a trip to Aulani on Oahu and I bought a puzzle on Etsy that said where we were going. We wrapped half the pieces for each kid and gave it to them in the hotel on Christmas Eve.
Yay!!! I’m so glad.
Any tips on holidays at the Disneyland/grand Californian? We are staying for new years.
It was way less crowded than I was expecting for it being Christmas. New Years might be busier?
We opted out of early entry- the front desk told us we should plan to leave our hotel room to get in line at 7 am and my kids didn’t want to get up early. Our room was facing the courtyard where the monorail goes by- so pretty far from the dedicated entrance into DCA but that’s where the end of the line was. It appeared to move pretty quickly though.
Breakfast options were terrible at the hotel. Plan to bring your own or eat in the parks. The pool water was cold the first day and much warmer the second, no idea why! Loved the poolside drink service!
The grand has a rooftop deck where you can view world of color. It’s not the best view but it was fun.
I am a big fan of Genie+ so I always recommend that!
Any tips on holidays at the Disneyland/grand Californian? We are staying for new years.
It was way less crowded than I was expecting for it being Christmas. New Years might be busier?
We opted out of early entry- the front desk told us we should plan to leave our hotel room to get in line at 7 am and my kids didn’t want to get up early. Our room was facing the courtyard where the monorail goes by- so pretty far from the dedicated entrance into DCA but that’s where the end of the line was. It appeared to move pretty quickly though.
Breakfast options were terrible at the hotel. Plan to bring your own or eat in the parks. The pool water was cold the first day and much warmer the second, no idea why! Loved the poolside drink service!
The grand has a rooftop deck where you can view world of color. It’s not the best view but it was fun.
I am a big fan of Genie+ so I always recommend that!
Yesterday was a day. It was warm and almost balmy at 50 degrees so I took it upon myself to get things done. I had a follow up mammogram and ultrasound, luckily no cancer yay! Then I took the kids to get Covid shots. We all had Covid in August, so there was a delay because you are supposed to wait 3 months but with an uptick in cases, we wanted to do them. I still need to get mine, but I need to plan for a day when I can take off work because I get really sick from them. Then I also fixed my car remote/ key which had a low battery. I managed to pop out all the pieces instead of the battery. Facepalm, but DH got it sorted for me as I panicked thinking I totally broke it. The kids got their flu shots in late Nov/ Early Dec after we all got the flu already. So we were just behind on everything I guess, but at least we have protection now for them from now through spring.
Post by midwestmama on Dec 30, 2022 15:06:06 GMT -5
Christmas was nice. We usually celebrate on Christmas Day with my parents and sister, but due to the weather, we moved it to Dec. 26. It was still nice. DH and I are working this week, but it's been pretty quiet with emails, so I've been able to get more work done and be able to log off a bit earlier than usual.
I've made a little over $300 this week selling some of the kids' outgrown clothes on local FB sale groups and at a kids' consignment store. Made good progress on decluttering too.
With the weather being warmer today, I need to go out and vacuum out my car. Tonight/tomorrow we'll get ready to have two families over for NYE tomorrow evening.
Christmas was pretty good! Kid #1 woke up Christmas Eve with a stomachache, threw up once, and kept a bland diet down the rest of the day but was overall fine by bedtime that night and has been good ever since. So weird-whatever it was, none of the rest of us got it. Between that and some of the family we were going to see Christmas Eve ending up with one of the non Covid respiratory viruses going around, we postponed that and threw together some pasta and wine for Christmas Eve dinner at home but were able to stay the course with our Christmas Day activities (ILs coming over for brunch then us going to my parents for dinner). My husband is working a normal schedule this week but I opted to take PTO because kid #1 is off school and also because things are super slow at work this week anyway. Husband and I had a nice date night Weds night, I had my annual mammogram yesterday morning, and Kid #1 spent the afternoon yesterday at Kid #2's babysitters* so I got to spend 4 hours in utter blessed silence and did diddly squat which felt amazing
*#2's babysitter lives across the street. Her granddaughter is 2 years younger than kid #1 and they are BFFs which is freaking adorable. Her parents are both working this week so kid #1 went over there during toddler naptime to hang out and help occupy the big kids so the grownups can straighten up etc. I don't know who was more excited-#1, BFF, or #2 when she got up from nap and saw her big brother was there!