Christmas in Martinsburg

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Well, this year we had most of the crew in Martinsburg - even Jacob came home for the holiday!  The only ones missing this year were Laura (stayed home with the dogs) and Alison (who was sick).  It was a short but fun visit complete with time for relaxing, yummy food (including my favorite potato soup and Daniel's favorite creme-de-menthe brownies) and presents too!

Everett and Griffin have really grown and Jacob is such a nice young man.  It was fun hearing about his college adventures.  He seems so happy.

   

   

This year we also made a better effort in getting some family pics and I am so glad we did! Christmas = Family Memories for a Lifetime!

   

   

The Whole Crew - even OJ!

Christmas 2023

Monday, December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas 2023!  This year it was Daniel's turn to be on call on Christmas Eve.  Luckily, it wasn't too bad and he even had some special visitors on the night before Christmas.

Christmas morning was extra fun with 3 new kittens.  This was their very first Christmas and they wasted no time tracking down their gifts - a donut toy, some new cat toys and treats too!  They all liked their gifts and they all really liked the donut!

   

Then it was time for stockings and breakfast.  Breakfast was the ever popular egg nog coffee cake!  Yum!

   

After we got breakfast cleaned up, it was time for presents!  It seems that this year I took more pics of cats than people, but I did get a few good shots.  Emily got some new skating clothes, a space heater, sweaters, ski gloves, tennis shoes, a new water bottle and money on her Greenlight card.  Daniel got some ski socks, cat mug, F1 shirt, some new chargers, tennis shoes and a Furbo pet camera too!

   

   

   

After presents were unwrapped, it was time to get ready for our big turkey dinner!  We had been doing our big meal on Christmas Eve, but since D was on call, we had it today instead.  Even the kitties had a meal of turkey!  They loved it!

   

I would have thought that their big turkey dinner would have been enough to send them off to nap, but nope.  They all ended up making an appearance at the table too!  They're so sweet!  Glad we did not have company this year!

   

   

Merry Christmas to all...especially the kitties this year.

   

Christmas is exhausting.

Secret Santa Party

Friday, December 22, 2023 

I must admit, I miss planning little girl birthday parties.  I used to love working on the themes, fun party ware, favors and all the things.  So when Emily announced that her school friends wanted to have a secret santa exchange party at our house, I could not have been more excited.  They wanted to decorate gingerbread houses, too so that made choosing a gingerbread theme pretty easy.  We also incorporated a hot cocoa bar and hot cocoa mugs packed with goodies for party favors.

   

    

   

I really loved the little gingerbread house sippy bottles (and so did the kids) and the gingerbread cupcakes too!  So yummy!

After dinner (crockpot pasta), it was time for the gift exchange.  Emily had Ashlynn and she got her two little Jelly Cats.  She loved them!

  

Emily got a cute little basket filled with a cozy blanket and a little giraffe that gets warmed up in the microwave and becomes a warm friend.

   

Once all the santas had revealed themselves, it was time for hot cocoa and gingerbread house building!  Everyone seemed to really enjoy building their own houses.  What a fun night with a house full of teens!

   

   

Emily's house

Closing the American Girl Chapter

Monday, December 18, 2023

Ok so this is a hard post to write.  Just a few days after her 16th birthday it was time to close a chapter of Emily's childhood.  It was time to bid farewell to the American Girl dollhouse and most of its accessories.  Emily got this dollhouse at Christmas in 2014 when she was just 7.  She needed a stool to reach the top. 

   

Over the years, she collected many dolls, outfits and play sets.  At one point we had a house, a camping set, a beach house, a horse barn, a bicycle, a beauty salon chair and more.  We enjoyed several trips to American Girl stores including ones at Easton in Columbus and Tyler's Corner in Washington, DC.  She had several of the historical dolls, the first bought by Great Grandma Miller - Caroline.  And she also had several Girl of the Year dolls - including Mia (the ice skater), Grace (the baker), Sage (the artist), Isabell (the dancer) and Makenna (the gymnast) as well as the movies that went with them.

  

Luckily, when the time came this week for us to close this chapter, one of the younger skaters at our rink really wanted Emily's collection so that made this a little easier.  When the time came Jessie and her husband arrived and loaded the house into their truck for its ride to meet Maggie, its new owner.  I hope this next chapter for Maggie is as happy as it was for Emily.