Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have had lots of lovely time with Ella. Having my house full of all its members definitely brought joy to my heart...and dishes to my sink! ;) Kinda crazy how just one person makes such a big difference in the daily chores! We were ready to serve Ella in whatever way she needed over the holidays, but her to-do list was simple. She most wanted to do little things we take for granted like drive the car, look at the stars she's been missing in LA, read a book for fun, take a bath, and connect with friends. Having Ella home was enough of a holiday break highlight for me, I didn't feel the need to over plan, especially since Ella just wanted to recharge in regular-life ways. So, here are few of those Simple Things that filled our Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Tea dates
An early visit from Sinterklaas over Thanksgiving weekend
LOTS of Ivy snuggles!
Swing dance lessons from Ella
Staff lunch for the preschool teachers
Christmas dress up days for our last week of school
Present opening fun!!
A drive and walk around the Christmas light neighborhood
A 1000 piece puzzle completed in 1 day
An at home Escape Room
A Christmas Zoom call with Anna, Derek, Andrew, Heather and Annabelle (and various dogs)!
A New Years Eve at home, where we hosted high school friends, fried up ollie bollen, played Jackbox games, and made them all sleep over.
A New Year's goal to memorize more Bible verses, helped by Dave's gift of a monthly temporary tattoo subscription! Cool, huh?
More friends sleeping over and showing off their Stanley Sisterhood
Learning lines for the next big play in February, Father of the Bride. Delia learned right before break that she was cast as Kay, the bride!! Her biggest part to date!
AND the biggest event: Delia easily passing her driver's test this Break to earn her driver's license! She was a little more timid and slow to learn, taking a full year to get to this point, but we're super proud and super excited that we never have to teach a teenager to drive again!! ;)
Not pictured: a half dozen dates with friends, 8 books read, a whole season of Survivor binged, lots of great movies shared (including our favorite, Oppenheimer), regular restaurant meals (thanks to generous gifts from family and friends), late nights and lazy mornings, countless trips to the Coffee Shop, several pajama days, big house projects taken off the to-do list (like shampooed carpets, a legit Christmas Break high point for me!), all of Ella's favorite home-cooked meals on the menu, and Formal dress shopping.
The end of our Break was supposed to have a grand event in it, but a last minute cancellation had us spontaneously whip up a Plan B. I'll write about that next; stay tuned!
1 comment:
It's great how much you fit in to this short time period. I'm sure that Ella enjoyed her time at home. It's always fun to catch up with family and friends. Congratulations to Delia on getting her license, and also getting the lead in the next play. We can't wait until we can come to see the play - and all of you. I didn't know that it was a tradition to make ollie bollen on New Year's Eve, but recently read that. Also saw on the news that the Stanley water bottles were the sought after gift this Christmas. Happy New Year!!
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