- Sleep in or have morning screen time until 8:30am; must eat breakfast by 8:30am.
- 8:30-9:30am: work around the house! We did unpacking, cleaning, and other projects around the house every morning.
- 9:30am: Amber and Jeff do a workout together in the barn.
- 10am: Jeff, Jay, and Rose get ready for swim practice.
- 10:30am-12pm: swim practice for Jeff, Jay, and Rose, and together time for Amber and Shaina.
- 12-2pm: lunch, complete unfinished morning work, and rest/quiet time.
- 2pm-4:30pm: screen time.
- 4:30pm-5:30pm: everyone prep and eat dinner.
- Evening: we had family scripture more than 50% of the nights, and we watched one disc of the Lord of the Rings series per night on 4 of the nights. Jay declared that Lord of the Rings has elves in it, so it's a Christmas movie. I declared that we had to at least match our movie watching nights with nights where we remembered to have family scripture 50/50.
We followed this framework for the most part, and it worked great. It was a simple but good week, and we got a lot done around the house while also feeling like we were resting from our regular school day routine.
Other highlights from the week:
Wednesday, December 20th was our 17th wedding anniversary! We felt so lucky to have an entire afternoon and evening to celebrate together. Jeff and I went to the temple and then went out to dinner at a fancier-than-expected new Indian restaurant that's close to the temple. We enjoyed the 45 minute drives on either side of this outing, talking in the car together without interruptions or explanations or questions from kids. Being best friends with my spouse is so much fun! When we got home, we said hi to the kids and then told them our date wasn't over yet so we could watch a show in our pajamas. It was an excellent anniversary celebration.
Move-in progress: we finished organizing the garage so now we can park BOTH cars inside! Last time we had two garage bays, we did not have two cars. No more scraping ice off of Jeff's car before work in the winter! I also finally went through all of the boxes in the basement and put everything away (or threw it away). The basement is done! Mostly. (We still need to throw away our oldest 15 year old icky brown couch.)
Workouts: Jay and I had two strength sessions at the physical therapy clinic, and they were very productive. In other words, they were hard work! Amber did a 20-30 minute circuit training workout with Jeff in the barn 5 days in a row! She was so cute out there doing her best to do the exercises. Jay and Rose did all of the swim workouts with the team, half of the days in the pool, half in the barn. On Saturday, all five of us met Coach Winger and half a dozen high schoolers at the high school track to do a speed workout. It was the first sunny day of the week, and we shredded our legs sprinting 200s and 100s. Even Amber did two sets (reluctantly--she was sore from her week of barn workouts).
Christmas duets with my Rose girl! I played my violin for maybe the second time all year, and Rose played her cello. We can play two songs together: Silent Night and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Rose has improved her cello playing so much over the past year. Last year we learned Silent Night barely, but the others were too hard. This year, we added one more to our repertoire. It was so fun playing our instruments together. It made me miss my Mom, who also plays the cello and enjoys Christmas duets.
We ate several double batches of Christmas cookies and feel very ready for Christmas!
A game of Pick Two, a family favorite. Amber enjoyed her first year of being able to play. She and Rose had several lengthy one-on-one matches.
Both cars in the garage!!
Father daughter barn workout--Rose joined in wearing crocs.
Gift wrapping: each kid had their own style.
Jeff had miles of cords to sort, and he got through 95% of them! I am relieved because the former cord chaos did not contribute to my inner peace in the slightest.
While organizing the basement, we unearthed two long-forgotten canvases, which Amber claimed and painted. I have since decreed that all artistic painting must be done outside in the grass. The splatter pattern of this one painting project was alarmingly wide and involved much scrubbing of my pristine white kitchen.
Not a great picture through the kitchen window, but the deck railings were finished this week.
The girls decorated our gingerbread house this week. More scrubbing of the kitchen ensued.
Temple date! Before and after.
The Maharaja Indian Restaurant 2.5 miles from the temple was quite opulent--it felt just like a maharaja's estate. The chairs were super low though, and it made us laugh. We felt like tiny kids peeking over the edge of the table, with our long legs folded and cramped under the table.
The food was divine!!
Anniversary sketching inspiration: 2006/2023
More sister Pick Two dual matches.
On the winter solstice, we lit candles and had leftovers for dinner. Celebrating with balance.
Three kids in a row in the basement computer room.
The organized basement!
That 15 year old brown couch has got to go.
Rose and I played Christmas violin and cello duets twice this week!
We had exactly one sunny day all week: Saturday. It was blinding after our dark gloomy wet cloudy gray week. But it felt amazing to have the sun smiling down on us! I ran to the track before the speed workout.
Our extended family: the type of kids who show up for a speed workout the day before Christmas Eve are exceptional and beloved. Can you tell we didn't know what to do with all of that sunshine?
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