Holiday weekend

Such a nice time.  It was the perfect mix of getting ready for Christmas, resting and spending time together.

I did some online shopping, tied ribbons on gifts we already have, and we decorated for Christmas.  Well, mostly.  We haven't done our big tree yet and we need to switch our regular dishes for our Christmas dishes.  (Christmas dishes make me happy.)

I am steadily feeling better, but I am still trying to preserve energy when I can so I had Mark and Emma carry all the boxes up and down the stairs and I was just the boss.  Doing the actual decorating was really fast.  Mark handled all the up on the ladder stuff and he doesn't mind when I say, "Move it port side!" because that is easier for me than right and left.

My kids think I'm crazy but having a weird mom builds character.

Emma wasn't here to help decorate last year and it was a huge difference having her back.  Arranging things is one of the few things I'm very picky about and she always does it to my satisfaction.  She also keeps Mark in line.

For example, we were decorating the small living room tree and Mark was just sitting on the couch and throwing ornaments at it and Emma put a stop to that.  

Friday night both kids were at work and Adam and I had a top secret purchase to make in Salt Lake City (our kids don't read this blog but what if they start today?).  Adam said there was a German restaurant he wanted to take me to.

It was called Bohemian Brewery and that confused me because I think of Bohemian style when I think of Bohemian and this place was decorated in an Alpine ski lodge way and served things like schnitzel and brats.

Adam said Bohemia was a place and I didn't know that (there could be volumes written of things Adam knows that I don't). So we googled it, like you do, while we were waiting for our food and learned that Bohemia is a German speaking part of the Czech Republic.  Also, the food was delicious.  

Saturday I pulled out some felt and Emma and I cut circles for tree skirts.  She has a little tree in her apartment and I wanted a tree skirt for my little tree in my classroom.  She was going back to her apartment Saturday night to watch an edited version of The Shining for her horror film class.  Why she would take a horror film class is completely bonkers but she didn't ask me.  I showed her how to blanket stitch and do a running stitch with candy cane striped embroidery floss so she could work on it while she watched.  She wanted to embroider snowflakes.  I said, "You're artistic so you'll figure that out easily."

Before Emma went back to Provo, she joined Adam and me on a Trader Joe's stop.  For our regular grocery store shopping, I always have a list.  At Trader Joe's, anarchy reigns.  Peppermint JoJos, ginger scented hand cream, cedar balsam candle, peppermint meringues all got tossed in the cart with abandon.  Adam asked if we had a reason to buy lemon curd.  I said yes.

Because lemon curd.

Later in the evening Emma texted me this.

I don't think I've ever taught her anything that she didn't immediately become better at than me.

Yesterday evening Adam and I went back to Salt Lake to visit my grandma and my parents who were also in town.  We have had very few visits with my 93 year old grandma or my parents since the pandemic, but sometimes it just feels warranted.  We had a nice visit and ate pie (and my grandma chided me for not cutting bigger pie slices).

This morning I am back to school and I'm excited to see those little faces again.  I want to see their reaction to our Christmas tree.