I didn't even realize until everyone started commenting on it. Hooray for pictures! To celebrate, here's one from day 12 of Family December. That's SL on the left (3) and AA on the right (5).
That was a really good family day. I did sleep in a ton after staying out so late the night before with AS, but once I got moving, I took the kids out for about six hours. First we were going to eat at the Pizza Hut in Target; AA had gotten a coupon for reading and it was going to expire soon. To my disappointment, the Target Pizza Hut doesn't accept the coupons!
I got on the phone with NT and he told me where another Pizza Hut was located, so we went there. It was much nicer anyway, with a restaurant-y feel, and had more menu options so I wasn't stuck with a big pretzel as the only vegan option.
We'd been planning for the kids to do their Xmas shopping at Target, but we just went to the CVS across the street from the Pizza Hut. There was a stocking-stuffer section so I helped them pick out gifts for each other as well as me, NT and AS.
Then we went to the winter carnival. It didn't have a miniature carousel like last year, but it was free to enter this year! There were wooden things to take pics with (like the one above) as well as ones to stick your head through. Every half hour or so, another community choir or school group got up on a stage and sang carols, and there were hay bales to sit on. It wasn't cold out at all by MN standards, so we stayed quite a while. We got hot apple cider and mini-donuts, hung out in the warming house for a bit, took lots of pictures, listened to the singing, and went to an enclosed Xmas shop where I let the girls pick out ornaments to give our downstairs neighbors.
As we were leaving the carnival I saw we just missed the bus we needed, and we happened to be by the sculpture garden with the famous Spoon Bridge and Cherry (we used to live across the street from it and the girls could see it from their bedroom window), so we ran over and took pictures, then ran back and caught the next bus.
Here's the sculpture. On the right-hand side in the distance, you can just see the top of our old condo building peeking out -- it's kind of beige and hard to see.
When we got home, I did grocery shopping with AS and came home to make an easy spaghetti dinner. I helped AA wrap the gifts we'd bought that day.
Day 13 (Sunday) we went downstairs for toast with our neighbors, which we try to do every Sunday (but have been missing a few because of various illnesses, injuries etc.) After breakfast our photographer friend took our family photos. He just sent over the link to review today, so we'll have to pick quickly (he takes hundreds and we pick 10 or so) and get them to our families (luckily you can just arrange to have them developed at various stores, including in England, so the grandparents can just go pick them up).
I chilled a lot after that long Saturday. I did cook a curry for me and NT for lunches that ended up being quite time-consuming to make, but we both tried it today and thought it was awesome. The girls went to dance class with AS and made a rocket ship out of a box (NT's idea). I helped AA help me wrap a couple more presents that had come in the mail; she's getting pretty good and now I've been letting her wrap and label all presents except her own.
Yay for pictures!
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It sounds like you had a lovely couple of family days. Lots of fun and memories.
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December 15th, 2015 at 05:15 pm 1450199711
No snow in MN? Not my recollection!
December 15th, 2015 at 05:36 pm 1450201008
snafu--I know! This El Nino winter is so strange. Barely any days below freezing, and the one significant snowfall we had has melted. Yesterday it was pouring rain!
December 15th, 2015 at 06:47 pm 1450205270