December 2024

It’s official – Lauren is 12! Because her birthday falls between Christmas and New Year’s, when so many people are out of town, we typically do two birthday celebrations – one with the family on her actual birthday and one in January with all of her friends.

This year, Dave had planned to take her skiing, but the weather did not cooperate, so instead we just hung out locally and did all of her favorite things, which included a breakfast of giant chocolate chip pancakes at Hymies, going to Target, and eating chocolate cake 🙂

Next up is her friend birthday celebration.

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The best morning of the year is Christmas morning and this year was no exception! If we’re focusing on the material things, and let’s be honest, we have teenagers so that’s exactly where they’re focused, it was a good year. They both got phones (a first for Lauren) as well as clothes, shoes, skincare, and gift certificates. What else could a girl want 😉

We hosted dinner again this year, but unlike years past, it was a pretty small crowd. It started out smaller than usual with a few families elsewhere this year, so we were expecting 19. But in the end, we only had 10, including us, because of sickness. It seems like everything is going around right now – from the flu to COVID – and folks were dropping like flies. But it still turned out to be a lovely day. While I usually find myself buzzing around making sure everyone has a drink and a seat, this year I got to sit down and have a good chat with everyone. And we even had an impromptu concert with tiny instruments that Suzy supplied. We had enough food to feed an army, and put a good dent in it, but enjoyed those leftovers for at least a week afterward!

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