After a very busy October, we kicked off another busy month of November....and December sure wasn't anything different! Jay continued in his 3 month turnaround that seemed to drag on for forever at this point. But we hung in there until about December when we were just so ready for it all to be over! In the meantime we tried to make the best of it that we could. We had a gingerbread house competition where our time was set for constructing and decorating Team Avery and daddy vs Team Aubrey and mommy. We sure did have a lot of fun. I was thankful I could go on Avery's class trip to Moody Gardens and chaperone some of her friends. The favorite exhibit was the penguins and seals. Aubrey was home with a severe asthma exacerbation but daddy was taking care of her and in her rest time she made a penguin cake with fondant. She definitely made the best of her situation.
Thanksgiving was the first time all the Midei's were together in 4 years! It is hard to believe it was that long. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together and some time on Friday after including a siblings with spouses date to Loro. One of the other highlights was mini golfing and go kart racing with the cousins. It was a great visit in which we all got to spend a little time together and I was so thankful Jay was given the two days off from his turnaround. It made the holiday complete.
Next up...December. One of the favorite memories was the kids white elephant gift exchange and Christmas Carol singing with all the friends. Fourteen girls in all, it was a lot of fun. The turnaround finally finished December 9th. That was a long 12 weeks! The first 9 weeks went swimmingly well and the last 3 weeks seemed to drag on for forever. By then I had to work my weekends so we seemed to miss each other but the following week we were all actually under the same room. It was amazing! Before we knew it, the kids were on Christmas break. This one was much anticipated this year in particular. We baked and baked and baked some more. We watched Christmas movies, drank hot chocolate, saw Christmas lights, and read about advent. We tried new recipes and old ones. And for the first time in a while I had to work Christmas Eve, but I was able to come home Christmas morning ready to open presents. I was really looking forward to Christmas morning for the kids to open all their presents. Their big gift was a trampoline this year. They sure were excited. We put it together Christmas day and all got to enjoy it. Some other favorites were blanket hoodies, a heated blanket, heated hand warmers, a claw machine, money machine, clothes, boots, games, and all the things! We had a nice relaxing day to build the trampoline, jump, and to play new games that were under the tree. It was pretty perfect.
On Dec 26 we left for a mini vacation to the Christmas Capital of Texas - Grapevine! We stayed at the Gaylord Hotel and it was so much fun. The kids enjoyed tubing down a slide, ice skating, snow ball fights, decorating gingerbread cookies, an escape room, a cirque show, and a old fashioned train ride to the Stockyards. There we went through a large maze, watched the Stockyard Stampeded and and old fashioned gun fight. The last thing we did was the ICE exhibit which was an area made of all ice (and it was 9 degrees!) and it was Polar Express themed. It was really well done. It ended with an ice slide which was pretty fun too. Overall, it was the perfect way to round out the year as a family.
We finished off 2022 with our traditional homemade pasta meal. This year we did the egg ravoli (my favorite) and fettuccini alfredo. Both were winners. We had a day full of living in our pajamas, jumping on the trampoline, playing games and making a fun dinner together. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to end the year as a family. I'm so thankful for all the great memories of 2022 and also so thankful that the turnaround is behind us. I'm leaning into 2023 with God's eyes, hands, and feet to serve him and love him more every day.
November 2022:
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