Door County - the only place to celebrate NYE

On Friday, Dec 29, John dropped me off in oshkosh so I could get Soli's new desk and chairs arranged in her room.

John picked me up at 3:30 and we headed up to the Landmark in Door County for our 4th NYE celebration here.

We arrived and shopped at the little market in Egg Harbor.

Bought pizza for dinner.

Enjoyed our pizza and a few beers.

On Sat. Dec. 30, we woke to way below zero wind chills.  We headed over to Cavepoint County Park and Whitefish Dunes state park.  We decided not to use  our snow shoes due to the cold.

We hiked a bit , took lots of photos and ended up at Island Fever in Jacksonport which used to be our favorite JJ's.

we both had whitefish sandwiches, very good.  I had an old fashion and John had a porter beer.

We took an auto tour of the Door after that.

It was too cold to really get out and walk much so we just made our photo stops at Sister Bay, Northport, Fish Creek, Penninsula State Park, and Egg Harbor.

Returned to our condo by 5 and showered.

Went to Mojo Rosa's for dinner and beers.

Tried a Door County Mule, our first mule.  It grew on us.

Watched the Badgers.

Tomorrow we will celebrate NYE tomorrow at the Carrington.

I will update you after that.

Here are photos from today:

And in the Blink of an Eye, it is all Over!

It's Thursday, December 28 and my house is quiet and clean again.

I am missing having the girls here with us.

Christmas was very nice this year.

It started for John and I on Friday, December 22 with the Children's service at st. John's.  We took mom with us.  Harmony sat with us and we enjoyed the service so much.  What a wonderful way to start the holiday!

After the service, we took mom to Midway for some blue gill and beers.

Kev and Vikki joined us and we all had a great time.

On Saturday, Alissa and Nathan arrived and we (mom, John, me, Lissa and Nathan) went out  to Sprechers for beer and dinner.  Mallory met us there and after dinner we went to Fire Cracker for a few more beers.

Great conversation and big laughs made for another fun night.

On Christmas Eve day we went over to Kev and Vikki's at around 3:00.

Another great night.

We left at 11 and Kev wasn't a bit ready for us to leave.

Came home and had a few more beers in the basement.

On Christmas Day, Courtney, Paul and the girls arrived around 11.

We had a great day.

Girls opened gifts, we played some white elephant dice game and enjoyed dinner and more time in the basement with a fire and our adult gift exchange.

Alissa and Nathan left on Tuesday.

Courtney, the girls and I went over to Budreaus to pick up Harmony since we were watching her for the night.

It was a great fun night with her.

On Wednesday we used the roller skating gift card from the  Budreaus.

I was a nervous wreck skating but I did it!

The girls did a great job and enjoyed  it.

We went to see the movie Ferdinand after that.

The girls had kwik trip hamburgers and stayed with Gigi while Paul, Courtney John and I went to Sprecher.  It was a great way to end the Christmas celebrations!

Of course, I am sad today. I took the village down and it seems like only yesterday that the girls helped me put it up.

All the preparations and now it is over, but I know that everyone feels that way.  It is just the way it is!

Here are a few photos:

We had so many more photos, but I was having computer problems so the photos are loaded on  my school computer and I can't get to this blog from there.

Tomorrow John and I go up to Oshkosh.  he will work and I will set up the desk for Soliana.

Then we leave for Door County for our NYE celebration!

Christmas Services, Done, Done, and Done for another Year!

The title says it all.

Our Christmas services are over for another year.

We have been working on our songs and recitations since the beginning of November.

All of our hard work paid off.

The kids did an awesome job.

There is really no better way to share the good news of Jesus' Birth than from the mouths of little ones.

No one sings, "Go Tell it on the Mountain," better!

Besides that, I wrapped more presents, baked a few more cookies, and did some shopping.

It was a quiet, relaxing weekend with the services thrown in for a bit of excitement!

It's almost Christmas!

Cookie Baking, Ornament Making, Gingerbread Building, Birthday Celebrating, and Christmas Worshiping

The girls arrived with John on Friday evening.

We were supposed to go play with Harmony, Kaliyah, and Treyton, but the flu to the better of them, so we had to cancel.

(The flu got the best of me on Wednesday but that is neither here nor there!)

On Friday night the girls began our crafting/baking fun by painting ornaments.

It took John and I a long time to choose these ornaments for the girls to paint and we really did pick some winners.  They both enjoyed painting them and the final results were beautiful.

Here are a few of them:

On Saturday we awoke to a beautiful dusting of snow, our first of the season. Soli was so excited to look out and see that snow.

Oh, for that innocent joy when we see snow.  John and I were thinking, "Oh, no, go away!"

After breakfast, we began our Gingerbread house building.  This is always so frustrating to me,as the pieces fall apart as fast as we put them together.  This year, I outsmarted the gingerbread houses and used hot glue, too.  They held together and the girls had fun decorating them.

Let the baking begin.

Eash girl mixed up their own batter for sugar cookies, cut them, and frosted them.

They enjoyed the whole process and did such a great job.

I have not photos but they also mixed up and made spritz cookies.

They loved the cookie shooter gun!

At this point, they needed some down time on our phones so that happened next while I cleaned up all the many messes of the day.

I was so proud of them for not giving up or ever complaining even though I had them going from one thing to another very quickly.

The final products were all so nice, too.

We stopped at Culvers on our way back to Oshkosh with the girls.

Spent an hour and a half chatting at Culver's over our food.

We drove through the Oshkosh lights before taking the girls home.

But our day was still not over.

Tiz asked to open her birthday gifts that night so that is what we did.

She loved her cheerleading stuff, School of Rock cd and dvd, and her squishies.

Oh, and her selfie stick.  She has no phone, but now she has a selfie stick!

On Sunday, we enjoyed the girls' Christmas service.

They both did a wonderful job and looked absolutely beautiful.

After church, we shopped for a person off the giving tree at Trinity Church and then went to Tiz's choice for lunch, Red Robin.

We enjoyed her cake when we got home.

It was just a wonderful weekend all the way around!