Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Saturday, December 4, 2021

The Cat and a Sad Goodbye

Blog Post About May 2021

This cat gets in the strangest sleeping positions.


...But she IS cute...at least for now.



Her mom came by for a visit, but this picture is the only time we saw Aoife looking at the cat outside. The rest of the time, she acted like it wasn't even there.


Granola and smoothie bowls on the balcony



And just like that, May 7 came, and it was time to say "goodbye."


We stayed up late, past midnight, waiting to take her to her flight, 
which would leave around 3am on May 8.


Bye, Kylie. Thank you for visiting, and we look forward to seeing you at Christmas (which is now just around the corner)


 

Thursday, October 21, 2021

A Christmas Whirlwind

Blog Post About Winter 2020

The cards you all sent made the best decorations in 2020! It was such a blessing to be remembered by so many and our plain-looking tree thanks you :)



We went to church for Christmas Eve, and then we came home and Kylie and Karis treated us to our own "food board." We weren't able to have all of our overseas friends come by for the Christmas story and some American food, and they were missed.





On Christmas morning, Keira read us the Messiah's birth story from Luke 2.

















I don't have a picture of Caleb because I think I missed him opening the few he had. He had decided to forego most gifts so that he could buy parts for and build his own computer. 

That evening (on the 25th), we all loaded in the car to drive 2.5 hours to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them and other family member that could make it.

Kylie and my sister-in-law put this "board" together. In reality, these are the kinds of foods we have always eaten and snacked on at Christmas and other times with family...for years. 

I was just thinking the term charcuterie board was something new invented to describe what we had been doing for years. Nope.

The French came up with this in the 15th century. "Chair" means "flesh" and "Cuit" means "cooked." It basically translates as "pork-butcher shop." Their shops also included the pig's internal organs, which I'm thankful has gotten removed from our boards in America.

In French, the one preparing the meat is called a Charcutier.

So just like Solomon in his great wisdom reminds us, "There is nothing new under the sun."


The cousins that were able to make it sat at the "kids' table" for dinner. 

Who doesn't love sitting at the kids' table, right?



Things like this happen at the kids' table :)

This is my son on the right and his cousin (12 days older) on the left.
They decided to try some hot sauce called "Da' Bomb" my dad had around the house.

The sweating, moaning, and pain continued for quite some time (and probably later, if you know what I mean).



When Kylie returned back to college, she found a youtube video showing that the hot sauce these boys tried was the third hottest in this particular hot wing contest.

Yes, these are things that happen at the "kids' table." :)

We only stayed two nights with my parents because we needed to go see the other grandparents and more cousins on the 27th. 

One of the many benefits of the grandparents living in Waco is that we can go see the Chip and Joanna Gaines empire almost anytime we want. We hadn't gone in few years so we drove over to see all of the new additions like this chapel. The crowds were really low because of Christmas, plus there was rain in the forecast.








































We also took advantage of other "Waco-things" like the store near the Dr. Pepper museum.





























S'mores by the fire was a nice ending to the day.






























And the next morning, a few of us got up and went running/walking downtown.






























Covid + Christmas made for a very quiet, enjoyable morning.







We knew it was important to see both sides of the family because we are rarely, if ever, in America during Christmas anymore. So even though this was a whirlwind of a trip, it was good!

Monday, October 11, 2021

A Quiet Thanksgiving and a Photo Shoot

Blog About Fall 2020

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair, and we changed things up a bit, since it was just us. My kids didn't grow up with "typical" Thanksgiving food (and it's not really their favorite), so overseas, we usually have Mexican food on Thanksgiving.

This year, we had a brisket and some other favorite foods that we enjoy when we're in America.






























We all remained outside, socially distanced, and we tossed the football around and enjoyed the beautiful weather!!



We also had a family photo shoot planned for when Kylie was in town, but we delayed it 6 days to give more time for Doug to finish his recovery time. He didn't have horrible symptoms, but he also didn't want to be around others until the time limit was up.

 The day we rescheduled for was FRIGID and WINDY!










































The above photos were obviously mine.

You can tell a difference because the ones below shine.
They were taken by the amazing Melissa Darst!