Remember back in August when we demoed our kitchen? I posted progress along the way: HERE & HERE & HERE. We have had a working and almost finished kitchen for months but there have been a few tedious tasks left on the punch list: shelving, kitchen toe kicks and then repaint the dining room. Well, it is done....ish...still some minor cutting in of green dining room paint. Oh, and a plate rack above the microwave.
Here it is and we are so pleased with the result. In fact, last night we had 30+ people here for our community group Christmas Party. It was so nice to be able to move around in the kitchen and converse.
Happy 9th Birthday, W R E N
Birthday breakfast: cinnamon rolls
Basketball game and then birthday dinner at Islands.
Every year, on December 1 we begin advent at our house. Years ago, I made this advent calendar. We still use it today. Yesterday, on December 1 we began our advent blocks that lays out the story of Jesus coming to earth. Today, our advent activity was to decorate a gingerbread house.
After our quick stop in DC, we drove on to Lancaster, PA to visit our dear friends - the Hrovath's. I was born & raised in Lancaster, PA, and it was especially fun to go back and show Lancaster to Jake & the kids. The very best part of Lancaster was soaking up the time with our friends! This family is a gift: the kids all getting along, the friendships, the time speaking of God's guidance in each of our lives, the endless play and conversations. Our 5 days together went way too fast.
We made plans to spend Thanksgiving in PA with our dear friends. We decided to stop by DC on our way to PA. We let the kids skip school on Tuesday and do our own family field trip to DC. We did DC back in 2018 with little kids. It was fun then, but this was so much fun with big kids! I got a little teary-eyed when I realized that when we did our previous trip, Lily was younger than Wren is now. How can that be?
