Christmas shopping, lights, and a date night

This has been a busy last week, but in a delightful way.

E finished school for the year! She actually had a headache a couple of days (perhaps O’s virus from a few days earlier?), but otherwise finished well. Grade 1 is over. She got a good report card :) And by the last day she was mentally done for the year and it felt right that she now has 6 weeks off school before starting Grade 2.

We went with my parents to view some AMAZING Christmas lights on Thursday night. This house hosts fundraisers, and E’s school got to fundraise there on Thursday by selling snacks. Mum and Dad were amazed, the kids had a ball, popcorn and favoured ice was consumed, and it was a fun evening.

The front of the house

From across the street. It’s pretty amazing. 🤩

Friday evening Al and I had a date night. We dropped the kids off to mum and dads and went to a favourite American style diner for dinner. This place is amazing, over multiple levels, great beer garden etc. I booked us a table up on the adults only whiskey bar deck, but when we arrived, someone else was on our table! They only remaining table up on the deck as on a beer barrel table, which was ok but not the best. We took it because we really wanted to be in the adults only area haha! The staff were super apologetic about the mix up, and offered us free cocktails to make up for it. Umm, ok! 👌 I got a Mojito, and Al got a Whiskey Sour, and they were very good! We ordered Buffulo wings, Mac n cheese, onion rings, and fries for dinner to share. And then just as the food arrived our original table was free so we could sit at a more comfortable table to eat. Perfect. So we still had a great night AND got free cocktails. See - like my favourite saying goes, you never know what’s good luck or bad luck.

Saturday Al had to work so after a slow morning (we were all tired after a late Friday night), we went to the library to return our books and borrow some more. Our local library is so lovely, the kids had fun (they have toys, a chess set etc in addition to books), we borrowed 18 more books, and then headed over to my parents. It was a bit of a rainy day so after a short swim (the kids never give up the chance to swim, even in the rain- especially E!), we watched a Wallace and Grommet movie together, and then I went for a walk around the local neighbourhood. The rain meant it was lovely and cool for once (low 20s C), and I’m always better with solo parenting days if I’ve gotten out for a walk at some stage.

After a couple of hours downtime at home, once Al was back, we were all supposed to go out to a Christmas festival to see mum perform in a new ukulele/guitar group she’s joined. But Al was tired, and E had a headache again. So I just took O (in the pouring rain - the event was inside luckily!) Mum and her group played well! We got a photo with a blow up Santa. There were some little market stalls. But not much else so we only stayed an hour, and then I brought O home. Al cooked us dinner: Beef schnitzels and salad.

Finally on Sunday I did some clean out of the kids old toys, which was satisfying. Have a couple of bags/boxes of toddler books, puzzles, toy cars etc to donate. Then we headed over to mum and dads again and the kids played there under my Dads supervision while Mum and I headed to the shops for some Christmas shopping. I actually love doing shopping in person closer to Christmas- I enjoy the vibe and I’m not usually a shopper so I enjoy the novelty of going through the toy store with a big trolley and putting things in! This year the kids are each getting board games, O is getting a marble run and some animal themed art/puzzles, E is getting Bluetooth headphones and a cute walking penguin called Waddles 😂 She’s also getting a Katy Perry CD (she loves her songs and has a CD player so this was a fun find!). CDs still cost the same as they did in the 90s by the way! Flipping through CDs brought back good memories of my teen years. I also got gifts for our niece and our secret Santa we do with the neighbourhood kids. So it was a big success. I only have a handful of things left to buy this week and then we’re done.

And now I’m starting my final week of work for the year! Things have been slowing down for the last couple of weeks, and looking forward to finishing up Friday and having 3 weeks off. It’s been a BIG year of work and I’m ready.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, and for those celebrating Christmas, the prep is going well and youre able to enjoy the festive season.