Well, what a refreshing break from reality these past few weeks have been! Everything is so different here. I’m still not used to Noah not living here anymore. Jerry’s work schedule changed dramatically, but he had a week off and then a long holiday weekend. He’s home a lot and Noah’s gone a lot, which is a big change.
I wish I could say that we did all kinds of fun things while Jerry was home, but really we just enjoyed our downtime at home. Like I said in my last post, we celebrated Christmas with the boys and their girlfriends on Christmas Eve.
Noah gave me this welcome mat that had a black cat on it and said “Welcome, Farmer.” I thought it was funny when Estelle lay on it – her eyes looked the same as those on the mat Almost exactly the same. And if she could talk, she would definitely be sarcastic like this.
Noah’s girlfriend Rose works at Panera (thankfully not the one in my sad avocado story). When I first met her and asked her about her work, I mentioned that I used to love their salt bagels. It’s been a long time since they’ve had them, but they’re so good! She said they discontinued it a few years ago.
Well, imagine my surprise when she gave me these for Christmas!
Six salt bagels, made just for me. She knew how much I loved them and her manager actually made them for her to give to me. She also gave me their original salt bagel magnet that they use to display prices. This is a unique and perfect gift. Eli’s girlfriend Ava gave me a glass that said “Best Reward Mom” (if the duck wasn’t in my lap right now, I would stand up and take a picture of it). I love Ava like a daughter and her gift makes me feel good.
Well, I didn’t take into account that “dollar stores” don’t actually exist anymore. We have Family Dollar, which is basically more expensive than Kroger. Then there’s the General Dollar, where most items are around $5. Finally, there’s Dollar Tree – this is what I call a dollar store. It used to be $1 per item, but now it’s $1.25. Still, not bad for what we’re doing.
Since I didn’t specify which store, well, the joke is on me. Jerry went to General Dollar (luckily, he only bought a few things there; he bought the rest at Dollar Tree). Eli went to Family Dollar because it was closest to our house. His total was $110! When he told me this, my jaw dropped. I almost decided to get everything back before he wrapped it, but he put so much thought into each gift that I just chalked it up to a lesson – be specific when talking about the universal family dollar tree. (Jerry and I started calling the three stores that.)
It’s fun to exchange general family Dollar Tree gifts! It’s funny how well we know each other (favorite snacks, drinks, colors, etc.).
The day before, we went to Brian’s house because Luke and Riley were there. He invited my parents, Nathan, and my family to come over in the morning and watch the kids open Christmas presents. I miss having little ones like this on Christmas morning! It’s fun to watch them get so excited.
Riley is a big fan of “mini brands.” They’re ridiculous—tiny toy versions of the actual branded items you’d find in the grocery store—and way too expensive for what you get. One time we took her to Barnes & Noble and she picked out a mini brand; it came in five pieces and I think it was $10. Each one is about the size of the tip of your thumb and is just a piece of plastic.
Anyway, Brian actually found a big container of these toys on Facebook Marketplace and bought her a little toy store. She was so excited and wanted to play with it immediately. When I helped her open it, there were a lot of things that needed to be put together, including a little sticker that had to go on the plastic piece. Lucky for Brian, I love putting things together because it took me (literally) over an hour to put together this store!
After Christmas, Jenny and Sean came over from the Peninsula for a few days. Jenny and I walk all the dogs (she has three basset hounds and I have Joey). Then we ran some errands – nothing exciting, but it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her since we never really do that.
There was a huge Lions (football) game on Saturday and I’m sure if you follow football you’ve heard about the shit show it turned into, haha. The Lions would have won, but the referee made a mistake – and everyone thought he messed up – and they lost. Lions fans are furious because this is such an important game.
New Year’s Eve Luke and Riley came over in the afternoon/evening. I wish my other niece Shelby could come too, but she has other plans. Eli went to a party at the golf course he had been working at (the golf course is now closed for the season), so it was just Jerry and I with the kids. We told them we were having a “party” to welcome the new year.
My mom planned to take them home (Minnesota) early the next morning. (She had flying privileges through Brian, so she could fly with them and hand them off to Becky at the Minnesota airport.) She didn’t want them to stay up late, so Jerry and I canceled the Times Square event starting in 2022. Watch The ball dropped – hahaha! At “Midnight” we fired off confetti cannons in the living room and the kids loved it.
They had fun all day long because of all the stuff we could do, they just wanted to run on the treadmill the whole time. At their age, they want to use their speed to catch up with each other. If Luke is running at 5.0 mph, Riley wants to be running at 5.5 mph. Then Luke wanted 5.6. etc. When my mom arrived, they were running 7.1 mph, hahaha. I wish I loved the treadmill as much as they do!
I got a call in the afternoon and was shocked (in a good way) to see it was from Del, my boss at Curves from 2003 to 2005. Even though she was much older than me, we were close friends. I hadn’t spoken to her in probably 10 years, so when I saw her number on my phone I was excited to hear from her. We chatted for a while and it was nice to talk but there was so much to talk about so I suggested we get together and talk some more. It was great to hear from her.
The best part of the break—probably the highlight of the year—was Jerry showing Luke and Riley the Ghostbusters movie for the first time. Jerry is obsessed with Ghostbusters and has been waiting for them to be old enough to watch the movie without being scared. He even pulled out a proton pack and goggles, haha.
I can’t even describe how giddy the kids were when they immediately took an interest in this movie. They started asking him all kinds of questions about ghosts, so he pulled out a thick Ghostbusters book. It contains all kinds of trivia and behind-the-scenes information. Luke actually asked him to wait, then he grabbed the remote and paused the movie so as not to miss anything. That’s when I knew he was really obsessed.
When I watched their show with Jerry, my heart completely melted. I haven’t seen Jerry this excited in at least a year! He doesn’t know anyone who likes Ghostbusters (I watched it a few times with him, and I even wore a Ghostbusters costume for Halloween 2022, but I wouldn’t call myself a “fan”), so he doesn’t Didn’t get a chance to talk to another big fan. He was excited to tell them all while the kids were asking questions a mile a minute.
It sounds silly, but seeing this interaction was the perfect way to end 2023, which has probably been the most difficult year of our entire marriage. (I’m not saying our marriage is suffering; we’re just dealing with so much stress throughout the year, and the second half of 2022.) Seeing the kids show so much interest in Ghostbusters and Jerry The interest is really refreshing. It was a pleasure to watch with them and answer questions.
Finally, we spent the day yesterday planning some goals for 2024. I’m going to do a separate post about my goals for this year (I’m “that person who still makes resolutions”), so I won’t get into that here.
We’ve been busy the last few weeks and haven’t been bored, but we’ve also had enough down time to relax, watch movies and enjoy some laziness. Today, everything is back to reality!