Lunch with Erica & Girls Painting Afternoon

After Christmas 2021 and a couple of years before that, the kids and I had lunch with Erica so we could celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts.  Just like last Christmas, we met at our old stompin' grounds: O' Charley's.  The food is still delicious and we have a great time visiting with "Auntie" Erica 😊

The kids shared some brownie bites after lunch - again, Cadence acting silly with my picture request

I love our new, little tradition!  I'm also thankful to have a friend that spoils my kids and puts up with their shenanigans!

After lunch, Cadence and I met up with my mom and Gina to paint the color-by-number gifts Mom got us for Christmas 2021.  It only took us a year to coordinate a time to get together, but I'm glad we did!  Cadence finished her painting and did a great job.  The rest of us will take quite a few more sessions to finish our paintings.  We painted and enjoyed each other's company for a few hours that evening!

Look at how good she did!

 

Pins, 16-Bit, & Hartford Fairground Lights

A few weeks ago, Colin went to Pins/16-Bit for a birthday party.  Danny said the place was pretty cool and we decided we'd try to check it out as a family around the holidays when we had some time off from work.  I think a lot of Columbus had the same idea, because Dublin was hoppin'!  Luckily we put our name on the waitlist to bowl and instead of the 3 hour wait, it ended up being 2 hours.

That gave us time to play a bunch of time to play lots of pinball...

...and skee-ball...

...and get some drinks 😉

Danny tried to get Colin to fetch him a water from the bar 😆

They're punny!

We played a few rounds of ping pong and also got some grub at Weenie Wonder

Danny described the area as a mini-Easton - we had a great night!

The next night we went to the Hartford Fairgrounds to check out their light display.  We thought it would be neat to see a new display since we've gone to Butch Bando's Fantasy of Lights for the past several years.  It did not disappoint!  Enjoy some of Cadence's selfies with Colin 😁

Their favorite is to stick their heads out of the sunroof for a better view

After Christmas

Here's a roundup of what we were up to during the week between Christmas and New Years!

Colin had a basketball tournament that started the Monday after Christmas - if I remember correctly, they went 1-1 that day.

After the games, Cora persuaded all of the adults to go out to dinner with the Rileys.  They are a fun bunch.  Luckily, the Schuerman household was able to avoid COVID this holiday season; but poor Colin came down with FluB.  He started complaining of a sore throat Christmas night.  He said it still hurt a little the Monday morning before his games.  You cant' really see it in this picture, but during dinner he was so tired and the life looked like it had been sucked out of his face.  He got sick that night, and Danny took him to urgent care the next morning.

Danny wasn't feeling 100% himself, so, instead of changing our plans, Cadence and I went to Hamilton to celebrate Christmas.  I didn't get any pictures, but Gracie and Cadence used my phone to snap some photos while I was in the bathroom...enjoy!

Cadence was acting like a goof, so I did get this one on camera!  We had a nice visit with everyone.

Colin loved opening his presents from Danny's family the next day.

Danny's parents got Cadence a really neat DIY jewelry stamp kit.  She had a lot of fun making new stuff!

Christmas 2022

Christmas Eve was spent mostly at our house, prepping some appetizers for dinner and finishing up our cookie baking.  We went to Mom & Dad's house for dinner, which consisted of heavy hors d oeuvres.  It was a great idea and we had some yummy food: Dad did a charcuterie spread, Mom made wings, we had sweet potato bites, pizza dip, etc.

It was strange not having the kids rush to bed in preparation of Santa's arrival, but they still got to bed at a decent hour.  We still put out cookies and milk for Santa (wink, wink) and did the traditional photo.

Gifts were small, but mighty this year - everything got wrapped!  It all looked so pretty under the tree.

Colin spotted this picture at the mall when we were shopping around Thanksgiving break.  I snuck back to the mall one day after work and got it for him once Danny confirmed it would fit above his bed!

Waterproof Bluetooth speaker for the shower and a new phone case.

"It's corn!"♭♮

New team basketball hoodie

Waterpik for those hard-to-clean braces!

AirPods :) 

 Cadence said her WaterPik and AirPods were her favorite gifts.  Colin said his picture and his phone (that he'll be using like an iPod) were his favorites this year.  Although, the way he cranks up his music in the shower every night, I think his Bluetooth speaker is his favorite!

After we opened presents, Mom and Dad came over for brunch - we had the traditional breakfast bake and blueberry lemon loaf.  Some were disgruntled that the menu did not include Poppa's homemade cinnamon rolls, so I have a feeling they'll make an appearance next year!  We hung out at our house a bit and then we all went back to Mom & Dad's for Italian dinner where Mike and Gina met us (with Lucy and Tux) - they had just driven back from Dayton.  It was a nice day with the family!