SOCIAL MEDIA

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Life Lately Part 2

 Hello again! Over the weekend I realized that I had not done a Life Lately post on here in over 2 months... and I had a LOT of pictures to share! On Monday I shared the first half, and now here I am today to share the rest. Snuggle up under a cozy blanket and come see how the Darrell's celebrated the holidays 😁

So where we last left off we were between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were buckling down and staying home as much as possible due to rising COVID numbers, so we spent a lot of time baking and doing crafts at home. I have to say, while the reason for staying home so much this holiday season was obviously terrible, it was actually kind of nice to be forced to stay home. This was the first Christmas season in years where I didn't feel stressed from trying to do too many things. We didn't have any holiday parties to attend this year. No Christmas plays at school (sad, but it's always another thing to squeeze into the calendar). No "extra" activities because they weren't happening this year. It was the most relaxing and peaceful holiday season we've had in a very long time, and I'm hoping next year we don't go back to all the busy-ness again.


Here we are baking some Christmas cookies:

 

And then decorating them:

 

We made our homemade ornaments:  

And drove around the neighborhoods to look at lights: 

Our incredibly sweet friend dressed up as Santa and met us at a private playground so our small group of friends could have their kids meet Santa. This is extra sweet because our Santa doesn't even have kids of his own, he just gave up a Saturday morning to dress as Santa to make our kids happy. 

Then we drove back up to the mountains for Christmas-- woohoo!

We opened our matching pajamas and one present (always a book) on Christmas Eve:

And then as we were going to sleep on Christmas Eve, it started to snow! When we woke up on Christmas morning we had 4 inches already accumulated and it continued to snow throughout the day.


 

 

 

 

 

I'm honestly not sure who had more fun, the kids or the adults. 😂 It's funny, growing up in Ohio I had the BEST memories of playing in the snow... but I also remember being so over it by March. Now that we live in Charlotte, we are lucky if we get one snowfall a year, and it usually is less than an inch. I think Devin, my sister and I had more fun sledding and throwing snowballs at each other than the kids did! 

After we went back inside to warm up, Lily Grace made herself a charcuterie board. I could not stop laughing. She's clearly watching me in everything I do! She knew exactly which board to get out (I always use the bear shaped one when we are in the mountains) and she knows it should be a variety of snacks.  

Her charcuterie is a circle of crackers (some with dip on them), some pretzels, peanuts, and then radishes for her veggie. Yes, she's 3 years old and loves to eat raw radishes. Totally not normal. 

Lily Grace got a Snow White doll for Christmas but said she needed some dwarves, so my crafty mom and I whipped up two dwarves out of toilet paper rolls and some craft supplies we had on hand. We made Happy and Grumpy. I'm sure you can tell which one is which 😉

  
Don't worry, I won't be opening an Etsy shop anytime soon 😉
 
After we did Christmas in the mountains with my family, we drove to visit Dev's family for a couple days in Wilmington (on the coast of NC). So we went from the snow to the beach in a matter of days.. not too bad! While we were there we went shopping at an antique/consignment store and stumbled across this mid-century modern buffet table. I fell in love with it and knew I had to have it for the house.
 
We weren't in Wilmington for very long before we headed back home to Charlotte. 

We are getting sooooooo close to being able to move back into the house! Originally we were supposed to move back in last Friday, but we are hoping everything will be finalized and inspected by next week. Here's a look at the kitchen a little over a week ago:
and our stair bannister and railing is in, just waiting to be stained:

Meanwhile the 4 of us will just keep living our best lives in our temporary home. One of our favorite things about this house is the sunroom, which has turned into the kids "art studio". Lily Grace loves to come out here and paint, and Liam loves to watch her. We will miss this little area when we move out!


So that's what we've been up to the past two months! Now I am looking forward to all the happiness and joy that the next few months will bring as we finally move back into our house and make it feel like home again!! 

I hope you all have a great day! See you back here tomorrow for a recipe. 

4 comments :

  1. Looks like you guys had some great holidays! I also really enjoyed staying home and doing nothing for Christmas other than enjoying all the new toys! Hoping to keep some of that next year!

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  2. I am glad I am not the only one that enjoy not having crazy schedules this year. Those dwarfs turned out cute.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it was so relaxing! I'm hoping next year has a bit of the same.

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