Christmas 2021

 It was an empty nester Christmas this year.  Luckily we got to visit Michigan before Christmas but we were pretty much on our own for actual Christmas day. Carter and Harley were scheduled to spend Christmas day with her family but came by in the afternoon (we spent Christmas eve night together but didn't do much that was "special"...we played games mostly and watched Spider Man to prepare Frank for our actual Christmas Day plans).  We had fondue for Christmas Eve dinner.

Since we knew we'd be on our own, we decided to go to a movie in the morning. Seemed like a good use of our time. We saw "Spider Man: No way Home" and I made frank watch the two previous movies so he was prepared with some knowledge. He actually liked them!  He's not generally a super hero movie guy. Our movie time was 9:20 am.  We've never actually done a Christmas Day movie I don't think. We were the only people there not in Christmas pajamas I think. Haha.

I made a breakfast casserole that was super yummy.

After the movie, Carter and Harley came by for present opening and a few games.  

This year we made the transition to one or two gifts plus money over lots of gifts for the kids. Made it a little weird during present opening since Frank and I had way more gifts than them. Frank and I bought each other a lot of random stuff that we've each been wanting. He gave me cushions for the dining chairs (he's been complaining of them being uncomfortable) and an electric blanket (he wanted one for emergency prep I think?). I gave him dryers for our camelbacks (just what he always wanted...haha) and miniature folding chairs to take to pickle ball. 

Frank also got some pickle ball attire, as one would expect. Sadly the shirt I got him shrunk and I think if anyone gets to wear it, it'll be me.

Frank got Carter a "da da" shirt to celebrate the upcoming youngin'

I took almost no pictures and have no proof that Harley and I were even there!

We had a nice video chat with Austin on Christmas Eve and Branden and Amber sent us Marco Polos of them opening their gifts on Christmas morning.

Other than that the day was low key and enjoyable.  We ate fondue again because it was so yummy the day before. haha. So much cheese.

Michigan December 2021

 Branden and Amber bought their first house this year, which is super exciting for them!

The house is bigger than the one they were renting, plus it has a full unfinished basement. It also has a 2 car garage and a huge barn that Branden plans to use for his car repair hobby.  

They have a few things they want to fix up in their house so Frank and I made plans to come out in December and help them tackle the first one: a mud room.  

The master bedroom was an addition to the house and they had it arranged that the only entrance to the house from the garage was through the master bedroom. Subpar.

The new plan is to carve off some of the bedroom space to create a small hallway and mudroom area from the garage into the living room.  Frank went out for about 10 days and I joined him for the last 4 days to do the painting and such.

The girls weren't super thrilled that we were not "fun grandma and grandpa" as we usually are but instead we were "working grandma and grandpa".  We did manage a couple of fun things like going out to eat and watching movies together. We made gingerbread houses (but sadly Isabelle was starting to feel sick that day..she ended up with a 102 degree fever by the next morning). Plus we read them a Christmas book each night.  But overall we spent the time working.

It was a pretty big job for Frank to finish in the timeframe but he managed it! 

 When I arrived I painted the new mudroom, the master bedroom, and the kitchen including the backsplash which was sponge painted two different colors of blue. oy.

One day when Isabelle came home from school to discover the kitchen white instead of blue, she was pretty disappointed and said that she had liked the blue.  Amber tried to reassure her that it would look good in the end and that she was painting one wall green. The look on Isabelle's face was of utter disappointment. It was hilarious.  (I think she ended up liking the finished product though)

Other projects that were completed were: new lights in living room, hall, mud room and kitchen. New door knob and lock on front door.

We enjoyed the time we had there visiting and I did end up wishing I had stayed a bit longer. But they had non-stop guests for December so we had to get out of there so Ryan and Kristal could come for Christmas!

Branden had a great idea to take a power tool to his gingerbread.  That worked out about how you'd expect.

Granpa's house had a theme (as usual) of the book we were reading: "The Christmas Pig" 

We didn't finish it while we were there and I'm still wondering how it ends...

One last pic before leaving...you can see the new light fixture and green wall behind us!