Friday and the last day of my Christmas break....besides the upcoming weekend. Back to the students on Monday! For today, I'm pausing to reflect back on the week and find the FIVE things that made me smile and say "Thank You, God". I do this weekly with other like-minded writers and then we link up at Susanne's site, our gracious host.
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| Claire and Courtney in my sister Jill's kitchen (that's my sister Joy standing in the left). |
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| Dave and I were surprised at the wine and adorable wine charms! |
- XMAS ROUND TWO: Last Saturday we went north to my youngest sister's home to have what we call "Christmas round 2" with my three younger sisters and their families. It was good to see Joy and her son Luke (Courtney's age), Hope and Donny, and Jill (the youngest) and Mike and their two girls (Emma and Mady). We all exchanged gifts and had some great food and drinks. We played a couple board games and just relaxed and had fun. I'm thankful we all live within an hour or two of each other.
- RELAXING! Most of the early part of the week found us relaxing with movies on Netflix, reading good books, browsing the library shelves, drinking good coffee, and just relaxing by the Christmas tree. I'm thankful for vacation weeks to just relax.
- HELP! I'm so thankful for my oldest daughter Courtney. Even though she still lives here at home, I rarely spend quality time with her because we both work full time and she has her own "stuff" to do, etc. But Wednesday being New Year's Day, she was home and offered to help me take down the Christmas tree. She also helped me tremendously in ordering a new iphone. She has a LOT of knowledge when it comes to Apple products and her help was greatly appreciated. Love my girl!!
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| sun filtering through the pines at the middle of the trail |
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| beginning of trailhead at Rowland Hollow Creek Saratoga Springs, NY |
Rowland Hollow Creek
- FIRST DAY HIKE! This year I opted out of the state park "first day hikes" (way too many people usually). And instead, I met a hiking friend (Anette) at a new to us nature preserve that I learned about from a hiking guide my sister Joy gifted me with. The book features 25 hikes all in the Saratoga region and we live only about 20 min south of Saratoga! We hiked the entire 1.6 mile loop/spur trails and although the temp was 36 the wind chill was making it feel like 26. We continued our fun with heading to one of our fave coffee joints in town and had a wonderful lunch with hot drinks. I had the small sized caramel macchiato with almond milk and the veggie-hummus wrap with greens on the side. She had a squash soup and a latte. Everything tasted great and we vowed we would get together again for another winter hike as long as this weather stays mild. I'm thankful for hiking friends and time in nature.
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| Lunch! |
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| COUSINS/Sisters |
- PAINT N SIP! Last evening I took Claire up to Saratoga (Courtney met us there after work). After a quick dinner at the vegan cafe there, we headed over to the Paint and Sip place to help Claire celebrate turning 21. My youngest sister Jill and her oldest daughter Emma met us there. We had a blast!! It was my 2nd time at a paint and sip and the girls' first. Jill has been to this particular one many times. The artist was a young girl and there were only 12 people in the entire class. We had so much fun. Courtney's of course is practically perfect since she IS an artist with an art degree. But the rest of us did ok......I'm thankful we found an evening where we could all get together. The artist even gave Claire a free glass of wine in commemoration of her turning 21 on Dec 21. (she found out we there to celebrate). I'm also thankful that even though my daughters are a bit older than Emma (she turns 17 in March) that they get along and actually have fun together. It's a blessing to grow up with cousins who do things together.
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| The finished product from l-r: Courtney, Emma, Claire, me, Jill |
that wraps up my Christmas vacation week.
I hope everyone had a wonderful start to the new year and that you have some awesome goals set for yourselves! Happy Weekend!
8 comments:
So you had a nice Christmas with the whole family ! Our family is just 5 people, but we have a lot friends so we were not lonely at all.
It's rainy and disgusting outside not so nice as on your pictures !
Sounds like you had some glorious time off!
It's wonderful you can connect with your sister and nieces. I've always lived so far away from mine. But I also know it is tempting to let busy-ness keep us from connecting with our loved ones. I'm hoping to do better about that.
Happy 2020!
Aww spending time with family is the best and sounds like you had a great time. That looked like a fun way to celebrate Claire's birthday too. You're all way more artistic than I am lol. Happy New Year!
Such a great holiday break you have had! I love that your daughter helped you take your tree down. So nice. Getting together with you sisters, is an added holiday bonus. I love your hike and yes, I would love to visit and go hiking with you sometime. I just have to wait until the drama in my NY family dies down. ;-) Have a great weekend.
What a great week you had! I knew triplets when I was a girl whose names where Faith, Hope and Joy. I always loved those names.
Happy New Year, Faith! Christmas Round 2 is a great name for your celebration. We always have a Christmas round 2 also. So glad you got some relax time during the holidays doing what you enjoy. I smiled when you mentioned getting the iPhone purchase help from your daughter. Young people do know alot when it comes to their devices. Your day hiking and having lunch sounds wonderful!
How nice to have an extended Christmas season with a second round! It's nice to have some relaxing times after the fun but busy times. We were grateful for our son's help, too, taking down the Christmas stuff. The paint and sip event sounds like such fun.
It's Monday already, and you are back to school. But Happy New Year to you!
I love the photos of your 'winter hike'. It's great to get outside!
I've done a paint date like that with friends. And then on Friday, I did a watercolor afternoon meet up at a friend's home.
You are blessed to live near enough to your sisters that you can celebrate holidays with them!
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