Holiday Recap

A Belated Merry Christmas!  Aside from my prescheduled WoW post, I've been away from blogging for a week now.  Unusual for me, but the time off has been good.  We've been busy with holiday celebrations as well as my birthday (yesterday) and my 20th anniversary (also yesterday).  I fear that break will soon be over and we will be busy getting ready to return to school.  I still have many items on my "to do" list that need to get crossed off, and lots of books I want to read.

I wish I would have known about the Icelandic tradition of opening a book on Christmas long before last year.  This is our second year of practicing this custom.  Below are the girls with the book they opened. (There were still more books waiting under the tree until Christmas morning).

Living close to both my mom and in-laws means we get in on all the Christmas get togethers.  We ate a lot of great food, played some fun board games, and relaxed.  

Yesterday was my birthday and anniversary. Little Sister's one gift was awaiting it's purchase at IKEA, so I headed off to the Mall of America with all three girls for some shopping fun.  The Mall of America truly has everything.  Here is the collection of truffles at the Lindt Chocolate store.  They aren't really my thing, but Little Sister is addicted to truffles.

When we got home I was surprised to see a dozen roses waiting for me.  My husband is not really into giving flowers, so it has to be a pretty big occasion to get any.  They are beautiful.

And now today we have hair appointments to go to, shoveling to get done, and a stack of books I want to curl up with (and an IKEA desk in the back of my van that Little Sister is begging me to put together).  

I'm also ready to start tackling my "Best of" lists for 2017. I've read somewhere between 292-300 books this year, and with three days left, I'm hoping to get a few more finished up.

I'm hoping you all had a relaxing holiday season and are looking forward to 2018 with anticipation.