December happenings

Nothing Christmas related happened AT our house 'til about a week before Christmas!  School really kicked in and my 4 biggest classes (out of 6) had projects ending the last week of school + presentations.  It was a lot... but - surprisingly - most of my "intro" students pulled it off!  They did a pretty good job designing Emergency Housing in shipping containers for Western NC hurricane (flood) victims!   So - I couldn't do anything until grading was done (which wrapped at 11:30 on Dec 20th!)

But there was some stuff that happened to help get us in the Christmas spirit around town even if we still had / have the Thanksgiving pumpkins on our front porch in December!

The 1st weekend of the month is always the Marietta Christmas house tour weekend. I was a docent again - but in a modern house.  (here's my main view of a metal surround for the fireplace - I talked about the living room / kitchen & dinging area / bar area.) I visited the rest of the houses throughout the weekend (and Todd got to tour the modern house on my ticket b/c they didn't mark that house off since I started there).  I wasn't sure how a modern house would go over since the house tours are usually historic, but everyone was happy and interested and wow-ed. I had fun "working" in that house. 

We did a little bit of birthday stuff that weekend too.  Friday night, we went to a cirque du soliel production at the Fox theater.  (well, Todd Isabella and I did) - Mercer didn't want to go.  I honestly think it was a good move for him to stay home and hang out with the dogs and a full pizza to himself! 

He wouldn't have liked the show.  Todd thought it was "meh" - Isabella and I liked it. 

Being in the historic Fox Theater, the stage was much smaller, so the acrobatics were not as grand... but they were good!

(Funny - the main character's name was Isabella -- and she was a teen who stopped believing in the magic of Christmas.  The production with the acrobatics and the storyline was to restore her faith in Christmas spirit - which by the end - it did)

Midtown was decorated.  

We parked a-ways away... we were parked at this cool office building... near the lobby was this elevated area that reminded Todd and me of the Johnson Wax buildings with these unique support columns.

We went to Cirque du Soliel on Friday for my birthday.... I suppose what we did Saturday could be considered birthday too:  ....I got a new car!  

My birthday was actually on Monday - we had such a big weekend, we didn't do much that specific day (it was a work & school day)  Todd and Isabella made me a cake though!

I've needed a new car for awhile.  This prius was not as good / not as reliable as my 1st one.  I really wanted a convertible.  I wanted a Volkswagen convertible that was like the one I had before the 1st prius.  They have one in Europe called t-Roc, but it's not sold in the US.  so, considering an alternate style of convertible led us to the Mini dealer.  On a whim, we decided to go test drive mini convertibles.  Um... they were way too small!  So, we looked at the other kinds that were there.  They were cool, but I wasn't really into just another sedan.  But -- they had an electric mini on the lot that had less than 800 miles that was about 6 months old.  Apparently, someone leased it for a short time while their custom mini was on order.  The price was drastically reduced from new -- it was priced as a used car, but it was basically new.

The "e" appealed to me. So... we went for it.  we now own an Electric Vehicle!  It drives weird -- like a go-cart at Andretti.  (you keep your foot on the gas the WHOLE time you drive. You take your foot off the gas - it almost stops. There is a brake pedal, but I don't have to use it often)  We may want to get a higher volt charging station installed at our house, but use of the regular outlet on our back porch works fine for now.

My car has an App!  I can lock the doors from my phone and check on the charging status.  I can map out a trip and find out where charging stations are. It's more of an around-town kind of car (like my prius was)... not so much a 

The weekend after my birthday, I got to go on a trip away with some adoptive moms at the house in North Georgia called "A Mother's Rest" -- I've been before and met a couple of ladies that I have kept in touch with -- one from Tampa and one from Charlotte.  We've met up at this house a couple of times.  I thought only one of the ladies was going to be there, but the other one from Florida tried to surprise us by booking an extra room that was previously booked / the original person couldn't attend. 

(this is my room this trip - I stay in a different room each time!) 

It was a busy time to go up to the respite house (two of us were doing online shopping all weekend.  One of the ladies was writing her Christmas letter.)  I did a little bit of grading while there to try to catch up for the onslaught that I would experience during last week. 

 

And - we went into town (Helen GA) to go check out the lights / see the cute downtown area decorated. 

We did not use the formal dining room this trip, but I saw the "door" to the sun porch closed.  (the window you can crawl through -- or you can open the bottom part if you don't want to crawl & just want to walk. 

It's never closed!  But I thought it was cool to see it how it was intended to be.

Here's a photo with the window part open (the coffee machine is out on the sun porch, so it was "required" to head out there!)

Mostly, we just talked in the living room and chilled out.  

We talked about kids. 

We talked about adoption stuff. 

We talked about election stuff.  

We talked about the essential Christmas gifts this year.

We talked about getting together again in the summer when it was warm and we could use the pool at the Inn!

We visited Santa who was sitting for pictures with dogs at Mostly Mutts.  He and Ms. Claus were so cute!  They both had great energy and the best smiles!  Apparently, they do this every year as a fund raiser for Mostly Mutts (a dog rescue organization).  

Hip-Hop was not thrilled, but he wasn't bad.  Saffy was just chill.  Mercer wouldn't jump into the photo, but this picture with Isabella is cute!

We told Isabella about Santa before she entered 6th grade - middle school can be tough and we didn't want any teasing.  (She said she already knew... unlike Mercer who we shocked him when we told him about Santa right before 6th grade!!)  

Here is the official picture from our photo shoot on the Mostly Mutts website.

This is not our (beautiful) "real" Santa from our Marietta Square Santa visits ("Santa Lamar"), but this Santa and Ms. Claus were lovely!   

It was a bit of work to get the dogs there and to pose.... but I'm glad we did it!

Isabella had a band concert before school ended.  She's been playing the euphonium.  She said not to expect too much... that she was one of the better players -- and many of the kids had no idea what they were doing!  (so - we went in with low expectations)  But... they did great!

I thought the band as a whole sounded good.  (It was broken into 3 parts -- a drumline that did one part. The band with wind and brass instruments -- who normally don't have classes together.  AND - a strings section which was directed by a different teacher.) 

Isabella is hard to see - but she's the one right in front of the poinsettia plant in the back row. 

I had another after school club meeting also the last week of school with my Architecture club.  We did one more Christmas related thing -- we had the club meeting they all love: making "architectural" graham cracker houses. (instead of gingerbread) 

Mercer got in on the meeting activities again this month b/c he had to wait 'til I could take him home. Plus, I have a club member who is very outgoing and drags him into doing the activities instead of sitting on the side of my classroom!  :)  He has graphic design classes with 2 of my student members, so does he does know some of the kids that are there.  

(Why not?!  - it drags him out of his shell a bit!)  :)

This is the favorite AIAS meeting of the school year. (because the students like to eat while they build!)

Some of the houses were pretty good.  Some, well, ... :)  

Mercer & Raphael's house turned out to just be a house "construction site."  haha 

Next month are the club elections and we will need to do something with community service instead of "crafty" things all year.  We'll see what the new year brings for my AIAS club.

Mercer drove himself to a hair cut appointment in preparation for the Christmas holiday. Which is nice that we could do some things around the house that we needed to without stopping to take him on an errand.

He also drove himself + Isabella to Youth on the Sunday before the break to go to the middle school / high school Christmas party up at the church + white elephant gift exchange.  

Yes - scary that he's driving, but... some things are nice about it!!  

Isabella and I made sugar cookies. She, Todd & I decorated them.  Not many - but some.  I guess we got into the Christmas spirit a LITTLE before the holiday, but.... we did not have a tree 'til the laundry room renovation was completed. 

(what's the correlation?!) 

Todd took out the rotted / molded base cabinets that were in our laundry room that had suffered water damage.  

He had to re-do the gypsum board behind the cabinets AND add tile to the floor (the tile did not run under the cabinets, rather up to the toe kick). 

Thankfully we had extra tile in the garage that we could use.  THEN, he could install the laundry sink + move in the Hoosier cabinet I had repainted over Thanksgiving break.  

(The cabinet has been in our living room ever since re-doing Isabella's room this summer!)  The corner where the cabinet was being stored... is where our Christmas tree goes.  It was a long process, but once the Hoosier was moved, a Christmas tree could be put in place!

It was late in the season + we had a new dog (we did not know how she would do with a real tree).  So, we got a small fake tree instead this year.  It's not the same, but it just didn't make sense to cut one down and only enjoy it for a week or so before our trip up north.

On the Sunday before Christmas, we opened gifts as our small family unit of 4 + we opened gifts for the dogs and got to play with them for a bit....

Saffy's new hat!  (if her body gets cold - so does her head an ears, right?!  She's got an alien hat on now with green ears.  haha

A game Isabella really wanted....

And make-up related stuff....

Not pictured - Mercer's car seat cover and the car safety kit that he got.  Promise -- he got stuff too!

We finished packing up and hit the road for a road trip to North Carolina and New Jersey...  That will be "part 2" of the blog post since none of the photos are synching up!