Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Hello! I feel like I am just stepping off a holiday marathon. I have been holidaying it up since December 24th and had something each day until I got home yesterday.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were just our family of four. For Eve I made chicken schnitzel with Rahm sauce, spaetzle, green beans, Sister Schubert’s rolls and au gratin potatoes in muffin cups.

We continued the pajama tradition on Eve along with our new as of last year Icelandic tradition of giving a book and chocolate.

Christmas Day was warm!

It was really nice with egg casserole, mini cinnamon rolls with green and red sprinkles, and gifts just with our family of four again.

In late afternoon, we went to a movie and saw…

I did not read the book, so I went in blindly. It was just ok in my opinion. We invited Jack’s roommate along, too, and Tom wanted to make sure we had enough popcorn – we did. Tom eyeing the butter machine to decide if he should add more…

The day after Christmas we went to Tom’s parents’ house and this is their sweet dog Watson.

He tried to teach his nephew Eddie Otis some manners.

I brought ham, buns, salad, egg casserole, and potato casserole.

The next day Tom and I left for my hometown (Mason came for the day the following day and Jack had to work).

We met both of my sisters and their kids at a little lunch place and then walked a bit downtown and went in a couple of stores. Our Airbnb wasn’t ready yet. Then, we had a really cool experience. My Dad was a pilot in the Air Force and when he retired, he flew a plane for a local company and had so much fun in his second career. The pilot that started flying when he lost his medical (they still let him co-pilot) had been in touch with me since my mom’s funeral because she had some of my dad’s flight logbooks and things from his desk. It turned out they would be landing from a holiday trip that the owner of the company had taken, and she invited us to watch them land, see the plane, and obtain the box of my dad’s belongings.

The little airport:

watching the plane land:

Sisters and I didn’t realize how emotional this would make us! The pilot let us all climb in the cockpit and showed us that they affixed my dad’s silver flight wings with his name to the dash. They told us stories and how they feel that he is with them. I think we stayed for an hour. What a truly meaningful experience.

The pilot handing nephew Miles the box:

How cool was that? My dad passed away in 2018 and my mom in January of this year but my mom didn’t want to talk much about my dad with us. Most of you all know that we sold their house a month ago and no longer have a home base in my hometown, so I found us an Airbnb right on Main Street.

We had the entire third floor loft of an old building that has been restored.

This is how you entered:

Our loft:

It was decorated for Christmas and we just had to add the presents!

It was perfect! It had 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

We got settled after the airport experience and started assembling some appetizers.

My brother-in-law loves my Mexican layer dip and it looks Christmasy!

We ordered from a local pizzeria and ate in the Airbnb the first night.

Sisters and I had some gifts for each other with some sentimental nods in memory of my mom that we did with just the three of us and then we did a silly White Elephant exchange with the whole group.

Then, many of us played a game from the White Elephant called Horrible Therapist. It caused lots of laughter.

I never sleep well the first night in a new place, but surprisingly I slept great and slept until 7:30! Molly and I are the early birds who like coffee and Kate likes to sleep late and doesn’t like coffee.

The view from the Airbnb:

We had a starter cup of coffee but then Molly and I walked to the coffee shop and the market.

It was nice to get out and walk first thing!

Then, we went back to the Airbnb and it is like herding cats with that many people! We laid out breakfast options – yogurt, bananas, crumpets, egg casserole, potato casserole – and then anyone that wanted to shop along Main Street could. It was nice that so many shops are open on Sundays but unfortunately many of the restaurants are not.

We took a break, and Molly made a Grinch mocktail:

Then we did a scavenger hunt of all Grandma’s favorites.

Mason had arrived so that was great!

Then, it happened to be my friend Dan’s mom’s 80th birthday party so Tom, Mason, Kate, and I crashed. Kate was a close friend of my friend’s brother! Small town, small town. We saw our realtor there and several other people we knew!

The weather was just wonderful for walking up and down Main Street. I clocked 10K steps this day!

Then, we had a reservation for duck pin bowling. You use a smaller ball with no holes and you don’t have to wear the fashionable bowling shoes.

It’s in the cutest little venue that has a wine bar, speakeasy, and rooftop bar.

It was really fun and the kids got into it!

Look how cute the town looked!

We ordered Mexican food and had it in the Airbnb and then played another game called Relative Insanity. I will say both games are pretty off color. I think we laughed even more at this game.

The kid ages range from 11-23 and the kids stayed in the main room with the adults most of the time. We did have two teen girls pining for boyfriends left at home and they would go lay on beds and moon from time to time. Lol.

It went better than expected and my heart is full but I am tired!

I gave a lot of details for my memories and I will be ok if you skimmed much of my text. I might test you on it, though. Just kidding!

Unfortunately, our Airbnb was not dog friendly so this guy had some friends come over and hang out with him when Mason was with us or otherwise busy:

Hosting my first link up ever –

Currently will be 1/7 so I would love you to join me as this will be my first time hosting! Jenn is passing the torch and I’m flattered that she asked me. It will be the first Wednesday of every month. Each month I will give you 5 present participles (-ings) for you to talk about. In January it will be loving, resolving, planning, eating/drinking, and watching/reading. I will open the link at 4:00 am EST.

I don’t know what I’m doing so bear with me!

Amy