The holidays have arrived and we are here for it! The last couple of weeks have been nothing but fun festivities so without delay… here’s the latest and the greatest from our camp.
Our elf on the shelf, Elfie, is back again this year and I’ve got to be completely honest with you that it’s the one tradition I could do without. The good news is that Jeff handles the elf at our house and the kids really do love it. He’s the first thing they look for when they wake up in the morning. And I must admit, I have used the elf as a discipline tactic since he’s arrived. So there’s the silver lining.
Our elf comes after our Christmas tree is up which happened the weekend after Thanksgiving. For the past several years we’ve joined my parents in Schoolcraft to hunt down our trees together at an over grown tree farm near their house. We try and find the tallest and skinniest tree we can find and this years might be one of our best yet.
The week of Thanksgiving was full of gatherings including two family celebrations, two very important sporting events and our annual FriendsGiving tradition. We kicked off the Thanksgiving marathon Wednesday evening with our annual soup and salad FriendsGiving consisting of Jeff’s high school friends from Calvin Christian. We hosted at our house this year (one time only!) as the usual hosts’ kitchen was out of commission. This tradition has been going for over 10 years and is always good time to catch up with friends who we don’t get the chance to see as often as we’d like to.
Thanksgiving Day was spent in Rockford at the lake with the Kladder Family. This year’s dinner preparation looked a little different with our our head chef, baker, event planner and hostess with the mostess, mother-in-law Mari out of commission. The weekend before Thanksgiving she took a nasty tumble down the stairs and busted her femur! A few days in the hospital and two giant screws later she’s on the mend but not quite back into her usual speed. So this year the entire family pitched in and pulled off a successful dinner. That said, no one found it surprising that the hardest part about the whole meal preparation was actually trying to keep Mari sitting still. Typical Mari!
In between Rockford and the Smith Family Thanksgiving dinner we cheered on Team USA during their second match in the World Cup (another tie) but a well played, and then on Saturday we joined Michigan fans everywhere in celebrating the victory over Ohio State. The Michigan win made for the happiest of households for the remainder of the weekend.
GRCS called it’s first ‘snow day’ of the year after a huge winter storm that happened just before Thanksgiving. It was gorgeous! Natalie took legitimate precautions to ensure the day-off from school including flushing ice cubes down the toilet, wearing her pajamas inside out and placing a white crayon in the freezer - thanks for the tips Principal Barkel! I took the day off from work and enjoyed sledding with the kids along with our neighbor friends. We had a blast.
The Watermark Women’s Book Club is underway for the season now that our golf clubs are stowed away. Last month we met at Amore Trattoria for some delicious Italian food and wine to discuss the book Verity by Colleen Hoover. I had read Verity earlier in the summer and thought it was a great summer read. Alternatively, this months book, The Vanishing Half by Bri Bennett, is proving less fruitful. I’m struggling with the slower pace of the book and how scattered the storyline is. So, I do not recommend it.
We also toasted to two birthdays in November including the one, the only, Jeff Kladder who actually isn’t a huge fan of celebrating his big day. According to him, his perfect birthday is one where no one knows it’s his birthday and this year was a smashing success as he reported he made it through the workday with no one knowing. Additionally, his birthday was forgotten at both family Thanksgiving gatherings. We got a photo a few days later from his parents eating the birthday cake they forgot to pull out of the downstairs refrigerator. True story.
And the ladies of Ottawa Hills spent a night out for bubbles and dinner at Butchers Union for the birthday of friend and neighbor Jodi! It’s become a fun tradition to call out what we love about the birthday girl in a round robin fashion during dinner that usually ends with at least one of us shedding tears. It’s the best. And as always… Butcher’s Union was so good.
One more celebration from last month was our 9 year wedding anniversary! We commemorated the occasion with dinner at The Chop House (fantastic experience) followed by Broadway Grand Rapid’s Come From Away - also fantastic! It’s the true story of a small Canadian town who had planes diverted to them during 9/11. If you get the chance to see it we highly recommend it.
The Ottawa Hills ladies kept the bubbles flowing at our second annual Christmas ‘favorite things’ gift exchange party last week. If you haven’t tried a favorite things party - do it! They are so fun. Elizabeth was an incredible hostess and we’re grateful to her for allowing us to stay way past our bedtime on a school night!
The next two evenings were spent with neighbors old and new first at the Van Vels Christmas bash with Ottawa Hills friends and then on Saturday with our crew from Rosewood for our annual Progressive Dinner Party. Despite most of us no longer living on Rosewood Ave. we all still live blocks away still allowing us to ‘progress’ house to house by walking. We hosted the main course this year and the part where we all sat around the big dinner table together was by far my favorite.
Jeff and I also joined some of our friends from Watermark last month in support of our friends Ken and Tracy who chaired the Taste of Hope fundraiser at Fredrick Meijer Gardens. They featured local chefs with curated tastings and they were incredible! The event benefited the American Cancer Society and we had a great time.
The kids have had no shortage of sugar these past few weeks - a theme that will continue through the rest of December thanks to chocolate advent calendars, holiday parties, stockings, Christmas cookies and gingerbread house making. But alas… it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
The kids had a half day of school on Wednesday so I took the afternoon off from work and we went downtown to Rosa Parks Circle to for some ice skating. It was a mild 43 degrees in the middle of the afternoon and we pretty much has the rink to ourselves. If you’re curious, the rink is run by GR parks and rec and you can reserve tickets online and/or simply check to see how many spots are still open (50 per 1.5 hour session) before you head down there. It’s super affordable at $4/adult and $2/kid.
Last, you won’t find another person who likes receiving your families holiday cards as much as me. I cannot express how much joy I get out of both sending and receiving cards via snail mail. I love all the family photos, cute dog pictures and I love reading your mini blurbs about what’s happened throughout your year. From our family to yours… may the rest of your year be filled with all things joyful, sweet and magical!
