Busy busy… why I was MIA for 8 days

Wow, I last posted on 12/10 (and sorry, I never responded to everyone’s great and very helpful comments about my gift buying process dilemma! I read every single one and am appreciative of the great ideas from all!).

This week has been BUSY!!! ‘Tis the season, right?

So what have I been doing instead of blogging?? Let’s see. This will be slightly trickier to recall because I have even fallen off the wagon of keeping my time logs this month!! (gasp, I know! I do this periodically, and it’s mostly just annoying because it makes my DATA INCOMPLETE and LEAVES BIG GAPS and I hate that.)

Tuesday 12/10:

After work, I had plans for my now annual shopping date with Ethan so he could buy the gifts he needed. He has worked for years now and has plenty of $$, and I will say, he is generous! It’s really very sweet. He bought his own gifts, with his own money, for everyone who will be at our Christmas (so, our immediate family, sister’s family + my parents).

We had a quick pizza dinner at Rocky Rococo’s first (his choice), and then hit up a few stores.

Wednesday 12/11:

I had another in-person work day! Yes, 2 in 2 weeks…. This one was an all day, full team meeting, where even our far-away remote workers had flown in.

It was actually good to see everyone and we had a productive day with a nice lunch provided for all of us.

On the way home, I had planned a couple of “quick” stops to return something/ look for something, which of course turned into a bigger production than planned…I ended up being out until after 7 pm. In part, because while at Stop #1, Ethan got home and texted me this pic:

Oh dear. “Charlie was here.”

AHHHH NOOOOO!!!!! My tree!!! He had not touched the tree previously, but, apparently he did that day. You’ll recall from my other recent post that when I worked on site last week we also had some issues with him being mischievous, prompting me to crowd source dog-containment ideas.

Well, I had ordered a gate to try the hallway thing, but it hadn’t arrived yet. I figured he’d probably be fine, so we left him out. (I mean, we’ve been leaving him out in the house for months and he usually doesn’t do much- but these on site work days have been much longer than a typical “2 hours out to dinner” stint.)

I had left home at ~9:00, my SIL stopped to let him out around 2:30 (and things were still fine then), and then Ethan got home around 5. That was TOO LONG, apparently!

Fortunately I had unplugged the tree (and, turns out the strand he chewed off was actually an old pre-lit strand that didn’t work! So, no harm done.). But I didn’t know that yet, so when I got Ethan’s text while browsing at Barnes and Noble, I promptly made a mad dash for Target to try to replace the lights (which are mostly all sold out at this point, but I managed to snag a few strands of 50 instead of 100s).

Anyway! It all worked out, but Naughty Charlie! The gate arrived the next day.

Here he is trying it out. 😅😅

So far, so good! I did some conditioning work with him first (giving treats/ rewarding him for “going to his mat” in the hallway and praising him) for a couple days.

We’ve left him in there alone several times now, with his mat to sleep on and some chew bones and water. I’ve set up the camera and he has whined a little and scratched once at the wall by the gate a little, but then basically has just gone to sleep and been fine!

Fingers crossed, because this seems like a really good and easy solution for us. Praying he won’t get bored and decide to chew the wood molding! (Which he never ever has, and he’s already 1.5 years old, so hoping he just won’t?)

Thursday 12/12:

Thursday I had a busy work day with a LOT of meetings, and then was planning to clean the house in anticipation of my sister + family arriving on Saturday.

Well, due to a flight delay/some unforeseen issues, Ivan and I ended up pinch hitting for my parents and unexpectedly running to Chicago O’Hare after work to pick up my sister, BIL and 3 kids, who were flying in for the holidays!!! Was not planning on a sudden ~6 hour Thursday night adventure, lol, but it ended up being perfectly lovely. (Besides getting home at almost midnight.)

It was fun to be at the airport (the kids came running to me, so cute!) and chat in the car. We dropped them off at my parents’ house (near Milwaukee) before heading home.

Friday 12/13:

My original plan of an “early morning grocery run” was off after the LATE night. Basically I just woke up and had to work all day.

I had to duck out a little early, since Ethan and I were signed up to volunteer as timers at Asher’s 5:15 p.m. swim meet. It was the local rivalry dual between our city’s 2 high schools!

It was also Community Night, where they invited the local club swim team youth to attend, and there were some special events. (Like a dance off between the school’s mascots, ha!)

Asher swam really well and was named Swimmer of the Meet! And, his team won the dual. 🙂 (They have this engraved “golden kickboard” that they pass back and forth depending on who wins the rivalry match up.)

Saturday 12/14:

My sister + family (and parents) arrived!

First though, we had a lot to do. Asher had yet another swim meet (an invitational, an hour away), so Ivan just dropped him at the high school at 8 a.m. and he went on the team bus. We didn’t attend this one.

We had a few hours to get the house cleaned up and in order for guests (change sheets, etc.) and I had to get groceries.

Everyone arrived by early afternoon! Yay! 🙂

The rest of Saturday we mostly just hung out at home while the kids played and we all caught up at our bar downstairs.

The kids (ages 5-7-9) were enamored with Charlie, and he was likewise with them. Ha!

It actually SNOWED a little bit, so Ethan and I took them (+ Charlie) on a little neighborhood snow walk at dusk to see Christmas lights. My Irish nieces and nephew had fun making little snowballs on the walk! (They obviously rarely get snow!)

Saturday evening the adults all went out for Mexican (my sister/BIL love spicy food but it’s a bit hard to come by in Ireland…) and the kids stayed home with the boys and had chicken nuggets + mac n cheese and watched Home Alone.

Sunday 12/15:

Sunday we had several fun plans!

After breakfast, the kids helped me walk Charlie. It was mild, but foggy/drizzly.

We stopped off at the park but everything was really too wet.

Anyway, we didn’t have that much time- we had movie tickets for 11:20 a.m. on the other side of town. We saw the new release of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, based on the book, and it was SO CUTE! I really, really liked it. It’s so great! Funny and entertaining, but also so touching and meaningful and made me cry. Ha!

We drove home through downtown and made a brief stop-off at the Wisconsin State Capitol building. The official big Wisconsin Capitol tree is in the rotunda and it’s very pretty! My nieces and nephew had never been to the state Capitol building, either.

We used to go almost yearly to see the tree when the kids were little, but it has been a long time now since we had been! I enjoyed going back. 🙂

Cute one of my parents:

All the kids:

And, some shots from the lower level, of the full tree!

Back home, we had a few hours to just rest/ hang out (the kids I think watched part of Home Alone 2?):

Then, we had dinner reservations at 5:15 at Lucille in downtown Madison (back in front of the Capitol, but the Capitol closed at 4, so we couldn’t combine our visits!).

This is the trendy restaurant that goes ALL OUT with the Christmas decorations and it’s a super fun local tradition. It’s very popular and tables book up way in advance. (I reserved many weeks ago.)

The downstairs bar area:

From upstairs looking down:

It was a really nice time! We ordered a bunch of their wood-fire pizzas and beer.

Christmas music and decor was in full effect.

All in all, a very festive, fun, holiday evening! I sat right next to my sister and enjoyed good conversation. 🙂

On the way out:

Back at home, the kiddos headed straight to bed (jet lag still hitting them hard!) and the rest of us watched the Packers vs Seahawks game.

Monday 12/14:

They all cleared out and headed out by mid-morning for an overnight in Wisconsin Dells at an indoor waterpark. I blocked my calendar for a couple hours Monday morning, but then basically spent the rest of the day just working.

Monday night I walked on the treadmill (the 12-3-30), made a nice home cooked lemon/parmesan chicken pasta with salad, and then Ivan and I did a big final sorting of all the gifts in the basement. Need to get going on wrapping now! Shopping basically done, minus a few things for Ivan’s side- which I’m delegating to him anyway.

Tuesday 12/15:

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a busy work day for me, working on a project that had me engrossed all day right through my lunch.

I finally took a break around 3 pm and went to the gym for an upper body lift.

Later, I had our last dog training session at 5 p.m. Need to decide if I’ll purchase any more, or just take it from here with the knowledge I have now.

Ivan had a work Christmas dinner (no spouses), so I picked up Asher from swim at 6:15. He drove me to run a couple of errands quick, and then I spent a couple hours wrapping presents (and watching the Grinch! lol) in front of the basement fireplace until 10 p.m.

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WHEW! I guess I can see why I have been MIA from blogging this week.

One week until Christmas! They all come back on Monday the 23rd- 26th. We’re fairly set here, minus a good amount of gift wrapping left, and I haven’t made a single cookie yet (though I plan to this weekend). Oh, and I also managed to order my Christmas card last week, amid all the rest! They arrived Monday. I need to get those mailed out!!

I will leave you with another holiday comic. 😅

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for this fun, family weekend. 🙂 It’s always nice when the plans “work out” as generally hoped, lol!