Pasta dinners + PJ parties + other pre-holiday misc.

This time next week, I should, God willing, be in Ireland!!

Eek! I feel like we still have a lot of gift buying to do, but not for the Ireland crew. Their gifts are, thankfully, all set (except for a couple of small easy things I just have to pick up). We decided not to exchange gifts with my parents and my immediate family while in Ireland because it seemed silly to pack a bunch of gifts into our carry-ons only to turn around and bring them all home… Space just does not really allow! We may stick in a couple of small things to have something to open there, but for the most part, we’re planning to do a separate gift exchange at home after Christmas.

This week did not seem as bad as last week, but it was still pretty busy. This month has been BAD for appointments!! WHY do healthy people have so many appointments?!?!?!? I can’t even imagine what it’s like for people with chronic illness who have to go all the time. This week I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday, a telehealth check in Wednesday, and Friday I had a haircut/color. I know appointments are part of “regular life”, but no matter what, they always disrupt my “regular days”.

Thursday night it was my turn to volunteer for the high school swim team’s weekly pasta dinner. (Every week on Thursday there is a team dinner, held in a commons at school. 3-4 families sign up to host pasta, salad, breadsticks, cookies, milk, fruit, etc.) This is one of those “extra things” that is now part of being a sports parent. I would be tempted to complain about it and say it’s not necessary BUT the boys do truly seem to love this tradition and it’s a fun team bonding time….

I was a little cranky about the fact that when the sign up came out, I was too slow and the only slots left were the December slots (i.e. right in the middle of the Christmas crazy time slots.) But oh well, what can you do. A couple of parents are fully hosting big team dinners at their houses this year, which would be even more work (and clean up!), so I guess I’ll just be glad I’m not doing that.

I was assigned to make 5 lbs of pasta (5 boxes) and bring 160 oz of pasta sauce. Last year I contributed meatballs and other things, but I’d never made mass amounts of pasta before. To be honest, I was quite nervous about screwing this up. Have you ever made pasta that you did not put sauce into right away that then turned into a big sticky glob once it cooled?! Because I have…. I was envisioning showing up for 20 hungry guys with a pot full of a massive pasta ball. 😅

I shared my fears in the group chat with the other moms who were hosting. Fortunately, one of them had done this last year, and she gave me some tips. Namely, do NOT make 5 lbs of spaghetti noodles… go with a more forgiving noodle, like ziti! Noted. She then told me to put the cooked pasta immediately into the slow cooker and drizzle a little water and oil over the pasta and keep it on the warming setting, and stir it periodically.

This worked well! I did spend quite a long time making batches of pasta Wednesday afternoon (I did 2 boxes at a time, one in each pot, for 2.5 rounds), because I also read online that overcrowding the pot (or not having enough water) is another contributing factor for stickiness.

Then I had to lug the crockpots and all the extra pasta to the high school.

Whew! I was very relieved that my noodles did NOT stick and everything stayed warm. The whole ordeal (between cooking, transport, setting up the dinner, cleaning up the dinner, going home, cleaning up the pots…) ate up at least 4 pm to 8 pm on my Thursday night, though. But overall, it wasn’t bad. The other moms were super nice and we chatted in the meantime. Several boys came up to us and thanked us and said how good everything was. It was nice to hear they appreciate our efforts! 🙂

Last night Asher had another swim meet. It was the rivalry meet- his school versus our city’s other high school! They have this special golden kickboard that gets engraved with the winner each year, and then whichever school wins gets to keep the kickboard in the trophy display at school for the year. Well, West (Asher’s team) won last year, and they won again last night!! There were some very close races. It was fun!

It was also “community youth night”, so after the meet, little kids from the local swim team were invited to swim a couple fun races and they had some other fun events planned, like a dance off with the school mascots in costume, t-shirt giveaways, etc. I felt bad for the organizers- the turn out for the youth night part was NOT very good! Really only a handful of kids showed up! I think the date/timing was not good (families are not necessarily looking for extra stuff to do a week before Christmas), plus it is SUPER cold this weekend.

The high school boys from both teams all stood at the end and cheered on the little ones though who raced. It was very cute. 🙂

Then after that I went to my volleyball Christmas party! I didn’t make it there until 8 pm but it was still going strong.

I’ll have to share pics later after I get some from my friends. I don’t have the best pics! It was super fun though and may have involved some people belting out Christmas tunes into wine bottles as microphones. 😉

Now, today, Asher has an invitational meet about an hour away. It is also freezing cold- a high of 4 degrees Fahrenheit! That sure doesn’t make me feel like hopping in a pool, ha, but I guess they’re used to it. 🥶

I also want to try to tie up some loose ends of things we need for Ireland!

Hope everyone is staying warm and festive…. 😉 Happy weekending!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a fun time at my VB Christmas party! The matching PJs were so fun and cozy and they went perfectly with my fake Ugg boots. 😉