Intrigue

Intrigue time! Paige's studio always hosts an Intrigue competition/convention at the studio at the beginning of January. It's a great time to compete your solo for the first time and we don't have to drive far! The competition was Friday and Paige's solo was absolutely beautiful! The girls did such a great job with the trio too! Costumes weren't in yet so pictures will look a little different for the next competition. Saturday and Sunday are full of convention classes and then a showcase and awards. Paige had a great weekend, she got called out in a lot of her classes, placed 6th in improv, 1st for her trio and also placed 1st in all teen solos!!  

 

Wrap up

Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Crepe and salted caramel latte I had at a new coffee shop

Paige's solo practice

Playing the saran wrap ball game again!

Checking out Lane's slinky

Bonding with Griffin

We decorated Christmas cookies

Griffin watched for Santa with us

Playing games

Cutest little napper

Binx in a box

 

New Year's Day Walk

Our New Year's Day walk continues to be one of my favorite traditions and the kids have (sort of) finally come around to it! I didn't hear any complaints and everyone had fun on the very cold walk. We settled on going to a local bridle trail that is situated on the side of a cliff and by the time we were turning around to get back to the car we were so cold! We turned on the fireplace and had some hot chocolate when we got home to warm up.

 

New Years Eve!

We were starving after the art museum and headed right home to order the same thing we have every New Year's Eve-Chinese. We haven't had a ton of luck with Chinese food around here but we got lucky with China House this year and the food was really good! Paige went to a friend's house for the evening so it was me, Pat and Owen at home for the night. We played some games and ate some snacks until it was time to celebrate. We had grape juice and confetti poppers and then we kicked Pat out of the house for a bit. He didn't think it was as funny as we did:)

 

Art Museum

We barely got our 2024 Art museum trip in but we managed to just fit it in December 31! Christmas decorations were still up but the cafe was closing down when we got there and it was actually a lot busier there than I thought it would be. It was a good trip, we all found some stuff we were interested in and had questions about!

 

Christmas Afternoon

We took our time Christmas morning but pretty soon it was time to head to Mentor for Christmas #3! We ate pasta, opened presents, played Cornhole and Poetry for Neanderthals! Another new game this year-we brought a big saran wrap ball filled with small prizes and it got unwrapped while people tried to roll doubles with a pair of dice. You got to keep whatever prizes fell out on your turns! Such a fun day!

 

Christmas Morning!

We had some compromising to do to figure out what time to get up again this year. Paige was hoping for 7am and Owen was hoping for much later...I think we settled on 8:30! It was a nice and fun morning. I think everyone got things they were hoping for and also some surprise gifts! Owen got Cavs tickets and Paige was gifted a ski day, hopefully we get the right weather for it soon! 

The kids set up this plate for Santa with some surprise Ranch seasoning in the milk!

Waiting for Owen...

Everyone is up!

Stockings!

Owen and his stocking!

Extra present under the tree

The kids with the cutest gift containers

Kim and Pat

Paige and Pat

Owen and Kim

 

Christmas Eve!

I love traditions and this time of year is filled with them! We got together with Pat's family on Christmas Eve to exchange presents and have our traditional soup dinner (this was our third year making the same 3 soups!). Lauren, David and Eva joined us this year too which made it extra special! Eva painted nails and we all played some Quiplash together before wrapping it all up to get some sleep before Santa came!