Each week I post seven “quick takes” of things on my mind. Topics are typically related to our family happenings or things I’m into right now.

1. Mom, Sister, and I took the kids to Holiday Pops last weekend. Noah was fascinated. He alternately watched closely and napped – a pretty good way to approach the thing, I thought. Aria enjoyed it, but didn’t stay interested consistently. I didn’t expect her to, though. That would be a bit much for a not-quite-two-year-old.
2. Speaking of which, she’s two now. We had a lovely little birthday party for her with our immediate family on the day (Christmas Eve). She thoroughly enjoyed herself, and is loving her presents. It was a good celebration of her, and we welcomed her third year of life (I got that right, family) by praying over her. That evening we had one of her current favorite meals, pot roast, then opened our Christmas Eve box – a new Christmas movie, a Christmas book, and PJs for both kids. We dressed in our PJs and settled in for the movie (which Aria would typically have been interested in, but she’d had cake, so…) and then the book before bed.
3. Christmas morning we spent at home. Aria awoke to a kitchen playset by the tree, and she played with it a bit while Andy and I finished up breakfast prep. We had a beautiful breakfast of gluten-free, dairy-free banana pancakes; turkey and egg muffins; and fancy potato bites. We ate to candlelight, and it was quite lovely. Then we opened presents, got everything cleaned up, and went to my parents’ house for the remainder of the day. It was a wonderful day with my family. A couple of the men went out in the afternoon to commemorate the troops’ Christmas in Bastogne with a ceremonial shoot. The rest of us stayed home and played this game, one of my Christmas presents.
4. I already have most of our decorations down. I don’t typically remove them this quickly, but this year I’m anxious to get the house cleaned up, and to be in a position to trade rooms with Aria. Also, our Christmas tree is rapidly dying, and I’d rather it were out of the house before it gets to the Charlie-Brown-tree point.
5. I recently purchased an ebook bundle that included a several-month subscription to a meal planning site called Plan to Eat. We’re finding it quite useful thus far, and will likely continue our subscription once the preview time is up. It doesn’t yet have an app version, unfortunately, but it still works well on the iPad (within the browser).
6. I had the stitches in my face removed early on the 26th. It was a quick and painless process. I’m glad to have them gone. The doctor wants a couple of follow-ups to make sure it’s healing properly, but so far, so good. Apparently it will take a few weeks for the swelling and redness to reduce. It was nice to go to the appointment by myself. I even got a few minutes to read.
7. We have more Christmas celebrations yet to come. We were supposed to get together with my aunt and uncle this weekend, but sadly they are both sick. Hopefully we can reschedule soon. We’re “having Christmas” with Andy’s family on New Year’s Day. The plan is to have brunch and presents. We’ll probably spend most of the day together. I’m looking forward to it.