Escape the Room

I went with friends to Escape the Room and The Cheesecake Factory for Dinner. It was kind-of a VERY belated Birthday for me, and it was a lot of fun. We did a Jurassic Park themed room which was really fun. And, we made it! With about two and a half minutes left, though admittedly we needed a lot of clues.

I have the best of friends! I have always been blessed with really great friends. I love it when I get to go and hang out with them (though Ben and the kids are jealous we did an escape room, so we may need to go as a family to do one again soon!)

 

But, not to be outdone, we DID, as a family, finish our at-home escape room that the Hale's got us for Christmas. We survived it! It was great.

School Spelling Bee

 As part of my job, I got to be in charge of our school spelling bee. It was so great! These kids were so great to work with, and it was a lot of fun. There were some tears, but overall it went really well. I'm so proud of these awesome kids! And, I LOVE my job and that I get paid to work with them!

JLo Famous!

 Mother-in-law: Jennifer Lopez has the same stairs as you! There's a fabulous picture of her coming down the stairs in a green dress at her Christmas party, and the stairs are yours.

(I pull up picture, amazed Ben and I are on trend and not a decade behind for the first time in our lives)

(Later....)

Ben: What are you doing with your old bridesmaid dress on?

Me: Recreating the pose so I can show the Facebook universe I'm basically Jennifer Lopez!

(Daughter takes 537 pictures of me)

Me: It didn't work, Ben. It turns out I'm not as photogenic as Jennifer Lopez.

Ben: WHAT??? No way.

(shows him pictures)

Ben: Oh....yikes.

Belated Thanksgiving

 Claire has been begging for us to have a Thanksgiving dinner, so I made a "mini Thanksgiving." We had rotisserie chicken, stuffing, jello, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, yams (I found a decent sugar-free sweet potato recipe so it was healthy, too!), a chocolate and pumpkin pie. It was pretty good, and I think satisfied Claire's need for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner since we kind-of skipped it in November.

Ice Skating

 Audra decided to organize some friends to go ice-skating. I think they had a good time! It was cold (the sun hasn't come out in a week, everything is still ice). Liesl and Ivy also joined us so Claire and Camille had someone to skate with, too. It was a good day.

I'm not posting a whole lot over break because, truthfully, there hasn't been much going on. I thought we should go to Great Wolf Lodge, but the kids didn't want to. They pretty much just wanted to stay home, so we did.

Snow!

We got over a foot of snow. It wasn't great as it all turned to ice and none of it was shoveled. But, the kids had a great time sledding so that was good. 

2023 Predictions

 1. When I review this post in 364 days, Audra will be driving herself and Claire to the New Year's Eve Dance!

2. I will be released as Gospel Doctrine teacher and will be in Young Women's. Ben will still be in Sunday School.

3. Audra will be in a top tier regional band of some sort

4. Claire will complain about high school and seminary every day

5. Remodel projects: Paint main level and new windows.

6. Broncos have another losing season

7. Three trips to Disney

8. Ben finally gets his Mustang

9. Camille switches instruments to no longer play saxophone

10. I am preparing to take the GT Praxis Exam to finish my Metro Certificate