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- So, if today’s Abby’s Saturday photo looks familiar, it should! I have taken a “Silhouette” photo at the Christmas tree (almost) every year now and of course, this year is no exception!
In fact, I think this particular photo is my most consistent photo – meaning, I have taken a version of this photo more times than any other photo (and I re-create my favorite photos all the time).
If you’d like a stroll down memory lane, here are the other Abby silhouette photos in front of the Christmas tree that I’ve taken – starting in 2013: #16, #74, #124, #177, #230, #278, #330, #382, and #434.
(2014 is the only year I did not take an Abby silhouette photo & that’s because we were moving across the state at the time & living with my parents!)
I love that each year is slightly different – it’s fascinating to me that I can take the exact same photo every single year and yet it’s still DIFFERENT every year!
And this year – it’s the same tree, the same dog, in the same spot in our house – but thanks to our dining room renovation from earlier this year – it looks completely different (it’s SO much better than the dark paneling!) Go back and compare last year to this year to see what I mean!
Side note: we’ve lost the star that goes on top of our tree!! I cannot find it anywhere – where in the world could it have gone?! I guess I need to get another one. - Last weekend, we went on our last adventure of the year! We went to Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio – it’s a massive indoor waterpark. Derrick and I have been there before, but it was way back in 2017. We went for my birthday and it was the very first time we left Braelynn behind to go somewhere overnight by ourselves. All we could think while we were there was: Braelynn would love it here!
It took a few years, but we finally made it back!
We actually booked last weekend way back at the beginning of the year. Kalahari was running a big promo-thing and we picked the second weekend of December to go. In other words: we’ve been waiting fort his weekend for a very long time. - It’s been a week of receiving packages. After going Christmas shopping with my Mom last week, I just hopped on Amazon (on our way to Kalahari) and ordered the last gifts I needed for people. It felt so good to have that finally done! Everything has been delivered this week (plus, we’ve gotten a whole mountain of packages delivered from Papa and Nana) – needless to say: our Amazon delivery driver has been busy.
Not every package was delivered though. I had one specific item I had ordered on Black Friday. It was guaranteed to be delivered on or by December 12. But early last week, I got the notice that it had been shipped and would be arriving early! According to the tracking, it was scheduled to arrive last Thursday.
Thursday came and went – and no package.
I checked the tracking Friday morning and it said that it had arrived in Irwin at our post office, but was still “pending acceptance”. No problem – I didn’t care if it was delayed a day. But then it didn’t come on Friday either. And since we were in Ohio all weekend, I dispatched my sister to keep an eye out for it. No package all weekend.
By Monday, I was starting to get worried. On Tuesday, I reached out to the company to see if they could see anything on their end (but I just got a “We have so many people reaching out to us right now, our response times are delayed” message). On Wednesday, Derrick stopped into the post office for me. And they told him my package was lost.
They said that they had received the shipping container, scanned it in (thus the tracking showing that it had arrived in Irwin), but when they opened the container, it was empty. So, my package never got the second scan to go out for delivery – thus it’s “pending acceptance” status.
The post office said there was nothing they could do (and it turns out, there were other people in the post office, looking for packages from the same shipment).
I reached back out to the company on Wednesday and finally was able to talk to someone. He promised to “look into it”. But by Friday, I got a message saying: “We have determined that your package has been lost.” (No, duh.) So, they have to re-create my item and re-ship it. Which, in any other circumstance would be whatever, but since it’s a Christmas gift – that means I won’t have it in time for Christmas.
It’s just such a huge bummer because it’s not like I waited until the last minute! I ordered this item three weeks ago! I was SO on top of my game! Ugh. - I published our annual “Traditional Christmas Letter” to my blog this week! It’s always crazy to look back over the year and attempt to compile and condense it into a single blog post (thankfully, I write my letters digitally – cramming it all into a letter I could print and mail would just not be possible!)
- Tuesday this week was my: “We just have to make it though the day” day. We had dentist appointments, haircuts, and a Christmas party that evening – plus we had to do school, eat meals at very specific times in order to get to our appointments on time, and get ready for each event. It was a day. But we made it!
(Side note: Leander did SO good at getting his hair cut! I don’t think I will ever take that for granted after having so many haircuts that we had to hold him down for – even with trying every trick in the book! He sat up in the chair all by himself, he left our hair-stylist cut and style his hair – I am so proud of my boy!) - It was our week of Christmas parties! We had one Tuesday night (our Rising Tide Society party – that’s the small creative business networking group Tiffany and I run!), we had a Christmas party at church on Wednesday night, and we had a Christmas party at my parent’s house on Thursday night! It was our annual “gingerbread house and chocolate taste testing” party! Once again, Derrick won the chocolate taste testing game (although Emma gave him a run for his money this year and almost beat him!) It was such a delightful and fun evening!
- On Wednesday, after church, I took Braelynn to her favorite store, Five Below, so she could shop for Christmas gifts for Leander and Derrick. She is quite the little shopper and just loves the entire process.
- Sadly – both kids have ended the week sick. Leander started coming down with a cold on Wednesday (and missed the church Christmas party) and Braelynn woke up with it this morning. Needless to say: we’re going to spend the weekend all snuggled up on the couch, taking lots of medicine, drinking tea, eating soup, watching Christmas movies, and getting better (well, for me and Derrick – not getting sick!)
- Christmas is just one week away!
