Here is a video/song that has taken over our house so please listen to it as you look over the blog post to have the real immersive Casa Kuehnert experience.
Mom made St Nicholas bread which is my favorite fruit cake (I am a fan of fruit cake if you ever want to get rid of one).
I burned some frankincense and myrrh.
We continued Nerdy Night with Labyrinth.
We have seen it several times or many times depending and everyone loves it.
The kids had more time off of school and I gave them some major cleaning projects. They had more help from Mom than they should have but boy the pets benefited from it. They had a be kind to your pets day. They cleaned the fish tank and hamster cages and gave the dog a big long walk.
I decided to finally tackle the kids closets. This was a major undertaking. Both kids had been using their closets as a place to stash things when cleaning their rooms. Megan did this more than Kiernan. His closet had become an overflow toy and kick knack storage space. I knew that there needed to be a major culling and that the kids would resist it more than i wanted to deal with so I told them to empty everything onto the floor and that David and I would preform a magic trick.
He closet was mostly clothing.
His closet was mostly parts of things.
David and I went to Walmart and picked up a see through chest of drawers and a black chest of drawers. Megan has a tendency to upend storage containers to root around for what she wants and Kiernan does not. So I hoped that giving her see through drawers might prevent that.
For his I put in some of these great divider bins that I use on my work bench.
I threw away or donated 3 trash bags worth of stuff and then tackled their clothes for things that don't fit or that they don't wear. This wound up taking 3 days and we are all over the moon about the difference.
The kids go into their closets and take out what they want and nothing gets messed up. Also they found long lost things that they love.
In D&D news: Martin got this outstanding steampunk outfit for a con.
Also he got me these beautiful dice for my birthday.
At work we continued with the decorations.
We had an unusual weekend day in which we went out for breakfast then Megan and David went to see Frozen 2 while Kiernan and I went home. I really like Frozen and hope to see Frozen 2 but movie theaters give me terrible headaches so no thanks to that.
I was going to take Kiernan to a museum but he was feeling meh so we went home. I did one of those things that I thought was brilliant but David though was a reason to never leave me at home alone again.HA!
We have been talking about a cool home project for the winter. He has designed a bench/desk for the office for Megan and Kiernan and me. The kids are big enough that they need actual knee room and can't be comfortably jammed into the corners of our desks anymore.
So while David and Megan were at the movie, Kiernan and I stripped the office bare. We set up our three computers in the dining room and did some other rearrangements.
Once they got home David disassembled and moved and reassembled his desk to make more room in the office.
Then we went to Lowes and picked up the lumber for the new comfy work station area.
Lowes turned out to also have some very nice Christmas trees that were priced right.
We surprised the kids with it and then let them do pretty much all the decoration while we went to drop off the truck at Scearce's.
Megan also made a reindeer decoration for her room just like the ones we had been making for my office door.
We got some snow.
Enough for a sweet snow man.
Jasmine and I finished our door.
Megan got a really nice looking haircut.
David got me some beautiful roses for my birthday. I took 3 of them to work and they were there when the door judges came by to award me first place for the individual door decorating category.
This was great in that I love first place but not great in that what about Jasmine!
I emailed and called around to fix their categorization error but it took two weeks to finish. We then lost our first place because they had already awarded the group prizes. They told us they really liked it and please enter again next year.
Oh well.
My boss was quite happy about our door and our recognition and that pleased and surprised me.
We had a great Christmas cookie night again.
I really love my friends you guys.
I am so blessed to have them in my life.
We decorated the last Christmas cookies the next morning and gave them out around the neighborhood and at Megan's friends houses. We sang some Christmas carols as we went. Kiernan played his violin while we sang.The kids were super into this plan before we stepped out the door (it was mostly their plan) but once we got outside they mummed up pretty quickly. I think next year I will try to find a caroling group to join. They definitely want to sing but also apparently don't want to be looked at too hard while they do it.
We kept a few cookies for ourselves.
We went to Scearce's to celebrate an early Christmas with them. David wore his fanciest Christmas earring.
I got some glasses from my wish list that I love so so much. They were a thing I put on there aspiration-ally and now that I have them I feel so fancy. These are the glasses I would own as a billionaire.
The kids started getting antsy with all the vacation so Kiernan got out his BB gun, He spent the next several days going out to shoot whenever he got bored and I was quite happy to see him self entertaining!
We hung out and played and cooked and ate and even met up with Krishna for Pizza. We went to Ping Pong Pizza.
I made lots of things over the holiday but I think my favorite was this platter of potato sandwiches.
Oh man they are so good.
We wrapped presents.
We sorted presents and then on Christmas Eve we opened presents.
I got this cool bracelet form My dad and Mary along with a ton of other really great stuff.
Check out these awesome throwing knives my uncle made for me.
Amazing!
I looked at bows to buy with my Christmas/birthday money. I wasn't sure what weight to get and decided to go try some out instead of doing the shopping online.
Christmas eve was beautiful.
The smash hit present was the Oculus Quest that we got for the kids.
They played it well into the night.
They played it from the crack of dawn on Christmas. We all have things we love to do on it. We have been having to set timers to take turns fairly.
I love an art app called tilt brush best.
Megan got in a technical mood and spent most of the day working on a remove control car. She got it working and we were very impressed. She has decided that she will be an artist engineer when she grows up.
We had Christmas dinner. I made the worst mashed potatoes I have ever made. Oh gracious they were horrible. I know what I did wrong but that can never help the fact that I had to eat them.
EEEWWWWW
We did art.
We got our first seed catalog.
For New Years we did fireworks and sparklers.
I started working out more and eating healthier as is required for the New Year.
This was made easier by mild weather and the availability of Satsuma oranges. For the record these are the greatest oranges known to man.
If you happen to live in a warm (oh maybe Hawaiian) area and wanted to buy an orange tree I highly recommend.
I started noticing a pronounced limp on the dog.
I wondered if it might be arthritis. She had a vet appointment for her shots anyway so we asked him to have a look.
Pax has a torn ACL. She also has a UTI. She is now on antibiotics and awaiting her surgery date.
The vet quoted us 5000$. The internet says that if one ACl goes the other has a 40% chance of going as well. I don't know if we can afford a 10k dog.
The surgeon quoted us 3500 so I guess that is better but it doesn't feel much better to be honest. I think David and I were about 50/50 to put her down, as wonderful as she is, but we couldn't see explaining it to Megan so we are about to be tightening our belts a fair bit.
We took down the decorations and threw down the tree and did a deep house clean.
We went to Bass and Pro shop to try out bows.
It was a disappointing experience. I usually love that place but this time was not great. I took the kids to see the big fish tank and went off to try out some bows.
I was ignored roundly for about 10 minutes of standing there then decided to take a number at which point a guy and his son walked up to the counter I was standing at and got immediately served around me. I stood there for another 15 minutes before they finished with another customer and asked if I wanted something.
I know my tendency to stand there quietly did not serve me here but I think their apparent assumption that every woman there was there to wait for some husband/boyfriend/son didn't help much either. When I asked to see a longbow I was told not to draw and release (something I think everyone buying a bow probably knows) and handed a bow. I was proud of myself for not running off with anxiety and annoyed by the sort of (my perception) dismissive treatment I was getting. The recurves they had (in my price range) were way too light so I didn't get anything but I did get a picture of the logo of my favorite and got a much better idea bout what I want. It was useful. I think I have decided on a takedown bow so that I can switch out the limbs and change the weight until I find my ideal draw. I would like to try a few types because the risers I tried felt very chunky and I would like to find something that fits my hand comfortably.
I ordered a cheap-ish fiberglass bow and will continue looking for something more substantial and permanent as the opportunities present them selves.
Megan liked having the reindeer outside her door so much that she made an equally large unicorn to take its place. Its adorable and the born comes out of its nose like a rhino. I love it.
I had a fun moment at work and invented the worlds jankiest nitrogen dryer with advice from my boss. I call it the frankendryer.
It worked a treat.
We got another very nice snow.
I made some wonderful tahini sweet potato thing. Please try this if you are even slightly interested. Super good!
We went out for Krishna and Mirillie's birthday to dinner and to an escape room. We found the diamond and solved the room and ate a very good brownie plus a goat cheese creme brulee dip thing. Yum!
Megan is selling Girl Scout Cookies and feeling feisty. She is also about to become more expensive than the dog.
The kids had their dentist visit this week (no cavities Yay!) and she has some new teeth coming in (like a shark in need of orthodonture Boo!). Her first orthodontist appointment is the day after Pax's surgery.
Oh man.
Kiernan has been sick a good deal lately. The other day at school he got so stressed out that he got sent home after vomiting in his class.
On Tuesday we have a meeting with his teacher and the guidance counselor to talk about it. I requested the meeting. I got into high mom dudgeon and wrong and angry email.
We shall see how it goes.
My impression is that his teacher is trying to toughen up the kids to prepare them for middle school and the teacher is shocked by my impression. We shall see indeed.
We have a long weekend. We could all use one. Poor David is having a heck of a time coming off a long term medication and we could all do with some down time.
I'm playing Portal 2 and playing some cigar box guitar.
I am redoing my music channel and hoping it will be better than before. David got me a good mic for Christmas and being able to record with something other than my phone may make the difference in the audio quality.
Wish us luck!
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