Good Advice

 I saw this post on facebook yesterday and thought is sounded like good advice worth sharing.

1000 Words

 1000 Words

New Tables

 We have two new tables in our new home and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM!

You might remember our dining table from past pictures.  I've never talked about it, but it was always a staple for events at our Rifle home.  We would pull mis-mashed chairs around, and attach high chairs, and it served us well for a number of years.

That said, the chairs were falling a part, and we did not have enough chairs for all the people in our family, and we definitely didn't have enough chairs when family or friends came to visit.  I had dreamed of a table with benches for YEARS, but it was never the right time and in our Rifle home, we were never sure exactly what kind of larger table would fit in the space.

When we moved to Rangely, we moved our well-worn table with us to the blue house, where it continued to serve as the place for meals, and homework, and projects, and puzzles.

Once in the big house, we were thrilled with the timing of our moving a few weeks before Thanksgiving in order to shop some Black Friday sales, because were able to find two BEAUTIFUL tables for our new home.  Our old table moved with us and held up for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas party we hosted... but on December 26, the old table was moved to our sun porch so our new tables could arrive.

One is a very long, sturdy dining table with two benches, four chairs, and two removable leaves.  This is our everyday eating table with room to spare for family or company.

The second one we put in our dining room which is a little smaller, but has one bench, and four chairs.  This also has six drawers around the table -- which is perfect for children to keep pencils, calculators, and scissors inside for homework.  This is our new homework table and I am so excited about it.  We can still convert it to an eating area with very little warning because the children each have their own drawers where the homework gets tucked away, but for daily life when we don't need a second eating room, it works perfectly for the homework room.

These tables (and this home) is a long-awaited Christmas present to Hubby and me, and we are so excited for the way they meet the daily needs of our large family and allow us to plan for entertaining friends without having to pull up folding chairs and have children sit on our laps.

My Weekends

 This accurately summarizes my entire weekend... every weekend.

Unexpected

 Last night Hunter (our three year old... he just turned three) was in our bed and he had a little soccer ball with him because he hasn't stopped holding it for hours.  He ended up taking it to bed with him.

At one point he looked at Hubby and pointed to some small print on the soccer ball and said, "It says Hunter and Daddy.  That's unexpected."

His saying that was also unexpected.

Christmas Eve

 We are usually home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  It is a priority that I have set for our Christmas tradition with our family since our children were born.  That was not different this year.  We arrived home from Great Wolf Lodge on December 22 with enough time to prepare for a wonderful Christmas at home.

That said, several things were different this year for our first Christmas Eve at our new home.

First of all, we did not go to church on Christmas Eve (which really bothered me) but we were SICK.  Some of us came down with illness while we were at Great Wolf Lodge, some of us were sick on the way home, some of us were sick once we arrived home.  We had a nasty 2-week fever/cough virus that STILL is not fully out of our system.  So, we stayed home on Christmas Eve both for our own health but for the health of others that we would see at a Christmas Eve service.

Also, this was the first year since the twins were born that we were not packing up to leave right after Christmas.  While our tradition is to spend Christmas at home, for the past 6 years, we have ALWAYS packed the car and hit the road December 26 or 27 depending on the weather.

This year, because I didn't have to pack up the family, and (honestly) because we were not going to church, we RELAXED as a family ALL DAY!

The kids wrapped a few presents to each other (I had all the presents wrapped and hidden away).  I turned on a Christmas movie shortly after breakfast and we had Christmas movies playing pretty much all day, and I actually sat and watched a few (that ALMOST NEVER HAPPENS in the Christmas season).  Also, our kids were all under-the-weather either a lot or a little, so rest was exactly what they needed and they were happy to lay and cuddle.

I found this picture on my phone that one of the kids took while we were watching Home Alone -- the first family movie of the day.

Another new thing was I made French Onion Soup for Christmas Eve dinner, which is a long-standing Sanden Family Tradition, but I have never made it because I couldn't figure out the logistics of making the soup, serving dinner, getting to church on time, getting to bed at a relatively decent hour (for the kids), and getting the nice broiler-safe bowls clean and put away before we had to get out of town 36 hours later.

As much as I always wanted and craved French Onion Soup on Christmas Eve... it just has never made the cut of things I could get done on Christmas Eve.

This year, knowing we were staying home for the evening, and knowing we were staying home the day after Christmas, it just seemed do-able.

We did not have the correct bread, and we did not have the fancy cheese that the recipe calls for, so I fondly called it "Poor Man's French Onion Soup" but the kids really liked it, and it was not as hard as I had worked it up to be in my mind.  When I called the kids to the table and told them to wash up for "Christmas Eve Dinner", the three girls saw the special bowls I was getting out and took the cue from the title "Christmas Eve Dinner" to run upstairs and put on fancy dresses.  You will notice from the picture, they still have pajama pants on, but honored the special meal with a beautiful dress.

After a year of tremendous life changes, tremendous joy, but loads of stressors and transition, we truly had a merry little Christmas, which began with a relaxing, enjoyable, and delicious Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Card 2022

 I usually post this closer to Christmas, but I just wasn't posting anything this year around Christmas, so here is our 2022 Christmas Card to wish you a Happy New Year!

Text:

Merry Christmas 2022 

Love, The Mountain Millers

Chris, Brooke, Tracey (8.5), Howard (6.5), Caroline (6.5), Lee Lee (5), Hunter (3), & Brady (1.5)

Pictures (Left to Right):

1. The Mountain Millers in front of Rangely Jr/Sr High School where Chris is now Principal

2. Tracey catching the biggest fish off Grammie and Papa’s dock in Michigan this fall

3. Hunter, loving life as an active toddler, climbing fences at our new house in Rangely

4. The Mountain Miller crew in the mountains this fall

5. Howard’s arm raised after (another) wrestling victory this spring

5. Lee Lee dressed to perform in her first dance recital

6. Chris and Brooke smooching on a kayaking trip this summer while on a four-night getaway to Las Vegas to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary

7. Brady, keeping us joyful through his many giggles, smiles, and toddling around

8. Caroline became a cheerleader this summer and has a new favorite activity

9. Tracey, Caroline, and Lee Lee posing for a picture just down the street from our new home