We got some family photos taken by a friend. Well, I took the pictures of the kids and she took the pictures of me and Bill and the family. We still need to edit them a bit, but we got some pretty good shots. We ran into a funny problem. Spencer and Genevieve have the glasses that darken into sunglasses in the sunlight. It makes getting outdoor family photos super hard! So we have kids with sunglasses on this year, but hey, life is always a party. Haha!
Also, I realize this first family picture is just slightly out of focus. It's not the one we'll be printing, lol!
Gingerbread house making.
We took the kids to the Giving Machine for the first time this year. It was super satisfying to see them choosing what to donate. They donated a goat, some chickens, some Polio vaccines, a donation to cancer research, and Spencer pitched in some of his money to get an all abilities activity thing.
The cancer research one was especially poignant. We took a whirlwind trip down to Las Vegas Sunday and Monday for the funeral of one of Bill's really good friends growing up, Milan, who passed away from leukemia last week after a 15-month battle. We are so sad about that, and it felt good to help in a very tiny way at the Giving Machine.
Bill and I attached our very first token piece of drywall to the ceiling this week. Finishing our basement has been an all year long task. Turns out we have a lot less time than we thought, and we bankrolled it as we went, so we had to wait to have money as time went along. But we're to the drywall part and that feels a lot closer to a finished basement!
I made a big batch of date nut bread to share with friends and family. I didn't make any last year and I do love this tradition from childhood.
Spencer got braces this week. He's still at the can't chew super well because it just hurts stage, but it's getting better.
We won a trip to Christmas in Color. It's a drive through light show synced to a local radio station. It was way cooler than I expected, honestly. We had a great time driving through it one evening this week.
Just a couple shots with Spencer and Genevieve this week one night when we were doing our Christmas evening activities.
I've been on the hunt for a formal to wear to Bill's company's 100-year celebration in a few weeks in Dallas. They're flying me and him down for a black tie event. This red dress was the third one I bought. The first two didn't work. This one works and I like it, but it didn't feel dressy enough. I like it a lot, but it doesn't wow me.
My running friend offered to go to Macy's with me, and I'm so glad she did. I found this number there and love it so much. It's got all this beautiful beading on it and it feels very fancy.
I snapped this picture of Chloe while we were at City Creek Center. It was in front of a random store.
We stopped by Claire's and got some stuffed animals for the girls, one for Aaron, and I picked up these two pairs of earrings. The top ones are for the black tie party.
And we stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to cash in on Bill's birthday gift card to the Cheesecake Factory that a friend gave him. Aaron doesn't like cheesecake, so he didn't get a piece. But the rest of us got slices of cheesecake. We got Godiva chocolate, dulce de leche, mango lime, and two strawberry ones. So, so, so good, as I knew it would be.
It's been a really great week. Bill and I are crazy busy at work. I also announced this week that I've accepted a new job. I was recruited to interview for the finance director position at High Valley Transit, which is the special service district in Summit County that does all the public transit. I wasn't looking to leave the county. I love my job and I love my team more than any job I've ever been before. But I just couldn't pass up the promotion to director and all that comes with that. It feels almost miraculous to me that not quite two years after I started work at the county, that I'm moving into a finance director role and feel like I can do it. I'm nervous, of course, but so excited for the new opportunity. And bonus, I do still get to work with the county. The district was a department in the county just two years ago, and separated into a special service district, so it works very closely with the county still. All those relationships I have developed will be incredibly helpful.
I worry sometimes about making sure we give the kids great experiences during the holidays, as well as throughout the year. Bill and I really enjoy our jobs, which is amazing. They leave us with significantly less time to do other things than back when we were in grad school and I worked part time and we were rich in time and poor as church mice financially. It's not about spending a ton of money. I don't need to do that, though it does sometimes make it easier to do some cool things. But with six very busy people, I want my kids to have good memories to look back on of what we did. It's really easy to binge out on pick your favorite streaming platform and forget to spend time together. This week felt good that we did more time together and less on each of our separate devices. I love the Christmas season and I'm glad I'm not leaving this one with any regrets of how we spent the month.
