Anniversary Getaway

In the last five years, Daniel and I have only been away from our kids overnight on three occasions. And each time we were not actually alone.

Our first night away was for a church retreat when Jack was around Isaac's current age. On that trip, the girls and guys were split up, and we slept in bunk beds.

The other two times involved me being in the hospital – first for pre-term labor with Isaac and then for Isaac's birth at 40 weeks (so technically Isaac was there). None of these trips were remotely romantic in nature.

Daniel and I agreed that we were long past due a night to ourselves, but trying to work out an overnight sitter for one night (or more) for our anniversary that falls a week before Christmas can be challenging. Thankfully it worked out that Daniel's dad and his wife were able to come to our house to watch the boys, but they were only available during the week. It's a good thing Daniel has a lot of vacation time saved up.

For our time frame, I thought we should just stay in town, preferably with a view of the river. Daniel agreed. So he booked a night at the Bluff View Inn – a historic bed and breakfast in the art district of Chattanooga.

The inn is part of a property called The Bluff View Arts District that encompasses 1.5 blocks of historic significance including the oldest bed and breakfast in the city, the oldest artisan bakery, an art gallery, and also three restaurants: Tony's Pasta Shop and Trattoria, Rembrandt's Coffee House, and the upscale Back Inn Cafe – which unfortunately for us is closed on Mondays.

Our room was upstairs in the Martin House with a balcony that offered views of the Tennessee River below, a view of North Shore and Signal Mountain to our right and the city of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain back to our far left.

With reservations for Monday night, we were a little concerned when Isaac developed a fever on Sunday and spent the day snuggling with us. He seemed to bounce back on Monday so we decided to keep our plans.

We left our boys in good hands and headed to town to check in. We started our evening with dinner at Tony's Pasta Shop then headed across town to The Hot Chocolatier. We have dined at Tony's on numerous occasions but The Hot Chocolatier was new to us. It did not disappoint! Daniel had the Raspberry Hot Chocolate while I tried the Smore's Hot Chocolate and we split a slice of their Squirrel Cheesecake. It was all incredibly rich and delicious! I actually couldn't finish my hot chocolate. I can't wait to go back and try more of their offerings.

Tuesday morning we enjoyed sleeping in (which never happens at home!) before walking over to Rembrandt's Coffee for our complimentary breakfast. On the weekend, the Inn has breakfast in their Maclellan House, but during the week Rembrandt's is where you get breakfast. Rembrandt's is one of our favorite local coffee houses, they serve a good breakfast as well.

After eating, we wandered through the art gallery before heading back to our room to sip coffee on the balcony, waiting to the last possible minute to check out at noon, and head back to reality.

Our night away was a long time coming and reminded us that we probably need to do this more often than once every five years! Hopefully for our 15th anniversary (next year), we will do more than one night away!!!

Christmas is Coming...

And we are keeping extra busy.

Friday we had friends over to bake and decorate homemade sugar cookies. The kids intermittently ran around playing while the moms drank coffee and talked. Win. Win.

The recipe I use is quick and doesn't require the dough to be chilled beforehand. I have learned that having to wait on dough is a pain when you have little kids.

At this age, cookies are not beautiful, but the kids enjoyed dumping as many sprinkles as humanly possible on each cookie they touched.

Thanks to my friends, the kids also had fun shapes to decorate, including dinosaurs, and I believe a turkey even made it into this batch of cookies! 

Once the kiddos were sufficiently sugar-ed up, I used my new Roomba to clean up the sprinkles covering the floor and then we all parted ways. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and the kids had a blast spending time together.

After our friends left, I scrambled to get my crew out the door to meet Daniel for a little Christmas shopping. We spent less than two hours knocking out our present shopping before hitting up Chick-fil-a for dinner. Did I mention that it was our anniversary? Not the ideal way to spend an anniversary evening, BUT Christmas shopping is done, so I'll take it.

Saturday morning I had to wake everyone up to get out the door to have breakfast with Santa at the church where Jack attends preschool.

We started out eating pancakes and Santa came by each table. Then we were split into three groups and sent to do various activities throughout the building. The kids made a manger craft, then there was cookie decorating and reindeer food making.

Then we went to play reindeer games, we heard the story of Jesus' birth – from the point of view of Humphrey the camel, followed by the kids getting to sit on Santa's lap (Isaac was not a fan), and then ending our morning dancing to Christmas songs. 

Oh what fun we had!

Saturday afternoon I whipped up a batch of bon bons (my family has made these cookies since I was a kid), and then we headed to our small group Christmas party for dinner.

We enjoyed a fun evening visiting and eating, and ended our night reading the story of the birth of Christ, with a little help from the kids. 

I'm so thankful for all of the people who are a part of our lives and that we can celebrate by sharing some of our Christmas traditions with them.

14th Anniversary

I have been sharing a lot online for going on 10 years now. TEN YEARS! That's a little crazy, if I'm being honest. 

And perhaps I have shared too much, and maybe I haven't painted an exact picture of real life, but rather the happiest version of real life because that is what I want to remember.

But overall I'm so thankful that I have shared. I've done it for my parents and grandparents who live far away from me, but mostly I have done it for me and Daniel and our little family. 

And when I look back at these snippets – the instagram photos, the blog posts, the stuff on Facebook (thank you On This Day moments) – it reminds me that the good parts in life are really good. 

And when I'm having a hard day, or month, or year, I can look back and remember that good times are always there, sprinkled in among the mundane and harder moments.

Fourteen years ago, Daniel and I married on a cold Monday evening, surrounded by family and friends. What followed has been years of ups and downs. 

There have been exhilarating moments, trying moments, moments of sadness and also moments of great joy. We have seen each other at our best and worst. We have hung on through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer. 

When my days are feeling rocky, I only have to glance back at these collections of memories and remember that the good times are worth more than anything I could ask for. 

Daniel Moore: I'm so glad we chose each other and that we share this life together, on the good days and the bad. I love you forever.
 

A Look Back on the blog:
Five Years  |  Six Years  |  Skipped Seven Year Post  |  Eight Years  |  Nine Years  |  Ten Years  |  Eleven Years  |  Twelve Years  | Thirteen Years

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

In my head, Christmas is a magical time, full of joy and merriment. But in reality, these moments are not always as joyous as I imagine they should be.

I hope our kids remember that we had some fun traditions and they forget the tired, stressed, impatient mommy who sometimes reared her frustrated head.

My daily prayer for myself is that I will have grace for my family, and also for myself when I mess up. I am thankful for children who forgive and forget – even if Jack sometimes tells me that Santa isn't going to bring me presents because I yell too much.

These days, the best part of my day is bedtime when Jack tells me he loves me more than I love him, and I know for sure that all is forgiven and a new day will dawn and I will try to do better.

Every year I consider trying to follow an Advent calendar, but I think it is better to give myself permission to enjoy the season without any additional stress.

After Thanksgiving we kicked off our Christmas traditions by decorating our little memory tree. We collect ornaments every year from places we visit. And now that we have children, we also have ornaments they have made, plus yearly child-specific ornaments that I am collecting for them so they will have a collection when they leave home.

The little tree that Daniel and I bought from Big Lots when we were first married (14 years ago!) is one of our favorite things. The ornaments are dear to us. I love reminiscing about where we have been, and now we can tell Jack the stories behind each of those trips as well.

New ornaments from 2016 include one from vacation in Canada with a stop at Niagara Falls this summer, and also one from a caving trip in Florida with my siblings and our kids. Unfortunately that one is MIA. I'm hoping to find it soon.

While decorating our little tree, Isaac lasted about 5 minutes before we had to put him to bed. Once he was tucked in for the night Jack helped me make our special hot chocolate recipe. I'm pretty sure he relished the extra time with mommy and daddy, decorating the tree and sipping hot chocolate while watching a movie (he picked Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!).

We always get a second tree – a live one – that we decorate with white twinkle lights and homemade gingerbread cookies. Jack has helped me with the baking for the last several years, and this year Isaac sat with us for a bit. Isaac's current goal in life is to do whatever Jack is doing.

When Jack was first born we went to a Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our own tree. For the past two years, Daniel has convinced me that we should just purchase one from Jack's preschool. I miss the farm experience, but for now, the preschool fits us better.

I used to write yearly Christmas letters to send out every year, but that tradition is staying on hold for another year. Though I still plan to share our annual Top 10 list at the end of the month.

The thing I am learning, and trying to embrace with parenting, is that you really have to be fluid. When I am too rigid in my expectations, no one is happy. It is better when things are relaxed and we just enjoy the season. We haven't watched any Christmas movies yet, but we have played Uno in the glow of the twinkle lights.

There is still Christmas shopping to be done at our house, but hopefully these next two weeks will hold more of the wonder that my heart is yearning for – both for myself and our kids. My family will be joining us for Christmas this year and I am looking forward to sharing more of our traditions with them.