Holly Jolly Holidays

Look at my sweet family...growing up!! Each year it amazes me how quickly they have changed. I'm so thankful for these precious traditions even though this year we went on the busiest day of the year and had to wait an hour just to get into the parking spot. Yeessh....everybody seemed to be ready the day after Thanksgiving (Penland's Opening Day) to get their tree. 

I gotta admit...the Christmas holidays are my absolute favorite time of the year!! I LOVE Advent season with the special devotions, candles, and activities. 

Brandy and I attended a fondue cooking course at the Mercantile. It was delicious! 

Maggie was in her first Hip Hop performance with New Attitude Dance in December. She did an awesome job, even if she did have a little stage fright. 

We had a STEAM Build Your Own Nativity Scene playdate with an Escape Room using the same theme. I have so much fun doing little activities like this with these precious kiddos! And the grown-ups are just as much fun to play with as well. This year's QCP Christmas Exchange got to be a chance to celebrate Alice's 40th birthday as well. So blessed to have them as our friends!  

Christmasville was really low-key this year due to Covid, but we had still made some great memories. 

While Riley got to go to an overnight camp at Camp Canaan for part of Blake's birthday, Maggie had an only child day with Mom and Dad at Carowinds 

Alexa and Kyra are so much fun to hang out with. It's been awesome getting to spend more time with them this past year. 

Riley got braces on December 21st. He looks like an official tween now. I'm not so sure I like it! 

Our special Advent Calendar Christmas Surprise Trip this year was to the Riverbanks Zoo to see the lights at night. 

Love. Laughter. Long Distance Family Brought Near. Holly Jolly Holidays and hope for a new year! 

 

Funny Fisher-isms 2021 New Year Edition

 And now for my favorite part of blogging...recording the funny family moments that make us laugh out loud now AND in years to come. :)

• Riley (after seeing leftover Halloween decorations in someone's yard of a giant skeleton): "That looks like Haggard's great, great Granny with an emphasis on great. I have no idea what that means, but I heard it once in a book."
• Chris (talking to another teacher about about a student in the room that he thought would laugh at this joke): "Oh you say this kid does nothing but watch Tik Tok all day?? Oh, I LOVE Tik Toks! They keep my breath fresh!"
• Maggie (discussing how she and Riley will be taking statewide testing in the Spring and how Riley has already taken it for two years and successfully passed them): "Oh yeah. Riley knows how to pass alright. He passes gas ALL the time!"
• Maggie (wondering deep thoughts one night at dinner): "If shorts are called shorts, why are pants not called longs??"
• Riley (praying one night): "Thank you so much for all the amazing things you've done for our family and protecting us from Coronavirus. And please help those that weren't so lucky and them them recover." *This one is just a sweet memory, not a funny one.*
• Chris to Maggie who is stalling and hiding under the covers  in our bedroom instead of getting ready for bed one night: "Aren't you worried about getting trapped under there by your your own toots?" Maggie: "No, mine don't harm me at all!" (Pause.) "Unless, it's a chicken enchilada toot!"
• Maggie (after sleeping in late and getting off-schedule for her typical lunch and snack time): "I think I'm just going to have 'snunch'. It's like snack and lunch all in one!"
• Riley (talking about what he ate for lunch that day in the cafeteria): "Well, I had some sort of Mystery Meat. It tasted like fish and steak combined, but it looked like chicken or pork. It needed a bit of ketchup, but it was the best meat I've ever had at school."
• Maggie (ever our little linguist, musing over words one evening): "If 'elf" changes to 'elves', shouldn't 'earmuff'  change to 'earmuves'? And if you have to capitalize 'I' because you are talking about a specific person, why don't we capitalize you, or he, or she?
• Mom to Maggie (after telling us about her friend's crush on a boy): "So do you think any boy is cute in your class?" Maggie: "No, Mom. I think puppies are cute, not boys!!" 
• Riley (after listening to a popular Christmas carol): "So what exactly does 'new old fashioned-way' mean? I don't understand that one bit."
• Riley (after being greeted very excitedly by Roxie one morning): "It seems like Roxie has millions of kisses insider her!"
• Maggie (quoting a joke from her new favorite show...The Dick Van Dyke Show): "Hey Mom! What would happen if everybody in the world had a horse??" Me: "I don't know. What?" Maggie: "The world would be more stable-ized!"
• Maggie (recovering from a stuffy nose): "I hate colds! I have to breathe with my mouth open like a moron!"
• Riley (after listening to me give a mini-lecture about how people have a tendency to be more left or right-brained): "I'm middle-brained because I'm calculative AND creative!!" 
• Riley (on December 26th): "Well that was the MOST successful Christmas EVER! I got just about everything on my list this year."
• Maggie (after being scared one night that she saw a spider in her room and I was up later than Chris): "Can I go sleep in your bedroom with Dad?" Me: "I guess." Hours later, I was too tired to move her back into her bed, so I decided to just sleep in her room. Around 5 am, she came barreling into the room, "Mom...you HAVE to go sleep with Dad! His snoring is driving me insane!"
• Riley (after hearing the story of how Chris and I kissed on my birthday night at midnight, he leaned over and patted Chris on the head and said): "You rascal, dad!!"