Random Life Update: December 2021

The last month of 2021 has drawn to a close. I’m sad about that. 2021 was a good year in many aspects and I’m thankful for all that God has done through it. I am, however, also looking forward to the New Year. I have a list of goals a mile long! (Maybe I’ll do a post on that sometime.)

December started with Hanukah. Actually, the holiday was already partway underway as you remember from my last update. We had a lovely few days eating fried foods, basking in the glow of the Hanukiah lights, and listening to our favorite songs over and over and over again!

After Hanukah came a time to try to get into the Christmas spirit. For some reason, this year didn’t feel very festive. It was strange because we actually had lights and holiday music playing and plans to visit grandparents, which we haven’t done in years. But somehow, when I looked around me, I just thought, “It could be any time of year”.

Needless to say, the Christmas activities were a lot of fun. We had several challenges that we did leading up to Christmas. I shall tell of my favorite (the funniest and most disgusting) now. 🙂

Buddy’s Breakfast

If you’ve seen the movie Elf, you are sure to remember the disgusting and slightly fascinating breakfast that Buddy the Elf made for himself. We had to recreate this lovely meal.

My little siblings were thrilled. Jehosheba looked rather ill.

We started out with a (very small) plate of spaghetti which we drizzled with maple syrup (very very small amount on my part). Then, on top of it, we crumpled pop tarts, mints, mini marshmallows, spiced candy, chocolate coins, and some other stuff that my traumatized mind is no doubt forgetting. Jehosheba, the parents and I did fairly small servings of this, but the boys and Yoveil went all out. And, to be authentic, they ate the whole concoction using only their hands.

Marshmallow Mouth

Another gross challenge was to stuff our mouths as full of marshmallows as possible and then to recite lines from Christmas movies. Let me just say that you would have been completely grossed out to be here during those minutes. Alas, my mouth is very small and the two large marshmallows filled it completely and started dripping out. Certainly not my most attractive moment. XD

Chopped Tournament

We love to watch cooking competitions. One that we watched in December was called Chopped where contestants have to use strange ingredients in their baking/cooking. We decided to do our own version of it. Actually, Nahum and I were the only participants. It was to be pizza-themed.

For the appetizer, we had to incorporate tahini kale chips (YUCK). I made breadsticks with the chips inside covered in cheese. I was surprised by how well they turned out. Nahum made a delicious gwauk.

The main course was, of course, pizza. We had to use a fig vinegar dressing. I was not sure how that would turn out. XD I put it on pizza as the sauce and added a bunch of different types of cheese and onions and sausage and was surprised that it wasn’t awful. Nahum did something similar but did a meat/cheese pizza instead.

Dessert was to include spicy, crispy jalapenos. I gave up trying to make that one good. XD I made orange and chocolate cookie bars (in the shape of pizza) and then sprinkled the jalapenos over top. They didn’t mix well together, but once they were picked off, the cookies were fine. XD Nahum made cookies with them incorporated.

Haircut

This month I decided that I would get my hair cut. I will do a whole different post about it later (along with great pictures taken by Mama), but it was a huge change. I hadn’t cut my hair in seven years and basically ignored it completely. I got so sick of it and decided to change it completely.

Yep! I like it much better now and I am very relieved that it wasn’t a complete disaster!

Snow

There was quite a bit of snow this month. After the first big snow, I (foolishly) decided to go walking in it (without boots) and with the stroller. The sidewalks hadn’t been shoveled, for the most part, so Baruch and I were dragging the stroller through inches of snow all while the freezing stuff was caking around my sandaled feet. It was so cold and the thing kept getting stuck. Who knew that it could be such good exercise? Haha!

Christmas!

As I mentioned before, we planned to visit family for Christmas. We were sooo excited because this was the first time going since 2017. We left on the 18th. It was a long, two-day drive through half beautiful, half boring country.

We arrived in Iowa at my grandparent’s house in the afternoon on the 19th and were able to hang out together. ❤

I brought Vanilla and Cardamom with me because it was time for them to go to their new owner, Sophie! I was sad to see them go, but I was also happy that Sophie finally got them and that they were going to a really good home. ❤

We gave them to Sophie on the 20th and then went to see my great-grandma. We ate delicious Culver’s and Raising Cain’s chicken and talked. ❤

21st – We went downtown with my grandparents and walked around there. It was FREEZING cold and the wind was absolutely awful. We went into several different shops and got delicious baked goods which we took back home and made a lunch out of. 😍

22nd – We spent the day with Nana, Papa, and Canaan. We started out with bagels and coffee (Baruch drank three large cups of caffeinated and was bursting at the seams XD). Canaan was so adorable!

After that, we went to the mall. We all rode on a carousel (one that I’d gone on years ago when I was really little!). We walked around the mall for a while. We shopped at Target and several other stores. It was a lot of fun and felt very festive. 🙂

We ate lupper (a combination of supper and lunch) at a great little Mexican restaurant. Then we said goodbye to Nana, Papa, and Canaan for the day. 😦

23rd – Dovid’s third birthday!! We celebrated in the morning. We went out for poffertjes and then came back home so that Mama could make the cake. It was a Nutella fudge cake with fresh raspberries on top and coffee ice cream on the side. *bliss*

Dovid and his poffertjes.

Dovid opened his gifts. It was adorable to watch! He hugged everyone and kissed them and jumped up and down, squealing with delight even before he knew what was inside of them!

That night my aunt, uncle, and cousins arrived! It was kind of nerve-wracking at first, but by the end of the night, I felt comfortable talking so that was a relief. ❤ It was great to see everyone!

24th – Christmas Eve! We drove to Nana and Papa’s house and spent the day there. There were lots of people there and the house was filled with great smells and lots of laughter. We ate and then opened gifts.

Nana did a grab bag for each of us kids in honor of Grandpa Hoddy. That was special. She also did a White Elephant Gift exchange which was hilarious! Baruch got bath salts. XD Needless to say, he was very eager to exchange that one.

The house quieted down after that and we hung out with Nana and Papa for the rest of the afternoon. That night we went to a Christmas Eve service in which Papa sang!

25th – Christmas 2021. Grandma, Grandpa, and Allie got to work on the food. The rest of us just hung out and read or did puzzles. Eventually, Kailyn, Allie, Mama, Jehosheba, Nahum, Baruch, and I played Apples to Apples. We did that twice that day and there was much laughter over strange cards. XD

Christmas dinner was amazing!! There was so much food and it was all so delicious and dripping with love. ❤

That evening we gave and opened gifts. ❤ It was a lot of fun. Dovid was the most adorable. He was so thrilled as soon as anything was put in his lap! 🙂

Anyone who was hungry after that snacked on leftovers. Allie, Jehosheba, Kailyn, Yoveil, and I were sleeping in the middle of the basement. We stayed up and talked for hours. Allie and I didn’t stop talking until 1 AMish when we were too exhausted and went to sleep. 😂

26th – Time to go home. 😦 We packed up our things and hugged everyone goodbye. The drive was a good 10+ hours. We listened to A Christmas Carol on audiobook and ate way too much junk food (hey, the box was sitting right at my feet! It was too much temptation. XD).

Coffee shop stop!

27th – Jehosheba and I were so excited for the short, six-hour drive home. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. The road home was closed that morning and we were afraid we’d have to go through Colorado, which would add a lot more time. Thankfully, it opened in after the boys finished gorging themselves on hotel breakfast.

The morning drive went fairly well and time was passing quickly. We got tacos and continued driving, hoping that we could make it home before the weather got bad.

We didn’t.

I’m very thankful to have a great driver in Daddy. It got dark and the snow began to fall heavily. Suddenly there was zero visibility. The roads got icy. There was wind. It was not fun at all. We had to drive very slowly and it added on a few extra hours. But the important thing is that God got us through safely and we reached home with no injuries at all. ❤

That was our Christmas adventure!

Anniversary

The 29th was my parents’ 21st wedding anniversary! Daddy took off work and we spent the very cold afternoon in town. We got treats and coffee from a fun little coffee shop. Then we went to Vosen’s bakery and got aaaamazing bread. We also went to Trader Joe’s (in which time Nahum tried to convince Yoveil to buy him kombucha and dried ginger which he couldn’t do for himself because he was $50 in debt 😂).

We went to the butterfly place at Thanksgiving Point that night. It was really cool. Aside from the beautiful butterflies, there were lots of other neat bugs.

We went home and Daddy got supper ready while I attempted dessert. I’ve never been good at meringue-related things and alas pavlova cannot be made in a Vitamix. After giving up on that, I started custard for a berry & cream trifle. Of course, the milk boiled over and burned onto the stove. 🙄 But the custard survived and the whole trifle turned out very well.

Mama and Daddy opened their gifts. ❤ It was sweet to see what everyone gave. Then it was time for dessert!

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That was our December! Today (the 31st!) we’re going to hang out together and go sledding. Nahum’s no doubt very eager for some special dessert to be made to celebrate 2021 coming to a close. 😉

Happy New Year everyone!

~Hattush

How did you celebrate Christmas? Do you do any advent/other activities leading up to Christmas? Have you ever tried Buddy’s Breakfast? Do you have snow? Have you ever gotten a drastic haircut? What happened to you in December? What are your goals for January?

Random Life Update December 2020