Beginner Kettlebell

When I went in to wake up the girls this morning, I found Emerson had crawled down into Addison’s bed with her at some point in the night. They were so stinking cute sleeping together, with Addie’s hand slung over on her sister’s face.

Today was a crockpot meal day, so I got everything going for “Hawaiian chicken,” which is a new recipe for us. I am subscribed to the blog “The Magical Slow-Cooker,” and I get tons of emails with recipes from her. So when I wanna try something new, I just sort through those emails  (sometimes knowing what specific meat I wanna use already, like this time, I knew I had chicken in the freezer already), until I find one that looks good!

And we did our morning pictures at home today, with Sheppy hanging out on the grapevine wreath on the front door! Emerson first came out of her room wearing a BRIGHT tie-dye shirt this morning, with plans to wear a Christmassy headband for their dress-up day. I was like, “Don’t you have something red or green you could wear instead? Tie-dye is a weird choice for this week girl!” 😂 So she did good finding something way more appropriate. And it was PJ day for Addie Pie!

Walked into my office today to find I already had a few gifts sitting there, ready and waiting! Everyone had these “beginner kettlebell” gifts, and we were all very curious to see what that would be. Turns out, it was a fish bowl full of candy, crafted with candy to look like handles!

And today was our annual white elephant Christmas exchange. We had Buddy the Elf standing guard over all the gifts at the tree today.

Everyone brought snacks and treats for a potluck meal (the standout winner was “pizza soup” made by my girl Shanka), and then we did the gift exchange. I stole me a Visa gift card, because I always try to steal something I know I want, rather than open up a present blindly and risk getting stuck with something I might not want!

And one of my employees gave me this salt scrub from a little shop in Charleston. And I grabbed a couple of lemons that someone brought in from their backyard.

The sky was absolutely beautiful our entire ride home tonight, but it was always hiding behind the trees. Until we finally got up the Tharpe Street and it opened up a bit, and it was gorgeous!

And this dinner turned out delicious! I made some jasmine rice (which is our fave), and some steamed broccoli, and Jeff shredded the chicken for me. It was very barbecue-y, but also sweet because of the pineapple, and just really good and saucy and flavorful. Addie didn’t eat the chicken very much (but she’s always so picky at dinner time), but the rest of us loved it.

We watched a couple of random videos after dinner together tonight, and then finally started getting the girls ready for bed. We had cuddles and loves and prayers and lullabies, and then they were both out like a light a couple songs in, as always!