Purple Retirement Party

Today was Christmas headband day for Addison, and Emerson was just cute and cozy, but not participating in “Grinch/green” day.

We also loved seeing these cute trippies at school drop-off, in their cute Santa hats, that they were very excited to wear.

I had a Christmas gift waiting for me on my desk today, from my work bestie, Heather!

Today, we threw a beautiful purple retirement party for the sweetest lady in my unit. She’s been working for DOC for 50 years, and for the State for 55 years total! She actually retired once after 35 years, but was bored and came back to work for another 15 years! Mrs. Linda has clearly been a staple in our Department for a very long time, and she will be missed very much! Her favorite color is purple (she’s a bit obsessed), so obviously we did a purple theme, and we all wore purple clothes in her honor as well.

We had about 50 people stuffed in and shuffling around this conference room for the party, but we just took a picture with our little unit before it started. She has just a few days left in the office, and then we’ll have to try to find someone to fill her (actually very tiny) big shoes! (She’s the one in front of me in the sparkly purple top.)

Nana picked up Emerson from school today, and the two of them went shopping together for a little bit. Then they went back to Nana’s house, and made us tacos and rice and beans and all the toppings to go along with it for our family dinner. And then all of us went over to Dorothy B. Oven Park to walk through all the amazing Christmas lights!

We ran into one of Emmie’s school friends, so we took a few pictures of them together, and let them run wild for a bit together, before we broke off and went our separate ways.

Both of the big girls holding their baby sisters.

It was just cold enough to be wintry, but not too cold, and with no rain or humidity at all, it was honestly a perfect night to go walk around for an hour or so.

As soon as we got home, Jeff and the girls settled down to watch Bluey, and I made a quick dip to take to our office Christmas party tomorrow. You can tell I haven’t cooked at home in a couple of days, with all the mess and clutter that has piled up on the counter… yikes. But this dill dip my work friend makes is SO good, and since she’s in a different bureau than me now, I decided to make her recipe for our party this year.

Emmie got some new Christmas doggie pajamas with Nana today, and obviously had to wear them tonight. Which will actually work out perfect tomorrow morning, because on her last day of school tomorrow before winter break, it’s PJ day! So she’ll just wake up and already be dressed for school in the morning.

Today was a really great day, tomorrow will be another great day too, since we have our work Christmas party tomorrow!