December

 Kieran headed back to Cedarville to wrap up his fall semester, and I started December off tackling a home project upstairs.  Drywall repair in the boys bathroom from a plumbing repair back in October.

Shared this with the rest of the family but they didn't find it nearly as humorous as I did.

Guess you have to have the recessive gene.....

While I sanded & spackled the drywall upstairs, these two held down the fort.

Finally, a long awaited book arrived.  Kieran & I have been waiting for its release for over two years.

It's a wee bit of a read.

I knew I needed to go back & re-read the previous book to remember all the details, so Kieran (happily) got first crack at the new one.

Caldwell had a basketball game against a big rival school.  It was Christmas shirt night (for our students).

Sadly we lost, but it was still a good night out.

Thanks to some nice, sunny afternoons I was able to get some yard clean up done.

These two enjoyed supervising.

Brutus still not thrilled with his mask, but we also don't want him foraging for any more toxic mushrooms.

Keenan enjoyed outfitting Brutus with some Christmas wear.

He was absolutely thrilled.

The Christmas performance by the band and choir were excellent.

Might be a little biased, but the guys were great.

Then two mornings later, we were back at school for a little Christmas piano recital.

Keenan is taking piano as an elective this year, along with Music History.

It's a good thing he gets along with his Choir teacher, since he's got her for three classes. ;)

And then on Thursday night, Kieran rolled back into town.

Fall Semester of Junior year complete.

He made a delicious flan to celebrate.

On Saturday I took Brutus to a local pet store.  The rescue organization we adopted him from was doing a fundraiser and we wanted to support them.  We had a great time saying hello.  His foster parents were there and watching them with Brutus was wonderful-he remembered them.  Was very easy to see.

Our little charmer even got a few pic's in with the Grinch.

One of my cousins sent a picture of these two amazing ladies:

My Aunt Wanda & my Aunt Sue.

They are amazing & looking forward to seeing them both at Easter.

The Saturday before Christmas all three boys ran the Pilot Mountain mountain goat race.

We bundled up, and hit the highway early.  I dropped them off at the start, then drove to the finish at the top.

Yup, they were doing a trail run up to the top.

I sipped my hot tea, read a book, and tracked their progress on Life360.

Kevin chose the 5k distance.

He was the first to appear.

Kieran was next to appear,

and then Keenan.  They had chosen to run the full 7 miler.

The course brought them off the trail, across the parking lot at the top, PAST the finish line, then out and around the knob, before coming back to the finish.

A bit of a cruel joke.

Proud of all three of them.

Boys did admit it was way harder than they expected it to be.

I got started on some Christmas baking,

and so did Keenan.

Biscoff pound cake,

and a Gingerbread Swiss Roll.

We all enjoyed a quiet, relaxing Christmas.

Lots of games, walks, tea, football, and movies.

And Kieran made biscuits.

First time ever and they were delicious.