This little ‘nifty grabber’ couldn’t help but pinch her way into the scene while Frank and Tito put up lights.

And two cute kids! We may have also played Christmas music today too. But the rest can wait till after Thanksgiving…we’ll see:)

Meryl’s blog footnote: “Me and Holmes are eating Chex Mix. And it is very yummy. And we LOVE it.”

And no Internet needed! Tito’s weekend workout:)

And here I thought my crowning achievement already happened when both kids found their love of Tim’s jalapeño chips. Meryl has been on a hot sauce bent, and chili crisp is no exception to her heated good taste - Holmes too! (But we all agree, Frank’s chili crisp is our absolute favorite.)

(Cake not pictured, but present!)

Xanna, Grandpa, Baylie and Zak, Sasha and Gretel…we are getting good at this. I mean, really, FaceTime is unbelievably amazing.

Sasha gave Holmes a fishing set for his birthday. And courtesy of Meryl, the fish have now been caught, cleaned, and placed in a hot/cold bag within the freezer:)

We took a break from birthday mania to transition to gingerbread mania during quiet time. Meryl taste tested all the building materials…for science and engineering purposes, of course. Christmas lights go up tomorrow! As we are in no ordinary times, our holiday cheer knows no bounds!

Pajama day at school and a secret adventure after school to the special balloon store. Shhh…it’s a surprise for Holmes tomorrow!

Training chopsticks and a near two year old:)

We have a (little) big kid! He’s a champ, and pretty much snuggles into what looks like a California king bed at his scale:) He also napped at school today, after over a week of what we’ll kindly call ‘growing.’ Win!

Meryl’s blog footnote: “Holmes is in his bed. He’s starting to get big. His birthday is on Saturday.”