{Family weekend }

The past 3 days, I've been busy with family and homemaking, and haven't had a chance to be online much.  Sometimes it's good to focus on what is around us and not worry so much about making our presence known online.

Friday morning I was up early, got Curt off to work and started some chores around the house.  In the summer I tend to change out of my pajamas as soon as I am up in the early morning hours, but when winter rolls around and the mornings are cold and dreary, I tend to stay in them for a little while longer.

Once I've opened the blinds and windows, made the bed and sorted the bedroom out, I finally change for the day.

On Friday I had my niece and great niece coming over to spend the day with us, and then for dinner, my brother and sister in law were also coming over.  As the days have been so cold, I decided to make some big pots of soup, the perfect meal for a winter day.

To make things easier on myself so that I could enjoy the day with the family, I made both soups in the crockpot.  Good thing I have 3 bigs laying around.

I made a Portuguese bean soup and some Zuppa Toscana.  I also made three loaves of bread and the Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Chocolate Cake.

Yesterday, Curt and I took Jasmine to work in the morning, then popped into our local Dollar Tree for some stocking stuffers.  it was the last thing we needed for Christmas.  You know I look at my Christmas tree and it's nowhere near as jam packed with presents as it's always been, and in a way it makes me sad, but in another it helps to focus on the fact that Christmas is not about the presents and the amount of money you spend on the people you love, but rather to celebrate the birth of Christ. 

So our Christmas may not be what it's always been, but it's still surrounded by our loved ones and in the end, that is all that matters. 

After our shopping was done, we returned home, where Curt stayed behind, and I grabbed my grocery list to head straight to the commissary.

It was quite busy, and I'm used to going first thing in the morning, but I was still able to take my time and get my groceries.

I returned back home, got everything packed away and by then it was time to run back out to pick up Jasmine.

Today has been a very quiet relaxing one, I did get all my laundry done but aside from that, I've spent the day crocheting and resting.  Jasmine hasn't been feeling well today so she came to lay in bed by me and we ended up watching a movie called Ghostland.

It wasn't anything about ghosts or paranormal, it was a psychological thriller, and oh my word, it was absolutely insane.  It's one of those movies where you think you know what is happening, only to realize you were completely off. 

As this weekend comes to an end, I can't help but think of just how close we are to another Christmas and how fast we seemed to have gotten here.
It's surreal to think that 2018 is about to end and we have a whole new blank slate awaiting us.  I never quite know how to feel about it, on the one hand it's exciting to have a whole year ahead, but then on the other we don't quite know what is coming which can be a little intimidating.

But we're not going to dwell on that. 

We are finishing off school in the next 2 days and then will be on Winter Break, yay!!!

As always, we will have family over for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I will be baking quite a bit this coming week. 

I'm sorry if I sound a bit all over the place in this post, my allergies are acting up since this afternoon so I had to take some Benadryl and it always makes me quite tired and groggy, so I need to get off here before I confuse myself even further.  Hahah

I'll be back tomorrow morning with the Happy Homemaker Monday post :)