7 Quick Takes about CAPTCHAs from Hades, Unplanned Kitchen Renovations, and Broken Appliances that Call You Out on Your Social Life

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

Last weekend we took down all the Christmas decorations, and Phillip removed the tree and propped it up on the deck until we could dispose of it properly.

Since then, it's tipped over and then we got some freezing rain. I haven't gone out to check yet, but I'm pretty sure we have a Christmas tree frozen to our deck until spring now.

—2—

Our 21-year-old daughter went back to college. While she was here she caught up with her high school friends, went to her sibling's sporting events, and even checked some secretarial to-dos off her list — including renewing her expired driver's license.

During the two weeks she was home, we drove her everywhere because she didn't have a valid license. Which I didn't really mind, until her very last day home when she took another look at her license and said, "Oh... this actually expires next year."

In any case, she'd already renewed it so this won't be a problem again until 2031.

—3—

Did you know that CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart? 

I can deal with the ones where you have to transcribe some wobbly numbers and letters, or click all the fire hydrants on a 9-square grid. But this week I ran across the most insane one ever designed. I may or may not have taken a break halfway through to Google "How to become Amish." It was that bad.

Now, I'd like to think I'm a person of average to above-average intelligence, but I had to re-read the directions three times to even understand what I was supposed to do.

Basically, you look at the number on the left and then scroll through the twelve different pictures of dice on the right until you find the picture with the matching total. In every picture, the dice are a jumble of dots and numbers, with some sideways just to be mean, so you're simultaneously adding in your head and trying to figure out out "Is that a sideways 9 or a sideways 6?" without forgetting what number you're at so you don't have to start over.

And to top it all off, this is only screen 2 of 3. You have to perform this same task THREE TIMES to prove you're not a bot.

Sir, I'm trying to access my online photo album, not the nation's nuclear launch codes. Settle down.

—4—

Over the winter break, our kitchen got a little out of control. No one cleaned out the fridge so it was jam packed with scary leftovers in the back, everything in the freezer was a chaotic heap, and the cabinets were stuffed because Phillip took over the household food shopping (and the man makes sure his family will never go hungry.)

It was driving me so crazy that when everyone went back to school on Monday I immediately started tidying the kitchen and it accidentally turned into a 3-day project. It was unplanned so I didn't take any before pictures, but I did take some afters:

I'm proudest of the shelves I found for the top left above the microwave. They are the exact right height for what I needed to put in them, like, to the millimeter.

I even did the freezer!

My kids came home from school after the first day and nothing was in the same place as it used to be. Opening all the cabinets, my 14-year-old murmured, "It's like the Upside Down!"

—5—

Speaking of Stranger Things, I’m growing out my hair from a pixie cut and right now it's at this really awkward length that makes me look like Jonathan Byers. 

 

—6—

Someone from the power company rang the front doorbell and it got stuck. So after they left I tested the doorbell and realized that it sticks every time it gets pressed. We must have gotten a broken one when we did a front porch upgrade in the fall!

Which means that apparently this is the first time anyone has rung our doorbell since October. I guess not being voted "most outgoing" in high school wasn't a mistake, after all. (To be fair, we've had people over in the last 120 days but they've come in at the other door or we just opened it when we saw them in the driveway.)

Thinking about next steps now. I'm embarrassed to take it back and explain to the guy at Home Depot how long it took us to realize the doorbell was broken, and if you think about it, the doorbell fits in perfectly with our lifestyle so maybe it's not even that big a deal. 

—7—

I pulled up behind this car at a stop sign, looked at the bumper sticker, and thought, "Me, too, lady. Me, too."

Then I noticed the stuffed animals in the rear window and realized she was probably talking about an actual pet pig. Oops. 

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7 Quick Takes about Picking My Battles, Going Skiing the Hard Way, and How to Be Ultra-Wealthy

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

This week was a complete and total blur. That week between Christmas and New Years, when the kids have no school and Phillip is home from work, it's always a little like "What day of the week is it?" But this time we also had the flu, so it was even more disorienting than usual. 

Everyone's sleep schedule was all messed up, and it was the kind of sick where you'd pass out and wake up without a sense of whether you'd been asleep for 15 minutes or 10 hours. Forget about figuring out whether it's Wednesday or Saturday; I was thrilled when I knew if it was morning or evening.

—2—

We were worried, actually, that our kids' Christmas experience gift was even going to work out. (This is our fourth year of giving the kids experience gifts instead of physical gifts and I recommend it 1,000%. See here if you're interested in how it works for us.) 

Usually we get a separate experience gift for each child and invite whatever siblings would be able/interested in the activity, but this year we rolled all their experience gifts into one and booked a 2-day ski trip for the whole family.

It was non-refundable so we were counting down the days wondering if some of us weren't going to be able to go, but by the day of the trip everyone was feeling good enough to at least go and enjoy the trip. There was some coughing and I lost my voice, but at least no one had to stay home chugging cough syrup while everyone else was on the ski slope.

—3—

Just a note about losing my voice: I HATE IT. I can only squeak out so many words per day, so every time there is a stupid argument, every time someone is slacking off instead of doing their chores, I have to decide: is this what I want to use one of my words on? It's the very definition of "pick your battles."

The kids keep forgetting I don't have a voice and yelling questions to me from across the house, and then going "Mom? Mom?? MOM!!!" when I don't answer them.

And forget about calling to someone in another room. They might as well be overseas, as far as I'm concerned. I'll just have to talk to them in a few days when I have a voice again.

—4—

We had never been skiing before our trip this week. If you're going skiing for the first time and don't really know what you're doing, I recommend not taking along 5 other people who also have no idea what they're doing. It's really stressful when your group takes up half the room and gets in everyone else's way while you're taking a million years renting enough gear to clothe a mariachi band. 

As I was sweating to death in my winter coat trying to jam my 9-year-old's foot into a pair of ski boots, half an hour late for the lessons that had cost us an arm and a leg, I'm not going to lie: I was pretty sure that this trip was a terrible decision. 

But once we actually got out there, the rest of the day was great. Our instructor was nice and gave us some extra time. The little kids learning around us were so cute, especially the preschooler sliding down the slope on her teeny skis with a hula hoop under her arms (her parents were behind her holding the other end of the hula hoop.) 

By lunchtime, we'd graduated from the bunny hill and went to the smallest hill that had a ski lift and spent the rest of the day there. The kids had a great time and want to go back. 

I would consider it.

—5—

As is our New Year's Day tradition, the kids each took turns smashing the gingerbread houses they made over Christmas break. 

When my 11-year-old made a Nativity scene I thought it was so cool... but I didn't think about how sacrilegious this second part was going to be until he had the meat tenderizer raised over his head.

And... 

We are so sorry.

—6—

Phillip was trying to make a point with the kids about the sort of habits that lead to success in life, and asked the kids, "What's something that really wealthy people do?"

One kid said, "Golf!"

Another yelled, "Tax evasion!"

I didn't hear the rest of the lesson, but I'm guessing from that little sliver I overheard that it went really well.

—7—

This week I've been re-watching the first season of Stranger Things with my 14-year-old daughter (first time for her.) And even though I know what's going to happen, it's still suspenseful and scary and all-around amazing. 

The first season was basically TV perfection, so it made a lot of sense when I read that the original idea for Stranger Things was for every season to follow a completely different story. Unfortunately season 1 was too perfect, so they kept going with the same story. I liked season 2 okay, but it felt to me like the well had run dry by season 3 and I stopped watching a few episodes in.

Phillip and I also watched the movie Wake Up Dead Man with our 21-year-old, and I was wary at first. It's a murder mystery in a church where one of the main characters is a priest, and anyone who's watched a movie in the last 15 years knows that there are only three kinds of religious characters in Hollywood:

1. zealot/nutjob (if you're a parishioner)
2. power-hungry hypocrite (if you're clergy)
3. superstitious fool (can be either)

But I found this movie's treatment of religion to be so refreshingly fair. The priest was motivated by a genuine desire to help people come to Christ, and he stayed that way from beginning to end. There was no shocking reveal ⅔ of the way through where he turned out to be a serial puppy murderer. He was just... inspiring. Note: I did not say the entire movie was inspiring, so don't watch it expecting an episode of Veggie Tales. I'm just saying it was definitely deeper than I expected from a whodunit movie.

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7 Quick Takes about Holiday Zombie Apocalypses, Life Skills for New Adults, and All the Things You Can Make With Graham Crackers

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

Our Christmas morning was underwhelming. The two youngest kids were suffering from a flu or flu-like illness and the two oldest were super-tired and one couldn't get out of bed to even join us until later in the day (not sick, just a teenager.) 

I always station myself in the living room to record them running out of their room and pouncing on their presents, but this year's video looked more like I'd caught a zombie invasion on film with everyone stumbling joylessly down the hall.

Most of the day looked like this, except when I was trying to convince one of the kids that you could not, in fact, die from swallowing a pill.

—2—

There were some Dove chocolates in my stocking and usually the wrappers have cheesy, inspirational sayings on the inside like "Live every moment to the fullest." But this one seemed oddly judgmental in a passive-aggressive kind of way:

I wasn't, actually, but even if I was it's really no one's business.

—3—

I was a little late getting everything together for Christmas, but we more or less did it. 

My parents' gifts will be there next week, but they'll be there. 

Our neighbor's cookie plates are going to have to be delivered to them after Christmas, but they're assembled and waiting on the counter so it's just a matter of time. 

And our Christmas letter went out later than I wanted, and I discovered a typo after I'd already printed all of them and we had half of the envelopes stuffed, but that is okay because done is better than perfect.

Allegedly.

—4—

I found an online list of 100 things an 18-year-old should be able to do, and I thought it was one of the best lists of its kind that I've seen. One of my biggest focuses as a parent has been raising kids who are independent and competent at life, so believe me when I say I've thought about it a lot.

We printed it out so we can start teaching the ones the 17-year-old hasn't yet mastered, with a few small adjustments. We crossed off "consume alcohol safely" (#68)  because we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and don't drink, and we also crossed off one more item (#63) that we were morally opposed to, as well:

Seriously, this list has everything. Every time I think of a life skill, I scan the list and there it is. I highly recommend it for anyone who has teenagers.

—5—

Here's another snowflake craft that takes minimal materials and skill. I haven't done it with my kids yet, but I absolutely will be. 

According to the comments below the video, if you make the very last attachment with a paper clip instead of glue, you can fold flat and store them easily for next year. That's the only downfall of the other snowflake craft that we usually make, so I'm pretty excited about these.

—6—

Every year our family makes gingerbread houses, and that's a loose term because we don't even use gingerbread, we use graham crackers. And the term is getting looser every year because now most of them aren't houses or even buildings.

There was a castle:

The 9-year-old.

A Nativity scene:

The 11-year-old. (Jesus is on a manger of mini Reese's cups with Mary and Joseph, and the pink gummy bear is a wise man riding on a yellow gummy camel.)

A drag racer drifting around the corner with spectators:

The 17-year-old.

A UFO coming to abduct the gummy bears in a forest:

The 14-year-old.

And Batman chasing The Joker up a clock tower in Gotham City (see the bat-signal spotlight on right):

The 21-year-old.

—7—

Because the 19-year-old is away on her mission, and because the kids are getting old enough that they don't really need our help very much any more, Phillip and I collaborated on this gingerbread unicorn:

I think we made a good team. Phillip first assembled a small, oddly-shaped shed, which I pointed out looked like a horse head, so he added a unicorn horn and I decorated most of it. (Our daughter added the gummy bear ears, though.)

As is our tradition, we'll smash and eat them on New Year's Day.

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7 Quick Takes about Taking a Moment to Thank the Envelope People, Shortcomings of Artifical Intelligence, and DIY Car Detailing

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If it would really upset you if I earned a commission of several cents on something you purchased, then I advise you not to click on anything here! 

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

There are two student pickup areas at my son's school, so when I'm on my way I text to let him know which spot I'm in. Except the day I forgot my phone.

I went to one pickup area and then when no more students were coming out, I went to the other one, but I didn't see him at either place. I started to wonder if maybe he'd had to stay after school to talk to a teacher or make up a test (he'd just been out sick for a few days) and I just didn't see the text because my phone was sitting at home.

So I drove home, where I checked my phone and had a bunch of texts from my son asking where I was. Apparently he'd gone to the second area first, waited for me, and then went around to the first area while I traded places with him. It was like when you get stuck in a hallway doing a stupid dance trying to get past someone, but this time one of the dance steps was me making an additional 15-minute round trip home and back to school.

I was pretty annoyed, but I cheered up a little when I got home and saw the Christmas cards that had come in the mail that day. Especially when I turned this one over to open it:

Giving credit where credit is due.

—2—

I did it! I took my high school senior's graduation photos myself. I didn't use any equipment beyond my smartphone and whatever light was available to us at the time. But with Google Photo's editing tools, they actually turned out pretty good!

On my favorite picture, taken at the head of a hiking trail, there was unfortunately a bright red sign in the background saying 'PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG.' 

Phillip advised me to remove it with AI (Google Gemini) so I gave it a try. It did such a seamless job that I also asked it to remove a weird-looking weed in the foreground. It erased the weed and even added some leaves scattered on the ground in its place to match the rest of the grass. I was impressed.

—3—

I didn't stay impressed for too long, though. A few days later I was trying to remove a timestamp on the corner of a photo of my daughter from her mission so I tried Gemini again.

In fairness, AI did remove the timestamp. But it also messed up the letters on her missionary name tag at the same time, even though the two things were nowhere near each other.

I tried asking again: "Remove only the timestamp." It still turned her name tag into gobbledy gook. 

I tried being indirect to avoid bringing attention to her nametag: "Remove the timestamp but leave everything about the subject of the picture unchanged." 

I tried being direct: "Remove the timestamp but do not alter the subject's nametag in any way." I think you can guess what happened.

No matter what I did, her nametag would come out looking like: 

SŒSTER EVAƞS

ǁ||E CʜǙʕCㅞ OH

Jレ⥌Uζ  CHƦÆǤT 

O₣ LƋTTEƍ-ƕAY ŞȺIךTƼ

AI tries hard, it really does. But it's got a long way to go.

—4—

A friend told us about a local church that does a massive Nativity set showcase for the weekend. I only wish that my college daughter (an amateur artist) had been with us to see and appreciate them with us.

We walked in to a large room that was positively filled with nativity sets of all shapes, sizes, and materials. Most were labeled with the country they came from. 

This one was made with painted shells.

Oil drums beat into shapes with a hammer and chisel.

Made from recycled bike and auto parts. I spy a spark plug baby Jesus and a bicycle chain mane for the horse.

When a woman with a name tag who looked like she was in charge came by, I had one burning question for her: "Are these sets loaned by members of the congregation? Where do they all come from?"

"My garage!" she answered.

You guys, this was her personal collection. She'd been collecting for 32 years, and of course all her friends and family were also keeping their eyes peeled for interesting Nativity sets for her whenever they traveled.

My kids got bored quickly, but this trip did inspire the 11-year-old to make a Nativity in Minecraft so I guess that's something.

—5—

I drove behind this truck for a while and could not stop thinking of it as a face.

Two eyes and a cute little mouth.

Is it just me or do you see it, too?

—6—

Overheard the kids snapping at each other one grumpy afternoon.

14yo: Why is your underwear on the floor?! *stomping upstairs*

9yo: Are you bringing it up here?

14yo: Ew, why would I be bringing your underwear upstairs?

9yo: Because... I thought you were a good person.

First of all, way to deflect that burn. That is "I'm rubber, you're glue" level stuff. 

Second of all, if this is a preview of what Christmas break is going to be like, I think I have a pre-headache. An anticipatory headache.

—7—

We're doing a major cleanout of my teenager's new/used car. There is a faint cigarette smoke smell from the previous owners, so we rolled up our sleeves, did some research, and made a plan.

I bought (and probably overpaid for) a professional grade upholstery cleaner, a drill brush set (actually, I already had this, I use it to get the scuff marks out of my white dishes a few times a year), and extractor attachments for our Shop-Vac (oh my gosh, SO FUN to use these). We used this method to clean the seats, floor, and headliner (the ceiling of the car):

My son changed the cabin air filter and we hit the interior with an ozone machine I borrowed from my friend Melanie. After we were done, we put an activated charcoal bag in the car (I bought a 6-pack so we could use the other ones in the house) and I think we'll run a HEPA filter in there overnight just to be extra. 

If this doesn't work, I've got nothing. Actually, that's not true, I've got an extractor now and that thing is freaking fun to use.

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7 Quick Takes about Cute Little Cacti, Bent Little Photos, and Enjoying My Very Last BLT Sandwich

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

Right now we're sick. Most people in the family have felt missed a day or two of school and felt better after that, one of us hasn't seemed to be affected at all, and I have just felt a low-grade crummy all week.

It's not just my family, though. On Wednesday I coordinated a shift at the temple and everyone was out sick. Even the substitute for one of the people out sick texted me in the morning saying she got sick.

—2—

As the Primary secretary at church, I've been assembling teacher appreciation gifts to hand out at the end of the year. 

How cute are these little succulents??

The part about these succulents that I can't wrap my head around was that I ordered them online from Home Depot, who shipped them to me. They came a week later in a box marked "live plants" and they were, surprisingly, still live plants. 

I can hardly get plants to survive when I'm attentively taking good care of them, I don't understand how they can be just fine after several days of manhandling by UPS workers inside a pitch-black cardboard box, but okay. I'm definitely not jealous and thinking there is something wrong with me.

—3—

The United States Postal Service, on the other hand, seems less adept at handling packages:

Just photos for the walls, it's not like anyone will notice the crease running through the middle of my kids' faces.

This is the second time the mail carrier has looked directly at an envelope with an all-caps DO NOT BEND notice, folded it in half, and shoved it in our mailbox.

I'm not a complainer, but what are my options here? I could call and ask the company to reprint the photos, but (1) it's not their fault and (2) the mail carrier would just smash up the new ones if I did! 

Which is why I took it in to the post office and talked to a very unhappy postmaster general who asked if she could keep the envelope, I assume to threaten train the new mail carriers.

—4—

Exciting news from my 21-year-old: she got a summer internship! It is so perfect for her. Not only will she be doing research that is relevant her neuroscience degree and helpful for getting into grad school, there's also a huge cultural immersion component for the six Americans getting sent over there and she is just about the most curious person in the world and loves learning about other places and cultures. 

In fact, she's been doing that every summer vacation for her whole life. She would gladly pay for this experience, but instead she gets a stipend to do it. In fact, according to her math, she's going to make more this summer than she would have at her normal summer job. I am so thrilled for her.

—5—

My family had a craving for BLTs one night for dinner, but we're going to have to take out a second mortgage if we want to do that ever again. When did bacon get so expensive?? It's extra terrible that we prefer the uncured kind, which you can buy in a pathetic pack of seven strips that costs $7.49! I just about died.

My 14-year-old, who was helping me grocery shop, looked over the price tags on the various packages and said, "Mom, my kids are never going to know what bacon tastes like! They'll be like 'Mom, tell us about bacon' and I'll be like 'I don't remember sweetie, it's been a looooong time.'"

—6—

In my email was an Evite for my son to a classmate's birthday party. I was smiling from ear to ear reading it, because the birthday boy had obviously written it himself without parental oversight and it was hilarious. The "host notes" section simply said, "For presents just like robux and lego stuff and just something i don't know." I was dying laughing.

I went back to the Evite when I was writing this post to remind myself of exactly what he'd said, but apparently his parents had realized what he'd done. The "notes" section now read "We'll be celebrating [name]'s 10th birthday at our home. No presents please. We would love to see you there!"

Now I'm not really sure what to do with the Robux gift card we already bought him.

—7—

I'm a sucker for white Christmas lights, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra singing Christmas music, and all that is classic and timeless around the holidays.

My local stores? Not so much. They're pretty much as unconventional as you can get this year.

I might joke about it, but I would pick "Snoop on the Stoop" over Elf on the Shelf in a heartbeat if I had to choose one.

This epic Christmas display at another store took someone a really long time to put together. I mean, someone came up with the "what if Santa was on WWE" concept and took it all the way home. The longer I look at it, the more details I notice. 

Oh my goodness, the chair. They put a metal folding chair in the ring.

I just don't think anyone every could've predicted that this one day this would be how we as a culture are commemorating the birth of our Lord. People are wild.

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7 Quick Takes about Crooked Tree Toppers, My Kind of Christmas Craft, and Learning What a Carburetor Is (Maybe)

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

Almost every year we go see The Nutcracker, and while the ballet this year was pretty good I think what I enjoyed the most was the kids sitting in front of us. 

It was a brother and sister who were maybe 5 and 7 years old. Their family had a box to themselves off to the side so the kids weren't blocking anyone's view but their parents', but they kept standing up, twirling past each other to the music, and plopping into each other's seats before getting up to dance and trade places again practically the whole time. The boy was clapping so hard after the Russian dancers I thought he was going to lift off. Those parents definitely got their money's worth that night.

—2—

We went to a farm stand and brought home a pretty tree, but the top branch was comically long. And when I pointed that out, my super-helpful family just put the tree topper on it crooked to accentuate it. 

Breathtaking.

After they'd all had their fun taunting mom with the goofy-looking tree topper, they finally cut the top branch down to a reasonable height. They probably wouldn't have except we were having people over that night, and Mom doesn't play around when we're having people over.  

Much better.

—3—

A look at my Monday to-do list should provide you with a snapshot of my glamorous life:

Yes, "clean vomit out of van better" is one of my tasks for the day.

After one of my kids threw up green smoothie all over the van like they were audition for The Exorcist, I'd cleaned up quickly in the 30° weather and the freezing wind after but apparently not well enough. 

I was alerted to a lingering smell later on, and had to go back out there a second time the next day when it was just as cold to do a deep clean. And what I learned from that experience is that Mother's Day once a year is just not often enough.

—4—

The 14-year-old has been hoarding fingernail gadgets, paraphernalia, and styling tools for a few months and is now walking around like this:

Winning the award for Most Festive so far.

The nails themselves are extensions (which I guess is Gen Alpha for "fake nails") but you guys, none of these designs are stickers. She did them by hand using a combination of nail art tools and witchcraft. 

Not only do I not think I have the coordination to do that, I don't have the eyesight, either. I have to blow up pictures of the instructions on the back of prescription bottles with my phone so I don't accidentally overdose.

—5—

Unlike my daughter, I'm more at the level of these super-easy yet snowflake crafts that I did with my boys this week:

The only materials you need are paper, Scotch tape, and a stapler, and the instructions are so easy to follow. 

(Full disclosure, we did make the cuts in the wrong direction twice, but I'm pretty craft-challenged so that's to be expected.)

Yes, the 9-year-old has been wearing that Santa hat nonstop, even to school, ever since he found it in the bin with the Christmas decorations over Thanksgiving weekend.

We made a few and hung them from the railing across the hallway, and they look way fancier than they actually are.

—6—

We haven't really started our Christmas shopping yet, although I've been writing little notes to myself for the last few months whenever I notice that someone in the family needs something.

It's funny because we have one child who never wants anything, and another child with a running online wishlist who constantly drops hints so hard I worry they're going to give themselves a hernia. How can they both have come from the same people and the same household?

—7—

This Facebook reel showed up on my feed, probably because Phillip does a ton of work on our cars and I don't even know what a carburetor is, and the algorithm is able to deduce a creepy amount of information about us and knows all of that.

Aside from feeling spied on, I did get a lot out of this video. (I plan to watch it again later because I already forgot everything I learned the first time I watched it.)

Hope it helps you, too!

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7 Quick Takes about Dropping the Ball, the Broken Basket, and The Things You Find on Facebook Marketplace

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

I'm in the middle of reading a fantastic book called Drop the Ball. The author explains that her husband does things in a much different way than she or any mom/wife she knows would do it, but she's learned that diversity in the traditionally female-dominated domestic space is good, just like diversity in the traditionally male-dominated workplace is good.

In related news, this week Phillip picked the 9-year-old up from a gymnastics workout and I asked him to buy him something to eat on the way home since he'd be hungry after practice. "Already did," he said. 

I later found out the "something" was 12 Oreo cookies, in case you're wondering why you saw me with an eye twitch muttering "Diversity is good, diversity is good" under my breath.

—2—

I got a good laugh out of this Apple Newsroom announcement on the iPhone pocket (a.k.a: the iSock.)

Isn't "a piece of cloth" more of an object than a concept? I guess at $229.95, it kind of has to be a concept.

—3—

In our house, we have something called "the broken basket." 

In theory it's a place where we put things that break or need minor repairs that we don't have time to take care of right now, and we go through it when we have time.

In practice, we forget about it until we look at all the random crap we've thrown in there over the last six months and have no idea what any of it is.

Thoughts, anyone??

—4—

I was asked to participate in a musical ensemble for our church's Christmas service, and though it's not something I would have volunteered to do I agreed to do it. We had a rehearsal at the church this week, and then I stayed afterward to organize the closet in the Primary room. (I was recently called as the Primary secretary, and I just can't work in a cluttered space.)

When I came home several hours later, Phillip looked alarmed. "Were you rehearsing the whole time?"

"No, it's fine, I was having fun! I forgot to tell you I was organizing a closet," I laughed. Which is honestly way more fun for me than the singing part.

—5—

The 17-year-old is thrilled that soon, he won't have to get picked up from school in his mom's minivan anymore. Phillip found a used car on Facebook Marketplace, and they brought it home today.

Since we're not in a big hurry to throw a car at him after he totaled the car he used to drive last month, he bought this one with the agreement that Phillip and I will buy it back from him at the same price when he goes to college and needs the money next fall. If it still exists.

—6—

How was your Thanksgiving? We spent ours this year with a family from church. We've done Thanksgivings together off an on for years now, and with both of our our kids getting older it sure is a lot less noisy and lively. It was nice that we only had to cook half the meal (I mean the royal "we;" I washed the dishes while Phillip did the cooking with help from the kids) and we played some new games after dinner.

Everyone ate a ton of food, and the kids discovered that jumping on the trampoline right after dinner was a bad idea. (The good thing about kids getting older is that they're old enough to realize that before someone throws up.)

—7—

We also watched our first Christmas movie of the year: Klaus. I think it's a Netflix original, and if you haven't seen it then you haven't seen the best Christmas movie of all time and frankly, I feel sorry for you.

Other favorites of ours include The Man Who Invented Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Santa Clause. What are some other good Christmas movies we should watch as a family this year?

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