Wreaths Across America

A major snowstorm was headed our way but we didn't let that stop us from heading up to the Dayton National Cemetery for what has become a favorite Christmas time tradition - Wreaths Across America. Wow, was it cold! The flakes started coming down right at the start of the ceremony but I was thrilled at how many people still showed up for this very special and sacred event.

They always keep the ceremony pretty short and then we headed out to one of the areas of the cemetery to lay some wreaths!

I love how we get to say their name out loud and thank them for their service before laying the wreath. It always brings on the tears!

The cemetery looked beautiful with all the wreaths and the falling snow.

The walk back to the car was long and freezing with the snow blowing right into our faces. Heaters in cars are an amazing blessing! We definitely had to thaw out, especially David who had little patches of ice on his face.

Our Fun December

With the busyness of November, our November History Book Club meeting had to be moved to the first week of December. We learned all about the female spies!

We got to see the beautiful Ciara dance at her Christmas performance.

I have had the Bolivian restaurant Nelly's on my to try list since we moved here and we finally did! It was delicious!

The ward Christmas party!

I LOVE subbing, especially when I get some of my favorites in class which obviously includes Kellan.

My sweet Cleo.

Classics Book Club - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I actually read the whole series since it's been awhile. So good!

One of my favorite students, Kendall, invited me to her dance performance during half time at the Springboro basketball game.

Snow

Although it wasn't the first snow of the season, it was the first major amount of snow and for us in Ohio, it came pretty early. We usually get snow in January or February, and here it was, only the 2nd of December.

Without boys at home to help shovel, I am now David's snow shoveling buddy.

And Cleo loves to join us!

We decided it was the perfect evening to go see a movie and ended up having the theater to ourselves.

3 Months!

Thanksgiving 2025

We were delighted to have Savannah and Mason spend Thanksgiving with us! We did a spread for the day so we'd have some tasty things to munch on while we watched Stranger Things and a little football.

We had Coco for the week since the Clarks were celebrating Thanksgiving in sunny Florida.

For some reason this is the only picture I have of our Thanksgiving dinner! And it's the prep work, not even the finished product.

The dogs were extremely hopeful! We got our turkey and several of the sides from City BBQ this year which was an absolutely brilliant idea!

We were definitely missing the boys! Thank goodness for technology these days!

Noah's "big neck" got the hilarity going...

and then the fun began!

Savannah and I got a lot of reading done.

Mom and Bryan came up on Friday. We visited Dad's grave and gave him a new Christmas wreath...

and then had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick...or as Mason liked to put it - "a scoop of chicken salad on a leaf."

Every time she tried to eat.

Girls date Saturday morning to see Wicked...

with some Wicked refreshers from Dunkin'.

Every time he ate.

Coco cuddles.

Yet again, ha ha.

Mason and Savannah brought their cats along and they stayed in the game room. The last day they were here we let them wander to see how they would react to Cleo. They were very hesitant and Luna definitely did not like Cleo!

It was such a lovely visit with them and I'm so grateful they live close enough where we can see them more often.