HAPPY 2023 | LET'S CATCH UP!

Well hello, Happy 2023!  I popped in spur of the moment a few days ago to share some weekend bargains with you, but I'm considering this my first official post of the year.  Today I wanted to share a big wrap-up of some of our recent highlights.  I basically went back over the past few months on my camera roll so here's a big -mostly family stuff- recap!  Some of you have followed for so long and are always sweet to want to keep up with personal stuff, I'll be sharing a more project related update in the next few posts.  

We take a day trip to the Dallas/Fort Worth area a few times a year just to get away and shop a little.  I'm glad to have a willing chauffeur who happily hangs out in the car while I pop in and out of stores- ha! 

This time we drove to McKinney on our way home to stop for dinner.  They have the most charming town square with the cutest shops!  We got there as most stores were closing so I was disappointed not to be able to go in, but we definitely want to go back and spend more time in the future. We ate at Cadillac Pizza and it was delicious! 

Our girl lives for OSU football games in the Fall and Caleb got to tag along to a game.  Quite different from his small school football games... ha!  

Emily loves to play just about any sport and tried out for the club basketball team this year and made it!  It's a level between intramurals and the official women's basketball team and they just play in several tournaments throughout the season.  They're a fairly new team organized just a few years ago so still getting established but she's really enjoying playing again.  Go #2!

Caleb decided to not do marching band his senior year and participate in some other things before he finished college, but got to be a part of a special event with the band before the holidays.  Long story but last year when he was in the drumline, they played at a local holiday concert. The pieces they performed were written by composer Phil Barfoot, who was in attendance at the concert.  Fast forward to this year, a concert with Phil Barfoot's music was planned at Carnegie Hall and he invited the drumline to come play for it! So, Caleb got to be an honorary member again and go play with them in "The 12th Annual Christmas in New York" concert.  He said it was a packed house and he's never been so nervous in his life- ha! I found this video someone posted online of the finale Hallelujah Chorus, he's just to the right of the conductor in the green uniform.  

This fall we will mark 20 years of Ray being a minister on staff at our church.  So, we're hitting some milestones- celebrated our 20th Thanksgiving Dinner with our church family (Caleb was in NYC so he missed it and our annual family photo) and our 20th staff Christmas party.  So hard to believe it's been that long and we are so, so grateful to have been in one place the whole time our kids were growing up. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Ray's parents' house.  Caleb was giving me a preview of engagement photos they had just taken.  It was the coldest, dreariest day when they did their photos but the photographer did an incredible job making them look fantastic! 

This guy's birthday falls on or around Thanksgiving, Kenzi's (Caleb's fiance) family lives in TX so they sent him a Buc-ee's goody bag!  He's a new fan of the cherry sours!

I saw some friends posting pics from Roosevelt's- a totally decked out restaurant in Tulsa so we took a little road trip up for dinner one evening. Every inch was covered in Christmas decorations and it reminded me of places I've seen in NYC, it was amazing and might be a new tradition for us every year!  Nearby Sapulpa did a really cool "Christmas Chute" display in their downtown, which is part of historic Route 66, so we went to see that on our way back to OKC.  It was so fun and happy for this boost it must have been for this small town- they even made The Today Show!

I was honored to be invited to be a guest on a podcast that came out before Christmas.  We ended up talking about lots of personal background from my journey as well as some decorating things, you can listen here or search "Bluebonnet Home" on your Spotify podcasts and scroll down a few to my episode. 

Christmas!  We had an early afternoon Christmas Eve service at the church and then spent the rest of the day with with Ray's family.  All of the grandkids are grown and there are no little ones yet, so we did something different this year and used the money we would normally spend on gifts and donated to charities.  Each person chose their own that was important to them and made their donation, then during what would have been our usual gift opening time we went around and told about the charity we donated to.  I loved it!  None of us need a thing and it was nice to hear all of the causes that were important to everyone else.  Ray's Mom has always done a Christmas craft with the grandkids over the years, so that continued as well! 

Since Christmas Day was on a Sunday we went to church and then spent the afternoon with my family.  My parents have a big Snow Village collection and it's been tradition through the years for the grandkids to help her add snow to it after it's all set up.  They still all get a handful every Christmas to sprinkle on!

Since Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were so busy, we opted to wait until Monday to do our family Christmas.  Then we didn't have go anywhere or do anything the rest of the day and it was fantastic!  (I did make a run to Dillard's though to hit the Christmas clearance because they had Shiny Brites- see below!)  It was a nice, relaxed day and we broke out the new Ticket to Ride Europe edition that I got for a "family" gift. Since we spent time in Poland this summer it was fun, and we are definitely learning new European cities!

(I really love this lounge set- size up!)

Chief had a good Christmas too and enjoys the kids being home. 

I was so surprised just before the end of the year to hit 50,000 followers on Instagram!  That honestly still boggles my mind and I'm so grateful if you're following along there too.  

We had a family get-together at my sister's land to celebrate some birthdays, see a quick video of our day here.   Isn't this tree she put up in the barn so fun?! 

She's also in the process of lime washing the brick on their house.  It's looking SO good, what a dramatic difference! 

Caleb and Kenzi are doing a great job with the wedding planning!  All of the big reservations to be made are in place.  They are thinking of having pizza at the reception- so fun!- and invited me to tag along to the "pizza tasting"... didn't even know that was a thing but I'm in! 😂 

One of our historic downtown buildings recently wrapped up a multi-year renovation project and was decorated beautifully for Christmas.  My Dad used to work in the building for many years and so my parents and I had fun going down to see it.  Planning to share a tour here with you soon, it's so fabulous! 

We recently celebrated another birthday for this guy- 22!  I can't believe it.  We actually celebrated a week early because he is currently in Africa on a medical service trip.  It's the first time we've not been with him on his birthday but I know he is exactly where the Lord wants him right now!  

And, facetiming for free halfway around the world blows my mind!

He's been able to check in with us periodically and is just having the best experience.  Started off doing around 5 days in various clinics in a city, and now they have moved out to the Bush and are working at a remote hospital for several days before wrapping up the trip with a safari.  Can't wait to have him home next week and hear all about it, he'll have about 2 days before he goes back to school to complete his last semester of nursing school. 

While he's gone we caught an OSU Basketball Game with Emily.  Even though they lost that day it's always so fun to be on campus and she took us to a yummy mexican restaurant we hadn't been to before. Try Mariachi's if you find yourself in Stillwater! 

I'll be getting back into project mode soon but for now, like so many others, I'm taking some time to purge, reorganize, and get things in order after the holidays.  I've actually just now been packing up Christmas over the past few week and although I've intended to do this for years, have made myself go through every single Christmas tub.  Finally getting rid of things I never use from year after year and emptied out a few tubs!  I've always had loads of random sacks that I just pile things in that don't have room in the tubs, so it was nice to be able to get everything packed up in a bin or box this time. So long Shiny Brites, see you in November!  (Some of these are vintage and I scored several new boxes after Christmas.)

Alright, you're all caught up on Griffin family life!  I'll do one more 2022 wrap up post and then we'll move ahead to 2023! 

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