Five on Friday

First post of 2025! Not hugely exciting, lol, but here are five things today...

1. Annual Santa photo. So, after our Montana trip, Micah headed back to Boulder on Dec 26th to work during break. He came back home last weekend to hang out and we got my annual Santa photo. It's one of the things I ask the boys for as a Christmas gift each year. They've been getting creative as they're getting older and more reluctant to actually sit with Santa...

We put a fireplace scene on the tv and they wore their matching sweaters (Micah got one for Noah for his birthday and got one for Asher for Christmas). After that, it was a good weekend of brothers binging shows and all of us playing games. Yay!

2. NYE. Going backward for a moment...Micah didn't join us for New Year's Eve, opting to hang out with one of his roommates instead, which was cool. The rest of us did our own thing. We don't generally do a heap of anything special...some snacks just before midnight and a toast with sparkling cider. Exciting stuff, lol. This year, we did a wee bit more and had a kinda theme. We streamed the Wicked movie and had Wicked themed cocktails and snacks... 

No one else appreciated my pink cotton candy with the pomegranate sparkling cider so they opted to torch it instead, lol. 

3. FAFSA. During this winter break, Asher and I also filled out his FAFSA for next year. I'm pretty sure it was the 18th FAFSA I've filled out (between my own eight years of college and the three boys). It went surprisingly quickly, so, whew. Since Micah will graduate in May and the 2025-26 academic year will be Asher's last, I *think* this may be the end of me needing to fill out FAFSAs. Woohoo!

4. Vinnie. So, on Wednesday our minivan--Vinnie--decided not to start. Turned the key and nothing. Lovely. Ended up having him towed from our garage to our preferred repair shop. Fortunately, on Thursday they were able to replace the starter. Also fortunately, Asher's still home so we had an extra vehicle here to use on Thursday and to pick up Vinnie. Really glad it was just the starter and that Vinnie's home and working again now. Whew.

(Note: Vinnie is getting a little old. We got him new 16 years ago. He's been a fabulous vehicle for us and has seen us through many extra-curricular activities and road trips. We know we'll eventually replace him as our primary vehicle but are trying to wait until Asher and Micah are graduated and on their own enough to no longer be on our auto insurance policy.)

5. Miscellany. Just a few things I'm thankful for right now...

1. my holiday card door...I tape all the cards I receive on my office door and keep them up throughout the year. I love seeing all the smiling faces and sentiments daily. :) 
2. large print library books...yeah, sometimes I check out the large print versions from the library. Mainly, they're often available sooner than the regular copies. But. It's also lovely to read without my reading glasses, lol.
3. our new Blink doorbell...when we were delivering our holiday fudge to neighbors, we realized we're the only house on our cul-de-saq without a video doorbell of some sort. We're not really worried about it because we're generally home all day anyhow and our front porch is one of the most visible ones. But. There are times that Nathan and I don't hear the doorbell when we're each in our offices. So. We got a Blink video doorbell, which alerts our phones when there's motion at the door. This is particularly handy when Micah's prescriptions are delivered, as they don't always ring the doorbell and the meds need to be refrigerated. It also came in very handy the other day when some neighbors dropped something off but Nathan didn't recognize them. I was able to look at the video clip that was recorded and tell him who they were. :) 

Okay, that's what I have for now. Asher will be heading back to Greeley tomorrow. Classes at both UNC and CU start Monday for spring term. It'll be the end of our winter break officially, and then we'll all finally be underway with the new year.