Friday's Fave Five - 6/12/24

I'm back!  I didn't take my laptop away with me so I've spent the afternoon today catching up on a lot of blog posts!  I didn't stop to make comments or I wouldn't be here to post my gratitude list and I have a lot to be grateful for right now.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Vermont! 

The antlers and glasses were in readiness for the parade leading up to the lighting of the town Christmas tree and lights which we were able to watch on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

We visited the library.  I was impressed with the size of the children's area and the amount of books available.

The boys helped with juicing oranges for the homemade cranberry sauce.

This was our home for our time there - it's our DIL's parents house and Crystal and Paul were EXCELLENT hosts.  We've met them quite a few times now - they've stayed with us in London so we've become good friends and we get on so well.  Paul is retired but Crystal is still working until the New Year but she did have some days off over the holiday period.  Paul is an excellent cook - we were never hungry!

This is my Son and DIL's house.  It's not huge but it has everything they need and the in-laws worked so hard to get it ready for them before they moved over last summer.

We watched the kids decorate their tree which my son had cut down at a nearby tree farm - a new experience for him.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the home of our DIL's Aunt and Uncle which involved an hours drive after the first real snowfall in their area.  We were so impressed at how clear the roads were kept.  The amount of snow they had overnight would have brought London to a standstill lol.

We were 17 adults and 5 children there but it was very relaxed and sooo much food.  And the desserts......yum!

We got to visit our DIL's grandparents and Nick went out a couple of time with Paul and gatecrashed his music events - they both love playing guitar.

We took our hosts our for a meal and our kids took us out for a meal.  We spent several evenings just at home playing cards and it was just lovely to spend time with the Grandkids.  We had one day with just Rory at home as he had no school and another day with just Vinny.  I also got to meet Rory from the school bus a couple of times.  The boys seem to have settled well into American life.

But of course all too soon it was time to travel home.  I'm grateful that our travels that involved an hours drive to a coach stop, a 2-3 hour coach ride to Boston airport, an overnight flight and then a train ride home all went smoothly.

All in all I'm grateful for:

Safe travels

Time with the grandkids and our Son and DIL

Wonderful hosts 

The chance to experience Thanksgiving in the US again (we were there 6 years ago)

That our son and his family have settled in Vermont with both of them having found jobs and the kids enjoying Grade 1 and Kindergarten.

Have a good weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 21/6/24

Oh goodness.  When people start checking up on you (thanks Terri) you know it's time to get a blog post done.  And Friday is always a good day to do that as it means taking a pause and thinking about the things we have to be thankful for.

Thanks to our host Susanne for reminding us to do this each week and share our posts here.

1)  There is light at the end of the tunnel that is "getting my son's flat ready for renting".

The last few weeks have just blurred together as we've cleared, stored, sold, or thrown out all the things in the flat.  There are still a few bits and pieces to deal with but first we have to finish all the cleaning, decorating and all the other things that are required before it can be handed over to the letting agent to take care of.  There is also a large pile of boxes almost ready for shipping to the US.

Their flight to the US is booked for the 11th July so we are counting down the days.

Some things moved from their house to ours!

Still time to spend with cousins.

2)  My son's work ethic and parenting skills.  It's been a tough time since our DIL and grandson Rory left for Vermont on 22nd May but Michael has risen to the challenge and is doing a great job single parenting Vinny and doing what needs to be done with the flat.  As you can imagine it's been hard.  Vinny misses his Mummy and brother and although being able to talk to them over the internet mostly helps it can also have the opposite effect too.  There have been lots of tears.  

We've revisited skills we haven't used for a while such as painting and also gained new ones - today between us we fitted a new timer switch to their water heater that is much more user friendly than the old one.

3)  Hubby and I reached the milestone of 40 years married a couple of weeks ago.  We had originally planned to go away for the weekend to celebrate together quietly.  Instead we took advantage of a local yard sale to try and get rid of some of our son's "stuff".  We did sell some things but our garden room and garage are now full of things that we still need to dispose of.  I'm not even going to think about that until the flat is sorted, we have our house back to ourselves and we've had a break from all the current stress.

4)  My DIL has secured a teaching job in Vermont.  She will start in August and it has the added bonus of pre-school provision for Vinny.  It's a 30 minute drive from their house but that's about half the time she used to commute here on public transport.  That's a huge weight off their shoulders as you can imagine.

5)  Easy meals, takeaways, dinners from the freezer and a grandson that really isn't too fussy.  The days start early - Vinny is usually up around 6-6.30 am and then we've been at the flat most days until it's time to collect Vinny from nursery and get home for dinner.  And of course a Hubby who cooks.  And chocolate!  Needed a lot of chocolate these last few weeks.

Of course all of this hasn't left much time for blogging and I really haven't had the headspace for it either.  

Have a good weekend all - we'll be taking a breather before getting back to the "to do" list on Monday!