- The Christmas Letter: 2019 -

Not a single soul revolted against the inaugural family Christmas letter last year, so here we are again for round numba two! I'm so behind on archiving our lives [just published the Thanksgiving blurb a few days ago, blah!], but what they hey...here we go!

Ahem... 

*****
Hello/goodbye to the -FASTEST- year of our lives!

I'm finding it really difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that another Christmas season is here.  Hours and days and even months have literally flown by in the blink of an eye, and the past year feels like a blur.  Organized chaos <--- a [newly acquired] Fleming family specialty!

In May, we sold our home and took up residence in Brian's brother's duplex.  Admittedly, I was a [tiny] bit sad the last time we stepped foot inside that little place, as we spent our newlywed years under that roof and also brought our two sweet babies home to thrive inside those walls.  Our first humble abode saw countless laughs and a whole lot of love!  But all good things must come to an end, and so! So long, Bayfield Drive...

...and hi-ya Cabernet Lane!!!  It's fairly surreal to say after 16 very long months of building, but we are finally moving in one box at a time and should be officially living there soon!  Being married to the general contractor -- who also has a fairly demanding 9-5 job, by the way -- was not for the faint of heart!  Hop over to our blog to read all you ever wanted to know [and more more more] about the construction process and see photos of alllll of Brian's terrific work! 

Aside from a full year of house excitement, several more big changes came in August as I cut back my work hours, Harper started Pre-K [three days/week], and Scarlett started a new daycare [one day/week].  The transition to "all things new" was almost seamless, as Harper is loving her new school and Scarlett and I are loving the first 1:1 time we've ever had.  Cheers to great changes for all!

In September, we took a break from the busyness and spent a week in Destin with the Fleming family.  Brian's sister rented a luxurious house on the beach for all of 23 of us, and we had a total blast!  Then again, how could sand + waves + family ever disappoint? :) We are looking forward to heading back to Florida next week with our oldest princess for her first trip to Disney World!

Long-windedness is my strong suit, but in a valiant effort to wrap this up: I just want to thank you, sweet friends and family, for loving us through the storm! Despite Brian’s long work hours and my wavering sanity this year, we have been constantly supported by all of you. This means a lot!  I've realized more than ever that it truly "takes a village," and we are grateful for ours.  We most certainly count your love and friendships among our greatest blessings!

May the spirit of Christmas fill your homes and hearts with joy!

All our love,
Brian, Bridget, Harper and Scarlett  

- Santa, can you hear me... -

...I have been so good this year!  

La-tee-dah, la-tee-dah...

...Santa Claus is comin' to TOWN for another round of hearing the Christmas wishlists of a bunch of Croatian cousins.  Croatian Lodge Christmas party 2019 was a success!

Thanks to all who organized for a great time!  Ho ho ho!

- Chicken Day 2019 -

And juuuuuust when you think you have me all figured out...

...I swoop right in to throw a dirty wrench in the plan!  Everyone who knows me well knows my T-Day traditions run strong [click link above if you're not brushed up on my predictable preferences]...

But!  Due to having no cable/antenna at the duplex this year, we had to suffer through Thanksgiving morning without tuning into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

And!  Since we very luckily snagged a newspaper + sales ads on Thanksgiving Eve, Brian didn't want to venture out and make the trek to Starbucks...

OH NOOO, say it ain't so!  

However!  After finding some festive holiday music on Pandora and brewing up some coffee in the pot, we carried on like #nbd and still enjoyed our Thanksgiving morning together to the VERY fullest extent!  Nothing better than uninterrupted quality time with the nuclear fam! ;)

As Brian and I were browsing through the paper, the kids snatched up some toy ads and decided to make a "wish list" for Santa.  Only 70% of Scarlett's circled wishes made it onto the ad [the others somehow scribbled onto the hardwood floor, so thank goodness for lemon essential oil to remove!].  Hopefully Santa can provide; these two have some hefty hopes!

Then, per usual, we bolted off to celebrate the holiday with family!  Harper was so excited to arrive to the parties and wish everyone a "HAPPY CHICKEN DAY!" ...which we corrected to "Happy Turkey Day!"  [The well wishes were also extended to all of her friends at school and all of the shoppers at Schnucks the week prior to Thanksgiving ...#socialbutterfly who is #nothermommasdaughter but #idigress.]

Thanks to Brian's aunt and uncle for hosting lunch and my aunt and uncle for hosting dinner.  We loved spending the day with all of the people we love the most!

^^ My mom started this family tablecloth several years ago [I thought its debut was 2012 or 2013, but I couldn't find our signatures from way back when so clearly my memory is failing me yet again!].  Still, I love looking back at this and finding our names from each year; it's so weird to think we signed "Baby Fleming" and "Baby Fleming #2" and I had no idea at the time I was toting around a little Harper and a little Scarlett! :)

And 16 hours later, thattttttt's a wrap!  Happy Thanksgiving, all!

- Decade Challenge -

Not too sure how this "decade challenge" originated that everyone is posting about on their social media accounts this month, but here's mine:

Jay to the kayyy, lolz.  

As everyone was posting their pics from 2009 vs. 2019, I realized that EXACTLY 10 years ago -- like "down to the weekend" exact -- I met Brian on a roadtrip to Mizzou...

...and then -bada.bing.bada.boom-, 10 years later, there's this!

So cheers to 2009 through 2019; I wouldn't change a thing!!! :)))

- Odds & endS -

Afternoon naps x2 kids is a rare and beautiful unicorn [!!!], so I'm sitting down right meow with a cup of coffee and a little update of odds and ends in the form of new house work; hopefully knocking out these tasks will lead us right up to the finish line!  My house posts have been rather sparse lately, but I think that's just because all of the work that's going on now isn't really big "picture worthy" changes, just moreso little, well, odds and ends that have to be done to pass inspection!  [Gonna stop typing now, because it seems like forming run-on sentences and excessively repeating "odds and ends" is my specialty this afternoon and so! I'll let the pictures tell the story.]

I recently made big, boistrous posts about Papa Mark finishing the tile showers...

...and Brian throwing up the fireplace and stone column...

...but ohhhh man, there's lots more finishing work to report!

Brian's been working hard on nailing in trim in closets and putting up casings around the doors...

...digging out the driveway and forming it up for the concrete guy to come pour...
...and working alongside our custom cabinet guy to measure for the bathroom vanities [sooo much love for Eickhoff Woodworks; we adore you and your beautiful work, Tony!].

He painted the front door...

...installed our very first toilet...

...and hooked up heads and levers and whatever else all this stuff is inside the showers.  Cheers for running water and our first functional bathroom!!!  Wahoooo.

One night, we rented a dumpster and filled it to the top!  The basement and garage and tons of construction trash from inside the house was finally thrown out and wheeled away! #phew  Larry and Pat stopped by that evening to say hi; just so turned out it was the one and only evening we had the dumpster [and a babysitter!] and so we didn't have time to sit and chat, but they put their work boots on and stepped right in to help! Thanks, guys! 

While my dad installed the master bathroom lights [and had some pretty good helpers for the task, if you ask me!]...

...Brian worked on putting in a temporary laundry room sink.

Oh, AND -- we have a working kitchen faucet/sink!! It has a really cool "tap to turn on" function, and Harper just thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you ever visit our shack, assume that your trusty tour guide will probably have this on her top 5 list of things to point out! 

With the random streak of warm weather this past weekend, Brian and his dad and brother worked on putting in the downspouts [which, I believe, means we're ready for a flood!?]...

...and hmmm...what else? 

Ahhh, I don't know...but I'll post a few more pictures as we go! The finish line is near!

We are running sooooo super low on Daddy time these past few months, but the photos illustrate why!  The poor guy is getting exhausted, but he keeps putting one foot in front of the other and he never ever complains!  I guess he knows that putting in all these extra late nights and long weekends will make everything soooo worth it in just a few short weeks! YAYAYAY! 

- summer.fall.winter.BOOM! -

Did someone say, " S N O W  D A Y ? !"

Yessss!

But first, can I just have seven seconds to sulk about the fact that we were totally gypped out of fall this year??!  I. LOVE. FALL, and I'm so mad that we only had a couple weeks [at best!] of legit autumn weather.  It went from scorching hot through September/early October to freezing cold in November -- and with very minimal "happy weather" in between! One month the kids were picking out pumpkins and planting mums in their summer sundresses, and the next month we were bundling up in five layers to trick-or-treat in our FROZEN wardrobes.  What the hey????

But still, we set the bipolar weather aside and carved out a few "fall weekends" for ourselves, and they were full of all of our favorite things!

...Like crafting!

And drinking hot chocolate! [Scarlett's first time!]

We played at the park with friends without sweating our booties off...

...conjured up a few fun fall treats for Harper's snack day at Pre-K...

...planted a tree at the Children's Museum with Harper's class...

...and alsoooo hit up the local pumpkin patch with Grammy!

We even enjoyed a special lunch at Freddy's afterwards! 

[Amidst all of our fun, we also checked on Daddy and took food out to the house for him almost every evening! Looking so forward to a quickly-approaching move in day!]

So there! Non-"fall" weather, you couldn't/didn't stop us from enjoying the season!!! 

#happyfallyall

.....Although, this will easily go down as the shortest season ever, because now we're officially on to winter!