The Donoghue Family: December 2024

Friday, December 27, 2024

Christmas 2024

It was a very merry Christmas season for the Donoghues!

Celebrating an epic season so far for the Lions!

We continued our tradition of visiting Frankenmuth on Christmas Eve-Eve. We had an early dinner at Bavarian with the Odglens and then spent the rest of the evening at the Bavarian Inn.

I plan to recreate this in 15 years

The kids enjoyed the pools for a little while, and then we checked out the new climbing walls and high-ropes course. I figured it would be obnoxiously expensive, but it was actually pretty reasonable and they let us stay in the area as long as we wanted. Ben was too short to go alone, so I had to be his shadow... which turned out to be awesome! I've never done one of these courses before, so I had such a fun time doing everything, and was so impressed with how brave Ben was! Two hours flew by, we shut the place down!

Maggie and Will went down the slide sooo many times

Can't hold still enough to get a good photo!

Tried the climbing walls first

Suited up, ready to go!

Brave Ben

Evie and Will

Violet joined in too! "I wasn't scared at all"

Amy made "Merry Swift-mas" sweatshirts for our Swifties

The next day we did the arcade and our annual trip to Bronner's for a few ornaments. We love our tradition!

Still a favorite

Skee-ball!

Obligatory photo

Meeting Willy

When you didn't get enough sleep and emotions
are running high

Meeting Santa

Telling Santa he wants a popcorn machine...
which I've told him 100 times we already have!

Family

Twinsies

We decided to attend the children's mass at our church on Christmas Eve... even though we were pretty early, we just barely got seats in the gathering area. We couldn't really hear anything except a bunch of screaming kids - Note to self: DO NOT MAKE THIS ROOKIE MISTAKE NEXT YEAR!

Ready for church

The kids were up at 8am (mostly because Ben couldn't wait any longer) and we had a really fun time opening gifts. It was a very sweet morning, all good attitudes and gratitude. Jamie really surprised me with a trip to see The Killers in Vegas next month - I'm excited! My parents joined us later for a relaxing breakfast, lovely and low-key as always. We went over to the Donoghues later in the afternoon to see the whole family.

We're so blessed

Maggie got a Taylor guitar from Santa, one that
is her size and should make lessons a lot easier for her

Evie's favorite gift this year was an Apple Watch, but
her new beanbag was a close second.

Ben got a new iPad, but he looks way cuter with
his new punching bag from Grammer and Pops!

Maple seriously enjoying one of her gifts

Bobby thankfully made the traditional Friendship Cake,
so I very much enjoyed it with coffee this week

The Donoghues!

Maggie and Will just being themselves

Bonding over screens

Working hard

Cuddles with Grandma

Jamie and I made homemade ornaments as is tradition. These probably don't make much sense to anyone but us, but capturing for posterity:

Jamie made this ceramic ornament of Raygun,
perhaps one of my favorite events from this year

Very clearly made by me - most nights I make
a mixed fruit bowl and nag Jamie at the end of dinner
to "have some fruit, it's good for you."

Maggie Turns 12!

Our baby girl is 12! She's a super smart cookie with a huge passion for reading! She's playing basketball and soccer, helping out with costume design for her school's play, taking guitar lessons, and continues to be the biggest Swifty we know. We adore our girl!

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

For her birthday, she and I did a manicure the weekend beforehand. She had school on her actual birthday, and got to walk to Starbucks and the Library afterward with a bunch of friends (her favorite after-school activity). Then we served her favorite foods for dinner: pierogies and Caesar salad, with pumpkin pie for dessert!

The grandparents joined us to celebrate our girl

We hosted a bunch of friends for a birthday party the following weekend, with an epic Harry Potter themed shindig. We divided the party into four teams: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin to compete for the House Cup. We made wands, played a bunch of games and ate a lot of junk food!

This girl has some wonderful friends

Pizza dinner under hanging candles

Jamie in teacher mode - teaching about hot glue gun safety
and secrets of making a sweet wand

Using chopsticks and adding some texture

Hard at work

Memory game - testing how many items
they can remember from the tray of random things!

Quidditch pong!

Toilet paper racing - seeing who can roll their full
glass of water to them first without spilling
and tearing the paper!

Team Hufflepuff was the winner! Cheers-ing with their
baby house cups

Besties

Monday, December 2, 2024

Thankful times

We had a delicious Thanksgiving with our families. We did brunch at my parents' house (totally failed to get any photos), and it was good to see my mom recovering well from her hip surgery. Still has a ways to go, but making progress! Amy hosted everyone for dinner in their church hall, and it was so great to see everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

Kids table?

Pretty table

The kids took advantage of the gym

Jane & Jane

The original Donoghues

Maggie had her first orchestra concert at school earlier in the month. Most of these kids have never touched a violin/viola/cello/bass, so we were really impressed with how well they did after just a couple months' instruction - 60+ kids all playing in sync! My schools didn't have large bands or orchestra growing up, so I thought this was the coolest thing!