Pre-Christmas Five on Friday

Happy Friday, friends!  Is everyone all shopped and wrapped for Christmas?  I have the "shop" part down, but this weekend will be all about the wrapping.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?  Oh well, it'll be a fun Saturday of quoting every Christmas movie and cutting wrapping paper unevenly.  Before the weekend, I thought it'd be fun to share all the good things we've been up to:

1. Kickball: Last weekend, one of my closest friends hosted a kickball tournament to benefit Toys for Tots.  She gathered together 8 teams and everyone got points for runs scored, wins, but also donated dollars and toys.  Altogether, 1500 toys were collected and nearly $4000!  Great job, Stafford!

2. Star Wars: Who else has seen The Last Jedi?  We were surprised that we could get opening weekend Friday tickets with no problem the night before, and I really liked the movie.  Personally, I liked The Force Awakens better, but the combination of action, that dry Star Wars humor, new characters (porgs and crystal critters!!), and old favorites was very good!

3. Early Christmas: Each year, Mike and I do our own Christmas to each other early so that we don't have to bring our presents all the way up to New England and back.  He bought me the best gift, a new camera!  For the last 7 years, I've been using a Canon T1i with a lens from my old film Rebel from the early 2000s.  He chose a Canon 80D, and I could not be more excited!  I'm working on figuring out all the fun new features right now.  Any photographers have any suggestions for me?

4. Christmas lights: Remember our outdoor lights that I was so proud of on Wednesday?  Wellllll, we won our neighborhood lights contest!!

5. Christmas cookies: Last night, we were at our neighbors' house for a cookie swap.  They made these amazing chicken enchiladas, and a bunch of us from our street traded cookies.  I made frosted sugar cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, and toffee... and I just realized that I don't have any of those recipes on this blog.  I need to change that!

I hope everyone enjoys the last weekend before Christmas!