Christmas

 Just like everything else this year, our Christmas was affected by Covid. After throwing out a few options, we decided to have a Christmas ham dinner with Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve, followed by our family gifts. 

We spent the afternoon decorating gingerbread houses. I bought each of the girls a little kit and it was an epic failure. The frosting was so hard to squeeze and it didn't stick to the gingerbread at all! Thankfully, the girls were pretty good sports about it. Before dinner, we decided to go check out this 'snow globe' light display that was set up at the ferry terminal. When we pulled up, the parking lot was empty and the building was dark. We decided to get out and walk around as anyways and found this 'snow globe.' Needless to say, we were all unimpressed and rather disappointed!

Haleigh's  started off looking good...but then it collapsed. 

Annaliese's looked like it wasn't going to stay together, but she was able to fix it and keep it standing!

Kyle and Lydia's turned out pretty nice!

The Snow Globe display

An outdoor Jenga game!

On Friday morning, after sticky buns and freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast, we headed over to Kim's house for the morning. We had each family in their own corner of the room, everyone wore masks, and we brought our own food. It was fun to see what everyone had asked for and a reminder of how blessed we are!!

Mid-afternoon we had a zoom call with Papa Jay, Grandma Kelley, G-Momma, Uncle Jon, Auntie Sarah, Reed, and Kieran. 

Photo credit: Lydia

We wrapped up our Christmas by watching Elf together.

Nothing crazy, just day to day life

 The past few weeks have been pretty routine with normal school schedules, normal work patterns, and what has become our normal activities. Free time is spent working on our house and we are getting so close to moving in. Annaliese was given Skip-Bo for her birthday so we've spent many hours playing that together, and since we aren't always available to play, Grandpa taught her how to play Solitaire! 

Such a lazy dog...soaking in the sunshine!

We've seen lots of shows and dances now that there is carpet and no furniture in the living room!

At the orthodonist...Annaliese got an expander and braces!

Keeping these two occupied while I got a few things done!

The girls bring home schoolwork pretty regularly and it is so fun to see the things that they are working on! Haleigh loves math and is starting to learn how to read. She doens't talk much in class, but at home she is constantly talking in Spanish. When I was looking for her things, I found this story about the Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving!

Another project of Haleigh's. The feathers all have things she is thankful for written on them: comida. casa. manzanas. Annaliese. familia. Mamá. Papá. Lydia. 

Annaliese also surprises me with the things she comes home with. Yesterday, she brought home a diagram of the layers of skin made out of playdoh! 

La piel.

Illustrations for a story.

All about the Titanic!

Lydia loves preschool as well; she comes home with so many cute little crafts. Apparently, I need to take a few more pictures of them! 

We are so grateful that they have been able to go to school everyday (and I am looking forward to when we move and I don't have to drive so much each day!) However, living at Mom and Dad's house works out so well and we will miss having live-in babysitters...Lydia has learned a lot about Tiny Houses from watching TV with Grandpa in the mornings and Grandma recently introduced them to Charades! It's hard to believe that we are wrapping up 2020, but 2021 is looking to be a good year:) 

Thanksgiving

As with everything else this year, Thanksgiving looked a bit different than in years past. I had to work Wednesday night and Thursday night which meant that I needed to sleep all day Thursday. Our original plan was to do a little birthday party for Annaliese and Owen's birthday at dinner time and then we would all get together on Saturday for our big Thanksgiving turkey dinner. However, with the latest recommendations to stay home, we decided to skip the big family get-together. 

I started Thanksgiving off with a hospital-provided Thanksgiving meal at midnight...it was tasty and included all the fixings! 

We still planned on eating our turkey on Saturday, so we started the prep Friday evening. After some discussion over how to cook the turkey, we decided to sous vide the bird. I found a recipe online that made the whole process look much easier than it actually was! We started by spatchcocking the turkey...who knew that was even a thing! It would probably have been easier if the turkey was fully thawed. Or smaller. But Grandpa likes leftover turkey so I was told to get a big one. This one weighed in at 21 pounds. And then we seasoned it, bagged it up, and used a cooler to sous vide it for 12 hours. Once the 12 hours was up, it went into the oven for half an hour; then it was time for dinner. It was delicious!! We added a few simple sides of green beans, and a sweet potato/apple/sausage 'stuffing' and ended with a gluten free pumpkin pecan pie. 

When we weren't busy prepping food or eating, we were busy playing games. Skip-bo and Solitaire are the current favorites. 

We also fit in a nice afternoon hike on a new trail with some gorgeous views.

This is definitely one of those years where we didn't get to celebrate like we normally do, yet it was such a relaxing day and there is still so much to be thankful for. 

Annaliese is 9!

 Nine...how in the world is she nine years old already? I still very clearly remember heading home from the hospital with her, thinking that it was a bit crazy that they thought we knew enough to take care of such a tiny human! And now here we are, and she is such an incredible girl! 

She loves going to school, reading, and playing games. She is thoughtful and smart. As she has grown, she has become more reflective and less talkative. She will spend hours sitting in a chair with a good book and is constantly singing to herself. Annaliese likes to play soccer and basketball and loves a good park date with her friends! 

Annaliese has a few good girlfriends at school and she had eagerly planned her birthday party, including both indoor and outdoor options, but I with the increasing number of Covid cases and a request from school to me mindful of how our actions affect the community at large, we decided it was best not to have a party this year. Annaliese very graciously accepted this and we did a small party at home, just with Grandpa and Grandma (since we live with them!) 

We made a gluten free-dairy free cake this year so Dad could enjoy it too! 

Favorite dinner: Pizza or Rosemary Apple Pork Chops

Favorite color: Turquoise

Favorite activity: Soccer

Favorite book series: Boxcar Children and Magic Treehouse

Favorite subject in school: Math