Christmas + Fire Pit

Santa came!

Hannah is delighted with her new 3/4 size guitar. Hopefully Uncle Chris will be too during their lessons.

Giant LEGO sets from Santa! Zane go the Razor Crest ship from Mandalorian and Hannah got the Astronomy Tower from Harry Potter.

Everyone is happy! Hannah snuggling Rue, who is munching on a candy cane raw hide, with her new hooded blanket (that has a photo of a sloth riding a llama on the back).

Ozzy loved his new crinkly reindeer.

It only took Rue two days to destroy this!

Let the build begin!

Hannah got a fake piercing. It can go anywhere, but her two favorites are her upper ear and her nose. I can HEAR Grandpa Hal cringing - HAHAHA!! 

We took a Christmas day walk around the pond.

I got to try out my new heated vest that Mason gave me. I was TOASTY!!

The pond was frozen and Rue was really amped up about it. We thought about letting her off leash, but then quickly had visions of her skittering out to the middle and falling through...so she stayed on leash and whined. 

Ozzy was much more trepidatious.

Razor Crest complete!

Oma and Opa gave us a hilarious game called Escape the Evil Garden (based on the books by Edward Gorey). An example of an "encounter card" is "Uncle Franz is being strangled by a snake by the lake..." and then you have to roll to find out if you ignore it, help, or mysteriously disappear. 

We had our pod family over to enjoy our new fire pit!

The moon was gorgeous!

Hannah and her buddy roasting their dinners.

I gave blood. There's still a need during all of this. Go if you can!

Hmmm...we had the fire pit on a big piece of wood to protect the lawn. That didn't work. We're now brainstorming a patio extension by way of cement or pavers.

Hannah wanted in on the mysterious disappearances. 

A cold, windy day at the dog park. We got flurries in the morning, but it's supposes to rain later so we thought we'd get the beasts some exercise before it's a mud pit.

This boy doesn't have much more to go before he's taller than me! Only 2-3 inches more and at the rate he's going, our prediction that he'll be taller when he's 12 isn't that far off.

Lights + Santa + Cookies

Cookies!!! So many cookies. We made 4 different varieties, plus accumulated a bunch more at a cookie exchange at work (everything was made with masks on and individually wrapped). Here is Hannah applying festive sprinkles to the no-bake Avalanche Cookies. 

An insurance company called Veteran's United put up a massive light display this year. We went back and forth on whether or not we were going to go because people were waiting over an hour to get in. We decided to go for it and we're so glad we did! We only waited 40 minutes and it was beautiful.

The colors on this one changed as you drove through.

This is the sad look he give you when you're not actively petting him.

Where did this girl get so much style?! It certainly wasn't from me.

School is the same...kids are in a room Zooming with their teachers while I flit all over doing whatever needs to be done. These are the other 2 third graders who are also teacher kids. They were being wandering minstrels in their new school spirit gear.

Zane had another belt test. After winter break, he will return to in-person classes because he will need to break boards for his next 2 tests before he reaches 2nd degree. Hockman's is doing everything very safely for in-person. You have to sign up for a slot and only so many students are allowed in each class. Masks are worn, sanitize hands on the way in and out, and no sparring or group exercises.

Rue Rue.

We went to see Santa! We were on the fence about this this year, but again, I'm glad we did it. The kids wore masks and Santa sat behind a plexiglass shield and wore a clear mask. Zane asked for a Mandalorian Lego set and Hannah asked for a leather jacket.

She's a festive girl!

Ozzy reached out while I was stretching on the floor. He's SO needy - hahaha.

Zane asked when we were going to make Christmas cookies...even though we have a pile of cookie tubs on the corner of the counter. He meant sugar cookies that we put icing on. I was the assistant dough maker for this little elf.

I tried icing bags. Next year I'll make sure the rubber bands are tighter so the icing doesn't come out the top. 

New School Playground + Christmas Tree

We are back in our building for school!!! It's so great to have our own space back! Since there are still a lot of construction workers around, the kids have been relegated to an unused Kindergarten classroom during the day while they Zoom with their classes. I pop by as much as possible, but it's far less than I was able to at Cedar because of the layout of our building and the fact that Julie and I are all over the place unpacking, moving boxes and furniture, and doing tasks. 

We do get to go outside and be together during lunch break. The new playground is really neat! We were all a little worried that it would be tiny because it looked like a thin sliver behind the school on the remodel plans, but there is more than enough space for 3 classes (what we'll have) out there at a time. The kids had a really fun time on the new equipment and are really enjoying the fact that they're some of the first kids to play on it!

They call these "the molecules."

Hannah got stuck at the top.

The turf field is MUCH larger than I thought it was going to be! It's a kickball field as well as soccer and the contractors are currently working on a large fence going all the way around it. I still imagine we'll have several balls go over the top, but it'll help keep them contained at least. Zane has been practicing his goalie skills while I do my best to challenge him.

Sometimes it's hard to leave on time in the mornings when the doggies want snuggles.

We went to Lloyd's Family Farm for our Christmas tree this year. Timberview, the farm we've been going to since we moved here, closed. The bugs that attacked their trees last year teamed with the pandemic forced them to close their doors and they passed the torch to Lloyd's. The trees at Lloyd's aren't big enough to chop down yet, so they had precut trees on pegs in a field (not sure if those were the survivors from Timberview?) that you could choose from. We found a good one!

Rue demanding attention.

Some construction workers at school created too much dust and set the fire alarm off! The principal was out of the building and no one knew if it was a test or not. I had been in the main office manning the phones and sorting keys with Julie when it went off and had to rush to the other side of the school to collect Zane and Hannah who were just as confused as everyone else. We went out the back door and walked down the alley to the front to stand under the awning with everyone else while we waiting for the fire department to come and turn off the alarm. Of course it was a cold and rainy out (not 66 and sunny like the day before!). Hannah was still on her iPad Zooming with her class and was cold so I told her she could sit inside once we figured out there was no fire. She was a bit nervous being in there with the firemen once they showed up. Her face cracks me up!

Zane drew this "from scratch"! He's been looking images up online and drawing them, but this one "is all from his mind."