December 2020

Never have I been more excited for Christmas than this year. It signals the end of the year and I think we are more than happy to say goodbye to 2020. We started out decorating gingerbread houses with Oma and Poppy. 

And then another house from the Primary at church. 

The girls spent ALL DAY crafting at our fiends house. I'm so grateful for friends that can tolerate the masses coming to her house and making a big mess for hours on end!

Another great COVID meme.

That same friend invited us over sort of last minute for a thrown together live "waling" nativity. We traveled through Jerusalem and Bethlehem and learned about the birth of the Savior. Then we stayed way late playing games after everyone else had left. 

We had to do some major chores before Santa could come. Surprisingly the kids all jumped in and helped to get all these things done. I sent these pictures to David and he was shocked. 

The old Blue Ridge train tunnel in Crozet has been closed for decades, but was renovated and turned into a pretty walking trail. We headed up the mountain to walk the tunnel. It was so fascinating to think of long ago, those workers digging through the mountain side to create the railway. It's roughly a mile long tunnel, and pitch dark unless you remember your flashlight. 

Christmas morning was really great. We tried to take things slow this year and really pay attention to what everyone received. The kids love drawing names for each other and I'm alway pleasantly surprised at their thoughtful gifts for each other. I also got my act together enough for get us all matching pajamas, ever Koda!

Carmen gave Dallin and Pindalu, which is just a fun ball tossing game. 

Aliza game Charlotte a over the door coat hanger, which she really wanted. 

Dallin gave Aliza and felt letter board.

And Charlotte gave Caren some coloring books and markers. 

For New Years, my family came over and we forced them into playing games. Then we had a root beer tasting, where we blindly tried a whole bunch of different brands of root beer and then had to rank them in order of least favorite to most favorite. We did the same with orange soda. After so many sips, I decided I didn't really like any of them. 

Poppy enthusiastically waiting till midnight...

And we all made it!!! Goody Bye 2020, Hello 2021!!!

We've all come out of this year different people. Hopefully better people. We went into 2020 thinking it was going to be such a great year. In hindsight maybe it was. They say hindsight is 2020 after all. I do think it was year we were all forced into stepping back and really focusing on the most important things. We spent more time as a family, doing family things - playing games, bike rides, road trips and beach trips, baking and crafting and spending time with the family and friends we love most.