Merry Christmas

 Christmas was the pinnacle to a completely unusual year! Our gatherings outside our home were minimal and cautious, but inside these four walls the raucous festivities went on as usual. We visited with both sets of grandparents, did the "drive-through" Zoo Lights and Lightopia, wore matching jammies, did a candle-light Christmas Eve service from our couch, made cookies, made a gingerbread house, opened gifts, cooked delicious food, read the Scriptures and lit the candles for Advent, had daily night walks to see the lights, made a fort by the tree and delivered gifts to friends (prompted by our Youth Group dropping off "starter packs" for the girls, what a great idea!). A beautiful, hard, quiet, stressful and ultimately healthy holiday where Jesus once again takes center stage, as He should.

Happy birthday to me!

 I celebrated my 44th birthday at home (surprise, ha!) with my family, who made me a delicious meal (New York steaks and lemon meringue pie, my favorite!) and gave me several sweet notes. I also got a new phone, which I promptly used to take pics of my family for our yearly Christmas card. Yay, I love it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was another example of holding plans loosely. Thank you 2020. We were planning to quarantine ahead and gather up at Camano with all the Newells for the Thanksgiving holiday. I had my yearly mammogram the week before, and the doctor found a suspicious area. In order to get a follow up scan with more detailed machines, I had to take an appointment the day after Thanksgiving, thereby skipping our trip. So disappointing, and honestly quite scary for me to wait a week wondering about my health. 

On the home front, we rode our bikes up to the fairgrounds and had a family game of kickball, and had a meal at home together. On the medical front, I was able to get my second scan and receive the all-clear. I received several encouraging notes, flowers and messages just helping me through the most hard week. So thankful.

This year, we did a Thankful Tree for the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Here is the compilation of "thankfuls" from all of us:

* Thankful tree: nachos, blue ribbons, The Chosen, Max, the chickens, Whole30 diet, getaway drivers, Winnie, being healthy, hair, our house, Marin, my tablet, my brother, Cinnamon, River, Cow, Goat, pineapples, jicama, Christmas, flowers, blue skies, orange leaves, hot dogs, pencils, good doctors, knives, the Enneagram, my boys, my girls, almonds, matching clothes, quarantine enabling more family time, sugar, our friends, sisters & brothers, chicken noodle soup, Marcus, the Xbox, my fur baby, family, nectarines, Voxer, the sun, trees, the Lorax, burgers, Madeline, family walks, plants *

Haircuts, Forest Fires, Carpets and Dining Out

 I feel like 2020 in all its uniqueness make so many parts of ordinarily "normal" life feel special, and sometimes strange, and sometimes downright horrible. 

We had insanely horrible forest fires up and down the West Coast, and our neighborhood and nearby towns had the worst smoke and fire damage ever. We are thankful our home stayed safe. 

Indoor dining was a privilege to come and go, based on COVID case numbers. We visited a few times, and it felt so strange, special and nerve wracking! We hit a random slew of places: IHOP, Panera and Spaghetti Factory. It will be nice to get this privilege back, when the time comes!

Marcus grew his hair out, and this was his first cut to give it some style! All the kids got one last cut from our stylist before she moved to a different state. Max refused documentation ;)

We finally had our new carpet installed, after 9 months of COVID delays! Kyle took the kids to the beach for the day, and I stayed with the carpet crew and Winnie (she thought she could get away with couch sitting with everyone gone, apparently) and we have a beautiful new carpet to show for it!