Christmas 2020

The week of Christmas started with the anticipated astronomical event of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn being the closest since 1623 yet the closest observable since 1226!

Much was made of it being called the Christmas Star since, from the naked eye, they appear to be one very bright star in the sky (picture on the left).  However, looking through the telephoto lens of my camera, I was able to see both Jupiter and Saturn.  I had read that those with a telescope would even be able to see the rings of Saturn, and while I wasn’t able to get that close, you can still see the color and eliptical shape of Saturn as different than Jupiter.  I had to find a hill to stand on that gave an unobstructed view and wait out in the cold for a bit for the clouds to clear, but I was glad that I did.  It was a cool sight to see!

 

Nina and Lyla had school on both Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week, but they were off on Wednesday and we had a little afternoon coffee date together to celebrate the start of Winter Break.  The coffee drinks powered us on to do quite a bit of cookie decorating, cookie bar making, and pound cake making.  It was quite the baking day!

  

As always, presents need to be wrapped but we never get them started until quite close to Christmas.  Cayenne is such a pest when we’re wrapping.  She LOVES presents and loves to open them, so if she’s in the room, wrapping is always a bit of a challenge.  In fact, we can’t even put presents under the tree until she goes to bed the night before Christmas.  She’s almost worse than the kids when it comes to being impatient to open her presents.

   

This year also marked the first year of having the girls watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  Mark and I watch it every year at Christmas, and we laugh every time we watch it.  This time, we we thought the girls were old enough to appreciate it (maybe not as much as we do, but that’s asking a lot…) so we watched it together.  Mark and I did take it to another level though for the picture on our Christmas card.  If there was any year that 2020 mirrored Christmas Vacation, this was it!

 

We had an awesome Christmas Eve dinner at the Williams house then it was Christmas morning at our house then off to Mousey and Poppy’s house for brunch, more Christmas, and the birthday cake for Jesus.  We were fortunate to all be able to be together as a family this year.  Since Covid, we’ve really only chosen to hang out with my family, and other than that, we’ve seen a few friends outside or not at all.  With everyone being cautious and careful, we felt safe to be able to keep Christmas small and with just the family, but i can’t wait for the day when this is behind us and we can get back to “normal” again!

 

  

 

This year on Christmas evening we went back over to the Williams house for sibling night and a wine tasting.  It started last year when we had dinner and a wine tasting at the Williams to celebrate Mark’s winning of the “when would Bo propose” bet.  We had such a great time last year, so we were happy to head back to the Wiliams house again this year.  This time there was no bet to collect on, but Garland still prepared a fun blind wine tasting of Pinot Noirs.  We had four bottles to try and had to rank our favorite and identify which one was the bottle that cost $15, $25, $50, and $75.  Mark and I didn’t win this year (Mark won last year), but we had such a great time as siblings and friends.  I feel so fortunate that Mark and I have close friendships with Shen, G, Bo, and Brittany and that we all enjoy each others company so much.

  

  

Winter Hike

With a free day from work and school and while we had a relatively mild weather day, we decided to try a new hike to Ashby’s Gap.  It was a decently long hike and we all had tired legs and feet afterwards, but it was a great day to be outside!  After spending the day hiking, we finished up at our house with the evening out at the fire pit having dinner and making s’mores.  

    

 

 

December Firsts

December has brought some “firsts” for Nina, one of which was getting braces.  Originally, we had planned to make her consultation appointment in the spring of 2020, but then Covid hit, and we really limited our doctor/dental visits to only essential ones, but in November we decided to go for her consultation and braces were put on a few weeks later.  The first week was definitely an adjustment (poor orthodontic humor, sorry), but once the aching in her teeth subsided, she was back to her old self.  

 

The other first for her was becoming a part of her high school’s indoor track team.  Virginia High School Sports League is allowing winter sports in a modified capacity, so that means they train outdoors (and it has been FREEZING) and they wear masks throughout - even when they run.  Thanks to getting her some good running cold gear and a runner’s mask, she’s made it through her first week of training with the team.  Everything is different this year with all of the restrictions, but unless things change, they’ll have their first meet January 2nd.  She’s excited to be a part of the team and is enjoying getting to know some new kids, and while we won’t be able to attend meets in person due to the "no spectators" restriction, we’ll supposedly be able to watch on livestream.   Should be interesting!

  

We also got our first snow of the winter season this past week.  Interestingly enough, even though our county has everyone attending school virtually, they still have snow days and delayed openings, etc.  It’s pretty bizzarre, but then again, this whole year has been bizarre!  We only got about 2.5” which was pretty, but that was followed by just as much ice.  That actually was also very pretty (the picture doesn’t do it justice since I just used my camera phone), but the trees and bushes were gorgeous covered in ice.  

  

Cayenne had a little bit of an embarrassing situatioin after the snow fall.  We were walking down the sidewalk, and a man waved us over in his car and yelled over, “Your dog is wearing clothes!”  He explained that he was newly there from Africa and had never seen a dog wearing clothes.  LOL!!  We had a good laugh and I explained that Cayenne is a big baby in the winter and needs a jacket because of her short fur.  He wanted to pet her and commented that his dogs back in Africa were huge and they ate meat and drank milk.  Then there’s our baby dog...

 Speaking of the baby dog, when she’s not pesting for food or attention, sleeping on someone’s bed during school, or going on walks, she loves hanging in her cozy cave this time of year.  2020 has definitely been the year of the dog!!

  
 

Fall Photos

Last weekend I took the girls out to my parents’ house for some fall photos.  We haven’t had the chance to do pictures as a family, but Mark was with his team at a tournament, and the girls and I had a few free hours, so we took advantage, and I got some pictures taken.  If I can, I like to try to take pictures of them every fall as they are changing so much from year to year it seems like.  Even Cayenne cooperated to pose for a few pictures.  She’ll do anything if a treat is involved!  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

A Few Fun Celebrations

Two weekends ago we had a family wine tasting party for Mouse’s birthday.  Since we wanted to toast her birthday and a year of her life cancer-free, it was the perfect occasion to have the Battle of the Budget Reds wine tasting night.  We had six wines, all within the $10-$15 range, and we rated them for our preference and tallied up our ratings at the end of the night to pick a winner.

 

We all had such a fun evening.  I had intented to take a bunch more pictures, but we were so busy talking and laughing that I didn’t pick up my camera until the end to take a quick group picture of us.  It was a great evening to celebrate Mouse and spend some time together with Brittany’s family also.

The next weekend was a busy one for us as well.  I was in charge of the fundraiser for Lyla’s soccer team, and we worked with Krispy Kreme to purchase and deliver donuts to our friends and neighbors.  As a team, we sold 193 dozen donuts, so after placing all the orders and collecting the money, Krispy Kreme prepared our order, and Mark and I filled our cars with 193 dozen donut boxes to dissiminate to the team for deliveries, so it was an early/busy morning for us.  However, once everyone on the team had their orders, Lyla went around to deliver what she sold.  We got to deliver to two fire stations which was a highlight - Lyla even got a little tour of the trucks!  

 

After completing all our deliveries, we had a little downtime then it was time to get ready for Halloween.  Obviously, things were different this year than in previous years, but we still managed to make it a fun evening.  Lyla and her friend got an early start just walking around the neighborhood in their costumes, and Nina, Grace, and Emily did make up together at the house to do a little something fun since they weren’t getting in costumes, but they also spent some time walking around the neighborhood and just checking out the sights.  

 

They had some Halloween fun food, then we put some of the donuts we bought to good use, and they turned some of them into Halloween creatures.

 

Prior to the girls coming over, Nina designed and carved this pumpkin on her own.  We were very impressed and thought she did a fabulous job!

Meanwhile, Mark, Cayenne, and I sat outside with the fire pit and manned the candy table.  We set out a table at the end of the driveway and spaced out candy on the table for kids to pick a piece without having to reach into a bowl.  Then we used our tongs to replenish the candy so it was as safe as possible, and I was suprised how many people we had come by.  We didn’t really know what to expect this year, but it was great to see some normalcy for the night.

 

Fitting for Halloween, the moon was pretty spectacular that night.  There are no filters or edits on this sky.  It was just beautiful on its own!

The only downer of the weekend came on Sunday.  It was torrential downpour rain, and Lyla got a really bad knock to her knee during her soccer game when she and another girl collided going for the same ball.  She was laid up for the day with ice on her knee, but Nurse Cayenne is always there to keep anyone company when they’re not feeling well.

Our final fun celebration came this past weekend where we celebrated Shenley and Garland’s 20th anniversary and Poppy’s 75th birthday!

It was a gorgeous fall day for us to gather in Haymarket for a couple rousing games of volleyball and poison ball.

 

Poison ball has quickly become a family favorite (think very fast paced dodge ball but with people running all around - not staying on sides).  We played guys versus the girls, and the guys got clobbered the first few games until they got their strategy down.  

  

Once they did, even the matriarch, Mouse, wasn’t exempt from fast flying poison balls!

 

After a couple hours of play, we were ready to settle down for some food and toasting to the anniversary and birthday.  As if on cue, while we were out on the patio have drinks and appetizers, someone set off fireworks nearby.  We’re not sure what they were celebrating, but we had a lot of happiness to celebrate ourselves.