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.
