Friday, January 07, 2022

Catching Up Through December

A big milestone happened since my last post - Nina got her Learner’s Permit.  She was more than thrilled to get a 100% on her test, and since getting her permit, she’s been doing some driving with Mark and I.  While we are just in the beginning stages (like driving home from practice), she’s been doing a great job so far.  I just can’t believe we’re already at the place where we have a daughter who is driving!  
A week before Christmas, the kids went on winter break from school.  They were looking forward to two weeks off from school, and since we didn’t have any major plans, they got to have plenty of days to sleep in, hang with friends, relax, and enjoy the season.  One of the first things they wanted to do was have a gingerbread house contest with a couple friends. These same four had a cake baking contest just a little while back (the older two versus the younger two), so they wanted to get back at it, this time with each having their own house.  
  
  
I thought they turned out pretty cute!
Our Christmas plans this year changed up quite a bit than years past thanks to Covid.  We normally gather for a big dinner with our whole family plus my mom’s sister’s family, but with a couple Covid cases in the family, we decided not to gather this year.  Likewise, our family is normally all together at my mom and dad’s on Christmas morning, and that was canceled this year too, sadly.  While we missed the chance to be together as family, we made the best of a beautiful Christmas day at home.  
 
   
After several hours out at the reservoir, Mark put his Christmas present to good use.  He got an Ooni wood fired pizza oven, and because we all love wood fired pizza so much, we’re happy that we can have it anytime we want now.  That could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it!
A few days after Christmas, the girls were both at sleeovers with friends, so Mark and I got out for the night and tried the King Street Oyster Bar.  The food was delicious and it was just fun to be out and try somewhere new.
 
New Year’s Eve was a low key night at our house.  Nina had some friends over, and we did individual pizzas in the Ooni which was fun, and while the girls had fun together, Mark and I watched some football, then we all toasted to a new 2022 at midnight.  2020 was rough, 2021 didn’t bring all the relief from Covid we hoped, but it did bring a return back to more normal life than we had in 2020.  Maybe 2022 is our year?!?!
   

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