Happy 2021

 

I’m posting to wish a happy start to the new year, and we’re already two weeks in!  We had a quiet New Years Eve at home.  The girls requested Chick Fil-A, and Mark and I had homemade sushi, so everyone was happy!  In years past, there might have been more excitement for the new year, but with COVID still raging on, we decided to keep everything as low key as possible.  Mark and Nina had just returned from a short trip to VA Beach for a track meet, and we had been busy painting Nina’s room, teaching (for me), and Nina had regular practices for Independence High School’s indoor track season (that’s really an outdoor track season) over the break.  We did manage to stay up past midnight though - woo hoo.  Cheers to 2021!

 

 Two days later, on 1/2, Nina had her first high school track meet.  We had purchased the live stream service for sports as there are no spectators allowed at high school events here in VA, and we were ready and excited to watch her events.  Sadly, the angle on the camera was fixed, and we saw her run over two hurdles, then she ran right off the screen!  Things didn’t improve much after that with our viewing options.  They must have adjusted their camera angle at some point, but the livestream kept freezing up, so Mark drove over to the high school hosting the meet to catch her 300m dash in person by peeking through the chain link fence (pic below)!  Ha ha!  It ends up he wasn’t the only one.  We went back the next week to catch her events in person, and there were quite a few parents spectating through the fence line.  It’s a short season, so we won’t have to keep this up for long in the cold, but hopefully by the time outdoor track rolls around in the spring spectators may be allowed.  Fingers crossed!

  

Cayenne had a great winter break as she’s had every week.  There’s no shortage of velcro time for this velcro Vizsla!  She also got her first Pupuccino at Starbucks.  While the girls love coffee drinks and will go there as often as I allow them, we’ve actually never taken Cayenne with us for a pupuccino (just a cup of whipped cream).  She was so funny at the drive through window.  She must have been able to smell the goodness inside Starbucks, because as soon as they opened the window, she was whining and staring at them from the car.  She got a few smiles from employees and an extra large pupuccino for probably seeming so pitiful.  She finished hers and actually tried to drink Lyla’s when hers was done.  She is some dog!  She certainly keeps things in our house interesting!

  

   

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!