The New Year Transition 2020-2021

 

We are ending the year on a high note! Christmas added some new stuffed members of our family- Tim (son of Louie and Chocolate) and another Chewbacca... luckily this one is interactive and makes noises... We got to spend a lovely afternoon seeing our friends actually in person (masked and sitting apart, but still in the same area at least).  The kids really enjoyed getting to play outside and discuss current events and military history with people other than us.  

I celebrated a birthday a few days after the fact, but special none the less.  We spent New Years Eve trying to get out and do something despite the poor conditions for any outside activity.  Titcomb has done an amazing job so far this season trying to make snow and keep at least some of the mountain running.  Riding the tbar was a bit rough with minimal snow, and there was only really one trail open, but we got out, skied, and had a Titcomb lunch so everyone was pretty happy:)  

We have spent most of this week really enjoying our time together. We got lots of new games for Christmas and most of our days are currently being spent baking things we have seen on the Great British Baking show, putting together lego sets, and playing games. I have posted here our Thanksgiving tree for this year which seems to now be a part of our decor for November and December. There are certainly a fair number of things we would like to leave behind at the end of this year, but we do have a lot to be thankful for during this crazy time!

Christmas 2020

 

Where to start with this Christmas? We have some snow, enough to play in. Since it has been so warm the snow has been awesome for building.  James, Audrey, and I have been working hard on building an igloo around the play structure, James constructed this really cool cat/fox on the fence, and Audrey constructed a really cool snowman scene on Christmas Eve.  

It is clear from our Christmas Eve family picture in front of the tree that we are wearing a lot of pajamas these days and we watched the Christmas Eve church service from our couch;)  We still made soup (much to the kids' dismay) and opened a Christmas Eve gift.  In an effort to reduce "stuff" the kids have been doing a secret santa gift exchange with each other for a few years and they get to open their gifts to each other on Christmas Eve.  This year they also got Gabe a gift... he was super excited for this santa onesie that keeps him nice and warm (hot!).  

Christmas morning felt fairly normal except for the extreme disappointment of green grass... virtually all of the snow was gone, it was pouring, and the wind was blowing like crazy.  The upside was that we never lost power, although it wouldn't have been the first Christmas morning cooking on the camp stove. 

We opened gifts, Nannie came for a surprise Christmas visit, and we played outside in all of the puddles once the rain stopped.  We finished the day with an easy meal!  Like most things in 2020, it was memorable and eventful with a smidge of normalcy:) 

Christmas Celebrations Up North

 Despite the pandemic we were still able to make a visit to the Katahdin region to visit before Christmas.  It didn't look like other years, we didn't see as many people as we would have liked, and we wore masks. But, we still got to visit, play outside, ice skate, enjoy the wildlife, and make cookies. All in all a great break away!  

More Christmas Preparations!

 

I'll just admit that I am not a fan of making gingerbread houses. When the kids were little it was so unbelievably frustrating, things fell apart, things broke, it took forever, the icing wouldn't harden, the candy was disgusting and hard, someone always had a meltdown, etc. Every year my mom would insist on making one with the kids... it always ended the same way until she finally gave up too and we haven't done one for years.  Until this year when Gabe received one as a Secret Santa gift at work. I rolled my eyes and it sat on the counter for a few weeks... the kids kept asking, I kept deflecting... Finally, after explaining why gingerbread houses weren't as much fun as they looked they insisted and I relented.  As it turns out, they seem to have all finally reached an age where they can be patient, not break things, and not cry when it is taking too long or doesn't go their way;)  It was actually fun and everyone enjoyed making this village to add to their Polar Express train set. Now they have big plans for next year's gingerbread village... I heard mention of "home made"...

After the gingerbread village we moved on to something actually fun... cookie making. Since we didn't have to make the high volume of cookies this year for our Christmas party everyone participated with all of the steps.  We even upped our decorating game to include royal icing.  The kids loved it, but we certainly need a bit more practice.

The middle pictures are of the deer super highway that runs through our backyard.  They love to eat the apples that surround our property and don't seem to be worried about us living here too.  The irony here is that our friend, Dave, came to hunt a few weeks ago and didn't see anything.  Theses pictures were more "proof" that we really do have a strong deer population here;)