December was a very busy but fun time for our family, despite all the setbacks of Covid. We decided to take the month off of school between our projects, a trip and the holidays. It was a much needed break.
Sandy got a sweet buffalo plaid sweater to keep her warm on walks.
Rosalie worked hard to finish her teddy bear before our trip to Florida.
Our babies came back for a visit.
Birdo hurt himself, yet again...
I rushed to finish the girls' Christmas Cookie aprons.
We hopped in the car and headed to Florida for a visit with family and some safely masked, socially distant theme park fun. Initially we'd planned to do this trip this coming spring after the girls finished out their Harry Potter curriculum, but decided to go between the holidays to avoid as much of the crowds as possible, while keeping good weather.
We spent lots of time with the cousins and grandparents, had a cookie baking/decorating party, opened gifts, visited our Uncle's garage, looked at Christmas lights, had a Seaworld day, visited Santa, had an Islands of Adventure day, explored City Walk and Old Towne, took a drive through the wild life park, visited my newly found sister and her family for dinner at Red Robin, said our goodbyes and headed home.
When we returned home, daddy and the kiddos got to finishing our Christmas cards so that we could get them out in time.
Birdo got to finally get his cast off, and was sad to realize that he no longer had a "strong arm" that he could hit people with, without hurting himself. He LOVED the saw that cut it off though.
We made a gift for Holly Belle
The girls started working on their Christmas gift for Everest, a stuffed moose named Chris.
We had a Christmas movie night virtually with 4H.
We made and decorated Christmas cookies!
We got the guest room ready for Grandma and Papa to come visit.
Trevor found our HDAY pictures!!!
Our newer fridge/freezer took a crap, so we got a new one.
We cleared up the music room and designated areas that the kids (and dad) could create their own art on.
The kids also apparently really like our new (to us) pull out couch.
I finished the kiddos Christmas Eve pjs.
On Christmas Eve, the kiddos opened their one family night gift, which includes pjs, a movie or game, treats and snacks and a book. This year we opted for a game rather than a movie.
Aunt Meredith and Ms. Nancy also brought by gifts that the kids absolutely loved!
We read our book, put on our jammies, put out the cookies and milk, and headed to bed.
We got a tiny "snow" that night. Haha.
The next morning, we woke up and headed to the living room to find our stockings.
This is the first year Everest would actually know to participate.
Even Sandy got some treats!
Next we headed to the classroom and started opening our gifts from Santa and eachother.
Everest was so excited once he realized that it meant he got new toys!
The kids were super excited when Grandma and Papa showed up.
I made yummy treats!
And David and I took advantage of having eyes on the kids, and decided to deconstruct his rotting deck outside of his office.
While we worked, the kids played in the sandbox and made a gingerbread house with Grandma.
The girls crafted with some of their new presents, and played with Grandma.
After my parents headed home, David got to work on getting our thresholds in finally in the pantry and bathroom doorways.
Birdo helped.
And that is how we finished out the insanity of the year that we call 2020.
