An Unusual Christmas...

These past few days have been a whirlwind of things going on.... Christmas decorations picked up and put away, laundry, lunch with a friend, puzzling, games with the girls, and so much more.  It doesn’t seem possible that Christmas was a week and a half ago and I have yet to post about it.  There is no time like the present....

To say 2020 offered a source of craziness and unusualness would be an understatement.  We were tested like no other, and will hopefully come out on the other side better for having experienced it.  Christmas was no exception to the craziness and unusualness.  Because of the pandemic, we were not able to see the Pooleys this year.  It goes without saying that we greatly missed our time with them and Christmas was not quite the same without them, but we completely understand and support the reasoning behind not gathering.

That said, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with my side of the family.  While Christmas wasn’t the same this year, it still offered a glimpse of normalcy and tradition, which was all too good for the soul!

We started the week off celebrating Grandma Jane’s birthday.  The day was filled with relaxation and each other and cake and presents.  Oh, did I mention cake?

We relished in the small moments, like dance parties on the Wii...

Or playing puppy school countless times...

We acted silly...

I got one heck of a message from Elsa... who could resist that?

There was coloring, coloring, and coloring some more...

There was a game or two of pickleball in the garage (while there was a blizzard outside)...

The cousins made gingerbread houses...

And lots of snuggles from Grandma occurred...

We all played countless rounds of Spot It and Slap It and Dominoes... Sullivan came out victorious in our family tournament of Slap It. Wahoo, Sullivan!

Swimming and enjoying the time with the cousins... we practically had the pool to ourselves.  Score!

Without fail...looking for Christoper the Elf each and every morning.  What joy such a small creature can bring to children each day...love it!

As you can tell... these are just the small moments that make the big memories. No mention of Christmas Day (yet!)... more to come on that.  The small moments were so needed and so welcomed and so cherished.  It’s those small moments that give hope to 2021 finally returning us to life, to the way things used to be!  Welcome 2021... we have such high hopes for you!