Christmas 2020

Christmas 2020 - some Covid restrictions are still in place and wise, but we had a great time.  We did visit all of our local living kids.  And it was nice.  We wore masks in most places, but not all (as the family members felt comfortable).  We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with Anna Lou, Bean and Paul and me.  And we had a great Christmas breakfast with the same group in the morning and then opened presents.

Anna Lou didn't feet safe about going with us house to house this year, so we dropped her off and then went to see everyone.  We started with Supe, Beacher and Jem.  It was so good to see them.  We have missed so much time with people this year.  You don't realize how much until you actually get to see them.  Jem is growing up and we have missed so much of that.  But, we are happy we got to see them today!  

Next we visited the Borrowmans.  Ferf always does the family shopping for our gift, so we picked it up while we were there.  Lots of nice gift cards and some travel cash.  Just what we like!  So good to spend a little time there.  The kids are growing up too fast...and what good kids they are...great parents.  (Not enough pics here - shucks!)  

Then we visited Moss and Christie and kids.  Kai was so excited about his new motorcycle!  Such a nice little family.  

Then we visited Derek and kids...and enjoyed a little "snowball" fight.  And it's just good to see them too.  Derek and the girls worked hard together to make Christmas happen.  Doing all of the work of getting ready for Christmas without a mom to help is a lot of work, but they made it happen. My heart goes out to them.  (Roxie loved the Hover Stars a lot!)  Argh...not enough pics here either!

Next the Weavers stopped by at our house for a fun little visit.  Juge is always thinking of fun gifts to add to what is already a great gift from the group.  She has a real knack of remembering or seeing things you might enjoy.  Grateful for this family.

On the way to Cedar we had a nice Facetime visit with Jay and Brynn.  They will be coming down in a few days, but it was fun to share a little Christmas Day time with them.  Looking forward to seeing them soon and doing a little late Christmas with them.  We are glad they make the effort to come down.  We are glad they are as close as they are.  

We ended the day in Cedar with the Randalls...another great family.  They are nice to let us come and help them eat up their Christmas dinner with them.  And they gave us great new family pictures and homemade sourdough bread.  

Jay and Brynn came down on the 30th for some after Christmas fun.  We kept our growing Christmas tree up and opened presents with them by it.  It's been fun to get to see them too!  

Here's Jem enjoying his Christmas "turduck" in the bath.  We thought he would like it!

This has been a crazy year in so many ways.  Family dinners, activities and Family Camp have all suffered from they Covid-19 restrictions.  But we are so blessed as a family to have kept our jobs and our health with only Derek actually getting sick so far.  For us personally, our work hasn't suffered much other than me missing some of the end of school last year.  We have so much to be grateful for.  

 

The final 'Grand Edventure' date of the year!

 It was hard to get this last date to happen.  We had hoped to take Zade, Koen, Noah and Brenden together like we try to do most of the time.  But Zade was under quarantine at the time and Noah was not available.  We took Brenden and Koen, but still needed to take the other two to finish this year's dates.  Then we were going to try again and Zade was again under quarantine!  So here we are down to the wire for this year and finally both boys were available at the same time!  We took them mini golfing at the same place we took the other two.  And they had a blast.  I don't think either one had been mini golfing much, but they picked it up and did a good job of being encouraging to each other while they improved their games.  Paul and I actually didn't do as well as usual.  Noah was pretty excited that he ended up winning.  It was fun to listen to these guys talk computer games and do a little cousin bonding in the back seat on the way to and from.  We didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but they left hoping to be able to get together on-line to play.  I call that a win.  We stopped at Burger King for ice cream and French fries and called it a good date!  And another year of dates is completed!  

The Christmas Tree!

We got our Christmas tree pretty early this year.  I was worried it wouldn't last well because it has been SO DRY this year.  We haven't had hardly any rain.  We went to get it the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It turned into a bit of an adventure when we got stuck in the tiniest bit of snow and mostly mud on a little downhill slope.  Usually we wouldn't even have been able to drive on this road in our 2-wheel drive little pick up, but we actually made it a little ways in because there was pretty much no snow except in shady spots.  But we did find a way to get stuck.  We tried a lot of things, but finally settled on digging up dirt and putting it behind the wheels to made a path.  Between that and Paul's great driving skills, we got unstuck.  And then we looked for Christmas trees.  We got a really cute one for Anna Lou and then found a pretty good one for us back in among lots of fallen trees that we had to climb over to get it out.  It needed a little trimming when we got it set up, but turned out to be a pretty nice tree.  And then last night - the 19th - we saw that it is actually sprouting new little needles!  We have never had a tree do that!  Here I was worried that it would be dry and dropping needles like crazy before Christmas even came and instead it's alive and growing!  Very unusual to say the least!

Covid ornaments, masks and birthdays

 Every year Juge's family get an ornament for their tree to reflect something about the year.  This year she made one for all of us.  Very appropriate!  

Fun mask reminder at a Hawaiian restaurant.  

 

We celebrated Gaige's #15 with masks on.  A week later the Borrowman grandparents (pictures) came down sick with Covid they probably caught from a son-in-law living at their house.  

Torin's Grand Edventure Date

We are running out of year...and dates.  Torin has usually had one-on-two dates with just me and Paul, but this year we wanted him to be able to have a cousin close to his age go along. He and Joel have gotten to know each other pretty well at canning events that their moms get together for, so we were lucky to be able to have Joel down in the area to take along.  We took them mini golfing...and it was a hoot.  At first they were whacking the ball so hard it was going out of the hole range.  Then they settled in and kept it in range and went to town getting it in however they could.  They'd both hit their first shot and then go down and try to beat each other getting it into the hole.  Kind of turned into a little bit of a free for all.  But it was lots of fun and we just went along to watch and giggle mostly.  Afterwards we went to the Dollar Store so they could choose a big box of candy.  Then they came back to our house to play for a little while until the Randalls were ready to head up the hill.  I'd say it was a success!  

A day out with the Randalls

We took a fun drive out Cottonwood Road with the Randalls on Saturday to show them some of our favorite places - Dolphin Arch Flat, Dolphin Arch and the Old quarry.  Then we had lunch and took Joel on a date with Torin while Lou and Brady ran errands and Ellie and Afton hung out at the house.  It was a beautiful day outside and so fun to spend time with these peeps.  

Happy #68 Paul!

Paul's birthday was a Friday...and we both had to work, but he did get what he wanted for breakfast.  He got to open presents afterwards, and then again later in the day when Ferf and Torin came bearing gifts from all the kids. (Jay and Brynn sent their own - a fun three month subscription to treats from around the world!)  He picked out the jacket while we were up north for our anniversary trip.  REI had just what he wanted.  He picked out and mostly cooked what he wanted for dinner - steak, DO potatoes and wedge salads from Outback.  I did all I could to help out, but he's the master steak and DO potato cooker in the family.  We are blessed to have Paul as husband, father and grandfather.  He is always doing his best to be wonderful in all of those roles.