The Christmas that Still Was

Christmas in the time of COVID....

It wasn't actually a whole lot different. 

The girls still made a birthday cake for Jesus.

And we still had our lazy-mom-make-your-own-darn-sandwich Christmas Eve dinner.

Jane's sweater put us all in a festive mood. 

The girls got new pajamas and then we went out to go see Christmas lights, stopping at a convenience store along the way for hot chocolate. 

And then made the girls go to bed so we could make the magic of Christmas happen. 

Every year our Christmas tree has one special ornament that represents our travels. For awhile, we thought there wouldn't be a travel ornament for 2020. And, yet, here it is.

Seeing this ornament, instead of the stupid toilet paper and mask one that everybody has, makes me so grateful. I can't express how incredible it was to have a week of magic in the middle of the misery. 

Something else new this year....

I was talking to Chris about how parents don't get stockings and how that kind of makes me sad. We've never had stockings before. So... on Christmas Eve, while I was busy with baking and the like, he went out and saw what Menards had left on the shelf. Because Menards is where you go for Everything. 

Below is the Masterpiece that he found...

right next to Jane and Emily's homemade stockings. They look like medical devices. 

Thanks, Chris, for the very, very sweet thought. 

Christmas morning proceeded as usual.

Emily got a Nintendo Switch and not much else. Because those things are pricey. 

Jane got a million little things and showed disproportionate excitement about every single one. Every hair clip, every backpack pin, every book was met with Joy. 

We rounded out the morning nicely with some cinnamon rolls

and a great deal of Animal Crossing. Christmas ended with a screening of the movie "Soul", which was lovely and fun and sweet. 

It was a delightful day. 

 

20 Years

20 years ago, Chris and I were 21 years old. We didn't know much about life but we knew a few things:

We loved each other.

We wanted to be together forever.

We would, respectively, never be able to find another human being who shared our senses of humor with the notable exception of each other.

So we made it official. 

20 years later, we still know all those things to be true. We've seen more, good and bad, than our 21 year old selves ever dreamed of. But we still love each other unreservedly. 

2020 was supposed to be a huge year for us... 5 years cancer free and 20 years of marriage. Both of those celebrations look wildly different than anticipated. I guess that's fitting with the rest of our marriage. Not as planned, but beautiful nonetheless. 

Next year we can have a blowout anniversary date or trip or, really anything that involves leaving our house for more than a couple hours. This year it's enough to know that we're alive, we're together and we're in love.

Happy 20 years Chris!

A Dozen Years of Jane

12 years ago I was so worried that having a baby two weeks before Christmas would make it so Jane's birthday would be swallowed up in Christmas.

Luckily I ended up with a kid who loves Christmas so much that she wanted an Elf birthday party a couple years ago.

This year, there were no birthday parties due to The Great Unpleasantness, but she desperately wanted to open her presents under the tree... just to make things seem a little more festive. So glad she embraces the proximity of her birthday and Christmas.

 

Jane's really into unicorns right now, so there were many unicorn themed items at her celebration.

When you're twelve in our house, there are a couple rites of passage.

The first is ear piercing. 

I figure 12 is old enough to be responsible for your holes. Both to make sure they don't get infected and to keep earrings in often enough so they don't close up. Jane is thrilled to finally be able to wear real earrings. 

When you're a little sister, it's tough watching your big sister get to have all the rights and privileges that come with age while you wait your turn. In no other way was this more transparent than in the cell phone issue. 

Anyone who knows Jane knows that she craves the company of other humans. Lockdown has been hard on her and it's been especially hard because she wasn't old enough for a phone. 

When the phone was finally in her hands, she took to it like a fish to water. 

It's not a smartphone. We're not there yet. But she has enjoyed several marathon phone calls with her friends and sent us random texts such as "Chicken nugget" and "I am JANE". Right now, her favorite thing is to put her phone on speaker with her friends and then just go about her life for hours at a time. If they feel like talking, they talk. Not my cup of tea, but whatever makes Jane feel more connected during social distancing is okay with me. 

I'm grateful that I get to have Jane in my life. I'm not sure what I did right to get such a funny, creative, charismatic little creature in my family, but I can't imagine life without her. 

 

Thankful Together... Apart

Of all the Holidays this year, Thanksgiving has been the weirdest. 

My folks are leaving soon for a year long mission in England so we really wish we could have spent Thanksgiving together. But we decided it was too risky. 

The day before Thanksgiving we headed South to spend some time outdoors and masked with cousins. 

It was the best we could do given the circumstances. 

The kids were thrilled to get to see their cousins, even if it was just a couple of hours. 

And then, we had our own little Thanksgiving, followed by a Zoom session with the rest of the family. 

It was weird. And a little sad.

But when my brother came down with COVID the week before Thanksgiving and my sister came down with it two days after Thanksgiving, we were grateful that we hadn't gotten together to celebrate. One small thing to be grateful for in this weird world we are living in. 

 

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

As with the other holidays this year, we tried to make Halloween as normal as possible. 

We mostly succeeded. 

Pumpkins were carved. 

Jane's is the one with bows, Emily's is the Dwight K. Schrute one.

Costumes were donned.

Jane is Dorothy. Emily is a WWII service member. That's all the specifics I know...

And candy was collected. 

This is just Jane's haul. I think it was her best year. Jane is a sunset to lights off style trick-or-treater. While the traffic of trick-or-treaters was a little bit lighter this year, it still was relatively steady. For better or worse, we don't live in the kind of place that cancels Halloween due to a pandemic. I'm glad for that because the kids needed it. They need every morsel of normalcy they can possibly get this year.

 

Rock Springs

 We don't get out much.

We didn't get out much before the pandemic, but now, we don't even get out much by our standards.

In a normal year, a trip to Rock Springs wouldn't be noteworthy. This year, it makes the highlights reel.

Chris' dad has adopted a family of deer.

I think this is illegal... just between you and me.

We toured Rock Springs, showing the kids the sights. 

Like my childhood home...

And my teenagehood home...

And the very special spot in Chris' backyard where we shared our first kiss...

We did not share this detail with Jane, which is why she's smiling while standing on that fateful rock.

We also visited Green River. Because you cannot visit Sweetwater County without getting a Lime Rickey from Arctic Circle and crossing the Green River to Expedition Island.

That right there... that's an iconic Green River shot.

It's a long drive across the state, but it was good to see Chris' dad (not pictured here... oops) and to stroll through the memories of our very similar, yet somehow separate childhoods. 

Back to School: COVID Style

The kids went back to school today. 

I never thought that would feel so strange.

Emily left before the dawn... off to high school. 

I walked with Jane for one last first day of Elementary school.

Both the kids have to wear masks at school. Fortunately, our trip to Disneyworld prepared them for full time mask wearing. Right now, I am just grateful that something exists that helps them be in school... with their friends... having some sense of normalcy. I think if they were told they had to wear rainbow colored clown wigs and plastic raincoats all day they'd do it just to get back to school.

After school, Jane and I made cookies and talked about her day. She likes being the BKOC. She uses her upperclassman powers wisely, striving to help the kinders rather than torment them. 

The school district says, barring a huge disaster, they won't send the kids home this year. It's too important for them to be in school. After last spring, I agree. The girls have already perked up and started acting more like their normal selves. I don't want to give that up again.