Easter 2021

It seems like Easter is always a bit rushed, given its proximity to Spring Break. 

But we didn't care. 

We got off the plane on good Friday. 

The next day we dyed eggs. 

Easter is a nice low pressure holiday. You throw some candy in a basket, heat up a ham, and voila - It's properly celebrated. 

The kids still consented to hunt eggs this year. Probably because they contained candy. 

We need photo evidence while we can get it. Every year could be the last hunt. 

Happy Easter!

 

Sun, Space and a Sea Kayak

If there's one thing we've learned during the pandemic, it's this:

Florida will never turn us away. 

Chris and I were fully vaccinated by the time Spring Break rolled around. But we would have gone even if we hadn't been. We've been cooped up for too long. So, for the second time in less than a year, we got on a plane to Florida for a little sun. 

Kennedy Space center was pretty amazing. After visiting Johnson Space canter a couple years ago, we had to complete the spacey tour of the country. 

This is the space shuttle Atlantis. It lives in a big building on the space center campus. It's pretty cool.

The hours were shortened due to covid, but we saw most of what we wanted to see. And we had plenty of time after closing to visit Cocoa Beach. 

The next day, we engaged in a bit of kayaking.

When we decided to reserve a kayaking adventure, I had visions of paddling alongside a friendly manatee. Someone in our group caught a glimpse of one of the mythical creatures.  But the closest we got were some manatee bubbles. They were pretty amazing bubbles. We did see a couple dolphins. That was a nice consolation prize. 

And then, because we couldn't not, we drove across the peninsula to the Gulf of Mexico. Because Clearwater is amazing and we had to spend some time there. 

Also because Winter the Dolphin lives there. Winter isn't looking too lively these days so I'm really glad Jane got to see her one more time. 

I'm really glad that Florida won't turn us away. The girls are getting older and I don't know how many more family vacations are left in the hopper. We try to be careful, but we also refuse to let these years be stolen by a pandemic. 

Thanks, Florida. We'll be back. 

 

Winter Wonderland 2021

 

It's been a pretty dry winter so it only makes sense that the entire winter would be compressed into the course of a few days. 

We saw 30 inches of snow fall over the course of a couple days. 

This resulted in us being trapped for 4 days. That's a long time when you live in a small house with two adolescent kids. 

Luckily, Jane didn't spend much time inside. 

School was cancelled for a week. Work was technically called off. Unfortunately, I had received remote access a year ago when the pandemic started. So, because I could log in to my work computer, I was required to. 

The first day I was irritated with this arrangement. 

But by the third day, I was pretty happy just to have something to do. 

It was a relief when we could finally get out into the world again... replenish our fridge and interact with other humans. 

This storm followed the pattern of so many others - at first the novelty was fun, but cabin fever set in quickly. Thank goodness we're so close to spring. I'm not sure I can take much more of this. 

Them's the Breaks

It happened again.

The only difference was, this time, I was home. Also, I was actually inciting the behavior that caused Jane to break her arm.

We have a small entryway between the living room and kitchen. I was showing Jane how I could put my back against one wall and my feet against the other and magically suspend myself a couple feet off the ground, thanks to the beauty of friction. 

Of course Jane wanted to try. 

Jane is a great sport and the best playmate that a 41 year old girl could have. 

She tried.

She fell. 

She screamed. 

I knew from the pitch of the scream that she was hurt. 

I was in the midst of blaming myself, so Chris took her to urgent care. He sent a pic of the x-ray. He couldn't see it, but I could. The same break as 7 months ago. The same place. Different am. 

Again, no cast. The break was too near the shoulder. Just a sling and a wrap for a month. The orthopedic surgeon assures us that it is just bad luck. Jane doesn't have a rare disease that weakens her bones. He also said a little vitamin D wouldn't hurt her. After all, we live in the frozen tundra and it is a long, dark winter. 

Jane's primary care doctor says she would rather see kids with broken bones, due to activity, than obesity, due to inactivity. I guess that's a good way to look at it.

Jane will spend a little time doing things awkwardly. But since it is her little arm this time, she will be able to care for herself. Last time was more challenging because it was the big arm. 

And when she's older, she will have some great cautionary tales for her own children. 

 

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.