Staycation 2020 ~ The Week of Christmas

 

We had a lovely Christmas. Not only did we wake up to snow, but everyone got just what they wanted. Anne pretty much asked for socks, a Nutribullet (for her smoothies) and some stretching equipment. I think she was even more excited for my impulse buy of the 15 Days of The Nightmare Before Christmas Socks then she was for the socks she requested ~ lol. A little pleasant surprise here and there is always nice. 

Speaking of surprises. Elijah asked for a Steam gift card, a modeling kit and a watermelon. Yep, you heard me right. Okay, there is a story to this one. Every year since he was a little boy, he has begged me to tell him what he was getting for Christmas. I always told him that he was getting a watermelon. It just became a joke between us and a way for him to know that I wasn't going to continue this conversation... he would just have to wait. This year, he changed it up and asked for a watermelon on his Christmas list. He really couldn't think of much that he wanted. I decided to fulfill his wish and got him a watermelon. There was so much laughter when he opened it up and he proclaimed this the best Christmas ever. (I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the kids didn't ask for very much this year. It looked like there was lots under the tree because my gift wrapping girl extraordinaire [Anne] wrapped everything in sizable boxes; including socks, lotion, gift cards and bath bombs.)

Rosie's favorite gift was a catnip snowman.

We spent about an hour sledding on Christmas. That was so cool. Here are my three sweeties sharing one sled. 

My husband got in on the action, too.

My husband had the week off for Christmas this year. We decided to make it a socially distant staycation. We did some home projects and a few fun outings.

One of my Christmas gift's was getting this gallery wall put up. I collected all of the frames from thrift stores. I am glad to have many photos of our ancestors up on the wall.

We did confetti cannons for New Year's Eve. We also played games and watched online our fourth Nutcracker of the season. Yes...fourth. Each one was different and took a unique angle on the Nutcracker. It was fun to see dance companies for which we would not have been able to afford the in-person ticket price in normal years. Since they were live streamed or pre-recorded films, they were available for free or for a small fee for the link. I liked the UNCSA performance the best.

We decided to do take-out with our local ceramics shop. They have a cool program going on where you can pick out ceramics to paint at home. They let you pick about four colors per ceramic. Once they are painted, you return them to the store for firing in a kiln. It was lots of fun and honestly more relaxing to do at home, because we were not on a time crunch like you would be in the studio. We could come and go from the project if we wished. Elijah decided to put together one of his models instead of making a ceramic. He can't stand the feel of unglazed ceramics. His sensory issues make him feel that his skin is crawling when he touches them. 

These are ready to go back for firing in a kiln.

We went on our third drive-thru light show. This was the Shadrock show and was about an hour from our home. It was very modern and like a rock concert. The lights were synchronized to the music on our radio. It was pretty spectacular. However, I still liked the classic and beautiful lights at the arboretum  the best. 

We only managed one hike this week. I loved getting these photos of my lovelies. 

These two love their new scratching house. One of them always seems to be in it. 

We also got the regular version of the Catan game. We had the family version. It is just as much fun and keeping us entertained. 

Our daughter, Katie, turned 20 and was diagnosed with COVID this week. She is doing okay. She pretty much sleeps all the time. Hopefully, she will make a full recovery without incident. She does have some special needs (such as chronic anemia), but they aren't high risk factors that I hear about making COVID worse. 

I hope you all have a blessed 2021 and that we can start to heal as a nation.

Blessings, Dawn