Holidays of 2020

 In the whole of 2020, I made one post. 

It's kind of funny to think that while the whole world went topsy turvy with lockdowns and restrictions and virtual school and Zoom everything, I only managed to put one post on this blog. There might be an opportunity to play catch up!

I will start with a few pictures and thoughts of our holidays!

Where others might lament their "different" Thanksgiving or Christmas, I can't say that we felt that feeling as acutely.  We often spend our big holidays in Fort Collins, after learning that traveling can be too adventursome for the four of us. It's always a bit quiet at our house around the holidays, and this year was no exception. We rarely host "large" gatherings, so I don't think that we were too lonesome without our usual routines, and Cory even stated that this was his favorite holiday season so far (he relished in having less places to go and less holiday strife). 

with all of the trimmings--Christmas tree 2020

We had some really gorgeous days this fall, so when we could, we took a break outside

The kids and I have explored some trails here and there, but we have spent the most time--by far--in our own neighborhood walking the dogs. However, on one paricularly nice day, Ruby was hoping to do some rollerskating, so we hit the trail. Here's a little video of Ruby's moves.

The tree fence has become our new normal

We got out the Marty Moose glasses and toasted each other with a little egg nog

Preliminary stages of the tree

A word about the tree...

Every year since Cory and I moved in together in 2005, we have gone to get a live Christmas tree from the national forest. In 2009, I didn't go with Cory, but he and Lacey got a tree, and other than that we've spent the last ten years going near Red Feather Lakes to a spot where you can cut trees and the Forest Service staffs the land with volunteers (in 2019, we even had some time with Smoky the Bear). This year, we patronized a tree lot that was run as a fundraiser by a Boy Scout troop. This tree was great quality and smelled terrific, but it definitely was one of the hiccups in our 2020 holiday traditions. We bought the tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the girls didn't even accompany us (preferring to stay on the couch), so we got that tree up the earliest we've ever set it up. The girls helped decorate, and, as usual, got out all of their fun, musical ornaments that they've received over the years. 

a closeup of my grandma's china--the teacup and saucer 

The girls and the table setting

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving Day. For the past few years, we have celebrated Thanksgiving with our neighbors. This year, it was just the four of us, but it was okay--we did a traditional meal and simplified things a bit, and I set the table with china that I've rarely uesd. I dug out all of my grandma's china from boxes in the basement and we made the holiday festive with a beautiful table. We Zoomed with our extended families and we had much to be grateful for. 

Ordinarily, a fun tradition that we have participated in for the past several years is the Advent Workshop that is hosted at our church. In a regular year, it's an event where about 20-30 volunteers staff crafting tables and about 80-100 kids come through and create Christmas and holiday inspired crafts. This year, our church created craft kits for all of the families. One of the most amazing crafts in the bag was several peg dolls to create a nativity scene. Between myself, Scout and Ruby, we created baby Jesus, an angel, Mary, Joseph, three Magi and a donkey. They also gave us the resources to create an Advent wreath, and we used that each Sunday during the streaming online church service.

Paiting the nativity

A nearly complete nativity

The girls and the advent wreath

A picture of our room--the stockings were NOT hung by the chimeny on purpose, because we have to relocate them anytime Cory makes a fire.

Another fun thing that happened in December--Scout took up a sewing project. For Scout's second quarter of her year of 7th grade virtual school, she has an elective called "Extended Learning Opportunity." In this elective, she got to choose something that she wanted to work on, and she chose to "Make Clothes for Dogs." She did really well at creating these dog bandanas that have a small sleeve so that the bandana can go around the dog's collar. (She actually created a couple for Lacey and Devon's dogs as well as several for our dogs.) She even created a jacket for Furley.

Another fun night at home was spent with a big ginger bread house undertaking. We glued them together and used all the fixings that came with the kits AND we added more of our own candy. Because, why not? 

Something truly fun that the girls look forward to each year is that Grandma Margie puts together an advent calendar. This year, it was abbreviated because we lost Grandma Marlene on November 10th and Margie had a lot of things competing for her time, but it was still ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR. Here is just one example of what they found when they woke up each morning. (And, furthermore, it must be stated that the advent calendar was a huge motivation for kids to get up each morning!)

We also celebrated St. Nick's Day, and the girls got weapons... so we have only had one family-wide battle, but I imagine we'll have more eventually. Here they are wearing the matching jammies that Grandma Karen and Papa Matty got them for St. Nick's day. 

We were really thrilled that Ruby's dance group could do a brief performance at a local senior facility. 

Here is a brief video of them performing Run, Run, Rudolph.  Here is a photo of the set up. They tperformed outside in early December, and they really lucked out because the weather was gorgeous. They had their cute matching outfits and face masks and the whole thing was over in a flash. They also performed over zoom a week later and I was able to share that link with our extended family, so many people got to see Ruby perform who probably wouldn't have come to her performance otherwise--score one for virtual performing!

I mentioned earlier that we lost grandma Marlene in November, and my Aunt Jan sent a beautiful ornament to help us remember her. It has glass microbeads shaped into an angel attached to a hand blown glass ornament, and it is a special gift to help us remember a special lady.

We tried to take advantage of any of the outside light-viewing opportunities. There was an outside drive-through location on the southeast side of town that was a fundraiser for Colorado Youth Outdoors. 

On December 21, we went for a long drive to see if we could catch "The Christmas Star." While not really a star at all, but the convergence of the paths of both Jupiter and Saturn, we were able to see it from farther away from the foothills. It was a fun drive and a good excuse to leave the house.

Once school had ended for the semester, we had a chance to celebrate with some Chick-Fil-A. On this particular day, the kids were working on an amazing video that they could share with their family. The goal: create a movie trailer for a Hallmark Christmas movie. Here is their spectacular work!

In November, Aunt Lacey and Uncle Devon moved to Fort Collins. We have seen them a few times, mostly on the porch! 

On Christmas Eve for the past few years, we have gone over to our neighbors Pam and Jim's house for food and games and fun. They are wonderful hosts. However, this year, Pam organized for all of us to buy tickets for an entrance to the Gardens on Spring Creek.  I didn't get any photos of the neighbors... they were all cruising on through, but we did get a chance to see their lovely faces from behind their masks. Here are few photos of all of us.

Something unusual I tried this year--I sewed each of us a pair of pajama pants! I normally try to find some sort of holiday pajama apparel, mostly for the kids, but occasionally for Cory, too, but this year--we ALL got some jammie pants. It was a fun and mostly easy project. Mine have seals wearing winter hats, Ruby has narwhals with candy cane horns, Scout's have sushi, and Cory's have cars riding around with trees and holiday packages ontop of the vehicle.

At 8 pm, we stepped out on the porch and played silent night and sang--it was organized by the local Unitarian church, and everyon could participate from their own little corner of the world.

The next day, we opened up gobs and gobs of awesome gifts, from our beloveds near and far. One particular hit was the big bean bag chair that Ruby got from Grandma and Papa in Sundance. Ruby dragged that huge thing all over the place on Christmas Day, and it has been living on the floor in front of the TV ever since. 

This was the wonderful drawing that Scout created for our Christmas card. I shared it on Instagram and Facebook and several people inquired if she could make one for them! I told her she could consider a little side buisiness!

As far as Christmas dinner, we thought a lot about what to make! We figured that we weren't tied to any specific traditions or concerns, so why not do whatever we want! We came up with a strategy to replicate the meals that we love at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We had salads, apple sauce, Italian creme sodas, pasta with a variety of toppings (including, of course, the mzithra cheese!), and then we had a makeshift spumoni ice cream for dessert (we searched two grocery stores and came up empty handed for spumoni, so we used separate chocolate, pistachio and cherry ice creams to achieve the same general effect). 

We also used Grandma Reichert's beautiful china again. It was so fun to get the table all pretty, and I am really happy that we used it this year. Both times when I got it out, it was very well-received by the kids. Who doesn't like fancy stuff?

There are more pictures and more memories, but I will stop here: the holidays of 2020 went by too fast, as they always do. I have lots more to reflect upon in the future about the entire year of 2020 and the many curve balls that were thrown my way and how I--and my amazing husband and children--adapted, but for now, I feel grateful. Our cups runneth over.