Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020 Year in Review

I'm not going to get too wordy trying to summarize this year.  

In many ways, it was one of the best ever, and yet, for those exact same reasons, it was one full of trying times.  The boys were home with me/together so much more than usual that I do think they had the opportunity to grow closer in their brotherhood.  Flipside, they have really missed their friends and social events and sporting events, etc.  I have learned how to Zoom and Google Call and Google Classroom, etc, by being around for the distance learning that has taken place since March 2020.  The boys went to school only one 5-day week in the fall.  17 days in class total.  Reid spends most of my workdays at the church with me so I can keep tabs on his progress (or lack of) while Grant and Kyle will come some; also, a good/bad situation.  Jason was home for two months due to Covid-19 shutdowns and/or quarantine.... Also, Jason missed working for 1/6 of our annual income!  

Here's to a year we won't forget anytime soon, and good wishes and prayers for healing and "normalcy" in 2021!

Annual sugar cooking baking happened after Christmas!  But, at least it happened.  The boys have been asking for a few weeks about it. Thanks, Covid!  Thanks to GG for making the dough and to the boys for being amazing decorators.  :) 


Eddie loves me.  And I love him.  I was sitting on the floor reading and he hopped on to the couch to rest his chin on my shoulder.  Ahhhh....


New Years Eve - Jason, Reid and I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  

Check out Reid's video of our amazing night!

https://youtu.be/_sdKuLq7xj0

Grant and Kyle went and at pizza at a friend's house!

Monday, December 28, 2020

Christmas 2020

Leading up to Christmas...
We had carolers!  The Joyces and Aicheles came to treat us to two carols.  Very festive!

We went to Westwood and burned some energy on the playground on the field.

Our coronavirus boy had to wear an N95 but we let him out of his room after several days of isolation.  Six have been confirmed on his basketball team.

I took this from the Air Force instagram as it is a way better picture than ours of "the north star" where Jupiter and Saturn were aligned to form an extra bright star.

Christmas Eve

Sammy ended his visit with a little mess of wrapping items.  Oops.

 
Reid accidentally touched him, and unbeknownst to me, if you sprinkle a little cinnamon on the elf, then he is okay and not troubled by the human touch.  Who knew?!

Mom took this of the Hall families facetiming us on Christmas Eve.



My cute parents!

Our family selfie - blurry!


Christmas Eve service from home

In the Hallmark movies, they string popcorn.  So, while we had extra time, we did it ourselves this year!  It was fun, a little messy, and Kyle ended up eating all of his from his room instead of making a strand.


The boys wrapped my gift this year - a variety of paper, creepy men's photos on the top and "Stacewere" everywhere on labels.  Thanks, guys.



Christmas Day
We ran out to the land to return the buggy and Reid took his plane from Santa.

Just a day in the life of Reid's brain - his roster on the chalkboard from upstairs.


Walker Family Christmas - 26th
First day out of quarantine!



We wore masks inside and ate outside (pretty day!) and had a wonderful visit with family.










Eddie cuddles at nighttime


Hall Family Christmas
Sunday the 27th




They've got her in height by a lot now!

Kyle modeled his new fish shoes all day. Lovely, eh?




Kyle got a new rod of some sort that he has wanted for months.







We got a pool table upstairs at the boys' requests for a few years.

LaRue turned 88!