While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads...
Well, it's time for the Covid Holidays! Despite all the craziness this year, we are still going to make this a memorable season! I'm continuing in a hybrid learning program: Mon-Wed at home on Zoom, and Thursday/Friday mornings in person at my new school. My old elementary school closed permanently, so I'm getting used to the new campus and new people...and so far I like it. But I'd like it a lot better if we got to go to school in person every day! Thankfully my best friend, Haines, gets to come over to my house twice a week since he's in our "pod". I'm still able to go to my fencing lessons twice a week...it's the perfectly socially distanced sport. If you get within 6 feet of another person, they stab you with a sword! I'm also still practicing piano. And every day at 1pm, I get to FaceTime Gran for "Gran reading"...I'm getting better and more confident in reading out loud.
On a hike with Haines
Teaching Keevah how to play piano
When I'm not fencing, studying, reading, or playing piano...I also have become a really good computer programmer. Dada calls me a "programming demon"! I'm really enjoying programming all kinds of games, including a version of pacman & frogger. I also love playing with Spirit, Chaos & watching our 13 chickens. Thankfully, they finally started laying a lot of eggs (up to 13 PER DAY!) ...cause Mama was threatening to get rid of them for being free-loaders for so long.
FeeFee la Benjo walked into the house one day..Spirit was not amused
The eggs are so pretty!
Sharing is caring
We celebrated a small Thanksgiving at home...and Mama made all the traditional fixings. My favorite is mashed potatoes and turkey legs! Mama finally learned the trick to making us all happy - this year she bought 6 turkey legs. We basically forgot to take any pictures of thanksgiving...except the family outside and one of the kids table!
With Gee & Grandpa
Kids table with Ian & Annika
We actually decorated the house for Christmas (except the tree) about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving this year. We just needed an early pick-me-up with all the Covid craziness. But we saved getting the Tree for the day after Thanksgiving. Gee & Grandpa came with us to pick out the perfect 10 foot tall tree. Keevah & I both agreed that it is the perfect tree! And it's our first Christmas in the new house!
Family jammies for decorating the tree
Mama, two kids and two dogs...
The tree is all done!
Dada hung up the lights outside - and it was the first year that Keevah was allowed to join us on the roof
On December 1st, the Elves returned as Harry Potter! We missed Pit, Twinkle & Sparkle!
They keep hiding with the Christmas decorations
We really missed our annual trip to San Francisco to see the Nutcracker live at the ballet. Every year, we get all fancy and drive to the city for the big performance. Then we go our to an awesome restaurant afterwards. I think Mama and Dada could tell we were missing our traditions...so they organized a really cool Nutcracker Night at home! We got all dressed up: makeup, shoes and all...and had front row tickets to our own couch to see the Hip Hop Nutcracker. We like the traditional Nutcracker also, but this hip hop version was so cool - done by a professional dance troupe in New Jersey via a live-stream. We had sparkling cider and snacks for the show, and the grown ups enjoyed a cocktail! Mama even bought us each a fancy nutcracker as a gift, since we usually get to pick one out each year at the San Francisco Ballet's shop.
All dressed up for the Nutcracker at home
Our new nutcrackers: Keevah got an Ice King, and I got Drosselmeyer
And, we also got to visit Santa Claus in Napa! It was a bit different than normal...no sitting on laps and a lot of masks. We have to make sure to keep Santa safe from all the germs so he can keep the Christmas Spirit alive! I'm hoping for a Nerf Gun (since Keevah broke mine from last year by replacing the foam pellets with ROCKS!), a fencing foil, and an Ant Farm. Keevah is asking for a Wild Kratts creature power suit and a new ipad. Mama and dada both seem pretty relieved we're not asking for any live animals this year!
All dressed up for Santa
So fun to meet Santa! We asked all kinds of questions!
My Christmas list
Come back in a few weeks to learn about our holiday season! Mama's birthday is tomorrow, so I have to get going!
In the midst of home schooling, and delayed by fires, we finally were able to enjoy a weekend on a houseboat on Lake Shasta in October. We went with two other families in our "pod". Despite a crazy adventure on the first night, where we became un-moored due to high winds!!!...we ended up having a nice weekend. The boat was huge and super fun - my favorite part was the jacuzzi on the top deck. The water was cooler than we had hoped, since we got delayed from our planned September dates. I managed to spend a whole weekend on the boat without ever getting wet! I went on the giant party bird, the floating dock, and even did some inner-tubing...but managed only to get a few sprinkles on me! Declan, on the other hand, really enjoyed the water with Levi & Indy... particularly the water slide and the party bird. Declan also really loved fishing! The grown ups got to relax a tiny bit - but it sure did seem like a lot of work to get everything organized, cooked, cleaned, and put away!
Our home for the weekend
I'm hosing off Lucius as part of a game with the hose!
Declan enjoying fishing, alone with his thoughts
Helping Dada steer the boat
The water slide is fun!
Declan and Mama in tandem!
Lucius, Indy, Keevah, Declan checking out the view
Mama, Me & Declan tubing..
Mama & Miss Nicole tubing, while the kids watch
Exploring the shore in my jammies
Early morning snuggles with Mama
Warming up in the jacuzzi
Declan, Levi & Indy playing on the floating dock & the party bird
Back home, we focused on getting ready for a different type of Halloween due to Covid. We were still able to go the pumpkin patch...and had fun picking out tons of pumpkins. But, the large slide and hay maze were missing this year. This was our first Halloween in our new house, so it was fun to figure out how the decorations worked here.
And then for Halloween, we had just a few families over (after negative Covid testing!) for a Mad Science Halloween Party. We got to wear our Grinch family costumes - and had so much fun dressing up & playing for this rare occasion! I was Cindy Lou Who, Declan was the Grinch, Mama was Miss Martha May Whovier, and Dada was the Mayor of Whoville. After mandatory photos, we delved into all sorts of experiments with dry ice, slime, screeching balloons, and more! We did science for a few hours, and then went trick-or-treating to TWO neighbor homes...and they treated us with whole bags of king sized candy bars! Then we played games and watched a movie while the grownups had an elegant spooky gothic dinner party, complete with dry ice cocktails in beakers and bloody candy glass on red velvet cupcakes.
The Grinch family
Declan & Haines
Dry Ice fun
Dry Ice experiments
Blowing dry ice bubbles
Playing with vampire slime
Keevah & Ellie with slime!
Dada, the mad scientist
Declan's fire tornado!
Me & Ellie with the mummy meatballs and spider hotdogs
Mama and her witch's brew cocktail
Mama's beautiful dinner table
What I looked like after all the fun...
There were a few other dress up days leading up to Halloween... I'm going to Connolly Ranch every afternoon, and having a lot of fun with the girls in my "pod". We had a crazy hair day and a costume day at camp. But, Mama wouldn't let me wear my Cindy Lou Who outfit so it wouldn't get dirty...so I wore a pumpkin costume that Mama wore almost 40 years ago (made by Gee & Great Grammie!) We also had a crazy hair day - and boy did I go crazy!
Mama's old pumpkin costume
Crazy hair day!
Declan continues to enjoy his fencing through all this pandemic. He jokes that it's the perfect sport for Covid - since he wears double masks and has to stay 6 feet away from his opponent or risk being stabbed!!!
Our Chickens have also started laying eggs! And we let Grandpa have the first ones since he built their whole coop!
And finally - some cute videos of the dogs and one of Grandpa too!
