Tuesday, December 22
We had plans to meet up with Dan and Chantell and hike around some Fredericksburg battlefields. But first, a stop at Lydle. One time when we were visiting D&C in Virginia, we passed by a Lydle, which looked like an Aldi, and I mentioned I’d love to stop there sometime. Matt remembered and made a point of planning and shopping there. It really is the little things. 💕
I do love a grocery store, especially a foreign one, but I also like different grocery stores in different states. I love food so this makes sense to me but maybe is weird? Anyways, they had mini carts and the littlest girls loved “shopping,” and they each bought a pack of donuts with their own money and requested I place my items in their carts. I suspect addie would have also liked a mini cart, but 12 1/2 is a tough age and she acted the part.
It was cold but we layered and had a very enjoyable hike.
We went 5 miles and the girls let us know. It was a nice and safe covid outing.
That night we dropped some goodies off at a friends and went to look at Christmas lights. We saw a fox driving around and we were so surprised we stopped and stared and I finally thought to take a picture. It’s a terrible pic, but I’m including it because my memory is so bad, but pictures take me back to that exact moment and that’s one reason I love them so. We sang Christmas songs loudly and with gusto and it was just a great day all around.
Wednesday, December 23
The girls had their date with papa to watch Christmas Chronicles 2 The rest of us enjoyed a quiet house. #winning
That night we got jingled which is always so fun. And these girls are so grown up. Our baby is going to be 9 next month and I can hardly believe it.
Thursday, December 24
I went for an 8 mile run that morning and it was such a beautiful day. It was warm and a little windy, and the sky was overcast with a storm brewing. It was perfect long distance running weather and I loved it. Running is hard but also spiritual and empowering and I am learning to appreciate it, if not enjoy it.
One Christmas many years ago, someone was giving away clear glass bulbs. I snatched them up thinking it would be so fun to create ornaments with the girls. Then I proceeded to unpack and repack them up in my Christmas bins for many, many years. I almost had to do that again this year, but on Wednesday night I put my foot down (on myself). I had the girls find ideas and we made a shopping list and on Thursday morning Alli and I picked up a few last minute items, and then went by Michael’s for a few craft supplies. We got several cute ornaments decorated, and some not so cute ones, but everyone was happy and I won’t be packing up several untouched packs of ornaments this year. 🙌🏼
This one was my favorite - cut up cd mosiac.
That afternoon the girls and I delivered a few gifts and ornaments to friends. We went out during a break from the rain, so it was pretty and not bad to drive in.
That night we all pitched in to make cookies for Santa.
Because we were all baking, Matt ordered a delicious Oga’s dinner.
Bubba came over and we were all feeling so festive and merry.
Pajama time is always exciting!
Alli and I had talked our pajama plan out early. 2020 was a good year to be a woman - 100 years since women’s suffrage and our first female vp. We decided to make personalized shirts with phrases from some of our favorite influential women. Amelia Airheart for Matt, Oprah Winfrey for Frankie, and my grandma Seagrove for my dad just to name a few. And then we were super basic and got red Buffalo plaid bottoms just like everyone else in America. In our defense, that’s all we could find to match our shirts and many sizes. And also it’s in right now and I’m not sorry.
Marie Curie quote for the baby scientist. And even T got in on the red Buffalo plaid.
I presented the crew with a family gift I had found - Flushin Frenzy.
You roll a die, plunge the toilet the number of times on the die, and at some point, a piece of poop pops out.
The person that catches the most, wins.
I’m not a fan of poo and I can easily say I’ve never had so much fun with it either.
Papa took pictures of our matching pjs.
Crazy crew.
My forever.
These are some strong, smart, beautiful, kind, and fun girls.
And their goofy strong, smart, handsome, and kind brother.
Missing our Finlayson crew but excited that next year we’ll have another little member of our crew to love on.
We read Luke 2 and said our prayers and tucked in our littles. Then we got to work. To give us some noise cover, Matt put on
50 First Dates. We meant just to watch while we set up stockings, but it is such a funny and sweet movie that we ended up watching the whole thing.
Alli volunteered to do the stockings and it was amazing. For the first time in 25 Christmases I didn’t do stockings and it was such a treat. I made sure not to fill my own stocking, so opening it in the morning was a fun surprise.
That night it stormed wildly. It was like someone was spraying our windows with a firehose it was raining so hard and we had crazy strong wind gusts.
Matt and I slept in till almost 9 Christmas morning! No more babies to wake us up. We came down and everyone was happily eating candy and playing with stocking fun. We called my dad and let him know it was time to come over and everyone waited patiently. And then we all took turns opening.
Everyone was so thoughtful and so excited to see their gift recipients open their gifts. And to open their own gifts too, of course.
It took a long time with 8 of us and we all cheered and oohed and it was perfect.
Papa got a new laser printer, only it’s not the right one, so back to the store it will go. Oops. 🤷♀️
This handsome boy got a training potty and tried it out. He loves his little lion and carries it everywhere and had a wonderful and quiet 2nd Christmas.
Bubba. 😂🙄
As we were wrapping up our present opening, someone looked outside and yelled that it was snowing. A snowing Christmas!!! Not necessarily white, because it didn’t stick on account of it being 60° the day before, but it was beautiful and the girls were thrilled.
Snow on Christmas!!! 💕 ❄️ 💕
😍
After all the present opening and some playing and eating, we watched Wonder Woman 84. About halfway though, Christian got a text from Jeanne, who had been feeling sick. She’d gone to urgent care and her rapid covid test came back positive. 😩 Christian quickly gathered his things and set off to urgent care. My dad had gone home for a bit, so we let him know it was probably safest for him to stay home. We all just kind of looked at each other like, okay, it’s happened. The rest of the day was fine, but tinged with anxiety and worry. We tried to make the best of it, but goodness we are tired of covid and we’ve tried to be so careful and just so many emotions. We finished our movie and worked a little harder to be merry.
The girls did an archeological dig and found some pretty gems.
We played some Skee Ball and Chameleon and played with new toys.
Alli had planned the dinner menu and it was a deliciously fancy dinner. Cheese and spinach stuffed steak with a bernaise sauce, scalloped potato’s, honey butter rolls, and colorful carrots. It was yummy and I always enjoy a meal I didn’t cook.
Saturday, December 26
Saturday was a weird day. Weird anticipation and wondering what the next few weeks would bring. Would we all be sick? Would only a few of us and we’d have to separate on different floors? Christian, alone at his house? My dad alone at his? Not fearful and not doom and gloom, just kind of anxiety and anticipation hanging over everything. We played more games and watched Soul, which I loved. We spent the whole day all together, eating yummy food and listening to Christmas music, because you still can right after Christmas. We took a plate of food to our dad and talked about ordering our first grocery delivery. We have been having a lot of fun with our new game. We’ve been playing games a lot this year, so it’s been nice to have a rotation.
Late that afternoon Christian called. He’d driven all over, searching for a clinic to do a rapid test. He told me I was never going to believe his news, and then we got disconnected. 😱 We finally got back on and he said he’d driven to an infectious disease clinic in Columbia and had paid $125 for a blood test. They said his IGM was negative (no covid), but his IGG was positive, which means he has had covid and has antibodies! He was right, I couldn’t believe it.
Then we all talked and talked and tried to figure out what that meant for the rest of us. We talked to Sara and Amy talked to her friend who is an epidemiologist. They both said we are probably fine, but Christian could have still been shedding virus, so really who knows. It’s all v clear cut and v easy to figure out. 😩 We were already planning to quarantine, so we’re just sticking to our original plan. What a roller coaster 24 hours. And when did he have covid? And did any of us? The Red Cross has changed their blood donation rules, and now for the first time ever they will allow people that lived in Germany to donate, so Alli and I set up an appt to give blood and they’ll check for antibodies for free. Everybody wins.
Sunday, December 27
Matt sported his crochet bow tie from Lori for our Zoom church.
We spent the day much like our other days. Delaney video chatted with Ellie and they played some games online.
We had family journal hour using some Come Follow Me prompts. After, we shared what we wrote, and I thought it was cool that no one shared anything surprising, which means we have lots of gospel discussions, and also I’m so glad we took the time to write them down so we’ll always remember. Giving thanks for all of our blessings and our sabbath was very much a delight.
Monday, December 28
Delaney watched Tenkor eat so she could give her a greenie for her bad breath. I assured Delaney that Tenkor is a good 30-40 lbs overweight and definitely didn’t need to be watched as she ate, but none the less, she persisted.
I ran 9 miles that day. I puttered around trying to gear myself up for it for a long time. And then it wasn’t bad at all. I know I need to be stretching more, but my long runs have been good and I’m taking Nanci’s advice and finding beauty in cold weather running. Although it was in the 50’s, so not all that cold. I listened to
Ghosted and got into the mystery of it so then when I got home, I found cleaning jobs to continue listening. And then I decided I deserved to just finish my book without any guilt and so I did. It was interesting and had a good ending. At 7, none of us had had dinner so we decided on pizza. We are all in on our Christmas break living and I don’t regret a thing. We played some Throw, Throw Burrito and Catan with our extender pack and I was an
excellent sport and also I won. I’ve won 2/3 times I’ve played Catan and while I still don’t love it, it was better the third time around.
Tuesday, December 29
For Christmas Alli bought a subscription to a scavenger hunt app. You put in your city and it gives you tasks specific to that city to complete. Since we are quarantining, we took advantage of their at home hunt. We were all on the same team, but then made sub-teams of 2 and completed 40 or so Christmas tasks. Some were trivia, some videos, some silly pictures. Frankie and I were on a team, so we made snowflakes and took a picture of us covered in them. We laughed and laughed at our pathetic snowflakes.
We also made Frankie a snowman.
And decorated and hid a Christmas pickle. We used to have a pickle ornament, and I’m wondering if it’s in my ornament box that I just haven’t gotten out in many years.
Addie and Matt made the whole crew hot chocolate as a task.
It was fun and silly and we finished everything with 20 minutes to spare.
Autumn has been going through old pictures and she sent Jackie and I a ton. It was so fun to walk down memory lane! This was our girls trip to ruidoso in 2007.
Dominican Republic with the boys in 2013 or 14.
The Grand Canyon in 2005.
San Diego 2004. Autumn and I shared maternity clothes from across the country as we were on an opposite pregnancy schedules, and this dress was a fav for both of us.
Seattle in 2005 for my Masters graduation.
Victoria Canada 2005.
Bahamas 2009.
Puerto Pinasco, ?. I’ve known these 2 since 1998 and we have made some amazing memories together. Through several boyfriends and now husbands, we’ve added 5 children and lots of doggo’s. We are long overdue for our annual girls trip and I can’t wait to rekindle our friendship over junk foods, pedicures, and movies.
And there’s a little happy Christmas break wrap up.
