christmas eve 2020

christmastime fun

We started getting ready to celebrate the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving by searching for, selecting, and cutting down the perfect Christmas tree.

Once again, Everly wished we were bringing home one of these colorful trees.

We found the perfect tree! Her name is Vicki and we were excited to bring her home and dress her up.

Doesn't she look gorgeous all decorated?  It was Kade's turn to put the star on top. 

One thing that was great about having the kids home all the time doing virtual school was that there was plenty of time for all the fun Christmas crafts, baking and activities.  Usually December is so busy and the kids are in school clear through the 23rd, and we don't get to all the Christmasy things we want to do.  Not this year.

 

Krew and Everly even planned a fun Christmas party for the family.  It was super fun and so cute.

We drove around looking at lights more this year than in years past.  We found this amazing display that we could hardly believe. This is all one person's yard.  It was completely covered in lights and decorations.  It was so fun to walk around and look at everything.  We will definitely be going back next year!

No December would be complete without gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  I love that my kids love this tradition.  If I count all the years I did this growing up, I wonder how many times I've made or helped make one of these adorable Christmas houses. 

In keeping with tradition, Krew was the last one to finish. He gets so into it and is so deliberate in his decorating.  I wonder if he will ever outgrow that.

We gave out the BEST neighbor gifts this year.  Ky designed the tag and it turned out perfect.  No other gift could have been more perfect during this pandemic. 

Everly and I had fun taking some Christmasy photos.  Isn't she the sweetest??

Krew and Everly went a little advent calendar crazy this year.  Besides the 3 family ones, the kids each had several.  You can see Krew's three advent calendars just in this photo alone.  Plus, Everly had a few.  Also, they made and advent calendar to the advent calendar in November to count down the days until they could start doing their advent calendars.  I think they were both a little excited for Christmas!

The big kids were excited too!  I caught them looking carefully at the first gifts that were placed under the tree, trying to see who they were for and what they might be.

The kids all wrote letters to Santa,

and mailed them to the North Pole.  We were all a little sad that Santa was social distancing this year and we couldn't sit on his lap, but we're pretty sure he got our letters anyway.

 

Even Bart gets all festive sometimes.  

thanksgiving 2020

For the past 14 years, Thanksgiving has always been hard for me.  Since we live so incredibly far away from my family, we basically never get to have Thanksgiving with them.  Sometimes we celebrate with Bart's parents and sister, sometimes we have a few friends over, and a few times we've gone to a friends' house and celebrated with them. Thanksgiving has always been nice, but most years it's nothing like what I wish it was, mostly for my kids' sake.  I knew this year was going to be extra challenging.  Due to the pandemic, we decided to keep our Thanksgiving gathering to just the 6 of us.  We eat yummy food often, so I was worried that Thanksgiving wouldn't feel special at all.  Just a regular Thursday, with turkey.

This charcuterie board was a highlight of the day.  In fact, we may have been able to stop there and everyone would have been happy.

But then, Bart brought in the deep fried turkey, and we were all hungry again. Yes, we had a whole turkey for just the 6 of us, and yes we (eventually) ate it all.  It was delicious as always!

Krew and Everly painted placemats for each of us, and helped set this pretty table.

Can't forget the sugared cranberries.  They have been making a yearly appearance for a long time now.

We tried a new recipe for candied, coconut sweet potatoes, and they basically tasted like dessert.  

After dinner, Bart surprised us with an epic firework show.  He was trying hard to make the day special for our family too.  It may not have been the ideal Thanksgiving, but we all enjoyed it and will remember it for a long time.

We ended the evening by video-chatting with our families as we were all spread out across the country.  We're glad we got to be together even though we couldn't physically be together.