December extras

Harrison helped load boxes of food for delivery from their school food drive.

Grace got to help hold a baby on the parachute at playgroup.  She loved being a "mommy".

Harrison found a little snake in our yard.  Leo & Grace then scoured the yard trying to find another.  Grace came running up to me with a dead bug for me to take a picture.

The kids had a half day of school this month.  We went to the park.

Grace said this is her angel dress.

Grace found Cinderella among the light display.

Harrison made this as one of the Christmas gifts for his teacher.

posing with her rainbow pants, rainbow shirt and rainbow purse

Harrison and Jeff volunteered to replaced some of the boards at the pool clubhouse.

December flew by!  Here's to a new start in January.

Christmas

I love being a parent on Christmas morning!  The kids' excitement and joy makes getting up at the crack of dawn worth it!

And just like that, Harrison's ten-year-old foot is now officially bigger than my (size 8.5) foot.

One of the things I love about Christmas is everyone enjoying their presents.

The kids were so happy and thankful for their gifts.  We managed to stay in our pajamas almost all day.  Leo, however, just had to go out so I walked him and Grace up to the school playground.

In spite of Covid, we had some really good Christmas moments.  My sister provided our Christmas dinner again this year from Honey Baked Ham.  The gift of food was wonderful; but she also gave me the gift of time.  I didn't have to spend time preparing a big meal and that was pretty wonderful.  We tried really hard to involve the kids in delivering 41 small gifts (baked goods, poinsettias, cookie jar mixes, etc.) the whole month of December to those we wanted to surprise.  The kids loved seeing people's reactions, especially from those who are sometimes overlooked at this time of year.  It's hard for kids to have the mindset of "it's better to give than to receive".  To me, anyway, I felt like we made progress.

covid for Christmas

On December 20, I took the kids to the Bounce House and Lizzie came over to exchange gifts with the kids.  After that, Leo said he felt hot, we took his temperature, he had a fever and he tested positive for Covid.  I then made a lot of calls and we prayed that Leo didn't give anyone else Covid.

Grace is in love with big Elsa (that's what she calls her).

Literally, two minutes before my sister finished her five and a half hours drive here, we found out that Leo was positive.  Being fully vaccinated, she decided to stay a few days with us and help entertain three quarantined kids.  I sure appreciated that!

I had never heard of elephant toothpaste before we made it.

We did an egg drop contest.  The kids came up with ways to protect their hard boiled eggs.  Everyone's eggs survived the first challenge drop.

Grace's egg cracked after the second challenge.

Harrison's egg cracked after the third challenge.

Leo won!

We've played a lot of games and did a few puzzles.

Christmas Eve was a warm day and everyone was dying to go somewhere.  It turns out that not many people go to the beach the day before Christmas.  It was great!

Thankfully Leo had a very mild case of Covid.  He wasn't even down a full day.

Both of Grace's feet are off the ground.  Take that, Covid!