Playing, Baking, Painting

When you wonder what happened at our house during the time between Christmas and New Years, you can pretty much boil it down to playing, baking, and painting.  A pleasant break from the usual school work to be done and lessons to be taught.  

Mine Craft Lego world set up and play.

Star Wars Armada game occupation of the dining room table.

XBox playing with Qi'ra watching.

Griffin helped make a delicious chicken sausage melt.

Griffin woke up early to make bacon maple donuts for the family.

Joy in process of her next landscape painting project.

Garrett helped make a chicken ramen shoyu bowl.

Getting together with Scott and Jill and Lauryn for a masked sports day at the park.

Garrett delivers a pitch in our whiffleball game which wrapped up a day of volleyball, bocce, and badminton.

Parents vs kids was a fair 4v4 competition.

Joy's Christmas painting with the tree pointing upward to remind us of Christ.

A big Lego Star Wars set up and battle with Dad.

Qi'ra finds a new hiding spot on top of the wheel of the Pilot.

Playing Axis and Allies, Griffin's wish for a post-Christmas game day.

Building Legos with Bryce--he collected quite the Mine Craft collection this Christmas.

 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was spent at home celebrating together.  We ate some great meals and had Face Time meetings with Grandma and Gramps in Michigan, Alecia/Matt/Sophia/Naomi in New York, and Aaron/Kaarli/Kaleb/Logan in Zimbabwe (at the time they were actually in Namibia).  We enjoyed opening presents with them and sharing some memories and playing some games.

Coupons from Bryce--perfect for each person in our family.

New ornaments for the year:  Baby Yoda in his pram, an Erlenmeyer Flask, and a Coronavirus. 

Garrett's card for Joy depicting her recouping on the couch from her high ankle sprain.

Garrett's card for Brett highlighting Boba Fett on Jabba's throne.

Joy made cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast.

Mandalorian featured on Griffin's card for Dad

Poinsettia flower for Mom's card.

Mine Craft card for Bryce.

Peppercorn steak for Christmas dinner deliciously prepared.

Chocolate bomb, hot chocolate from Grammy.

Playing Mandalorian Monopoly for the first time as a family.

Dad sits under the stockings with Kylo on a pillow and gives him some attention.

 

Christmas Eve

There was some pre-planning that went into our family gathering on Christmas Eve during the daytime (if you are going to be outside, you want to pick the warmest part of the day, from 12-4).  We ordered sandwiches from Ike's that were individually wrapped with chip bags that were suited for each person.  Kind of fun when your sandwich is called the Joe Montana or Matt Cain or Michael Jordan to name a few.  We had everything outside with the exception of the bathrooms which we assigned one per family unit, cleaned before and after.  Space heaters were used to keep the seating area from being too cold.  Seating was spaced out by 6 ft between family units.  We abided by a maximum of 3 family units and we held a religious service to go with our gathering just to make sure that we were covered under every rule.  Did we mention that we wore masks for everything but eating...
All seriousness aside, this was a wonderful time to see and talk with our family that we have really gotten to see very little of this year.  Good for the cousins to see each other and play games and interact.  You appreciate each other all the more when you miss the things that you take for granted.

Joy baked and decorated a delicious birthday cake for Jesus.

We attended our church's Christmas Eve service.

Family photo for 2020 Christmas.

Rachel and Haley take on the boys in ping pong with a twist.

Griffin and Garrett were up for the challenge as Wendy watches.

Close up on Joy's cake design.

Poppy gets a replacement Nerf rifle since his previous one died earlier this year.

Garrett got Thrawn's Star Destroyer, the Chimaera.

Bryce gets excited over some Mine Craft Legos!

Griffin got his game wish!

Dad isn't too old to get a toy for Christmas--Imperial Troop Transport.

Bryce excited to open a present.

Grammy and Poppy get a 50th Anniversary picture frame.

Enjoying the warm part of the day in the sun, while it lasted.

Brett and Poppy stand by the heater.

Grammy joins the boys for some foosball fun.

Poppy and Joy catch up on the month.

Haley and Rachel join the game.

Eating our meal, socially distanced, outside from Ike's.

 

Preparing for Christmas

Bryce shows off some of the Christmas cookies we made.

Joy (2nd from Left) with fellow health care providers at her work.

Recording their piano trio which was posted on FaceBook.

Our Christmas card picture sent out to our friends and family.

Bryce helps make burgers for dinner.

Brett shows that he got COVID at work!

Joy and the boys worked on decorating cookies.

Bryce demonstrates some of his handy work.

Griffin thinks about eating all of his.

Garrett says that piping is harder than it looks.

Can you see the Star Wars theme?

Playing Legos together.