New Year 2021!

One of my gifts to Andy for Christmas ended up being a hit!

I got him one of those ping pong nets that you can attach to any table.  We've really been enjoying it on our kitchen island.  Matt especially will instigate most games.

Andy and I had a little tournament New Year's Eve...

I've also been loving this game we got for Christmas...

Ben was being a cutie hanging out on my lap...

Here he is, probably at about 10:30, asking to go to bed.

I think it's safe to say that we're all pretty happy to welcome in a new year...not that all our problems will magically go away but there's something about a fresh start, a new beginning!

Happy 2021 everybody!

Post Christmas with Uncle James

James came and stayed a couple of nights with us after Christmas.

Of course, with James... you play games :)

He gave us one called Secret Hitler for Christmas so we played that...I think they're all trying to have mustaches here (except Andy)

Ben had a rough seizure day two days after Christmas.

Here, Josh is taking care of him for me so I could work on dinner.

Here Josh is again, that same night having treats that Grandma and Grandpa Jannie and Greg had brought over...

Then we played more games that James had brought...

The first one was an escape room which are always fun!

Then it was Poetry for Neanderthals :)

       

The next morning James made a fancy breakfast.  He loves being in the kitchen and we all benefit from that.  He made his favorite brown sugar bacon and some flavorful french toast with chocolate babka and pancake bread from Trader Joe's.

Matt LOVED the bacon :)

 We realized James had never spent the night with us before so it was a joy to have him.  He's a good, fun  brotha :)

The last two pics are from a shopping trip that Abby and I took down to Station Park in Farmington.

It was one of her Christmas gifts from me.

She drove down and we enjoyed a few hours of walking & shopping (and buying clothes, going to the car and trying them on and returning what didn't work since most of the dressing rooms were closed due to COVID).  These two pics are from our lunch break at a yummy waffle place.  We got a grilled cheese waffle with tomato soup and a caramel apple pie waffle and split them in half so we could each have both. 

Abs was able to find a few things...enough that she felt like it was successful so that was a relief.

I can never pick out clothes for this girl because she is super picky...has been from about the age of 10 I think.

It's a rare thing, though, that we actually find a time to go shopping together so it was a good, much needed bonding experience for both of us.

 

Christmas 2020

Here are the kids finding their ornaments that I had made in their stockings on Christmas Eve...

Matt's thrilled.

Christmas morning we slept until about 9.

Then we gathered in Ben's room and Andy read the Christmas story to us...

Then we all trekked down to the basement for the opening of gifts...and the taking of pics in front of the tree...Ben rarely cooperates for this!

     

                                                        

  

Then it began...

For years, we have used laundry baskets to contain the chaos and keep everyone's acquisitions separate.

It may look funny, but it works for us :)

It took Andy longer than usual to realize we needed trash bags...he's one of those dads that likes to keep the clutter down during the opening :)

  

A couple of his gifts included some cleaner that he really likes ;) and some blue light glasses for when he's looking at a screen for a long time...

   

For weeks before Christmas, Josh had been working secretively on gifts for everyone.

It was quite a process involving photoshop and spray paint, and original artwork...

After stockings and before the rest of the gifts he wanted us to "open" his gift to us.

He ended up leading us on a treasure hunt throughout the house and culminated in a special, thoughtful gift for each of us.

He was so creative...it was just so fun to see him get excited about putting it together and giving it to us that morning.

         

During all of this, Ben was content playing with the birds from the fireplace decor...

            

         

            

         

Ben checking out his new Elmo DVD from Josh...

We were all so impressed with how creative Josh had been!

It was such a fun addition to our Christmas morning :)

          

Other gifts...

      

        

       

    

  

              

Andy and I always write silly names on our gifts to each other....I got a kick out of "Flubby Hubby"!

About 3 days before Christmas we had someone drop off a big, heavy box anonymously on our doorstep.

All it said was Merry Christmas so I had the boys stick it under the tree.

Christmas morning, near the end of our opening, Josh decided to open it up.  I believe while he was doing so, Andy was joking about how it was probably something perishable and we should have opened it right away.  Well, lo and behold, it was a box full of breakfast items with a cute poem about how in the craziness of the Christmas season sometimes we forget to have breakfast and so they wanted to help us out.  Oh, I felt so bad!  Eggs, milk, bacon, frozen (not really anymore) hash browns and orange rolls.

We salvaged what we could and appreciated the thought behind the gift :)

This was one of the fun gifts the boys spent some time on Christmas day...also, Matt asked for a dart board so they set that up and we all played a few rounds.

I don't have a picture of it but I appreciated Andy's efforts in gifting and setting up a new nordic track rower for me.  We were able to get it for more than half off through my trainer's husband who works at Icon.  It was a pretty sweet deal!  I'm really enjoying it!

We played games, relaxed and eventually watched Pixar's new movie "Soul" that night, but before we watched, we had a long Zoom call with all the Bryans.  The Callisters were in Costa Rica for Christmas so that was fun.  This was just a shot I got of Ben doing his thing and Josh copying him for a minute...

Over all, we had a wonderful stay at home Christmas!