Christmas Day

Christmas was quiet and happy.  Lydia and Jared came into our room around 7:30 and we watched The Christ Child and then read Luke 2.  After that we opened stockings, ate orange rolls, opened the presents under the tree, played with new gifts and then did our scavenger hunt.  This is pretty much what happens every Christmas morning we are home. 

I posted a picture from 2012 on Facebook to serve as our Christmas card this year and in that picture I am wearing the same Christmas pajamas. When you only wear them a few weeks a year they can last a long time.  After Thanksgiving and the first week of December were not festive weeks for me and I had no desire to send out a Christmas card.  We got a good number from friends and family which was very nice but I didn't really miss sending them. 

One night Mark and I went out to pick out sticking stuffers and he really wanted to buy each child a giant bag of cereal.  Normally we do this for a Valentines gift but on a smaller scale.  In a way it was a really good idea for Jared because he pretty much knew all of his presents under a tree but this was a complete surprise.  He and Lydia called them the mystery presents.

 
We didn't really want to buy Lydia more stuffed animals but she wanted a giant plush so bad so we just did it.  It will be very loved. 

The scavenger hunt was a hit.  We tried to make the clues challenging but they ended up being much harder than we thought they would be.  Both Jared and Lydia were a bit exasperated by this but it made it more fun in the end.  They both got a mini drone which will be fun to fly around. 

Lydia looks so grown up here. Just one month till her 9th birthday. 

The clue he is reading about it literally right behind him.  This is our storage room. Jared figured that part out eventually but Mark scrambled up "toilet paper" and it took him so long to figure it out. It felt like he looked right at it multiple times  Finally he figured it out. 

We spent the rest of the day playing, watching Christmas movies, talking with family, and working on a puzzle. Before we made dinner I put together a cute hot chocolate kit to deliver to the fire station near us.  I was trying to think of a non home baked treat to take and was excited when I came up with hot chocolate.  It was really fun to put together and nice to drop if off to them and let them know we appreciated them. 

These hot chocolate spoons were quick and fun.  I had never made them before and think they are so festive

It was a happy Christmas together.  When I look back over the month it turned out so much better than I thought it would.  I don't know when I will get hit with the pandemic blues again. I have hope that by Spring 2021 things will be looking better but realize this could be just very wishful thinking. 

Christmas Eve

Earlier this week I decided we would try something different for Christmas Eve.  2020 has been a really different year so why not just roll with it.  I decided it would be fun to do a "Bethlehem dinner".  We have attended one or two sponsored by our ward but never done one on our own.  Sunday we finished the last episode of "The Chosen" and when I watched the Christmas episode of "Don't Miss This" they talked a lot about shepherds so I think I was thinking about that time period more than I normally am. Watching "The Chosen" has been the best Sunday family activity for us the last 8 weeks.  It has really brought the stories and people in them alive.  Jared and Lydia have loved the episodes so much. Its been so great leading up to Christmas.  On "Don't Miss This" they had a guest on and she made a citrus olive oil cake so I thought I would make that and then it just evolved into a whole dinner.  We were talking to some friends about the idea of a "Bethlehem dinner" and one of them joked that a more accurate description would be a "Bethlehem snack" based on the food normally eaten.  Its a valid point.  To make it more filling we decided to order kebabs from a local restaurant.  It's more likely people then would have eaten fish but we went with what we could easily source and what actually sounded good to us. We had cheese and grapes, flat bread and crackers, grilled vegetables for Mark, the meat skewers and sparkling grape juice.  It turned out delicious.  

My co worker Jen actually got me a set of cake platters for Christmas this year and I was so happy to use them tonight. We set up a table on the floor and lit a bunch of candles.  Even if the food is bad candles make everything better.  As we ate we had soft Jewish music in the background and Jared and Lydia even dressed up for the dinner.  Jared came as a shepherd and Lydia was a sheep.  She described herself as the favorite sheep who got to eat all her meals with her shepherd and said it wasn't weird at all that she was likely eating one of her siblings (the lamb kebabs), that girl. After eating we had a simple lesson/devotional on the names of Christ.  A sweet sister in the ward made us a lovely set of ornaments from the names of Christ.  We passed the basket around and each read a name and took a moment to think about what the name told us about Jesus and what he could do for us. It was so nice.  We went downstairs and watched the short Christmas episode of "The Chosen" and then came up to have our cake.  Mark was skeptical that it would taste good but it was delicious.  I even made homemade ricotta for it which was actually really simple.  It was a perfect evening at home celebrating the birth of our Savior.

We started the day with Christmas tree waffles and cleaning out closets.  One of the Light the World activities we selected was to donate to a second hand shop so we did that today.  It felt great to clean out some things.  We were pretty successful with Light the World 2020.  Our service happened in waves.  We would do a full weeks worth and then skip every night the next week and then be super active the next week.  My favorite was singing Christmas carols to someone via video chat.  That is something we can plan to do every Christmas and even all year we can sing songs to people, like singing on Sundays or something like that.  It was super rainy all day so we stopped by the church for some physical activity.  Jared and Mark played poison and Jared and Lydia both drove their new remote control cars they found and bought for themselves at Costco yesterday.  Mark and I wrote out the clues for tomorrows scavenger hunt while Jared and Lydia played in the basement.  Mark also spent some time reading old Christmas blog posts with Jared and Lydia which made me really happy.  I am not sure what I want to do with this blog but it sure was nice to have those memories around to go through today. They also exchanged their sibling gifts and both were very happy with the gifts chosen and finally getting to open a present. Mark and I filled stockings after Jared and Lydia went to bed.  It should be a fun day tomorrow. 

Christmas Tree waffles had actually completely slipped my mind, as I was talking about making waffles for breakfast last night I remembered that we normally make them.  It was perfect for this morning. 

2020 Christmas lights award and Christmas decorations scavenger hunt and 2 side stories

 
Hot chocolate and award ready to go

2020 Winner



We left the award and bag of candy on the front porch. 
This was Jared's favorite house.  He liked all the colors, especially the lit up wreath. 

2nd Runner up:  This was the house Lydia wanted to give the award to but Mark vetoed this one.

This year we chose to drive around two neighborhoods that merge into each other, Dunlora and Belvedere.  We actually lived just down the street from Dunlora the first year we lived here but haven't had much reason to go over there the last 5 years.  Its a very nice neighborhood with a good variety of houses but it has a lot of hills! It worked well to go look at lights there.  Jared and Lydia seemed really excited to go hand out the award but I feel like their enthusiasm was lower than previous years.  Jared was actually kind of grumpy once we got to the neighborhood.  Maybe they are tired of looking at lights since it has been our main source of Christmas cheer outside of our house this month?  He did perk up when his house was selected for the award.  

Tonight we went over to a neighborhood in Forest Lakes to do a Christmas decorations scavenger hunt.  We actually went to the the same neighborhood that we did our Halloween scavenger hunt in. Its very walk able and we figured if they decorated as much as they did for Halloween Christmas would probably be a big deal to them as well.  Surprisingly I felt their Halloween/Fall decorations were more impressive.  But we had fun looking for things on our list and stayed mostly warm.  We found all but three items, there were no snow globes, gingerbread or angels to be found. Sadly as we were about 2 minute from our car Lydia tripped and cut up her fingers pretty bad.  It was not the happiest way to end the outing but she was very brave about it.  

When we got home they got ready for bed and then we watched the last episode in this season's Christmas Cookie Challenge.  I am sure I am in the minority but I don't love watching Christmas movies.  I much prefer shows like the cookie challenge.  It's been fun to occasionally watch an episode over the last month a fun little treat to end the day with every now and then. Jared and Lydia are so very excited for Christmas Eve/Day.  It will be a quiet affair but we will enjoy it. 

Story:  There is a family who is renting a house near us this year as the husband attends the JAG School.  We occasionally see the Mom and Dad out on walks.  Today as I was getting close to finishing my run I looked ahead and saw a man and a woman walking their dog.  I knew they had recently got a puppy and was certain it was them.  I caught up to them said a quick hello and then continued my run pretty sure I would see them as I did my cool down walk.  Sure enough they were passing our house as I got back to it.  Since they had their puppy and Jared and Lydia desperately want a dog I asked if I could go get Jared and Lydia to meet Scout, their puppy. They were good with that so I went and got them and they had a great time playing with Scout.  As we were visiting I see our friend Laura pull into our driveway.  She is in the primary presidency and was making a delivery for Jared and Lydia.  This was at like 8:45 in the morning.  We so rarely have people stop by or see people we know on our street it was really random.  Then this evening 2 different families stopped by to drop off treats and we were visiting with one family as the other one came by.  It was so unexpected to see so many ward members in one day.  

Story 2:  We attempted to check out the "Christmas Star" at Chris Greene and were able to see it!  To be honest Lydia and I were disappointed by it. I  thought it would be a lot bigger and brighter.  We just barely got to see it, some clouds were moving in and went right over it  So we had a very small window to see it.  A friend and I had chatted about it and she rushed over to see it in part because I said we could see it and clouds covered it just before she arrived and I felt so bad. Luckily the clouds moved quickly and we got another glimpse of it. Its fun to say we saw a pretty historic event. 

Washington DC at night

 For a long time now I have wanted to explore the National Mall at night when the monuments are all lit up.  In the past when we have gone into DC its always been in the daytime so we could visit museums and get home at a reasonable hour.  Now that Jared and Lydia are older I am less concerned about keeping them up late and thought it would be so fun to drive up and visit the National and US Capitol Christmas trees and then take a walk around the monuments. It did not disappoint.  We hadn't been into DC around Christmas time for a few years and it was fun to be back. The National tree is kind of weird but pretty and since its right by the White House we could see it all lit up too. The Capitol tree is big and fun.  Mark was super stressed about driving and parking.  The right hand lane on Constitution is such a headache with people trying to park and then all of a sudden it is a turn only lane or you are driving across the river on a bridge when you did not mean to, its just hard to navigate. Going on a Saturday, after 5:00, during a pandemic did help but it was really unpleasant for Mark.  There was a good amount of people at the National Tree but the Capitol Tree and monuments were not busy at all.  Mark dropped us off at the Capitol tree so he did not visit it in person but he came to the National tree and of course the walk on the Mall. 

I really enjoyed our walk.  Jared and Lydia ran around and played tag and were good sports.  We passed by hardly anyone and it was just a stress free outing. We walked to the Lincoln Memorial, then stopped by the Korean War Memorial, then headed to the WW II Memorial and the Washington Monument.  The view from the Lincoln Memorial is so beautiful, to look out over the reflecting pool and see the Washington Monument and Capitol building at night is just special. It's a historic place and seeing it at night was great.  When we were walking back to the car Lydia and Jared were falling behind Mark and I.  I frequently looked back to make sure they were together and near by and one of the times I saw them walking away from us in a different direction.  I quickly called out to them and they stopped moving that way.  I could see that they were following another couple thinking it was us! It was scary and funny.  We were all reunited and made it back to the car.  After our walk we drove over to the Yards to view an art installation.  Four giant, metal stars are set up and they change colors over time.  Its trendy area with limited parking, Mark just dropped the three of us off to check it out and circled around the block.

Korean War, the design of this memorial has always been one I really like, its so real like.

WW II It was nice to see the wreaths out as well. 

I had plans to try to drive through a few business "neighborhoods" because this year they were all making extra efforts with their decorating because of COVID and it was supposed to be really well done but it didn't quite work out because we wanted to make it to the temple and they close the gates at 9:00. Even though it was only a drive thru option this year we wanted one last chance to see the lights at the DC temple in case this is our last Christmas here.  We were only partly successful.  The traffic was horrible and we did not make it in time.  We did get a very long time to view the temple lit up which was beautiful. It has been closed so long so its been a long time since we have been there. COVID came right as they were finishing up renovations that had the temple closed for the last 2 years.   We did see some beautiful lights near the visitor center parking lot.  They were amazing, it felt like they put up way more than they normally do that or it was just not as spread out. From what we saw it looked beautiful and we wish we would have made it in time to do the drive thru.  

Blurry as we were driving by but they were very impressive. 

It was a great night out.  We smartly stopped for ice cream at Moo Thru on our way up because we knew it would be too late for the drive home.  I drove most of the way home which I do not do often and it went well. Its really not a bad drive once you are out of the District but inside there is such a challenge since we are not there frequently. 

The snow storm that wasn't

 Earlier this week the forecast said we could expect 8-12 inches of snow on Wednesday.  Then it downgraded to 3-5 inches of snow, then even less.  It was so disappointing. Today we got less than an inch of snow and mostly just got sleet and ice.  We did see some snowflakes and something stuck to the ground but it was not at all what I hoped for.  Albemarle County called a snow day which was good because there was lots of icy slush out there.  There is a 2 hour delay in place for tomorrow the last day of school before winter break. 

We had a nice day together.  I worked my regular  4 hours, 8-noon and then had a 40 minute Zoom at 4:30. Mark made monkey bread and hot chocolate for breakfast and Jared and Lydia spent some good time out in the icy slush.  They were really good sports about the change in the forecast and had a fun time outside.  After lunch they made their ice cream cone Christmas trees and we watched a newer version of The Christmas Carol.  They had actaully never seen or read the story and had really no idea who Scrooge was or any of the Ghosts when we described it.  I was surprised! This version was from 2009 and I can't say I was a fan of the drawing/filming style they used.  It was not the best version to start with but they now know the gist of the story. I was just fine going upstairs to work on dinner a little less than halfway through.  I really am not good at watching movies.  It just is not my thing. 

Jared and Lydia came up with a cute game.  It didn't look safe at all (nothing they did outside looked safe today because it really was icy but I just hoped for the best and luckily their "risks" worked out) but they made it through without any injuries. They called the game "don't drop the cargo" and the cargo was a snow/ice ball.  They made a snow ball, got on their sleds and then tried to slide down our yard without dropping it. If they managed to hold on to the cargo three times in a row they "won" and the snowball was retired.  It is always fun to see what they come up with on their own whether they are down in the basement or out in the yard.  I appreciate their creativity and ability to entertain themselves.
They had fun sliding down the front slope and catching some air as they hit the ledge and then crashed into our house/fence.

Not very safe

They had a lot of fun going over this ledge, it runs all the way across the yard. Also not very safe.


She kept the "cargo" safe even with turning around and ending up backwards

Cute chilly cheeks.  Her bangs are so close to being able to slide behind her ear.  We can't wait! 

I hosted Jen and Jennifer from work yesterday for hot chocolate, treats, a gift exchange and some working together.  We had not worked together in the same space since March when we all went to remote working.  It was really nice to see them, I have such nice, helpful co workers.  They were so kind to wear their mask in our house and we kept a good distance from each other.  I think hot chocolate bars are a really fun thing to do and enjoyed putting this platter together. 

I love cinnamon hot chocolate.  That is whats in that little bowl, cinnamon. 

The little pitcher had milk in it.  I love this pitcher.  My Mom always had it on the counter at Green Valley Road and I love that she passed it on to me even if I am afraid to use it because I worry I will break it.  I don't think Jennifer is a big hot chocolate drinker and she had never thought to add milk to her hot chocolate!  We always make ours half water and half milk.  She agreed it definitely makes it taste better. It was a fun little gathering.