As we trudge through this pandemic year, we are grateful for every little slice of normalcy we are served. It was fun for Dave to be able to help with scoring and timing at a swim meet for Grant.
He is the one crouched down in the back on the platform. The meets are pretty tricky to watch from home on zoom-it's hard to tell where the athletes are in the lanes let alone which swimmer is from our house! But, yay that they have had a few meets. Check out the view from the window-snow and dark. Swimmers are dedicated- 5am practices and minimally clothes in freezing temps. The walk to their cars cannot be fun!
Brenna also got to have a dance recital!!! The dancers just wore masks back stage and whipped them off just as they were ready to perform. As they finished their dance and stepped off, the masks were back on. That was pretty smooth.
The siblings were not too broken hearted that they were not able to attend a 2 hour ballet in person this year. Ha! But, one thing neat about everything being connected online is that Grandma and Grandpa McArthur could watch from Arizona! They haven't been to a recital yet. Maybe the spring recital in the spring will be virtually broadcast as well. That would be nice because that is when she has 4 dances! There are some silver linings in this covid cloud that hangs over us!
I have been feeling an urge to help these rockstar teachers with this most challenging year. They are constantly having to quarantine or have students in quarantine. Our schools are not allowing volunteers right now, so the best way I could see that I could assist is to be a substitute teacher. I don't really want to have a full-time sub gig, so I have only put in my availability for the 3 schools our kids attend and one other elementary school that neighbors work at and that has the principal who used to be our elementary administrator. I had my first job at that elementary school for a 1st grade class.
It was a very tiring day, but it was fun! I was wiped after yelling through my mask, entertaining 7 year olds, connecting to zoom with their full-time teacher, addressing a small goose egg incident, two lost teeth from kids at recess (blood and hysterics), a melt down over spilled Sunny Delight at lunch, and holding back the dry heaves as one kid in particular could not stop sucking on his mask-resulting in a soggy (then crusty) dripping PPE. Bless teachers-unsung heroes for sure!
School did have to take a little pause after cases were skyrocketing from Thanksgiving. We decided to take a field trip to Gardner Village to look for elves one afternoon...
It was cold, but those masks come in handy for nose warmth! I actually will be driving with Harrison occasionally and spot him with this mask on in the van. I tell him he doesn't need to wear his mask in the car, but often he says he just likes it! I am so glad the littles adjusted so well to the mandates and restrictions.
Harrison really wanted Brenna to pretend with him that they were kissing. He thought it would be clever up against the KISS contest backdrop. But, she would not comply; hence the distant/angry look from the brother there. It was all down hill from there, luckily Dave works somewhat near there and I proposed a surprise visit to his office. We stopped at the gas station for a treat for the kiddos and to deliver to dad and Harry perked right up...you just never know what will work with that one!
We sang lots of Christmas songs and watched many holiday movies, had all our decorations in place-it was just as it should be in our home. Some really fun neighbor friends of ours delivered a gift to us that brought some joy-a "self on a shelf" It was a picture of the husband and mounted to styrofoam. The idea is same as elf on a shelf. We would move our little picture of Rob around the house and take pictures to send them. While we all got a kick out of it, Harrison really only had full conversations with our actual elf-Kringle. The holiday confessions and deliberations from Master H started to cross over to anyone from the North Pole. I had the Rudolph song on and Harrison started talking about how great Rudolph is. He proclaimed, "I don't know if you can hear me Rudolph, but I respect you. You're special. Probably the most important reindeer, I mean, Dasher, you 're good too. I'm just sorry about your childhood Rudolph." I am certain that meant a lot to the red nosed reindeer. Haha!
We adhered to the CDC advice for our Thanksgiving holiday and decided if we took precautions, we would gather for Christmas Eve. We didn't want to miss another holiday with our extended family! We cut out the dinner and desserts so we had a little festive dinner at our place before heading to the party. We have also adopted the tradition of 'paying it forward' on Christmas Eve.
We stalk a fast food joint that is open and try to jump in line before someone comes so we can pay for their order before they reach the window for payment. It is a more difficult challenge than one would think! Wonderfully, a lot of places are closed or not too busy. We would wait in the lot and no one would come, then as soon as we decided to leave, someone would go order. Doh! We tried a few places and finally we just knew we had to leave. We resolved to make one last attempt at the Wendy's by my parent's house and we caught someone!! It felt like the right person and we were delighted to surprise them with their chili and fries on us!
Once at the family gathering, we stayed in masks the whole time and had the (almost) traditional celebration.
Shannon and Rachel put together the greatest nativity reenactment of all time. The costumes were on point, the music was perfect. Harrison took his Wise Man role to heart and was extremely royal.
We opened gifts from grandma and grandpa and had the white elephant gift exchange where Harrison scored some serious tattoo sleeves...
The kids set cookies out for Santa, went to the basement to watch a movie before falling asleep in time for the St Nick's visit. We had a beautiful and mellow morning full of laughter (partly at the gifts Grant gave us from the dollar store- drug test for Katelee?), and definitely over the SHOCK potato that we got Grant. We made everyone try it and we all ended up throwing it when it zapped us. We dined on our much anticipated Quiche Lorraine, which never disappoints...
and waited for a few visitors as we lounged in jammies. When each person came to say hello and Merry Christmas, we in turn greeted them with a SHOCK tato challenge. Grandpa was the only one brave enough to do extreme mode, where he zoned out but never dropped that electrifying toy. We love chilling and playing games. This year we played SkyJo and quite possibly a family favorite of all time- Skull King. After playing it on Christmas, we got the hang of it and have spent a lot of time with it. Harrison gets decked out in Pirate garb, we turn on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack in the background and yo-ho-ho the night away.
Isn't it interesting how you can add to family favorites? Traditions last through time. That is, after all, what makes them traditions. But, one thing we've learned this year (besides gratitude for all we have and can do) is flexibility. We can still have holidays and traditions, but sometimes they have to be adjusted according to circumstance. Different doesn't have to be awful. New adjustments can become adopted and part of the new normal that is so often talked about these days. Some of those adjustments become things we want to last forever that we never would have thought about without being pushed into change. Hopefully there are many things from 2020 we can see were beneficial and we want to carry them through our forever. Christmas wasn't canceled, life isn't canceled, joy is never canceled, it is often just given a new perspective.
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