A Cozy Christmas at Home

Appropriately, our 2020 ended with a little self-quarantine at home.  When our other pastor and his family went down days before break started, Dave was really feeling the pressure to stay healthy and make it through all the holiday services.  To ensure he could do his job, we all took one for the team and decided to lay low for Christmas.  And you know what?  It ended up being a very nice Christmas break-- cozy and relaxing and full of fun and family time!

2020 teacher gifts be like...

A couple times we left our house to view some Christmas lights.

We also had coffee drive in dates,

Banket baking lessons, 

And lots of delicious, special food!  We picked up a fancy pie for Christmas day and redeemed a generous gift card to a super fancy restaurant by ordering their family pick up meal.  Right from the comfort of our own home we savored Chef John's truffle risotto, broccolini, Fiscalini mac and cheese, wedge salad, filet mignon and chocolate mousse.  

Ivy got SO much love and spoils!  We'll all moan when we remember 2020, but our dogs will be like, "That was the best year of my life!"

We made our home a warm, cozy place for us to be-- with good smells, good food, fires, games, movies, and comfy clothes every day.

Then there was the joy of Christmas present opening!  Some highlights were the sweatshirts from the girls' favorite YouTuber.  I learned a new word this holiday-- "merch". ;)

When I showed the family that funny "I got a robe!" SNL skit, they hilariously thought it was my way of asking for a robe!  This luxurious, plush robe ended up being my favorite gift!  In fact, we ALL got robes from different people!  2020, the Year of Robes.

The girls loved sweet, hand knit hats from their Auntie Heather.

The big gift was a Nintendo Switch!  I'm not much of a video gamer, but I do love a good family board game, so it was a blast getting some Jackbox games to play together through the Switch.  We'd log on from our different devices and play this together for HOURS, laughing sometimes until we cried.  Jackbox games combine creativity, drawing, writing, and humor and are totally my jam!

We met the goal of making it through the holidays healthy!  So, come New Year's, with school restarting just days later, we were still feeling like being cautious and not taking the risk with our big annual NYE party.  Instead we had just one other church family over-- friends that have stayed in our bubble and who we'd had daily contact with already.  It was a night of more good food and Jackbox games and it was super fun.

Christmas Break ended, as it always does for me, with the writing of tons of thank you notes for all the kind gifts I receive from my students.  Spending the last few days of break intentionally thinking about my kids always gets me ready for the transition from home life to school life.  It's been a great January too!  I have not missed a day of school yet, getting to be there for my students and teach all my favorite winter units myself.  And the girls have been able to finish their first semester strong also, surviving final projects and exams, while staying busy with friends, Robotics, and play practices.   These things are so precious to us now, we were fine with taking a little 2 week break from life to protect our ability to keep doing them.