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. 

Scavenger Hunt!

A while back, Karen gave us a gift certificate to an online scavenger hunt company.  With a cool app on your phone, you can pick a city you want to explore on foot and sign up for one of their specially designed hunts.  There were plenty of good options to choose from-- Fisherman's Wharf in SF, a Capitol tour in Sacramento, a Silicon Valley history hunt in San Jose, even one on Santa Cruz's Boardwalk!  We chose one in Angels Camp-- a little gold mining town in the foothills that is full of fun Mark Twain history.  And we chose to do it on Dave's birthday.

After registering your team on the app, you start the hunt by following clues to various landmarks and sites in the city.  Along the way, you solve puzzles, answer questions with information you glean, and take silly pictures of random things for extra points.  Our hunt took us about an hour and a half and had us walk about a mile around the town.  We saw so much of Angels Camp that we would have totally overlooked if the hunt hadn't prompted us to visit! (First picture assignment was our team at the very start of the hunt.)

 

We found a Mark Twin statue in a park and had to answer questions about it.

We found a marker memorializing the exact spot where the collapse of a mine shaft in 1889 occurred.

We found the "Frog Walk of Fame" (which was our favorite thing to find!) commemorating each frog that has won the Jumping Jubilee this town hosts each May.  We had to take a funny jumping picture by one of the markers.

We actually found a TON of crazy frog stuff, including this disco frog-- John Toadvolta.  This little town stakes its fame on the fact that Samuel Clemens, in debt and recently fired from a job as a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, settled here for a bit hoping to find some gold to pay off his debts and get some direction in his life.  While he was in Angels Camp, he wrote his first hugely successful short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, thus giving Mark Twain his voice and launching a pretty epic career as a fiction writer.

We found the marker for the original frog that started this town's frog obsession-- Mark Twain's very own Dan'l Webstery, who jumped 0'0" in the 1865 frog jumping contest, because his owner's sneaky competitor stuffed the frog with lead pellets to weigh him down and win a bet (or so his short story goes).

We earned extra points along the way by taking random pictures of us climbing trees, switching shoes, holding our hand up to an X, and finding cowboy hats, the number 7, a crosswalk, a thermometer, a fountain, and beef jerky.

In the end, after visiting bridges, churches, hotels, cemeteries, and parks, we found ourselves so much more knowledgeable about and appreciative of this historic and fun little town!  We talked to nice people along the way who saw us strangely strolling through their neighborhood.  And, mostly, we just enjoyed the family time together on a beautiful cool day working on a shared project.

Happy birthday to our always-driving, up-for-adventures, puzzle-loving, game-crushing, trivia-remembering, awesome Dad and husband!

Thanksgiving 2020

Well, it's after Christmas, probably a good time to write the Thanksgiving post. :)

Our Thanksgiving was lovely, and lowkey, and full of all the best things this year: church, good food, family, fun, and cherishing the gift that is our home.  

Dave's smoked turkey was amazing once again.  This is Ivy's favorite day!

We played lots of games.

And snuggled up to read and watch movies.

We took a Thanksgiving Day drive and let Ella get behind the wheel for the first time since she officially turned 15 and half over Thanksgiving weekend!  She was a natural.  She's working on her online driver's ed currently and will meet with a driving instructor once she passes a test and gets her permit.  Then she'll be getting as much practice in as possible before she goes for her license this summer! I have all the feelings: relief that her driving will save me so many trips and terror about my baby behind the wheel and on the road. 

We decorated our home for Christmas, including hanging the outside lights and, for the first time ever!, buying a FAKE tree! 

We Zoomed with both of our families and loved seeing everyone's faces!

And, following tradition, we shared what we are thankful for.  Dave for his fellow church staff making this crazy year of ministry run as smoothly as possible, Ella for her friends, Delia for her family.  Since I am the author of this blog, I can go into a bit more detail. ;)  I'm thankful this year for the little things that became big things: that our church could keep worshiping, that our family could get away and experience breathtaking creation at both the coast and the mountains, that I could teach these adorable students in person every single day, and even that the leaves on the trees seemed especially lovely this fall.  This year gave me fresh eyes to see the many blessings that we so often take for granted.

I'll tell you about our Christmas soon...maybe around Valentines Day? Haha!

Among Us

One of the fun ways my girls have found to connect with their friends during this strange season is through the video game Among Us.  This is like a murder mystery that you can play remotely.  As your character (a funny looking space guy) moves around "completing tasks", you are in danger of being murdered by the designated "imposter".  You have to figure out, using the clues you have, who is most "sus" and then go to a meeting and eliminate who you think is the murderer.  While I cannot play this game for the hours that my kids can, Dave and I do join in from time to time, just to keep tabs on our kids' interests. ;)

Well, in typical Ella and Delia fashion, they found a way to turn this video game into a night of creative fun!  On Halloween night, they hosted a live Among Us party outside at a friend's house.  They created real tasks to complete, they assigned people to be the imposter, they even told everyone to come in their own version of the space guy's costume.  (Ella went with a paper mache helmet that took DAYS to craft.)  Sometimes I fret about how attached my kids are to their friends via a screen, but then I see that turn into something redemptive and inventive and I feel alright.

Eighteen kids were able to come to the party on Halloween night!  Another awesome thing about this game is that it has merged 3 random friend groups into one: Delia's friends, Ella's friends, and Ella's boyfriend's friends!  And they are all GREAT kids!  What a fun mix! (Sorry for the blurry pic.)

Among Us socks were among the goodies Sinterklaas left in the klompies this year.

 And as I dodged COVID this whole fall, achieving my goal to make it to Christmas Break healthy, though many around me went down, this had me cracking up!  If you know, you know.

Praise the Lord ANYTIME and ANYWHERE

 

Today, from the pulpit, Dave told every one present at our last outdoor church service to take some time reflecting, and even recording, what this unprecedented time in our church history has meant to them these past several months.  He then took a picture of his view from the make shift stage that was built special for our outside services.  

There has been a lot of pivoting at church since March as we strive to keep authentically worshiping God and learning from His Word together, but yet keep one another safe and stay in compliance with the law.  We move back inside next week because the cold and rainy season is upon us and worshiping outside with all the tech in a changing season is just not feasible anymore, nor is going back to online only after 4 months of being together and, honestly, learning more about COVID and its real threat.  

For me, outdoor worship has been gift, and I'm a little sad it's over for now.  I have loved watching our church family come together in new ways of serving-- people showing up an hour early to get canopies popped up, sound plugged in, and livestream running.  I have loved seeing people so hungry for in person church that they do whatever it takes to come, braving extreme weather and accepting unconventional "church" things like slathering their kids in sunscreen, hauling camping chairs, or bundling up in blankets!  I have enjoyed seeing some traditions stay the same, like our love for singing, or our commitment to baptism, or a familiar liturgy, or the trust that we will ALWAYS hear a solid sermon preached, while other traditions have adapted-- like bringing your own coffee or wearing jeans!  Mostly, I have loved the weekly reminder that church is not about a building, or your particular pew.  Dave pointed out today that people all over the world and throughout time have worshiped God and been taught from scriptures in all sorts of places-- on the shores of a lake with their fishing boats nearby, outdoors on the African plains, hidden behind locked doors, in grand cathedrals, and, for the past few months, in a church parking lot.  COVID has altered, but certainly not diminished, our desire or ability to meet God each Sunday.  For some, it's maybe even strengthened it!

Tahoe with Kyle

An unexpected change of plans had Kyle come out for Ella's play weekend a bit later than originally anticipated.  We decided to find the silver lining in this and instead embrace a visit with him during a week that was NOT Dress and Tech and a week that had a day off school built into it.  So, we planned a trip to a favorite part of our state that Kyle has never seen-- Lake Tahoe.  We've never been here in the fall and it was magnificent with trees changing colors, the most turquoise we've ever seen the water, no seasonal crowds, and the perfect make your cheeks rosy and your favorite fuzzy hat wearable, but not make you miserably cold, fall chill in the air.  

We even found the cutest  hotel and spent our first night walking around the Heavenly Ski Village, visiting art galleries, eating pizza, enjoying some live music and yard games, and warming up by the fire pit with some complementary hot chocolate.

The plan the next day was just to take the couple hour drive around the entire lake, hopping out at our favorite spots to drink in those glorious views.  First stop was our favorite beach, Sand Harbor, on the Nevada side.  I'll let the pictures do the talking...

At lunch time we pulled off at Squaw Valley to eat our picnic lunch in the deserted Village. 

We took a little walk on our favorite scenic Squaw Valley path, where we saw them starting to get the slopes ready for the winter season with a little early snow-making!

Our afternoon consisted of a little 2 mile hike down to Vikingsholm, a grand old estate on the shores of Emerald Bay.

We admired stained glass windows and old Scandinavian architecture and made friends with ducks!

Our drive around the entire lake ended with a stop at Inspiration Point on top of Emerald Bay, the place to get the best views.

Along the way, we saw plenty of lovely fall color, something we've been craving in our still-blazing-hot fall Central Valley climate!

After a beautiful all-day drive, we enjoyed some amazing Mexican food and a sunset over the Lake Tahoe mountains.

The next morning donuts and bikes were on the agenda!  Since we spent the day before exploring Tahoe with Kyle on foot and in car, we thought it would be fun to see it on bicycle wheels!  We rented bikes for the morning and traveled several miles along the East side of the lake in the forested Camp Richardson.  BUT, before we could expect more physical activity out of Delia, we had to bribe her with the craziest donuts ever from Glazed and Confused! ;)

It's a season of Thanksgiving, so I want to recognize the gift that so much of the past few weeks has been!  We're so thankful for the gift of normalcy, in practicing and performing school plays, hosting family members, surviving busy calendars, and being able to travel to open places.  The gift of family members who are best friends-- ones we LOVE hanging out, laughing, exploring, and catching up with!  The gift of spirit-reviving, soul-feeding, creator-worshiping scenery, just a few hours away.  And the gift of quality time-- where we can reconnect, escape the stress of life, and be our best selves together!