NYE 2020

2020 certainly had its challenges, but we've also had a lot of fun finding new ways to celebrate milestones.  For NYE, we dropped mason jars of George Washington Punch off to friends across the DMV, then came home for a family-only party.  Evelyn dressed herself, Ian, and me, and we enjoyed a leisurely night of food (caviar, crudite, charcuterie, and chocolate fondu) interspersed with FINISHING all 9 seasons of The Office (for Ian and me) and some very confused kids, who enjoyed the finale but knew nothing that had happened in seasons 6-9.  And of course, making fun of the NYC extravaganza (or lack thereof this year) was the perfect lead-in to popping our holiday crackers and falling, grateful and with full hearts, into bed.  

 

Clean Me Up, Scotty

Piper needs semi-regular baths with special shampoo to keep her skin fresh.  Her brother and sister are becoming excellent dog salon workers!

 

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

 The kids LOVE Guy Fieri, so for Christmas Break Taco Tuesday, we ordered Guy Fieri's Trash Can Nachos, flown in from out of state for us to enjoy.  What an indulgence.  What a ridiculous pile of cheesey goodness.  What a night!

Pre-Christmas Learning

Piper learned to pretend to be a stuffie, while Evelyn and Louise learned flower arranging and Max honed his pizza-making skills.

 

Piper's First Christmas

Santa brought her a brain game/obstacle course and an Astros bandana.  Plus a coat and boots from Evelyn and special biscuits from Max.  She is loved!

 

Christmas 2020

We started Christmas Eve with cookie decorating and Granny's-spaghetti-making.  Evelyn read us the Christmas story from the Children's Bible before dinner, where Max ate so much delicious spaghetti and apple osu that he fell off his chair and lay on the floor, torn between wanting to eat more and wanting the pain to stop. Then it was off to sleep so Santa could come to town.  And come to town he did!