Tidbits

Wrapping up October...

Violet's class presented book reports this week and dressed up as the subject of the book, whether it was fiction or nonfiction. Vi chose to portray Queen Victoria.

Santa Clarita has always had houses and neighborhoods decorated fabulously for Christmas, and we've had some haunted houses in October. But I've never seen a house this fantastic for Halloween! It was like being in A Nightmare Before Christmasland, if that existed at Disneyland.

Cora has been wanting a punch bag for a while, and with her busy show choir/theater schedule, she's taking a break from karate. But now, she can work on her punching and kicking at home.

Stace and I had some errands to run over the weekend, and stopped in the Dudes' Brewery near the mall for a quick drink. I love spending time with this guy!
 

Tidbits

We held the 2020 Presidential Election this week, and oddly enough, it took all week (and more) before we had a semblance of a result. Very strange year, fitting with 2020! 

I took Violet with me to witness democracy in action. Or something like that. She wasn't overly impressed.

Stace and I snuck out for a drink and a bite to eat Friday evening. Our local breweries finally were allowed to reopen, IF they partner with a food truck and you buy a meal. Because, science, you know. Still no indoor dining at all in L.A. County. Also, science. So, here we are at Pocock, at a little table in the parking lot.

On Sunday, we went out to a Mexican restaurant with Kelly and Yass, and enjoyed this seafood FEAST! Yum! And nice having adventurous friends to share it with.

Kelly and I had these festive drinks - mango margaritas, with a Modelo thrown in for good measure.

Cora returned to karate class Monday with her new uniform!

Picture is hard to make out, but a Trump sign appeared on top of our hill on Election Day! California is such a Democrat state, but SClarita has its share of Republicans.

Cora's Awesome Halloween

Cora was very excited to get to test for her blue belt on Halloween. After all these weird months, Sensei Rich decided it was high time for a belt test. Cora was deemed eligible to skip past her purple belt, and got straight for her blue. She also was awarded a new black uniform.

(Everyone wore masks the whole time, removing them only for a second for the photo!)

Later on Halloween, we went over to Liz and Max's house. The kids had a great time hanging out again.
 

Then, we dropped Cora off at Violet's house. She was so excited to be invited over for a Halloween pumpking-carving and Jackbox game party. She hadn't been to Vi's house since before the March craziness set in, and she hadn't seen Vivan or Sophi since then, either.

It was lovely of Lara to provide all the pumpkins, and such a fun evening.

The Great American Road Trip: Redmond III

On Sunday night, my parents flew up to join in the family fun. And on Monday, most of us went on a horse ride through the trees.

Violet almost had as much fun playing with the barn cats as she did on the horse. But, she did have fun on the horse - the group trail ride was her idea.

Here's Stace meeting his horse - he was really nervous since it was his first time on a horse.

Stace eventually warmed up, and his horse was lovely. It went really well.

Such a beautiful ride!

Meanwhile, Cora and Aunt Patty did a private lesson with a karate master, the man who actually taught Sensei Rich. He taught her a very cool staff technique.

That evening, we went to Will and Anna's house for the first time - they bought it a few months ago. Alison and Tyler came out, too. It was a great night together. I love my cousins!

Violet made a very good friend in Oakley, with her pizza in hand.

 It was sad saying good-bye to everyone, but this was our last night. Until next time!

Quarantine Life

Cora updated her calendar to reflect her current schedule.

We're blessed that Cora's sport/activity CAN be done from home, via computer instruction.

Her dojo is like a family, and she misses a lot of the in-person karate banter and sarcasm. But this is better than nothing, and many other athletes on team sports are just not able to get in any action.

Sadly, the girls' tennis outings are over for now. Just after we went to the courts over the weekend, the city closed them for the time being.

Basketball courts and playgrounds are also closed - padlocks on the tennis gates, wood planks secured to the hoops. I suppose kids can ignore the yellow tape to use the play structures, but they'd certainly get dirty looks from passersby.

Interestingly, the day after we went hiking at Rice Canyon, the agency in charge of many of the trails in SoCal, including Rice, Towsley and Mentryville, closed them all to prevent people congregating. So sad! We'd better be careful where we go, or else more places might be shut!

Stace has been working from home every other day, so that his office has fewer people in each day, and everyone can more easily keep their distance from each other.

On Wednesday, after his home-work day was done, he and I went for a walk, and he decided for us to take that walk on Creekside, our Auto Row. He really enjoyed having a look at the cars as we walked by, without any sales people bugging him. (Auto sales are not an essential business, so they aren't working now.)

We've been certainly watching more television lately, since we're home so much. We've watched movies, the girls have watched a lot of Horrible Histories, and we found a new show to binge. It's called The Chosen, and it's a series based on the Disciples. I had a few friends recommend it, and we're all really enjoying how it brings the Biblical era and characters to life in a new way.

Seb has enjoyed our TV time...

...very much.

So has Spencer.

Speaking of screens, Violet's connecting with her friends from KidZone every morning on Zoom. Liana takes part, and Melanie does sometimes, along with other children she normally sees every Wednesday evening. She looks forward to this time, and brings her Bible so she can take her turn to read a verse or discuss the topic of the day.

Christmas Break Tidbits

The day after Christmas, we decided to go ice skating. Cora's friend Violet was free and able to join us - yay!

They still had the Christmas music playing, so Stace fit right in with his Santa hat.

We'd had a cold storm in the region, dropping the snow levels low. Our valley was even more beautiful than normal!

We happily received and purchased several board games for Christmas. With the girls getting older, we're hoping for some new family activities we can do together, and we had a lot of fun playing games at Thanksgiving with my Washington family.

With a new Star Wars movie out, we rewatched the 7th and 8th installments at home, and then watched the 9th movie in the theater. We all loved it.

Stace and Violet went on a long bike ride, played tennis, and visited the ducks at Bridgeport.

Cora tested for, and was awarded, her orange belt in karate.

Moving on up! We're proud of you, Cora!

We also took the girls back to MB2 Raceway.

Go, girls, go!

Here was our Winter Break Bucket List - we hit most of them.