Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas, starting off with celebrating with Nan and Pop and Dean, Jen, Euan and Livi via the computer.

In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner, gifts and games.

Stace decided we were indulging in a rib roast, and it came out pretty darn perfectly.
 

Christmas 2020

Cora was thrilled to get the virtual reality headset she'd been wanting since March, when she used one at Charlie's house.

Speaking of meat - my parents gave Stace a fancy roast from the mail-order company Omaha Steaks.

Violet painted this lovely scene for Cora, from the Percy Jackson book series they've been reading together this year.

Violet gave me earrings.

We had a lovely day, ending with games. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, Stace came home from work early, and we returned to church for the first time since March. 

We were outside and sitting with our own family, but it was great to be back. (Our church has been holding outside services, but Cora's youth service is online only, so we've stayed home and watched online since March.)

Here, we were singing Silent Night, the traditional end to Christmas Eve services.

Our church had a few characters out for distanced photographs...

We came home and had breakfast for dinner, with the last of Aunt Patty's lovely Slovenian potica bread, her holiday tradition and labor of love.
 

Almost Break Time!

Violet and I took a little walk in the neighborhood and she insisted on taking Spencer with us. 

This is the street near the pool, and several times, neighbors there have expressed affection for and familiarity with Spence. He gets around!

Violet's last day of school before break featured some silly fun - the kids were asked to make themselves into a present. Violet cut some eye holes into a gift bag, and, voila!

As the class room mom, I collected money from the parents and bought the teacher's gifts. The class was amazingly generous, and Mrs. Dallaire was royally spoiled. She teared up when opening her gift- here, she's showing the poinsettia plant I'd placed with the card and gift cards.

On Friday, I got my prosthesis polished, and for the first time, saw an ocularist in Encino instead of down in Hollywood. My ocularist has several offices in SoCal, but since I've seen Beverly since I was tiny, I would always see her in the Hollywood/Larchmont office. Now that she has retired, I decided to try this (slightly) closer location. I guess it's the start of a new era!

On Friday night, Liana came over to spend the night. The girls worked on gingerbread houses...

We then walked to Granary Square to get dinner, via the pretty canyon that's now all decked out for Christmas.

 Every time I walk, there seem to be more and more ornaments. 

After buying dinner, we went home to eat, and the girls had fun doing D&D. We could hear Liana and Violet giggling late into the night, a beautiful sound in these strange Covid crazy times.

Family Christmas

We had a very early Christmas celebration Saturday with my family, because Melanie, Nick and Ellie are flying back East next week for a few weeks.

Violet gave them a painting of a sea scene, because they have a Hawaii/tropical-themed bathroom.

Cora gave them a Pop Funko of one of their favorite Marvel characters.

Sue and Gord sent a lovely dolly for Ellie, and she gave it a big hug.

 

Grandma and Grandpa gave Cora this fun sweatshirt, featuring art from one of Grandma's Magic Mountain friends. She loves it, and the vintage-looking Marvel backpack from Mel and Nick.

The annual group shot - plus the new family member!

We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to complete the evening.

Week in Review

On my walk through the canyon the other day, I was overwhelmed by a buzzing sound, and looked up to see a swarm of bees forming a new hive on the branch of the oak tree. Pretty cool!

On Thursday, Violet's school had the annual Apex fundraiser. Big thanks to all who sponsored her this year! Violet and her classmates logged on and completed fitness moves at home. Violet took it seriously, and even recorded a video to ask for sponsors!

Violet painted this absolutely lovely canvas of our living room at Christmas time. 

I told her, she will have this forever, to always remember her childhood home this time of year. I love the texture of the tree and the way she painted the curtains - the perspective is awesome!

Stace and Cora went out Sunday to play soccer for a bit - Cora insisted on wearing this awesome outfit.

She didn't last too long without injury! Taking a ball off the nose turned into a bloody affair.

In the afternoon, Stace and I took Vi to the archery range. What a great asset this is to our town!

We got her boba on the way home; seeing all the restaurants' empty outside seating is really sad. All the contact tracing our state/county have done, shows that next to zero spread of Covid comes from outside restaurant dining. Very frustrating situation for these small businesses and their employees.

Stace and I took Vi to the mall the other day - it's still open, at least. We grabbed a quick pic in front of the giant pretty tree.
 

Weekend Fun

Stace and Violet made additional wooden Christmas decorations for the front yard over the weekend.

This year's additions: Violet's Christmas skunk, because we had such cute baby skunks in the spring, and two sets of gifts. They go along well with Violet's gift-bringing mice from last year.

On Saturday evening, Cora went with Rigo, Lucas and a couple of other kids to a drive through Stranger Things event. We had Liana over to hang with Violet. We all went to the pet store, where the girls are still young and sweet enough to enjoy looking at the animals.

Then, they made a peach cobbler for dessert.

Stace perfected the sourdough bread! It was delicious!

Friday Fun

See Santa Snoopy? He's waving at Eloise!

We spent Friday afternoon at Knott's Berry Farm, where we paid to eat our way around the park. 

Theme parks can't be open for their rides, but some are open for food/wine events. Walking around enjoying the shops, food and Christmas decorations was very enjoyable.

In Camp Snoopy, the kids' area, the girls sat down on this tiny, kid-sized bench.

Cousins!

Happy girl!

She's adorable!

Grandma and Grandpa were there, too, along with Melanie and Nick. With so many things closed, it was lovely to spend the day enjoying something like this.
 

Thanksgiving Week

The girls had the week off for Thanksgiving break, and on Monday I made Violet take a walk with me. She was initially reluctant, but as we got into the canyon, she noticed with delight that someone had been hanging Christmas ornaments on the trees.

We then happened upon a large bag of ornaments under an oak, with a note asking for help hanging the decorations. Vi was more than happy to help!

It was definitely worth the walk. I love this girl!

Vi and Stace made a Victoria sponge cake in the evening. Yum!

On Wednesday, we gathered again at the park with some of Cora's friends. They again brought Nerf guns, and great fun was had by all.

On Thanksgiving, Melanie made a lot of the food, and my mom contributed two veggie dishes. So, we didn't have a lot to be responsible for. Stace was thrilled with the rise on his lovely Yorkshire puddings!

Cheers! Thanksgiving 2020 - we added an Ellie and subtracted a Paula - she was working at Magic Mountain's drive-through event.