Pre-Christmas

We had a fun couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. Jack and Kara performed in their middle school band concert. It was really good and we all enjoyed it. 

Kara is the flutist on the right. Jack is in a different band and was harder to get a picture (he doesn't sit in the front row).

Kara and I went to Universal and saw all their holiday shows, including a concert by Manheim Steamroller, a live reenactment of "The Grinch" and a parade. We bought holiday treats and had dinner at our favorite brick oven pizzeria.  No one else was interested in a visit that was focused on shows, but we enjoyed it.

The Grinch was funny, and it had a live dog!

Waiting for Manheim Steamroller

I volunteered in Luke's classroom and was the week's mystery reader. They made gingerbread houses and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I read "Tough Cookie" which I thought was really cute. I didn't get to volunteer all of last year and it was nice to be back in his classroom.

Luke and his teacher. We joke about his inability to take a normal picture :)

To kick off Winter Break, everyone but Jack went to Universal after dinner on Friday night (Dec 17th). Jack really is a homebody. It is annoying for me and Thomas, because we want everyone to do things together. And, I feel like he generally has fun when we do make him attend. But, I also don't want to force him to do "fun" things (too often). It leads to frustration and anger on both sides, and sometimes we just have to let it go. But, the rest of us had a good time. 

Jack had his final basketball game. He played the best he has ever played and they came very close to winning the championship (they only lost by 1 point). Jack scored and had lots of assists and rebounds.

I finally got a picture!

We saw the new Spiderman movie and went to lunch at Steak n Shake. Covid numbers are rising, again. So, we made everyone mask up. I recently read an article, by reputable sources, about how masks aren't nearly as effective as we'd hoped, mainly because people don't wear the right ones and don't wear them properly. So, I made everyone double mask, with surgical type masks using the double-loop method and then another mask over it. It was annoying, but it made me feel better about being in a crowded theater. 

Luke went to the zoo with the Cantells one day. He had a great time. The girls came over here when they got home and Jordyn baked cookies with Kara. We found a really good gingerbread cookie recipe that Kara has perfected.

Another day, Anna had a friend spend the day with us. We went to Leu Gardens and the downtown library. Leu Gardens had lots of varieties of poinsettias. We purposefully chose a cold day (one of maybe 3 we've had this month and by cold, I mean we had to wear a sweatshirt) to enjoy being outside. We also toured the Leu House Museum, which was interesting. Anna's friend didn't enjoy it very much, we overheard Anna say something to her like, sorry if this boring and her friend responded, without any irony, "it's okay, I've been to worse places, I had to go to a funeral once." 

This Japanese camellia was the most perfect flower.

Santa and Mrs. Claus visited the park next to our house another day. It was coordinated by our friend and combined with a cookie exchange. The Claus' were entertaining. They read the Night Before Christmas, sang songs, told holiday jokes, and talked with each child. Luke liked it but didn't love it.

Thomas and I both woke up feeling kind of sick on the 23rd. We had cold symptoms, which are the same as the symptoms for the new Omicron variant. We were supposed to host my sister and brother on Christmas Eve, so we went and got Covid tests. Thomas was sure it was going to be positive. But, we were negative. I was almost disappointed. I am so tired of Covid and feel like getting sick is inevitable, so I am just ready to get it over with. Obviously, I don't want to get sick, but I feel like it's going to happen eventually. We told our family and they decided that as long as weren't worse on the 24th, they would still come.

I felt fine on the 24th. Thomas felt the same and the kids all felt normal. So, the day was on. They came after lunch and we played Just One and Apples to Apples. We had our big dinner (we don't cook on Christmas) and then went for a walk to look at lights in our neighborhood. It was really, really nice. I loved having everyone over. One of Thomas' MD coworkers/friends was passing through the area and stopped by to give Thomas something to pass on to our boss. It was a quick visit, but it was good seeing him. After everyone left, we opened our Christmas pajamas and took the kids' picture in front of the Christmas countdown.