W12 of Y7

Snow Day

We had an unexpected snow day this week!

I tried to go to work but got stuck.
After some guys stopped to push me out, I went back home to wake up the kids!

It was snowing/raining so Aiden had to sled with an umbrella!

It was actually a really good combination to make a snowman though!

Connor's Birthday

Connor turned 19 this week!!!

We got a Dunkin Donuts on base after he left so we were able to surprise him when he woke up with a box full of donuts!!  

My New Years Eve baby!!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like money!!

New Years Eve

Aiden had the idea to repeat our New Years Eve from Last year.....

Its crazy to think that we were on a cruise boat in Singapore playing Monopoly just 1 year ago!

Not exactly the same, but still lots of fun!!
We actually have no idea where this game came from.  It showed up in the mail without any indication of who sent it. 
If you sent us this game for Christmas, THANK YOU!!!!  It was lots of fun!

2021!!!!

We stayed up to say goodbye to 2020 and to watch 2021 come in!

From my phone..... definitely missed this girl tonight!

Our little town exploded with fireworks at midnight!  We definitely joined in!

If you look really close you can actually see a smile!! ;) 

New Years Day

We spent New Years Day putting all of the Christmas things away.  It always makes me so sad to box it all up but I like to think about unwrapping each ornament and decoration the next year and remembering all of the good memories of past Christmases.

Before we pack up the stockings we do our New Years Resolutions.  We have an index card inside our stockings with our goals for the next year on them.  We open them up on New Years Day and reflect on how we did with our goal from the previous year and then write down our goal(s) for the next year.  We've been doing this since 2013 so it's fun to look back and see what our goals were every year.  We all wrote down goals for 2021 and I can't wait to see how we did on Jan 1, 2022! 

W11 of Y7

Christmas Eve

We had a nice, lazy day on Christmas Eve.

For my project at work, we organized a Santa drive-by for families living on base.  There are several families who are in quarantine for the holidays so this was a way to bring Christmas to them.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Opening Christmas PJs before bed! 

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

Christmas Morning!!!!

I am so grateful for this family!! 

The rest of the weekend was low-key and relaxing.... just how I like it!

W10 of Y7

Connor is home!

He made the long journey home!! He had to go from Idaho -> Utah -> Seattle -> Amsterdam -> Venice! With all of the challenges to travel during COVID, the potential for something to go wrong at any time during these flights was high.  We were so happy to finally have him home!

His room is ready!  He will have to stay in here until we are sure that he doesn't have COVID.

Between jet lag and quarantine we didn't see a lot of him for about 3 days!

Unbelievable! 
Between all of the different airports and planes he was on, I thought for sure that he would get COVID somewhere.... but he didn't!!!  We were all so happy to see this.

W9 of Y7

Getting ready for Christmas

This week has felt very Christmassy!! :)

Whitney and I attempted hot cocoa bombs....  nailed it!

We did a little better with the Christmas Cookies than we did with the hot cocoa bombs

One positive to being in the middle of a pandemic is that you can do things online that you normally would have to spend a lot of money to go to in person.  We watched the entire Nutcracker Ballet online.

One of my projects at work was to deliver and decorate Christmas Trees for the 100+ people who are in quarantine for Christmas.  The elementary kids made really cute, homemade Christmas decorations that made the trees look extra special!

W8 of Y7

Uganda!!!

The big news this week was that Connor got his mission call to the Uganda, Kampala Mission in Africa!!!

He opened the email while he was on facetime with us

We were all so surprised and excited!!  

So much to learn about this new and fascinating country!!

Quarantine

We got a call from Public Health letting us know that Aiden's best friend tested positive for COVID and Aiden had to go in and get tested that day.  Luckily, he tested negative but he still has to quarantine at home for 14 days anyway! 

This picture was taken ONE DAY before his best friend (on his left) tested positive.  These 2 are together all day long at school and on the bus.  I am convinced if it wasn't for their masks, Aiden would have definitely tested positive too. 

Since all of Aiden's friends were also contacted and quarantined for 14 days they all played video games together during school hours, all day, every day!  They loved being in quarantine! lol!

W7 of Y7

Mammaw

We had sad news this week.  My 90-year old Mammaw has had health issues but was staying strong and healthy enough.... until she got COVID.  The virus was the last straw and she passed in her sleep. 

I was so happy to be able to say goodbye

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2020

We spent Thanksgiving Day cooking and feeding Soldiers on the base who couldn't leave to go home this year, as well as, several Families and Soldiers in quarantine. 

After delivering all of the food we thought it would be a good day to go to the Mall.   All stores are closed on weekends here and since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Italy we thought it was probably the best day of the year to go!

We were wrong... it was too crowded.  Every store had a line of people waiting to get it.  So much for Christmas shopping!  It was still fun to see all the lights though!

We celebrated our Thanksgiving the next day.  Just the 4 of us!

So happy that we got to talk to Connor.  

He was fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremy's brother's family in Utah. 
So grateful he had family to be with. 

W6 of Y7

Patio Project

Jeremy has taken on a project to fix up our back patio so it is more useable space.  So far we are loving it!!