The mysteries of another pandemic Christmas!

More normal--but this
ornament, made last year, still
seems to fit. Plus it's
adorable.

Christmas felt more normal this year! Not entirely normal, as we again said no to a couple events and activities we would've loved to attend (our beloved Nutcracker, for one!). But it was nice to at least not feel the need to pre-check with the neighbors to make sure it would be okay for us to bake cookies for them.

Also, there was no astronaut when we picked out our Christmas tree.

The first major change was the major rush to Christmas shop. I usually prefer to begin my shopping the day after Thanksgiving, lest I get too caught up too early. And also since young kids have a way of changing their interests about 2 weeks before Christmas anyway (although mine are starting to level out, at least). But this year, having been warned about shortages and shipping issues, I started passing around the Christmas catalogs nearly as soon as they arrived after Halloween, and warning the girls that even Santa couldn't make guarantees this year. By mid-November, I'd even made a purchase! 

As would happen, the gift Elise HAD to have, and that I ordered promptly, and that was too big to comfortably send back, she tried at a friend's house and decided she didn't want after all. As it was already wrapped, I mentally determined she would make it work. Because that's what Elise does. But would she this time?!? Christmas mystery #1. 

The second major change from last year was the potential to see family! People were available! And not in quarantine! We made actual, concrete plans! But would it actually work?!? Christmas mystery #2.

And the third was that we put some of our Christmas lights in the backyard this year, in hopes that other neighbors would follow suit and we could have our own neighborhood luminary walk along the trail. We thought the idea was so good, we even put up posters! But would anyone participate?!?

Other than that, we baked our usual cookies, made and shopped for gifts, watched the performances, saw the people, created the crafts, read the books, sang along to the music, and generally celebrated the season. Here's what that looked like:

Christmas often starts with Thanksgiving in our house! Here are the lovely plates, bowls, etc. that all of the ladies/girls painted the day after Thanksgiving.

We bought our tree at a different tree farm this year (no reason, other than it was closer), and we LOVED the selection of white pines--Matt's and my personal favorite. We found one we could literally hug, that was the perfect shape and size, and that was not already chopped down, because we did the right thing and shopped before Thanksgiving (thanks to me for shoving us all out the door!). We also saw an amazing flock of white pelicans, possibly, flying super high in cool formations.

What wasn't our favorite: trying to decorate this tree. The ornaments kept sliding off, and you can see what's happening with the star. Plus, less piney scent than other varieties. But it's still beautiful, a month and a half later!

In the above photo, Elise attempts to get the star to stand up on our floppy, yet soft and huggable, tree. The first few attempts ended up looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

I was so excited to have a second tree so that all our lovely handmade ornaments would be displayed! Unfortunately, so were the cats. Every morning for a while, we'd come downstairs to something like this scene. Amazingly, it all happened in the span of time between Matt getting up and the rest of us. The worst part was when the cats destroyed Grandma Jan's beautiful handmade wool ornaments... I think the only time any of us briefly reconsidered our kitten purchase a year and a half prior.

Our contribution to the trail luminary walk (the lights around the trees are a bit dim in this photo)! The girls created a poster, and then spent an hour or so taping them up on mailboxes around the neighborhood, often via scooter. Did anyone else decorate? YES! A couple friends, a couple people who looked like they might have done it anyway, and one neighbor who put lights on all the pine trees in their backyard--beautiful! Did it actually look like a luminary walk? Not so much. But we're hoping that we're starting a trend. Which would probably actually be the first trend I've ever set, in my life.

This idea was initiated, by the way, by a conversation the girls had with a nice neighbor lady on the trails. She suggested we do an event with hot cocoa and carolers and such. She got the girls all excited! And then it became my project, as many projects do if they have any hope of survival.

Alas, this one was lost. Although we nearly had interest from the HOA for the neighborhood that begins across the street from us, an event never happened. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a few after-dark walks on the trails to check out a few, widely spread light displays!

Kalina at her beautiful early December orchestra concert! While not a Christmas concert per se, it was still lovely to hear her play her music, and to see her glow.

Having sold coffee and tea to the neighbors to raise money for AHG, we thought it only right to deliver their purchases with a box of cookies and, my personal favorite, gingerbread cake (with orange-cream cheese frosting this year!). On roller blades.

We made a few cookies for ourselves, too. 

Unrelated, but possibly due to Christmas spirit, Kalina made crepes for us one morning, which was pretty noteworthy. We happened to have Nutella in the pantry and bananas on hand, soooo....

We love preparing and sending our Christmas cards! We do it assembly line style. This year, no one complained too much about signing the cards--even Matt! I think when even Naomi and Elise, who have yet to learn how to bottle up their whine well unless highly motivated, were trying to convince him it was really no big deal to sign 65 letters, he decided he could probably shoulder the burden as well.

Mandatory crocheting in the evenings as the girls made Christmas gifts for family (and a few teachers). They made dishcloths--even Naomi, for whom they were quite a challenge. She was frustrated watching her older sisters rush through them, but kept at it even when she really wanted to quit. And she's still crocheting every evening during storytime! So proud of her!

We really picked and chose our indoor events, but we were able to say yes to the luminary walk without much trouble! Almost better than the lights was the bagpiper, whose music we had to just about peel Kalina away from. Not as great: the Elvis impersonator, who was fun for about 5 minutes before just...not...being...that...great. And needing some new dance moves. And he had maybe one Christmas song, which to me is worse than being quite mediocre. 

Other covid-friendly attractions included the Christmas movies. I always feel like there should be some truly great Christmas movies out there--and there are. We've just seen them all already. Matt and I watched a couple pretty dumb ones before settling on one made in the 1940s that actually was pretty clever. The girls and I also watched some dumb ones, and I believe my credibility as a good movie-picker even slipped a bit.

It was a good thing we kept things low-key, as although Naomi developed a cold and laryngitis just in time to nearly ruin our plans, nobody got covid. The trek to Minnesota felt tenuous, but it happened. We couldn't wait to see everyone!

  

Although the snow wasn't packable at first, it was sled-able, and we took full advantage. Naomi loved doubling up with Julie, who was a adorable mix of slightly afraid and delighted at the same time. Another day, we were able to do some snow packing to make a snow alien, and Dean and Naomi had fun sled-racing. 

Gingerbread houses were fun to create! Amazingly, most of the candy actually ended up on the houses!

Matching jammies is such a fun tradition! 

Not pictured: Our amazing movie night, lots of great meals, board games, random cute things that both Julie and Dean said, and all the fun catching up with everyone.

A little Christmas morning silliness, back on our own turf! 

What do you have for Christmas breakfast when you haven't been home to buy groceries or make anything particularly yummy? Christmas toast! Using sprinkles. It worked, plus Kalina had a new cat mug for her hot cocoa.

From Naomi, Elise receives stuffed copepods to go along with her stuffed tardigrade. I'm not sure she needed anything else. But did she like the early-purchased gift for her Ninja Line?!? Maybe it was the joy of Christmas, but she very quickly decided it would work. And seemed to like using it. And has enjoyed it quite a bit since. I think we're in the clear. Thanks, Elise, for your amazing attitude, and for not making me try to return it.

Kalina asked for a dark medium-sized trilobite bent over a rock. Thanks, ebay! And Naomi hugs her Christmas puppy--a mini Holly that will travel easier than mommy Holly. She named it, appropriately, Minny.

The kitties got new bowls, with treats wrapped inside them! No one managed to open theirs until Christmas night, at which point it's entirely possible one cat opened both and devoured all 20-ish treats. Oops!

We had fun actually getting to see Grandpa and Marianne on Christmas this year! We enjoyed a lovely day together, and then two additional evenings of attempting to do a Zoom gift exchange with extended family (and eat the delicious buche de noel cake we'd made and decorated).

Unfortunately, that was close to the end of the fun, as a covid exposure kept us home, and visitors away, until after New Years. But that was okay--we'd already had a lovely holiday season. And stay tuned for our covid-exposure project....