Holidays!

Warning!  Massive photo dump ahead.

Given all the continued COVID restrictions, it was a challenge to make Christmas feel like Christmas this year. However, looking back through all of these pictures, I think we definitely succeeded in doing all the "normal" things we typically do, just in a different fashion.

The kids still got to see Santa! I have been trying to stay away from The Village for Santa, simply because waiting in line was turning into a multiple hour wait, and nobody is in a good mood after that. This year, they offered "reservations", which was a freaking life saver. You could reserve a specific time, and we only waited for 10 minutes. This is the way to do it! Even though there was plexi-glass, the kids still got a great experience with Santa.

 We also ventured out to Indian Creek to check out all the lights. This is one of my favorite places. I absolutely adore Christmas lights. It was a super chilly evening, but we bundled up and avoided crowds as much as we could. 

On the way home from Indian Creek, we stopped to check out the lights at Scentsy. As always, the light tunnel was a huge hit. They had a new, huge Christmas tree that changes colors, so that was fun to watch.

Kendall's class still got to have their Christmas party, thankfully! We were wondering if they would be able to pull it off. Her school had themed dress-up days each week leading up to Christmas break, and they got to wear Christmas pajamas for their class party/movie.

Banks got into the holiday spirit as well!

Each year when we pass the ice skating rinks at The Village and Indian Creek, the kids ask to ice skate. And each year, I tell them "another time". Well, another time finally came and they were able to get out onto the ice for a 30 minute reservation. This kept the crowd small and they were able to move around freely on the ice.

We started our hunt for a gingerbread house a little late this year. We finally got a gingerbread train, and the kids worked together to make it a masterpiece.

As usual, the gifts outgrew the tree. :)

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' house with a warm fire in the fireplace, good music, and yummy food.

Matt and I were able to continue our Christmas Day tradition of finding snow. We ventured up to Grimes Creek this year, then onward into Idaho City, and then up and over the mountain through Harris Creek area to Horseshoe Bend. It was a beautiful drive!

Addie was in Mexico over Christmas, so the kids graciously waited until she got back to open presents. She was very homesick on Christmas, as Mexico wasn't exactly her idea of where she wanted to be during the holiday. Carter and Kendall were counting down the minutes until she got home, and then it was GAME ON for opening gifts!  Santa was very good to them this year!!

November's Literary Adventures

November was an interesting month for books. I had some that were utterly fantastic, and quite a few that were complete duds. The Last Flight was a great book with a well-executed plot. Little Secrets was very well written, though a little predictable. Murder on Cold Street was the one I was looking forward to the most. Sherry Thomas has taken the Sherlock Holmes storyline and completely turned it upside down, in the best way. Each year, I look forward to the latest book in this series. They are complex, twisty, suspenseful, and set in a time period that I absolutely adore. I intentionally slowly pace myself on each book in the series. All of the other books I read in November were really just garbage. 

"Ride 'til we can't no more"

 And we almost got to that point! In early October, we decided to finally bite the bullet and get a 4 wheeler We have been wanting one for quite some time now, but the search was definitely an arduous one. With COVID hijacking the year, it seems everyone in the Pacific Northwest was on the hunt for a 4 wheeler. We finally lucked out with a shiny 2020 machine. It was immediately thrown into the deep end on several hunting adventures, as well as a really fun ride up the back side of Bogus Basin. There are several trails that branch off of the main trail on this ride, and we got up one that was definitely NOT where we wanted to be. This trail had a major rut and was too steep on the side to safely maneuver. We initially thought we would just straddle the rut and continue on up the road, but it was quickly clear that that was not going to work in our favor. I ended up getting off the 4 wheeler to let Matt slowly shimmy back down and out. Close call for sure!