O Christmas Tree

We went Christmas tree hunting the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

We went a little bit later this year and found that there were a lot of really big and relatively small trees left. We're usually somewhere right in the middle. 

Here is our keeper! It is a little smaller than we typically get, but the other big ones were too tall for our living room! And some of the smaller ones were too tiny. 

"Cutting" down the tree. 

We could have cut down our own tree, but this farm only grows White Pines and we tend to like the Douglas or Balsam Firs - which they have brought in. 

We took the old van to haul our tree home. We somewhat use the van as a truck these days. 

We set the tree up when we got home. I strung some lights and put up some other Christmas decorations, but we waited a couple of days before decorating. We were all a little worn out by that point and wanted to enjoy the tree decorating process. 

December 1: time to decorate the tree! 

I put all of our Advent boxes on the big tree this year. I thought it might give the kids more of a challenge in finding the number of the day. I forgot to put up the tree ribbon before adding the boxes and it proved too difficult to do it after the fact so - no tree ribbon this year. 

And since our tree is smaller than usual, we didn't put all of our ornaments on. We have SO many. 

Andy trimming the tree. Literally. 

Here she is! The only thing missing is a fire in the fireplace. 

Bella's Fifteenth Birthday

Andy brought Bella a bagel with a candle in the middle for her birthday breakfast. She was in her bedroom and already on a Zoom call for her spanish class at the time. (School is so weird right now). I brought home some Subway for lunch. With (virtual) school during the day and basketball practice in the evening, it didn't give us a lot of time to work with. But we still celebrated fifteen years of Bella. 

Her big gift from us was a pair of Airpods. She is now "stringless!"

Curtis and Graydon helped light the candles on her birthday cheesecake. Curtis recently learned how to work a lighter and was eager to help.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, dear Bella.

Happy birthday to you!  

And many more!  

She requested sushi for her birthday meal and cheesecake for her birthday cake. She ended up having both at the same time because, you know, basketball practice.  

Happy birthday, Bella! 

Thanksgiving

Backtracking a little bit. . . Two weeks before Thanksgiving, our kids began virtual school from home. Bella and Graydon were close contacts with someone who tested positive for COVID and had to quarantine for two weeks. Since they were already staying home, we decided to keep Curtis home too. A week in to their quarantine, the whole school closed down anyway. School sure looks a lot different in 2020.

Around conferences back in October, Curtis's teacher mentioned that he'd been having a hard time reading the board. I tried to get Curtis in to my eye doctor, but they were booked until March! I called other places and wasn't getting much luck, but got put on multiple waiting lists for cancellations. One of those places was able to get him in a few weeks ago. And the verdict is. . . Curtis needs glasses!  

Here are the frames he picked out. He made his choice in less than five minutes - he knows what he likes! I'm truly surprised we made it this far without any of our kids needing glasses. Isn't he handsome!

Andy's sister and the rest of the Meade family came to join us for Thanksgiving. It is usually just the five of us, so it was fun to spend the day with family. And thanks to Laura, we have pictures from the weekend. The following photos were all from her camera. Mabel enjoyed all of the extra attention from the Meade boys.  

There were quite a few golf cart rides.

Appetizers!  

Bella mashed the potatoes.  

The ping pong table got some use.

Beverage station.  

The meal is ready! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, Uncle Tim and the kids played some cards.

Popcorn and pool!  

We rounded things out with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and pie.  

More Mabel snuggles.

Turkey makes us tired.

Friday was pretty chill. The kids enjoyed the tire swing out front.

 

Later that evening, we went out to eat at Joe Willy's for Bella's birthday.  

We came home and sang to her. The plan was to put a candle in a piece of pie, but she wasn't hungry yet. So we just grabbed one of the pillars from the kitchen table!  

We did an early viewing of her birthday slideshow.

 

The Meades had to leave the next day. Bye bye, Mabel.  

This was such a great visit. Even though it was just a couple of days, we had so much fun together. I love it when family are also good friends!  

Later that afternoon, Bella had a basketball game. She's kind of blurry, but there she is running through the group after her name was called. Basketball season is on full swing.