Christmas Eve, brought to you by Colin

We spent the day getting the house ready for Christmas (aka cleaning) and then had tamales and bean dip for dinner.  This year, the tamales were a little extra special as someone gifted them to Ben as a thank you for his counseling.  They were delicious!  We had talked about watching a movie or playing some games, but the kids were so anxious to go to bed that none of that happened.  They were literally begging us to get dinner going and trying to get into bed by 6:30 so that Christmas would come quicker.  We did open sacks and read our advent book, but that was about it.  This is how Colin felt that it wasn't Christmas yet...
 

17 years

Our anniversary weekend was full of adventure.  We usually run together Saturday morning and Ben asked if I wanted to mix up our route a little.  I agreed that I could use a change of scenery, so we headed to Oak Canyon, just a few miles from our house.  I like running trails with Ben because he carries my water for me :)

We debated for awhile what to do for our anniversary.  We've eaten at Lure the last couple of years, but all dining at restaurants is closed.  Our neighbor told us that they often take picnic dinners out on their paddle boards and I thought that would be hilarious to try.  We penciled in picking up sushi and taking it out into the middle of the ocean to eat, because it's 2020 and that seems like a logical way to eat dinner right now.  We spontaneously changed plans (which was good because the sushi place was closed) and decided to go on a hike that Ben has been really wanting to take me on.  In his words, "It was short and easy, with just a little bit of scrambling."  There was certainly scrambling, but I survived making it to the top and it was a lot of fun.

We picked up dinner at Neptune's Net in Malibu and ate it by the ocean afterwards.  Sounds so picturesque, doesn't it?  It wasn't.  The food was just okay and we were shivering so bad that we could barely eat.  There was no talking, it was just hurry up and eat so we can get back in the warm car.  It was still a fun adventure and I'm just thankful that we got to do something to celebrate in this wonky year.

Christmas time

We kicked off the Christmas season with Elf and popcorn.  Thank you Aunt Amanda for sending this popcorn tub!  It made a really fun treat for the kids!

I'm pretty sure Colin has had these pajamas for 3 years now.  They were snug, but he was still so cute in them.

We continued our Advent tradition and Alison legit fell asleep with Maya by the Christmas tree one evening after our reading.  Maya's legs are completely hanging off the couch, but she doesn't even care because she's got her Alison.

 

I asked the kids what holiday baking they wanted to do and they said gingerbread men and sugar cookies.  A perk of Ben working from home is that he gets to jump in on some of these fun things we do :). I love it and I'm not sure we're ever going to let him go back to the office.

Just a few days before Christmas, the boys kept asking me why we hadn't made gingerbread houses.  I still had plenty of decorations, so I just picked up some graham crackers and we attempted some houses that way.  And there is a reason that the kits are so fabulous...graham cracker houses are frustrating!

 

Colin asked why I bought gumdrops and I told him that every gingerbread house needs gumdrops and this was his reaction:

"Huh???"

 

 

They boys basically just ate theirs.  This was Alison's finished product...we couldn't get a roof to stay on.

 

 

 My favorite thing that happened this Christmas season was a nightly walk with Colin.  He asked one night if we could go look at lights, so we went on a little walk around the neighborhood.  This continued every night and we'd walk to another part of the neighborhood.  One night he wanted to skip around the block, so we did.  One night, he taught me a Fortnite dance while we walked.  Most nights, we would sing at least one Christmas song while we walked.  If he saw a really good house, he would close his eyes and ask me to guide him in front of the house so he could be completely surprised by the whole thing.  One thing has always been true about Colin, if you get him alone, he will say the most hilarious things and add that to his complete awe and wonder of the lights, it was the best time ever.

When we had toured all the neighborhood, we got in the car and drove around.  Alison came with us one night and we played Amy Grant Christmas as we explored.  There is a tree that you can see from all around town and they asked if we could find it.  Their reaction was the BEST when we finally found this amazing house.

 

 

Catching up

This has been a strange year, with a lot of changes in life.  We have to wear masks to go into stores.  There are marks on the ground, telling you where to stand to make sure you are six feet apart from everyone else.  Hand sanitizer is everywhere and there is a clerk standing at every store entrance counting the number of people who go in.  If you enter a medical building, your temperature will be taken. You can't try on clothes and you can't eat at a restaurant; you can only pick up food.  Some schools in the area are meeting in-person a few days a week and this thing called Zoom has taken over the world.  We bring our own camping chairs to attend church outside.  Ben is working from home, with just a few hours in the office each week and he is still unable to do anything "non-essential".

We've had to make a lot of adjustments and learned how to handle new stresses.  I know this pandemic is changing a lot of things, good and bad.  I had to document some changes in our kitchen:

Roasted coffee, granola, almond milk, sourdough starter, fermented cucumbers, sauerkraut, sandwich bread, sourdough bun and boule.

Ben has been roasting our coffee and we've been making bread with fresh ground flour.  Once I discovered how easy and delicious and way better for you homemade almond milk is, there was no going back.  And the one I am most proud of, is the sourdough starter.  Ben picked up a starter packet when we bought our mill and wheat berries.  It was so overwhelming at the beginning, but once we learned and got it going, those little bubbles make me SO happy.  I realized this right here is one of the blessings of this year.  We cooked so much in Virginia and then everything died in Arizona.  It just wasn't possible to cook anything that we couldn't throw in the InstaPot.  We had been wanting to get back to really cooking, and now I'm excited to say that we're doing more than we were in Virginia.  Before you think we're crazy, cooking is just something we love doing...we love good food and the process it takes along the way.

Ironically, even though we've been cooking up a storm and restaurants are kind of closed, I feel like we've also been eating out way more this year.  I think because it is literally the only thing to go out and do.  Sometimes picking up something to eat gives us a little something fun to look forward to and break up our day.

We've always wanted to try Camarillo Cupcakes, so we stopped in one day before grocery shopping.  And yea for supporting local businesses right now!  They were delicious and we will most definitely be going back.

Now to catch up on some more fun things.  We went to the park!  It's been on-and-off-again closed, so when it's open, we jump at the chance to go play.  The boys built a fort:

And skateboarded.  That's another big change this year.  Life is all about skateboarding now!

See end of post of what happens when Colin runs inside from skateboarding and wants to help cook.  We still had pumpkins that I didn't want to waste so I was attempting to roast the seeds and get pepitas...it was a fail...but we tried and now respect why they are a little more pricey.

 

One of the biggest things I love about living in California, is being able to be outside year round.  For a couple of mornings, Alison would pour herself some eggnog and go read on the patio.  I just loved it so much.  I've lost count how many books Alison has read this year!

 I also love how she decorated her room for Christmas.  She likes a minimalist, yet cozy feel for her room and I think she nailed it.

Maya's Birthday

 Happy 5th birthday to our Maya Buttercup!  She gets a lot of attention in this house and is clearly loved A LOT.  If I ever ask the kids what they are thankful for, the first thing they say is "Maya!".  I say this every year, but it's been the most fun to watch her change over the years from a scared-out-of-her-mind pup, to this dog that makes us chuckle all day long.  To celebrate Maya, we took her on her walk and gave her a few treats.

At dinner, we went around and said our favorite things about Maya.  Mine is that she puts herself to bed at 7:30 every night and gives all the kids judgey eyes when they come in and disturb her. 

Decorating for Christmas

Eli thought it was much too early to decorate for Christmas (even though it was the day after Thanksgiving). Therefore, he wanted no part of it and hid under the couch cushions.

Alison had helped me put a few things before Thanksgiving, which I think started Eli's feelings.  It's still fall to him.  This is the unfortunate downfall of living in a place that is sunny and 75 all year long.  It's also unfortunate that he feels this way because apparently to stores, Christmas is in November and is over by December 3rd.  

We opted to use our artificial tree this year, to save some money and a little sanity.  I mean, is it even fun to go pick a tree when you can't even smell them?  It just seems depressing to me to go tree shopping while wearing a mask and people here are going nutty with Christmas stuff, so I have a feeling they will be selling out quickly...along with all the toilet paper.

Oh yea.  Our not so old TV broke and we had just set up the new TV (fingers crossed it lasts longer than the last one).  We put on Amy Grant Christmas and the old YouTube videos of the songs are hilarious.

It's funny to look back on pictures.  You see things you miss in real life...like, why is there a bag of Starbursts next to the ornaments?

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Due to COVID-19, this was a quiet Thanksgiving and it was our first one of just our little family.  I asked everyone what were their must haves and that's what we did.  We had pumpkin bread in the morning and then Ben and I went for a run.  Then we started working on our charcuterie lunch.  Alison made the pigs n' blankets, Ben made the salmon dip and Colin helped chop veggies.

Colin's facial expressions are still going strong...remember when he made this face in our first picture in Yuma?

P.S. Colin wanted everyone to wear their Turkey Trot shirts for the day.  Unfortunately, no one complied.

We watched the KU basketball game while we ate lunch...well, Alison played the piano, but she was in the room with us, so it still counts.

We spent the afternoon cooking and playing and started a puzzle.

For dinner, we had smoked turkey, Nonny's potatoes, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole.  For dessert we had pumpkin pie and cheese cake.  It was all delicious and I think we loved eating off the leftovers more than the actual Thanksgiving dinner.

 

Eli's first animation movie

 I was simply blown away by this creation.  He figured everything out completely on his own...I didn't even help him find the app on the ipad.  You did an amazing job Eli!  I am so proud of you!!!