Christmas Break

Christmas break has been feeling normal ... except for missing all of the events that we usually look forward to all year.  While the vaccine is being slowly distributed, it will be quite some time before we are all vaccinated and life gets back to normal.  Through all of this, we feel so blessed to have stability, our health, and each other.  It was sad to only see family via Zoom, but it is oddly feeling normal after so many months of being apart.  

• The kids have spent a lot of time on the living room floor building Legos and other kits.  I have been completing daily crossword puzzles (NYT Monday book), reading more research for my dissertation, and trying to avoid social media/my phone/work as much as possible, simply for the mental break.  Poor Joshua seems to be constantly troubleshooting (e.g. the dishwasher, the new PlayStation 4, etc.) but has also been enjoying watching the children play video games in the morning and completing a big jigsaw puzzle.
• We have been ensuring that we all move our bodies every day, playing soccer and football in the park as a family, going on our very well-rehearsed walks on the Chester Valley Trail, and playing games that involve movement, such as a Pokemon game that involved workout movements instead of Energy cards.
• Godmother Christine dropped off goodies, including the gingerbread house that we would normally decorate at her house on Christmas Eve.  What a treat!
• James and Joshua made an Oreo birthday cake, Alma made Hershey Kiss cookies, both kids made biscotti, and Joshua recreated my mother's Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.  We all decorated anise cookies with almond extract icing because stores are running out of baking supplies these days.
• The seven school days before Christmas the kids were home on Zoom because two classmates tested positive for the coronavirus.  One day, the kids got their work done so James and I had a Pokemon battle while Alma did some artwork.
• Before Christmas, we had a great snowstorm that allowed for three afternoons of sledding at Valley Creek Park.  With three sleds, we were all able to ride.  James is the king of the jumps, while Alma is great at steering past obstacles.  With so many different hills in the park, we were able to distance and had a lot of fun.
• The kids and I hiked at Valley Forge one afternoon but were concerned by the number of people without masks on the narrow path so we mostly forged our way through the woods parallel to the trail.