Friday, December 25, 2020

Christmas Day 2020

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Such a different day this year with COVID. BUT... Jesus was still born.. so we could live!

Here is a photo log of our day. I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but we had a lovely day!





Stockings are always first, and alway filled with fun stuff...

 


An autographed Taylor Swift CD from her Aunt Michelle. She was pretty excited!

The kids got me a foaming hand soap refill.. the BEST gift during the pandemic!!


 So... we are not a "gaming" family.. by choice. Evelyn has never really been into them (nor has Doug or I), and although Matthew would LOVE it, we aren't ready to swim into those waters yet. BUT... our football loving boy LOVES to play Madden with his buddy Cannon and talks about it all the time. We decided for Christmas this year we would upgrade our family PC with a larger hard drive and video card, and then purchase Madden 21 for PC as Matthew's "big" gift. 

Blogger won't let me load the video of him opening his present (we got him a controller and then printed off the cover of Madden 21), but I can assure you it was one of the most sweetest moments to see as his mom. He was overjoyed.. and completly shocked! 

He started sobbing.. tears of joy... it was so sweet!

It was all ready for him to start playing and he played all morning. He LOVES it!

I made gluten free cranberry bliss bars for a breakfast treat.. they turned out really good!
Yup.. she still is loving her comfy and wears it all the time! 
We also got Matthew a "make your own football plays" book. He spent time working on that too!
Cute new outfit our our cute girl from her Aunt LoLo
Love her so!
We usually have Doug's aunt Mary and his brother and family over Christmas afternoon. Due to the times that was sadly not able to happen. The kids LOVE this tradition and were so sad to have to cancel it. So, we decided to grab Mary and drive to Gresham to see them and bring gifts. 
It was SO windy and rainy and cold.. which helped our visit to stay short and safe. But I did grab one photo of these amazing kids! Love all of these masked faces!

We had Mary come over for the afternoon and enjoyed time with her. We sat and chatted and Evelyn entertained us with looking up population statistics of small Oregon cities. It was hilarous!
Doing her thing... good social studies lesson!😂

After Mary left the kids and I worked on a cool puzzle Matthew got from Grandma and Grandpa. 

We spent the evening downstairs playing ping pong, dancing around silly, and just having fun being together...






Oh, how I love this Christmas crew!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Christmas Eve 2020

 It's Christmas Eve!!

We had a quiet morning, then enjoyed time with mom and Doug, watching our church's candlelight service together, enjoying the company, and of course, opening gifts! 😀

We didn't get to do a "Jody/Lori Christmas" this year due to COVID, but the kids were so thrilled with the gifts they got for them. We are so fortunate to have friends who love on our kid so well!






She has wanted this hydroflask for a long time... thank you JoJo!!

Candlelight Service....




Loved watching Matthew worship.. 

Family time is the best time!






The kids and their cousins usually watch The Polar Express together on Christmas Eve. Since we didn't get to do that this year, we watched it when we got home. We all love this movie!

...and I loved this lovely drink! 😂




Love my crew!!

Merry Christmas Eve!



Wednesday, December 23, 2020

COVID Christmas in Dallas/Carton Lights

 We took a trip down to Dallas to see Doug's folks today, to do a somewhat socially distant visit with them to celebrate Christmas. While we are sad to not be able to get all of the family together this year, it was good to visit them and have some one on one time with them. 


My handsome hubby and silly kid!
Oh hey.....
This shot pretty much sums up the back seat shenanagins! HA!
Grandad has read the Christmas story to the family EVERY year... and this year was no different! We love these two so much and thankful for the way they love us!!

After a lovely visit with them, we headed home the long way, grabbed dinner in McMinnville, then headed to the small town of Carton. I had heard and seen photos of their Christmas lights and wanted to go see them. 

While the light display wasn't as large as we were expecting, and even tho it was a bit chilly and super muddy, we enjoyed walking around together and seeing the lights.

This was my favorite thing there... love this!

So pretty!