End of Year 2020

We have almost survived 2020! I’ll try to keep it brief since there isn’t much to report this year.  We were fortunate that our kids got to go back to in person school in August.  Corey and Westley (and now Caleb) have continued to report to work as well.

Westley is seventeen and a senior in high school. He spent the summer in Utah working at In-N-Out.  We will have to wait and see what he chooses to do with his future.

Caleb is sixteen and a sophomore.  He also works at In-N-Out now.  He has continued with band this year and is enjoying robotics.

Travis is fourteen and in 8^th grade.  He still loves football and singing bass in the choir at school.

Eliza is thirteen and in 7^th grade.  She started violin lessons this fall and continues with the piano and with choir. 

Jonah is nine years old and continues with gymnastics and piano.

Annmarie is seven and was moved to preteam in gymnastics with the hope for being moved up to team at some point. She loves to play the piano also.

Nathan is four and doing his final year of preschool with Mom.

Corey is still at the Plano In-N-Out as store manager.   He continues to serve at church as the Deacon’s quorum assistant adviser.

Jenna has cut back on piano lessons and preschool students and looks forward to Nathan starting school next year to do something else.  She is still the music director at church, which is frustrating without being able to use vocal music. 

We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope that you can find peace in the season and hope for the future.

New Year's at Ninja Nation

I found out about some free coupons for this place called Ninja Nation where they have all these obstacle course things to climb on and do. Jonah is really into this kind of thing. It was pouring rain on New Year's Eve day, so this was the perfect activity. Travis, Eliza, Jonah and Annmarie are the kids that went.  Nathan was too young and the older two weren't interested.  We were all well, so it was fine to go. And we were the only family there for the first 30 minutes, so the kids were allowed to take off their masks. It was the perfect ending to the year.

 

Christmas

Corey was home on Christmas Eve all day, which was very different for us. Usually he is working because he has to work the 24th and the 26th and he always works the day shift on the 24th so he can be home in the evening. And Westley and Caleb who were supposed to work the day also were off as well, thanks to being quarantined. 

I like to make a big meal on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day so that I can relax on Christmas Day.  The fabulous thing this year was that everyone, including Corey, was home to help.  We made rolls and a fruit salad, scalloped potatoes and ham.  Eliza made a tasty Christmas punch to drink.  We had chocolate cream pie and blueberry pie for the dessert.  After dinner, we did our Christmas Eve program where we read Luke 2 and the little kids acted it out and then we had our pie.  The little kids went to bed, the older kids helped get Christmas all set up and then we watched "The Nativity Story", one of my favorite Christmas Eve movies.  

On Christmas Day, we didn't even start until 7 am.  The kids who were up earlier stayed in their rooms and then we all got up, went down and did stockings and had our little bowls of cereal, opened presents and ate our big Christmas breakfast of bacon, sausage, and French toast.   We spent the day hanging out, playing games, watching movies, and playing outside.  Later, Corey made potato chips with the leftover slices of potatoes from the scalloped potatoes (he sliced more potatoes than we needed).  It was a nice day.  Corey went back to work the next day because we were all feeling well again.

 

Kite Flying

One thing that was really nice about having COVID and Corey being quarantined was having him home for all things Christmas. Usually he's working the week up to Christmas every day. But he was home. He spent time shredding the huge stack of shredding. He wrapped all the presents well before Christmas Eve, a first! Usually we are up until midnight on Christmas Eve wrapping presents. And he was able to hang out with the kids and fly kites. Luckily, none of us got seriously ill with the virus, so we spent time outside when the weather was nice. It was a windy, nice day a few days before Christmas, so we took some kites we found in the garage over to the strip of land near the railroad tracks and flew the kites all over. It was a perfect day for kite flying! The wind brought in a cold front though, so the next days were really cold!

 

State UIL Marching Competition

We got to go to the state UIL marching competition in San Antonio at the Alamodome to watch That Wylie Band perform. Westley and Caleb went over to the school at 5 am to take the band buses down to San Antonio.  Corey and I got the other kids off to school and then we left for San Antonio with Nathan.  It was a five hour drive.  We stopped at Buc-ee's for some popcorn snacks and then when we got to San Antonio, we stopped at Denny's for lunch.  Then we went over to the Alamodome and watched several bands perform before Wylie came out.  After Wylie's performance, we left. 

 We stopped at Buc-ee's on the way back for gas and wanted to get dinner but didn't find anything we wanted.  We ended up stopping at a Wendy's a little while later for some dinner.  The sad thing was that on the way home, Corey stopped being able to taste.  Since that is a symptom of COVID, he realized he needed to get a test done and stay home from work on Wednesday too.  I think I already had it because I had been feeling kind of blah with a headache and some sinus congestion and pain and had a little bit of the chills, but it was so minor that I really didn't think much of it until he lost his taste.  Because he tested positive, Westley and Caleb were excluded from work for 20 days and Corey for 10.  So that was starting on December 15th  and going through Christmas and after for the boys.  Annmarie tested positive the next day.  We didn't get anyone else tested, though are certain more of us had it. 

 

Teenage Girl!

Eliza turned 13 on December 6th! She is now a teenager, our fourth one and the first girl. However, I feel like she's been a teenager for a few years now, ever since she got put into Young Women's right after her 11th birthday. Her birthday was on a Sunday, and Fast Sunday too, so we didn't have a birthday breakfast on Sunday, but on Saturday. We had cinnamon rolls. And Corey and I took her lunch at school on Monday from Braum's. Sunday night our dinner was oven chicken and Travis baked her a chocolate cake for her birthday.

 

Gymnastics Exhibition

Jonah and Annmarie were able to have their gymnastics exhibition this month! Jonah won the boys' trophy. Annmarie did really well though she didn't win, but this mama's opinion is that if they'd had 2nd, 3rd place and so forth, she would have placed.  They only named the first place winner though.  And I also think since she went first on every event, that sort of took her out of the running.  But I'm a biased mom and former gymnast. 

We took Jonah and Annmarie out to dinner after the exhibition and then drove down to Mesquite for the marching band competition.  I think regional?  I get area and regional mixed up.  Wylie band got fourth place and moved to state, which is in San Antonio on the 15th.  We will be going down to see them in that competition as well.  I didn't get any pictures at the band competition.  It was cold and we didn't have very good seats.
 

Reading and Helping

I caught a picture of Corey reading the younger kids a Christmas book and Jonah made the rolls one night when I had a headache.

 

Time for Christmas!

With Thanksgiving over,it was time to get out the Christmas decorations.  We put up the stockings and the nativities, hung the countdown calendar, and got the tree and lights and garland all put up.  It's nice when Corey is home with time right after Thanksgiving to do it. 

 

Thanksgiving

We were very pleased that we got to spend Thanksgiving with our extended family here in Texas and that Grandpa and Grandma came from Arizona for the event, even with covid going on. Adam and Eve hosted at their new house. I baked pies and rolls and made yams and apples and we did a turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. Adam and Eve also did a turkey. There was a lot of food and it was all very good. It was a nice day. I had made the pies and rolls (Travis did the rolls, actually) and pre-made the yams and apples on Wednesday. The kids helped with the pies--Jonah made the cherry pie; Annmarie made the blueberry pie and the apple pie and Eliza made the pumpkin pie. Her pumpkin pie got all eaten up, despite there being two other pumpkin pies there, which barely got touched. She was very pleased with herself for that (and so was I). I like good food.