2020: That's a wrap!

See ya and good riddance, 2020. You were a doozy of a year and I can't say we're sad to see you go. We are looking toward 2021, not as a magic fix for the mess that was this past year but for the hope of a new beginning and better times ahead.

All the Lights

This year with the pandemic hindering our ability to do much out of the house, we (and by we, I mean I) decided it would be fun to spend time driving all over the twin cities to view some of the larger holiday light displays. Some of the displays were created by organizations for profit but some were just people who have a lot of time, skill, and money that they were able to devote to dressing up their house for the season. 

Even though I was definitely the driving force behind our twin cities lights tour, I think we all enjoyed traveling around to check out the spectacle of lights.

Enjoy some of the millions of lights we took in this year!

I even WON tickets to Sam's Christmas Village in Somerset, WI on the radio!

Christmas!

 Even with the pandemic, we found ways to connect with family over Christmas. We missed seeing our Chicago family, but look forward to seeing them when the pandemic is more under control. We even decorated a little earlier than usual this year to add some sparkly lights and cheer around the house.

We enjoyed an epic cookie baking day...and then spent the next week trying to figure out who to give them to so as not to eat them all myself! 😄 I also made 5 batches of fudge this year! 😮

We didn't meet Santa like we usually do this year, but the chocolate shop Droolin Moose near our house had a outdoor, socially distanced Santa meet that we took advantage of! He also gave us some incredibly delicious chocolate!

We also felt very fortunate to be able to see family over the holiday.

And of course we had a lovely Christmas morning at home with gift opening and red and green Christmas crepes! 🎄🎁

Miscellaneous winter fun

We have kept busy this month with Christmas decorating/celebrating, birthday celebrations, cookie baking, distance learning/teaching, and sledding! We got into watching the show Nailed It as a family and even did some Nailed It competitions at home. 

Happiest of birthdays to our number one guy!

Getting ready to Nail It!

Hard at work....

Final products, Nailed it!

Celebrating milestone birthdays in a pandemic

Fort day for Emily before winter break