Usually the winter break is full of time with family and parties, get togethers and lots of time hanging out at my parents house. This year was a little different in that, well, there was none of that. I was feeling a little sad and anxious about how the break would look. But when it came down to it, all the pressure and expectations were gone and we ended up having a really lovely break.
We waited and did all of our Hanukah gifts on Christmas morning like we have done the last few years. That seems to work best for our family. I honestly think it was the most fun Christmas day we have had!
Everyone was thrilled with their gifts (yay me!). As the boys are getting older it is getting harder (and more expensive) to find gifts they really like.
It was a beautiful day and we spent the better part of the afternoon outside together. Blaine was off work this year and it was just a nice, low-key day all hanging out at home. We tried out our new basketball hoop, new shoes, beanies and hoodies!
Owen and Cash love going to work with me. I love it too, although sometimes I want to go to work to get away from everyone for a bit. But I have such fun memories of going to work with my dad when I was younger and I hope the boys have similar memories of being at the store with my dad, Rachel and I as well. So they got to come along with me a few times over the break. Janie usually puts them to work and they like to make bows. The main attraction though, is waiting for all the customers to leave and they run wild around the store.
I do really get so much joy out of seeing them at the store. When they were both still virtual, they would come with me to the store and I would get them all set up upstairs in the office for school. They would call me downstairs on the phone a million times with ridiculous requests and questions and it just sounded like they were having so much fun up there together.
This guy. Well, we took these picture to send to a friend who gave us these pajamas, but he loved everything about the holiday time...the lights, Christmas trees, the presents, having everyone home all the time. This year the boys wanted them to each have their own wrapping paper so they knew whose gift was whose. Tripp came with me to get the wrapping paper and he chose Baby Shark paper. So when it came time to wrap gifts, and he knew which were his, he just started opening them! So I had to hide his gifts until Christmas morning.
With the amazing weather we had, we went to the skate park almost every day. Here are a few shots from the park!
Just one of many random moments of these two being cute together.
This pictures makes me so happy. For so long Eli and Ty did not get to see each other because of covid. When we let up a little, we let them play outside together. They needed it for their mental health. Eli and Ty, along with their friend Logan started riding their bikes to each others houses to play outside everyday. There are some good things that have come out of this last crazy year. Eli has gained a lot of independence in riding his bike around. Really any chance he gets he wants to ride his bike with Logan and Ty and they just yard jump to each others houses.
But back to this picture....we had a random big rain and the two of them wanted to go out and play in the rain together. They have been best buds since they were 3. And they are at that weird tween age, so to see them playing like little kids together was so sweet! It reminded me that even though they are big and stinky and try and act all old and stuff, they are just still kids!
We traded in our usual New Years gathering with the Ladd's for our pj's and a fun blanket picnic on the living room floor with everyones favorite foods and sparkling cider followed by our own pop-its and sparkler show at 7:30pm (ha!). Owen was the only one who made it until midnight!
I needed to go to the Domain so Owen and Cash jumped at the opportunity to come with me. They saw a parkour course everywhere we walked as we aimlessly searched for the store I needed. They suckered me into stopping for milkshakes....and boy were they HUGE. They did not even make it through half of them. But it was fun afternoon hanging out with these two.
Here is the bike crew that happened to land in our yard this particular day. They scored ice cream from the ice cream man who frequents our street.
Cash, Lola and Savannah got to have a slumber party at Ethans house!
Owen and Cash both got new trick bikes for Hannukah. When they finally came, they went straight to work to put them together and get on the road. They have been riding them every single day since.
While it looked a lot different than every other year, it was a wonderful winter break filled with lots of fun, outside time and family time. We went back to school with a week of virtual learning before Owen and Cash were able to go back to in-person learning. Eli remained virtual!
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