December 2020 Recap

I'm writing this blog post on the last day of July 2021, but I'm looking back at what happened in December 2020. The holiday season is always our favorite, but it looked completely different this year. The coronavirus pandemic meant that we were masking up and not celebrating with family (except via Zoom), so this was a very unique holiday season for us.

Will is not a huge fan of picking out Christmas trees, so Gene and Henry went after school one day and selected the perfect tree for us!

Henry helped set up our outside decorations too.

Cutest kittens

Decorating the tree!

Gene found this selfie on his phone -- enjoying a beer by the tree!

Lunchtime

Snickers sleeping

My assistant got me chocolates for Christmas. Henry might have been more excited than I was!

Hot cocoa to celebrate the first day of winter break

Again, not exactly sure what was going on here!

Special lunch for the beginning of break

and ice cream...

We went hiking at Stephen F. Austin State Park on a pretty day.

It was Uncle Mike's birthday! We couldn't be together, but we made our healthier version of spaghetti a la carbonara with a big green salad. Yum!

Jupiter and Saturn were the closest they'd been since 1623, so we got out our telescope to take a look.  

We did a ton of baking: stollen,

raivas,

suspiros (meringues),

and krumkake!

We also got some Vermont Brownies in the mail from Aunt Amber. So many yummy treats!

Christmas Eve: We opened a few book presents so we could spend the evening reading. Have you heard of Jolabokaflod? It's an Icelandic Christmas Eve tradition, literally translated to "Christmas book flood," where people exchange books and then spend the evening reading. I can't think of anything better!

Boiled codfish for dinner

Bilharacos

Sprinkling oatmeal on the lawn for Santa's reindeer

Cookies for Santa

Christmas Day fun:

Sausage savories and Carolyn's eggs for brekkie

Playing with a new game

The boys got new computers for Christmas!

The aftermath

Gene and I got a little goofy. These are cotton bowl covers that we put on our heads!

Christmas dinner:  ham, standing rib roast, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, green beans, and Yorkshire pudding. What a feast!!

After-dinner treats

We also visited Hermann Park

and made fondue in our new fondue pot!

It was definitely weird not to spend the holidays with family and friends, but it was also a time of rest and relaxation, which we desperately needed at the end of 2020. Let's hope things improve for Christmas 2021.