This year we did a little sledding at the arboretum before heading out on the ice of Maffitt Lake.
We even happened to have a beautiful sunset as the backdrop to our ice yoga.
We see the sun about once every 10 days this time of year, and feeling it on our faces makes all the difference in the world.
Of course, it's all fun and games until someone falls into the water, which has never happened before this year. Poor Laney didn't quite understand how the kids could slip through the bars of the dock and onto the ice. She slipped through the bars, onto the thinnest part of the ice and straight into the shallow water. Her back legs and tail were soaked and boy was she confused!
So we quickly headed home, happy for the chance to keep up this mid-winter tradition.
Adam was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood last Sunday. "The Priesthood is the power and authority to act in the name of God for the salvation of humankind." It's a great privilege to be able to bless others with this power!
Adam has been preparing by learning more about his priesthood duties and reading his scriptures every morning and night for years (something he inspires the rest of us to do as well!).
One of his responsibilities as a priesthood holder is to pass the sacrament. His first opportunity to do so was in our home. He did a great and reverent job, and refrained from giving Laney a piece of the bread. The next week we had church in person, and although he was nervous, he was willing to pass the sacrament to the whole ward. Everyone wears masks in church but I could tell from him eyes that he was quite alert and tried his very best to do his duty well. He said at one point he didn't know where to go, but the other deacons helped him out and he didn't take any attention away from the reverence of the sacrament. What seems scary now is going to seem like habit in no time!
We are all very hopeful that the temples will reopen this year, and when they do, Adam will be ready! He already has his temple recommend and it is most likely that we will go to the Winter Quarters Temple for his first time. And hopefully before long we will be able to visit many other temples as well.
Adam has great priesthood leaders to support him along his way, including his dad, Bishop Davis, and Brother Teed, as well as the other deacons! There are six young men in his age group in this ward, which is awesome! They are going to make some great memories together.
We're so proud of Adam and this exciting new step that he has taken on the covenant path.
Little Miss Tater Tot was recently given a royal tour of the upstairs by way of her own personal motor coach.
She went from room to room, checking out all that happens in the places that she doesn't usually get to go.
She wasn't terribly thrilled about driving the American Girl car, but that didn't stop the girls from putting her behind the wheel.
But she sure did like the ride in the block truck!
Needless to say, Laney was not happy that she wasn't invited to the parade, but her instinct is just a bit too strong to leave her out with a critter on the loose. Instead she got a taste of life as a guinea pig.
Tater Tot, while clearly the distant second place pet in our family, can sure be fun to play with.
So it almost makes sense that some sneaky little field mice have been trying to join in on the fun that is happening inside our nice, warm, well stocked house this winter.
But what they don't know is that crazy Farmer J is not interested in sharing his homestead with any more critters.
The kids have been hearing scritches and scratches in the attic as the weather has gotten colder, so it wasn't really a surprise when the first mouse appeared in December. But where it appeared was a surprise- in the laundry chute! I opened up the door to grab some laundry and there was a big brown mouse jumping around in there, so I shut the door and screamed for a good long time before sending the kids outside to tell Jason, who was outside burning things in the firepit. I figured by the time he came in 20 minutes later the mouse would have scurried off to some other part of the house but nope! It was still bouncing around in there and it was pretty easy for Jason to scoop it into the garbage can and carry it down to the far side of the creek, where he kindly released it back into the woods.
The second mouse wasn't so lucky. This one was rude enough to come nibbling it's way through our pantry, leaving gingerbread cookies, bagels, powdered sugar and bread with holes in them. Apparently this mouse was having a carb-loading night. The first night of the hunt resulted in a picked clean trap that wasn't set off, the second night resulted in a missing sticky trap that we eventually found behind the fridge, and the third morning Jason thought there was no mouse to be found amidst the four sticky traps he had laid out.
Until he looked up.
Yes, this sugar-high little critter was discovered alive and well by Farmer J himself (thank goodness it wasn't the rest of us), having climbed up onto the third shelf of the pantry in the wee morning hours. Jason calmly locked himself into the pantry with the mouse and proceeded to catch it with a garbage bag then took it outside and gave it the Little Bunny Foo-foo treatment before coming into our bedroom and declaring that he had won. The battle, yes, and hopefully the war.
I do understand that we are send mixed signals to the critters of the house. While some are given food, water, and fresh bedding along with rides around the house in a carriage and treats for Christmas, others are hunted down and eradicated as quickly as possible. It's confusing, I know, but the bottom line is, if we brought you into the house you can stay. Otherwise, stay out!!
As promised, we enjoyed a whole lot of L-ondue (always said with jazz hands)as the final celebration for Leah's birthday. We did meat, cheese, and chocolate, and it was all delicious!
Everyone had to follow the kissing rule- if you drop your food into the pot, you give someone a kiss! Noah especially was happy to oblige with a little twinkle in his eye. He may not like kissing on the lips but he is definitely happy to follow the rules!
I'm not sure why this happened but it looks intense.
And we found some butterbeer- our favorite New Year's Eve drink!
Not only do Emma and I share the blue-eye gene, we share the big-eyes-when-drinking-butterbeer gene as well!
I knew we wouldn't have any trouble staying up until midnight this year- we had lots of late nights over winter break! Once it got closer to midnight we headed down to the basement to ring in the new year. The kids started in on some seroius karaoke while Jason tried to figure out how to watch the ball drop. We haven't spent a whole lot of time sprucing up the basement yet, let alone figure out how to watch live TV down there.
Nope, not interested. The pup did not understand why we were staying up so late. But how could we not celebrate and whole-heartedly say good-bye to 2020, the most memorable year ever?
At one point I opened the outside door to grab the bubbly out of the snow (we miss you, Bev!) and called out, "Happy new year!!" One of the kids quickly shooed me back inside and said, "Mommy! We don't want to be those neighbors!" But we met the new year with shouts and hugs and a few tears- lots of emotions as we say goodbye to 2020 and welcome a new year of unknowns and adventures! Whatever this year is going to be, it's going to be a good one!
And 2020 was a truly bizarre year. Everyone wears a mask now. It's not a big deal anymore, and it's far stranger to see the occasional random person who isn't wearing a mask. Growing up and all the way until this year, the only people you would ever see wearing a face mask were doctors in surgery, children with cancer, and old Chinese women. That sounds silly to even say, but that is exactly what it was. Now everyone wears a mask, and I think it's great.
Big groups just look bizarre now. We don't see them in person, but to see a crowd gathered in a movie always brings the comment, "Well that obviously happened before 2020". Jason and Emma were looking at pictures of our 2019 visit to Temple Square and Emma observed with mild horror, "no one is wearing a mask. And there are so many people." You just don't see that right now.
Some things have changed for the better. Six feet of social distance in stores is a great idea that I hope sticks around. There is no squeezing in with strangers or standing too close to anyone ever. Stores use more hygienic practices than ever before, and it's great.
Some things have changed for the harder. It has been hard to socially distance for so long, even for a family of homebodies.
But for our family, it was truly a wonderful, one-of-a-kind year to remember.
In simple terms, we were together. We could forget the rest.
But really, there is so much that we will always remember about 2020.
2020 was the year that we moved. We've been talking about it for years and this was the right year to do it.
2020 was the year we homeschooled. I don't yet know how we will all come out of this experience, but for now, it has been such a treat for all of us to do school and work at home. This year more than ever before we learned the value of a happy home and a family that enjoys being together.
2020 was the year that I stopped looking at the clock so much, and it has been an absolute indulgence to feel so free from the confines of the ever ticking time and relentless schedule that is life.
2020 was the year we really figured out scripture study for our family. And home church was a special experience that I will never forget. It was the year that our kids learned how to bear their testimonies with confidence at home and I hope they will take that confidence with them into 2021.
2020 was the year that we learned to fully appreciate what we have, because we truly never know when it will be gone. Something as simple as going to the library or visiting with a neighbor or friend or running to the grocery store or dropping the kids off at school or going to church or the temple or planning a vacation and knowing you'll be able to take it... all of that changed in 2020. There was a time in March that we went to bed at night and genuinely did not know what the world would look like when we woke up in the morning. We will always remember that.
Similarly, 2020 was the year that we learned that the important things stay the same even when the world is constantly changing. Our testimonies, how we treat our loved ones, and how we choose to act and react in the face of difficulties does not have to change based on our circumstances. This year we learned that we really can do hard things!
2020 left us with a beautiful view, both literally and figuratively. No one knows exactly what the future holds, but I do know that we are never going to forget all that we did, saw, learned and experienced in 2020.
