Weekending - December 25, 2020

Happy Monday!  I took a few days off from blogging to celebrating Christmas and glad to be back today.  Our Christmas definitely looked different this year, but we tried hard to make the best of it.  Here's a recap ~

Eric had to work on Christmas Eve which gave me time during the day to finish up a few things around the house.  Sparkey made his final appearance announcing that Santa would be here soon.  We had been hearing from a few people that we needed to try the Pabst Blue Ribbon Coffee Stout.  I was extremely skeptical, but it turns out they were right! Eric and I both loved it!  

The whole Sparkey the Elf thing this year really brought some fun to our season.  I enjoyed hiding him around the house and Eric had fun doing the finding.  This is definitely something I'm adding to our holiday traditions!  Even doing this as adults was fun.  And this year we needed all the fun we could get!

Christmas Eve we Zoomed with Eric's family.  It was great seeing all their faces and hearing their voices.  We have a new baby on that side and it was wonderful hearing him coo and look around.  Can't wait to meet him in person and squeeze his adorable little face!

That night we went to sleep with the tree in our bedroom illuminated and dreaming of a much more social 2021.

Christmas morning we talked to my parents on the phone.  I miss seeing them so much!  We are so looking forward to the day where we can see them and the rest of my family in person.  

Earlier in the week, I had dropped off a package at our friend's house and in it was a pattern for Santa Claus boot prints.  They did an excellent job carrying out my vision!  Santa left his prints on the fireplace as he was leaving from dropping off their presents.

I had every intention of getting up Christmas morning and making scones, but instead we went with a much different take on breakfast - cheeseburgers.  On paper plates.  With soda. As we watched a Hallmark movie.  

Ian and Kayla joined us later in the day and it was so wonderful having them with us.  We had prepared our traditional Christmas menu of Dijon Sirloin Tips and Cherry Coke Jello (recipes HERE and HERE).  Even with just the four of us, I busted out the Christmas china and my grandmother's silver.  

We sat around the fire and opened gifts.  Afterward, we played cards and had dessert.  We were so thankful that we were able to see them!  

Sunday we did something so fun - we watched the Chiefs game with our friend Linda on Zoom.  We worked out getting our TVs to synchronize and watched the whole game just like we were sitting in the same room!  Eric and I enjoyed Buffalo Wild Wings and Linda snacked on veggies and dip.  We shared a cocktail and talked about everything under the sun.  It was fabulous!  The Chiefs wins was the cherry on top.

In the evening, we had our neighborhood Secret Santa reveal.  For the last four weeks, nine of us had been secretly leaving gifts for the person whose name we had drawn.  Working around all the Ring cameras had been fun, but we did it!  Each week we would leave a small gift for our person with a clue to who we were.  On the Zoom, we took turns reading the clues we had been given and guessed who our Secret Santa was.  It was so fun!  Everyone expressed that it was fun both leaving the gifts and receiving them.  I hope this becomes a yearly event, but with us getting to be in person for the final party!  

This week I'm working from home and hoping to get a lot accomplished.  I'll be sharing a year in review and goals for the coming year later this week, so I hope you pop back in.  Enjoy the last week of 2020!