Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

...Adios 2020, hope to never repeat this year again.   

It was certainly a different Christmas than normal, but nonetheless wonderful. We did our own candlelight "Silent Night" with online church. We had some amazing Lasagna from Sugar River Pizza on Christmas Eve followed by a lovely Ham on Christmas Day. Adam made his delicious punch.  Most touching, for Charlie, was the letter that Santa sent to Charlie. I was really impressed that Santa would take such time to write an amazing letter. As I read it, the most impactful sentence was "So, please enjoy these gifts while my other little elves work on fixing the bigger problems of the world. Someday, Charlie, you will be one of these elves fixing big problems in the world. And I couldn't think of a better kid to entrust that responsibility to than you." Charlie is a special kid and this pandemic has been especially challenging for him.   

Not all life has to be boring in a pandemic. Thanks to some great neighbors, we made a lighted tubing track on the side of the house for some nighttime sledding. Super fun! Charlie did a mini-5th grade bazaar from our house. He cut some 2x4's and sanded, painted, hot glued, etc to make these cute snowmen. He donated the money to a local charity.  The Nutcracker-both Charlie and Carrie were in the modified virtual Nutcracker. Carrie filmed outside on a cold day because of an Emergency order from Dane County. Charlie was able to film inside with one other kid. Carrie was a Gingerette and Charlie was the Mouse King. Both kids look forward to doing this for a real live audience next year! (Mom too!-She may actually dance in the Nutcracker as well!)   

Carrie has officially turned 8! She is an amazing little girl. A great reader, an amazing friend, and a wonderful sister. We celebrated her birthday outside with masks with Grandma and Papa and a fire. We had a great time with some Jimmy Johns and a cake from Costco. Happy Birthday Carrie, we are so happy you are our daughter!   

Adam did an amazing job making his first Turkey EVER! It was so great! And the gravy turned out super well also. Don't tell grandma, but it was better than hers! 😏 It was a quiet Thanksgiving, but great nonetheless! Hoping that we can all go back to normal next year for our holidays, but happy to do our part to save the hospital system. (Side note-an after Thanksgiving Surge never happened in Wisconsin, in fact, cases went down quite drastically)  

We did a Pandemic 40 beer drop on our porch. Adam got a variety of FUN beers to try over the next year or so!   

This was actually one of the best Halloween's ever. We had a blast shooting candy out of our homemade shoot and visiting from afar (with masks) with neighbors. The kids had a great time walking around the  neighborhood trick or treating. And the best part...it was 50 degrees! Yahoo!   

 

We resumed school on September 8th, 2020! Here is my teaching set up (for the first half of the year at least) and Charlie is virtual and Carrie and Colin are half days.