Christmas 2020

 It's not whats under the Christmas tree that matters, its who's around it.

Santa, I Know Him

Santa! I know him!

This is one of the traditions in Norwalk that I really love, Santa Claus driving around on a fire truck all around town.  

What made it really cool this year was after the first really big snow the neighborhood kids including Ryleigh were in the cul-de-sac playing King of the Hill and a snowball fight and then chanting "here comes Santa here comes Santa."

That was really cool to see and may have ungrinched me a little bit.

What didn't ungrinch me was what the elf did last night.  I wake up to Ry saying " Dad you better look outside and I don't mean it to snow"

Jolly had a little fun with the toilet paper which is like gold now in the pandemic and used his quarantine jar as a potty.  

But it was priceless to hear her voice the excitement the laughter.  I couldn't help but smile.

Starting to feel somewhat like Christmas

Yes I'm a grinch, but over the years the kids have tried to warm my heart and it has happened in the past few years.  It still freezes up and needs to re-thaw every year but seeing them and their excitement over this time of the year help.  Addy's eyes and smile last year visiting Santa I think increased my heart size 5 times.  Lord knows what I spend on Amazon doesn't help at all.  

Last night we went to go see Santa at the tree lighting in Norwalk.  Santa really lights up Ry's eyes and really all of the kids.  Ryleigh got to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, a Barbie Dream House, the 2020 version.  Yes she knows what each year's house looks like.  In the end we got a cookie, some candy canes and hot cocoa.

Then that damn ELF showed up.  

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020 during a pandemic was a lot different this year, but than again what this year has been close to normal.  

The 4 of us stayed here in Norwalk, and did a virtual Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad in Marshalltown and then Mike, Sue & Brendan in West Des Moines.  

We all meet up on Google Meet and chatted for about 30 minutes while we were just getting started to eat.  

This was my first ever attempt to cook any form of turkey that wasn't a slice of shaved turkey on a grilled cheese.  Bought us a turkey roast and well at first it didn't turn out so good.  I sliced into and it was raw in the middle.  Cranked up the heat and about 45 mins later it was ready, along with everything else.  

Along with the turkey made some taters/gravy, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, rolls and cranberry sauce.  No Thanksgiving is complete with out Bent River Sweet Potato Ale either.  Those always go down smooth.  The kids cheers'd with sparkling grape juice.  

With all that has gone on in the past year, it wasn't the day we originally invisioned for Thanksgiving coming into this year but we made the best of it all.  There was a lot of laughing, and good times.  Got Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and Garfield's Thanksgiving Special watched and kicked off some Christmas viewing with Home Alone.  

We also got to celebrate the Hawks beating Nebraska for the 6th year in a row!

With Christmas only about 4 weeks away I'm betting we will have the same set up coming up for that too.  Thankful for technology so the kids can all connect.   

You will respect my authority

Heart grew three times that day

I may be a bit of a Grinch, but smiles from my kids like this will grow my heart 3 times it's normal size any day about Christmas.