New Year's Eve

We had a wonderful, cozy New Year's Eve at our house with both of our sets of parents together - the first time since Nolan's birthday when we were all exposed to covid! We had lots of delicious appetizers and played games together.  My favorite was playing taboo with the adults once the kiddos were in bed.  It was fun to laugh together like that.  

This year brought its share of blessings and challenges.  Here is a quick look back at some of most notable 2021 moments:

- We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary

- We decided to tackle homeschooling again and joined forces with the Vadis family for extra enrichment.

- Eric, Tiffanie, Nolan, and Olivia got vaccines for covid-19.  We still await a vaccine for kids under 5.

- return to playing for in-person church

- We spent lots of time in nature, including time at the cabin and syrup making

- We held in-person birthday parties for all 3 kids with family members present - something we were not able to do in 2020.

- We were able to resume YMCA classes and library visits for the kids

- We got covid; Tiffanie got very sick

- We reunited with friends and family whom we did not get to see in 2020

- We made a trip to the UP/Lake Superior

- We got a backyard swimming pool

It was a year filled with great hope, intense disappointment, and immense joy throughout the many disturbances and curveballs of pandemic life.  I think we would all hope that 2022 is a little more consistent, but we will wait and see, and pray for the endurance to handle whatever comes our way.  

 

Christmas at the Danzingers

Most of our present opening was done on Christmas Eve morning.  We did, however, have one last gift to give the kids on Christmas morning.  We surprised them with news of a family vacation to South Dakota this summer!  We are going to rent a house for a week in Rapid City, near all of the monuments, and state and national parks.  We are so excited to be able to do this with them and feel pretty confident that no matter what covid looks like, this trip should be a doable one.

After the excitement of the trip, we got loaded up to head to Eau Claire to see my side of the family.  Mom and Dad hosted a Christmas evening meal for Luke, Annalyse, and Everett, as well as my Grandpa Arnie, and Uncle Todd and Aunt Wendy.  Mom made cioppino, a delicious seafood stew to try something different.  We had a nice time catching up with Grandpa, Todd, and Wendy, all of whom I haven't seen since Grandma's funeral in September 2020.  

The next day was our family gift opening day.  The kids had a blast opening their presents.  Simon's favorite was a Melissa and Doug ice cream scooper set.  Olivia was over the moon about her new Bluey house playset.  Nolan thought it was so cool to have his own set of bluetooth noise cancelling headphones!

 My favorite gift was the apron my Mom made for the two of us and Aunt Michelle and Kristin from Grandma Edie's green plaid holiday dress.  I miss Grandma so much that it makes it so special that we can remember her and one of her favorite dresses every time we cook around the holidays.

It was a wonderful Christmas.  It was so nice to be together with our family to celebrate and make new and wonderful memories together.

Christmas Eve

Since we travel on Christmas Day, we asked Santa to come early to our house. Their little faces were so sweet and excited to open their presents. Nolan got the DLC upgrades he wanted for his video games, Olivia got her walking, barking puppy, and Simon got a big garbage truck. Of course new love books were unwrapped and they were excited to look at some of their favorite memories from the past year. But my absolute favorite part of the morning was that Nolan and Livi surprised us with homemade gifts that they made for us and each other with scraps from around the house...A cardboard boat made with straws and paper, drawings on cardboard to hang on the walls, and a beautiful letter about what Christmas looks like. They were so excited to give the presents they made and their love radiated from them. It reminded me about how a simple gift given with love can be the most meaningful. I am so proud of them.

That evening, I played for the earliest church service.  Since our kids are not vaccinated yet and we were worried about crowds, we opted not to bring our whole family.  Surprisingly, there were very few people in attendance and I was a little bummed out to find that the group assembled were not terribly energetic participants.  Regardless, the candlelit Silent Night is always a highlight and it was nice to get back to playing this year, after missing it entirely last year.

 After church, I joined the rest of the family back at Steve and Patti's.  We opted to not gather with the extended family this year, as an additional safety measure from covid, and with Tom still being sick, it ended up just being the seven of us.  However, it was one of the most relaxing, wonderful Christmas Eves I can remember.  It was so nice have a slower paced evening, with good food, plenty to drink, and time to watch the kids play and enjoy each other.  The kids had one remaining present to open from Grandma and Grandpa - new, upgraded tablets - which they really needed as their previous ones were really limping along.  We opened stockings together and had a yummy dinner of ham, cheesy hashbrowns, and green been casserole.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tea

A few years ago, Grandma Patti started hosting a Christmas tea party for the kids.  She had a tiny Christmas tea set which inspired the idea.  The kids don't really care for tea, but enjoy hot chocolate or apple juice and lots of yummy treats.  Simon had a special affinity for the chocolate truffles.  This year Olivia wore her Grandma Patti's Christmas dress from years ago.  It was one of the only brand new dresses Patti had ever been given since as the middle child, she usually had hand-me-downs from her older sisters.  Aside from the metallic thread around the neck being a little scratchy, it was in perfect condition and fit Livi well this year.  It was fun to have something so special to wear for this year's tea party!  

 

Homeschool - December

Aside from their normal reading and math work, homeschool in December looked a lot like Christmas gift making and other holiday themed projects.

They made salt dough ornaments to give away as gifts. We tried to use pine needles to decorate them naturally, but they didn't stick and we ended up painting them instead.

The kids got a soap making kit from Grandma this fall.  It was super fun to make this.  They chopped up the clear portion of the soap and microwaved it until it was liquid.  In the meantime they dropped different soap shapes into the soap molds.  Simon loved this part, but despite me telling him repeatedly that it was soap, NOT CANDY, he smugly stuck it into his mouth.  He was so defiant and sassy about it...until he started to chew and realized it was not candy after all.  Sometimes this kid has to learn things the hard way I guess.  After that they poured the liquid soap over the top of the shapes and let it sit in the molds until it hardened.  The soaps turned out beautiful and smelled so good.  

 

We did Santa Claus directed drawings, and used watercolor paints to finish them off.  They turned out adorable!

Olivia and Nolan wrote letters about what they love about each other.  They read them aloud and it was so sweet to see how proud they were to read and hear what was written.  

The last week of December, the kids enjoyed playing with their Christmas presents.  Simon enjoyed playing in his new work bench, Olivia painted her model horses, and Nolan and I built a Harry Potter Lego set.