December

I had been eyeing the Lego Advent Calendars for the Spencer and Mason for years, but never got them one because we usually never buy toys except for birthdays, Christmas, or for a special, earned reward. Since all of the normal Christmas celebrations were cancelled this year though, I made them a deal that I would pay for half if they pooled their money for the other half. They recycled some bottles and did some extra chores to earn money and we got the last calendar on Target's shelves. They had fun taking turns opening and putting the little figures together each day and then had a trading session at the end so they could each get the figures they really wanted. Naturally, they were both way more excited about this calendar than our usual nativity advent and I didn't love that. I don't think we'll make Lego advents a tradition, but it was good for this weird year.

Right before Thanksgiving, our Governor mandated a "two-week pause" for Covid. She shut down all dine-in eating and gyms again and asked people not to gather with anyone they don't live with. (It's nearing the end of January now and that pause is still in effect for our county.) Spencer had been getting together with a few friends once or twice a week all fall. We took a break for the pause, but got them together again the first week of December. These kids NEED friends and social interaction so badly! Sometimes, emotional health is worth a small risk. Especially since we were planning to quarantine for two weeks before going to AZ for Christmas and this was Spencer's last chance to see his friends before that. They played Pokemon and games while wearing masks in the garage.

At least we could still make fudge safely!

We participated in the Church's Light the World campaign again this year and did a lot of small acts of service in December. Mason wrote notes to Spencer and Alan and "secretly" delivered them. He was SO excited and it was super cute to watch!

We still got out for bike rides every day that we could. No matter how cold it is, Spencer and Mason always wear shorts. I have to force them if I want them to wear pants.

A real-estate company in old town Sherwood, set up this super cute display on their front porch. It was was totally free for the community. Spencer and Mason got to stand on the Naughty or Nice Meter, mail their letters to Santa, and ring a bell for a treat from Santa's elves. It was fun and festive. It warms my heart to know that small businesses like this really care about our community and did what they could to bring light to a dark season.

The City of Sherwood itself also stepped up it's lighting game just because of Covid and more than doubled the number of lights in downtown. I took this pic on an early morning run and counted at least 60 trees lit like this. It was beautiful and just made me happy.

 Mason was long overdue for a new bed and we finally made that happen with some help from a "buy nothing" Facebook group. Alan found a nice twin bed frame listed on there on a Friday. After he picked it up on Saturday, he texted me and asked me to write a post looking for a twin mattress. I got a reply in about two minutes and we wound up with a very nice frame and almost brand new mattress for FREE! Alan put it all together that afternoon and Mason got to sleep in his new, big boy bed that night. Can you tell he was happy?!

There were no Christmas concerts or parties this year, but we could still drive around town and do our Christmas light scavenger hunt. We got hot chocolate from Dutch Bros. to make it extra fun. We discovered that Mason doesn't really love this tradition though. He was totally bored after about 30 minutes. Hopefully he'll grow into it because the rest of us love it. ;)

After a long break from trying to help Mason stop sucking his fingers, we decided to give it another try in mid-November. He was motivated and tried really hard this time. He filled his sticker chart half way through December and got to pick a bigger prize from Target. He chose this cool Harry Potter Lego set just for the Dementors. 

The boys and I decided to try making salt-dough ornaments for the first time this year. The recipe made enough for a ton of ornaments and it took us several days to get them all cut out and baked. We pressed glitter into the first batch and that just made a  mess. I do not recommend it. We also tried adding food coloring to the dough, but left most plain white so we could paint them later. Maybe we made them too thick though because they were still flexible when we left for AZ. They were finally hard when we got back, but I just had Spencer and Mason pick their favorites to save. Maybe we'll paint them next year.

We started letting Mason walk on the treadmill with one of us close by so he could get some exercise on yucky days. Mason has a hard time going to sleep at night if he hasn't gotten enough exercise during the day. Late fall was hard that way. He thought it was awesome to finally be old enough to use the treadmill. Hopefully, that will continue working for us during the long, wet winter months ahead.

Kiki in the windowsill. She is a funny, feisty cat. Alan can't stand her. I usually like her alright. Spencer and Mason love her.

We opened our gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen early so we wouldn't have to try to make room for more gifts in our car on our trip. Grandpa gave Alan, Spencer, and Mason each a baseball and glove for playing catch. They will have fun with those when the weather is a little better. Grandma made awesome family birthday calendars for the the boys and gave me a nice calendar from Deseret Book. We are so blessed to have such awesome grandparents so close and have missed getting together with them every Sunday so much!

The best part of our pre-Christmas celebrations was studying and doing the activities in A Christ-Centered Christmas by Emily Belle Freeman the week before we left for AZ. This was our second year doing these traditions, but our first year with the nativity that goes along with the book. Each night, we read about one of the characters from the Nativity, completed an activity, and then placed that character by the stable. I only took pictures of two of the nights, but this has become my favorite tradition and I think the rest of my family loves it too. Our favorite is the night we get to have a "shepherd's dinner" on the floor and share the light of our testimonies and candles with each other. Most of the activities were really simple, but brought such a sweet spirit to our home and celebrating.

And last, Mason and I made reindeer food to sprinkle on Grandpa LeFevre's front lawn. Everyone leaves cookies for Santa, but no one ever remembers his reindeer!

November Leaves

Due to lots of dry weather in October, our fall leaves were still amazing in November. We had some really nice days at the beginning of the month and tried to spend as much time outside as we could. I tried to get Mason out of the house on a scooter or bike ride almost every day.

Sunshine!

Mason and I were into a good routine with homeschool kindergarten by November. We do reading and math every day and then choose a music, science, or art activity. Mason definitely prefers math to reading, but science is his very favorite. The best part of homeschooling Mason is all of the one-on-one time we have together now. And, it is pretty awesome to be able to have a dance party in your kitchen and a special dinner (Mason's fav: biscuits, scrambled eggs, and smoothie) when Mason masters a new skill like all of his letter names and sounds!

The Harry Potter obsession continues...

I had the boys write their letters to Santa extra early this year so Santa's elves would have plenty of time to prepare. We did approximately 95% of our shopping online this year along with everyone else in the world.

Spencer's last cross country meet of the season was at Willamette Mission State Park in mid-November. Mason jumped in puddles while we waited for the runners. Spencer ran well and enjoyed the huge tables of treats the parents provided as an end-of-season party. It was a great season for Spencer and he ended with a PR of 12:04 in the 3k: a full two-minutes faster than his first race of the season! He will have to make a hard choice between soccer and cross country for a fall sport once sports are back to normal after Covid since he really enjoys both.

I decided to use some of my extra time at home to practice my pie-making skills. I really don't love pie and usually only eat it on Thanksgiving so I never practice. My crusts are usually terrible. I got a new recipe and the crust for this chocolate chip cookie pie turned out amazing! We decided that a chocolate chip cookie really doesn't need a pie crust though, so I'll keep the crust recipe and trash the cookie recipe.

Alan's parents gave us this nativity as an early Christmas gift this year. It goes along with the book A Christ-Centered Christmas by Emily Belle Freeman that I bought last year. I fell in love with the idea of starting new traditions centered on Christ and this book and nativity make it so easy. Covid numbers started skyrocketing in early November and we needed some Christmas cheer so we opened the nativity right away and enjoyed it all the way through the end of the year.

This was the first year in Spencer's school career that he didn't have the entire week of Thanksgiving off school. He had classes on Monday and Tuesday. We weren't going anywhere so it didn't matter much though. We made apple and marshmallow turkeys and pies (pumpkin and chocolate) together on Wednesday. 

It was weird and nice that Alan wasn't crazy busy preparing for a Turkeython this year. He didn't miss staying up all night and spending most of the day out in the wet, cold, but I think he still missed the spirit of the event. We ran our own races in the morning instead. I ran by myself early in the morning and then we all went to the school track together. Spencer and Alan ran a 5k and I jogged around the track while Mason rode his bike. 

It was also the first year since Alan and I were at BYU that we had Thanksgiving on our own. Debbie and I usually share the cooking load and I didn't want to spend the whole holiday slaving in the kitchen, so I let everyone pick one dish they had to have and that's all I made. We had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green salad, veggies with fancy dip, and pie. Everything turned out yummy and it was kind of fun to set my own sort-of fancy table. We did Zoom meetings with both of our extended families during the day. They were nice, but not a replacement for actually being with family. :(

We were ready to set up for Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving was over this year. I usually feel strongly about not rushing through Thanksgiving to get to Christmas, but the whole world needed Christmas so badly this year that I was ready early. Mason was thrilled to get to play with some of my small nativities. I love watching him gather all kinds of toys to come admire and worship the baby Jesus. Alan surprised the boys with an electric train to go around the tree. They were happy, I wasn't. ;) 

We used the artificial tree we bought last year because we were planning to go to AZ for Christmas again. I don't love it, but it is quick and easy to set up. It needs twice as many lights. Maybe we'll add extra next year. Both boys have a good collection of their own ornaments now and love hanging them.