ashford's 7th birthday and our christmas

 ah yes, the craziest week of the year. who decided my kid should be born on december 21st anyway? ;) 

every one in our family has now turned a year older during the pandemic. whew! here is ashford's annual birthday collage. i can't believe he's 7!

 he knew it would be different than other years, but we still wanted to make it fun for him. i decided to order a dozen donuts from top pot and arrange with a few of his friends to drop them off or have them stop by our driveway for a short visit. i took the kids to fred meyer in the morning to get balloons. ashford was thrilled to pick them out. then we picked up the donuts. our friends allison, eleanor, & callum stopped by first. the kids ate their donuts and played for a while. then our neighbors louise, simone & thelonius came.

 

 

it was a little rainy in the morning, but not too bad. after lunch the kids and i drove over to magnolia to see vanessa and ewan and bring them donuts. by this point it was absolutely pouring. we made two more stops in the afternoon and got absolutely soaked just going from the car to peoples' front door. but it was really fun and ashford got some nice gifts too, so he was a happy boy. we ordered mod pizza for dinner (ashford's pick) and then hopped on zoom to video chat with our family all over the country and world!

 

 

  we sang to him and he opened  his gifts and then we ate cake after the call ended. thatcher made him a chocolate peppermint cake and it was delicious. a successful day all around! oh and we got a few flurries and a dusting of snow that night, but it was short-lived. 

 on the 22nd i took the kids on a little outing to see santa. we didn't do our swanson's nursery santa for the first time ever (and i didn't think we would be seeing any santa), but i heard about a "snow globe santa" in greenwood, so we decided to go check him out. we got there a little early so we grabbed some hot chocolate first. it was such a great covid-friendly set up and santa was as enthusiastic as ever. the kids loved talking to him and we took a couple quick pictures. 

in the evening, i had all of us go up to olympic manor neighborhood to see the lit up houses. this is a big destination for people any year, but i think especially so this year. it was fun to see, but we didn't stay long. it was crowded and thatcher's glasses kept fogging up from wearing his mask in the cold. 

ashford wanted to take some selfies and they turned out so dang cute :)

that night i got to work wrapping all the gifts (while watching 'the holiday' of course)

on the 23rd the kids and i had a little manicure party in the morning. i haven't had my nails done since before covid and i'm usually too intimidated to do them myself (especially my dominant hand), but i decided to go reaaally slow and it actually turned out really well! i got about 4 days out of it before it started chipping, which is pretty good for non-salon nails.

in the afternoon we were invited to a holiday get together in my friend kay's backyard. it was just one other mom and her 2 boys and us. we all wore masks. it was so fun to have one holiday event to attend :) she told us to dress festive and she had games and treats for the kids and drinks for the grown ups (we stood far apart when eating or drinking).

our covid christmas didn't feel much different than the past 5 years since we moved here. we've gotten used to low-key holidays with just the 4 of us. christmas eve i spent almost the entire day in the kitchen. no complaints on that, i had my christmas music playing and made two kinds of cookies, and a lasagna for dinner.

here is our 2020 holiday card. i love getting cards from friends and family in the mail. it's one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. 

in the afternoon we watched "the grinch" (circa 2018) and the kids decorated sugar cookies for santa. 

we had our lasagna, bread, and arugala salad for dinner. we had cookies and leftover birthday cake for dessert. :) we brought down all the presents from upstairs.

the kids opened their gifts to each other. ashford got walkie-talkies and azalea got a stuffed animal and small lego set.

they set out the treats for santa and wrote him a little note, then it was off to bed! 

 

 

santa came in the night. i still have yet to catch him. ;) 

 

azalea got us all up at 7am (it's still pitch black out at that time).

 

 

they checked out their santa gifts and then we skyped with my mom and brother while we opened gifts from them. 

 

 

ashford received a lot of lego sets again so he spent lots of time building during the week. i feel like we own a lego store at this point, but they are a great investment and he plays with them every day. 

we made pancakes and bacon/sausage for breakfast. but not just any pancakes - santa face pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries. i didn't get a picture because they melted really quickly but they were a big hit and i will definitely be doing them again. then we opened the rest of the gifts. it was the christmas of "stuffies". the kids got 6 new ones between the 2 of them. they love playing with them. :) 

 

thatcher got me a milk frother so now i can make fancy coffee shop drinks at home. 

the kids' big gift from us was a nintendo switch, so they spent a good amount of the day testing that out. they also read, built legos, and we watched home alone and ate leftovers for dinner. we also skyped with more family in minnesota and kelli, jake, & addison in california. it was such a nice relaxing day.

the 26th was azalea's friend audrey's 10th birthday. we got her a gift in the morning and went to their house in the late afternoon. they had an outdoor socially-distanced drop by party with a bonfire and smores. 

did you make it to the end? whew! today is a work day for thatcher, but tomorrow we are leaving for 4 nights for the oregon coast and we can't wait!