I am so far behind. We are sitting here in our coronavirus quarantine starting week six. I desperately need to catch up so that I can post about the quarantine – I think this is going to be a big historical marker in our lives. I mean a global pandemic is the stuff of movies – of which we have watched waaaaayyyy too many of in the last 6 weeks. Back to my flashbacks:

Aub and Archie came to town and Archie had a lot more privileges than Cinco, Halle or Lucy. I would NEVER allow those dogs to settle themselves on my couch pillows. Archie is an inside dog and gets a bath every week and doesn’t shed. My dogs stink to high heaven and S.H.E.D.!! Archie is a very big tease and loved to tease Cinco especially. He’s only allowed to be on his bed next to the back door and she’d run up and steal his toys and run away. It was sort of like having toddlers around for Christmas – sort of.

December 24th-25th, 2019

In 1993, when I was pregnant with Master D, I bought four Christmas stockings at a boutique with the plan of having four kids. When the twins were born I split one of the stockings in half and made two. 5 years ago when we went to Hawaii for Christmas, Lelu’s stocking was ruined by broken nail polish – so I split another one in half to make two. Since this was our first Christmas with Jake in the family here in Draper – and I’ve suffered some good natured teasing about the cheesiness and kitchiness of my stockings over the years – I decided to make new stockings. Not me exactly, I paid someone to make them. It was a bit of an epic fail. I’m going to rework their shape and probably the white on the top and see if I can salvage them. Our friend and B’s employee of the last 25 years, Wanell, quilted the fabric for me as a Christmas gift and I got extra so I will have enough to make stockings for any future children in law I am determined to salvage the fabric and make them work. The thought is they’d look great at a cabin. Wish me luck!

Lelu ordered me beautiful flowers on the table in the background and we made our traditional train cars on Christmas Eve.

I got a delivery for the Entwistles (who moved 3 years ago) and sent a text over to Dawna and she told me to keep it. I’ve never had a real Poinsettia that I didn’t buy from Costco. Somehow if felt special even though it wasn’t for me.

You can’t tell very well in the photo but the themed pajamas were puppies – what else would we choose? And we got Lelu and Jake for later on Christmas Eve and for Christmas morning.

We had a great Christmas. Aub headed back to Portland and B and I headed down to AZ. Ari had cheer practice all week so couldn’t go. TT wanted to snowboarding, so we left Master D in charge for a few days and then the twins stayed home together for the first time ever. They were warned vigorously not to kill each other and to come home on time. They cooked dinner together with Kenna and seemed to manage themselves fairly well. I have no doubt the doggies were in the house much more than I approve of.

For the week, we basically just hung out and did the same stuff we did when we went for Thanksgiving. On New Year’s day we went on a hike with Dave, Shel, boys and Gigi. It was amazingly green and the perfect weather.

Lelu and Jake headed to Disneyland with the Martins