Merry Covid Christmas

Well...karma caught up to me. I wrote in our Christmas newsletter that it was amazing that none of us had gotten covid or had even been quarantined all year. So naturally Ivory tested positive three days before Christmas. Her only symptom was loss of smell. I didn't really believe she had it, but the test said yes. 

So she was sent into the dungeon to endure solitary confinement and the rest of us partied like it was 2020. (That means we didn't go anywhere or do anything.) 

Despite the special circumstances, we tried to make Christmas as normal as possible. I feel like this picture sums up some of the Christmas Spirit. I wore a mask more than most because I shared a treat with Ivory the day before she tested positive, so I was concerned that if anyone might get it, it would be me. I wanted to protect the family.

Pajamas are still a normal part of Christmas Eve. Remind me never to get wrapping paper with glitter. The tape doesn't stick well and it gets glitter on everything. 

Jammies were well received all around. Ivory even took a selfie down in her room since she couldn't come up.

Group pictures were a little trickier. Can you see Ivory there on the phone?

We did a really fun nativity reading that Ivory and June put together for us. And we played some Charades. I had a hard time getting people to guess, "Don't be a Jerk" (Thanks June.)

Kids went to bed and stockings came out, minus one that went downstairs. 

Christmas dawned and we got Ivory on zoom and piled her presents outside her door. It actually worked pretty well. We opened stockings together and then we always open gifts individually, so when it was Ivory's turn, she would take one of the presents outside her door. We all got some good stuff. 

Nova was quite content snoozing while wrapping paper piled up around her, or on top of her in some cases.

This year, we parents decided to do the big gifts. We asked Santa to bring something small, so he brought calendars. And we spent extra time deciding on something fun for the girls. Everyone seemed to love their gift.

Pearl's was too big to fit in the house. We put up string that she followed out to the garage to find her gift.

She was ecstatic! I actually thought we wouldn't put it up for a while, but Pearl convinced everyone to go out and work on it in the afternoon. 

Tyler was our muscle. The girls helped, but Tyler did all the springs. That is a LOT of springs.

It all worked really well, right up until it didn't. When everyone tried to shift the trampoline, it buckled. It was pretty sad. We have another part coming in the mail, but there won't be a trampoline for a few days.

We amused ourselves with other activities. Nova took naps. Daisy got a gel nail set and we all got fingers or toes done. 

Pearl broke into her oyster and found her namesake.

There was some puzzling going on.

Even Ivory kept herself busy. This cute little fox was given to Ivory years ago. I guess she was just waiting for some down time to sew him. Nothing like quarantine to get projects done. 

Christmas was different but still very fun. We have many days left to hang out together, or in Ivory's case, alone. I think her new picture frame says it well.

School Art Show

The art show hasn't been quite as big at school for the last few years, but I still enjoy any kind of art show. And this one was pretty good. There were only a few large boards up in the main entry, but they showcased a lot of fun art the kids have worked on over the past semester. Even better, there was art to show. That means school was in session and kids were attending. Covid hasn't triumphed over everything.

Some of my favorite were the elongations. I took a couple extra pictures because there were so many fun ones. The Kronk one was a very popular one. And the jellyfish was done by Gabriel, Ivory's dance partner.

Next up was some word art. It was one word reflected back and forth. Some were hard to read. I spent a lot of time deciphering the words. 

One category was really fun. It seemed the background was a mix of colors with a cartoon character on top. There were some really fun ones.

Watercolor has always been an enigma to me, but the students seem to do well.

Another of my favorites was the grayscale paintings. There were some very beautiful ones.

The 7th graders had their own section. They technically are doing beginning art, but they got to do a lot of fun projects.  This skull art was super cool.

I don't know the term for this next one. I call it striped worm art. Daisy's is the second one.

The 7th graders practiced shading and made some neat animal art. Daisy's is the bunny.

Such fun stuff. Here is a couple extra pieces. The first is from Daisy and the next from Pearl. Always fun to sit down and do some art.