simply livin’ it up
We have had Panera every year on Valentine’s Day since the time Andrew was born. Even with the pandemic we didn’t want to stray from the tradition. It wasn’t quite the same as being in the restaurant, but we manage to make it work.
This year for New Year’s we had the Reagens and the Liesses over for a wild party. The Reagens spent the night.
Christmas day followed a fairly standard schedule in our house, with some modifications because of the pandemic. The day started at 7:30 when Lucia and Rose woke up. We told the older kids they could sleep until 9 so when Lucia and Rose woke up we watch the newest version of the grinch until 9.
Merry Christmas!
Traditionally we get out our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. If we stay the night at the Connors’ we usually pick up our tree on the way home on Friday. This year I ran out on Friday morning to get not one, but two trees – one for the front and one for the back.
For Thanksgiving this year we headed south to the Connors’. The weather was awesome and they had a beautiful setup in their driveway.
This evening we celebrated Beggars Night, which is basically Des Moines’ version of trick-or-treating – a night early. We do it this way every year. This year was a little different because of the pandemic, but it worked! There were still plenty of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood and plenty of people passing out candy – social-distanced, of course. Most people had a treat station in their driveway and were either sitting behind it or just in their house.
Lucia and Rose were our only trick-or-treaters this year. Mari, Andrew, and Elliot stayed home to pass out candy and by the end of the evening we were joined by Mimi, Mary, Casey, Erin, and Nate to hang-out around the fire in our driveway.