Moving Day

 Ben has decided that his second bedroom will be a walk-in closet, no surprise there!!!!  I suspect it'll be a "Room of Requirement" most of its existence!!!!

At least his bedroom is tidy!!!!

The couch just fits in his room

Sam fixing his online accounts!!!!

Maggie ALWAYS looks happy!!!!!

I love Ben's kitchen

Christmas 2020

I think a lot of families would say they had more gifts than usual this year, we certainly did.  Not sure if it's a result of boredom and online ordering, overcompensation for lack of social interaction, or extra funds for not eating out etc.  Regardless, we seem to have a lot this year and I didn't get much for anyone else since we aren't seeing anyone this year.....

Ben wanted to open the bag from Arline first, she bought him these Harry Potter pajamas

Ben was in charge of distribution (as usual!)

Jan and Julie got Ben a bunch of "new house stuff" this year

I finally got Sam's Beatles magnets from Liverpool framed-after 2 years!!!!!

Maggie got her usual "things to keep Maggie occupied" gifts a.k.a. "what will keep Maggie off her phone" gifts.  So far, they are not working-mostly because we got her a new phone!!!!!

Gift of the day-Jan and Julie got a Ben a kitchen book, has recipes but also pointers for starting off on your own, was a great idea

We had beef tenderloin for dinner-still staying away from the turkey

Ben wanted apple pie

I even moved my office up into Ben's room so we could eat at the dining table

Ben gets his new digs

We closed on the condo this morning and Ben started moving his stuff in immediately.  I'm so excited for him, I can remember how excited I was with my first place.  Here he is opening his own front door!!

He has a really nice kitchen, I'm pretty jealous

First thing moved in was his dining chairs-table comes Tuesday

His sitting room will get filled up pretty quickly.  He is having our rug and sectional couch, plus our marble top coffee table.  We won't get new furniture until we can get our kitchen and bathroom done

Britani brought us some flowers, plus an Amazon gift card.  Nice touch

Christmas tree

Sam and I got a Christmas tree from Garden Heights this year, I love it!!!!

Thanksgiving 2020

As with most people (hopefully) our Thanksgiving was very quiet this year.  We were going to have turkey (Ben wanted to give it a go and hope he'd outgrown his allergy), but the fresh turkey breast that I bought smelled very suspicious, so I returned it and we had beef tenderloin that Sam cooked on the grill.  I made everyone's favourite food-Ben wanted green beans, Sam wanted brussels, Maggie wanted mac and cheese and I made twice baked potatoes just because we hadn't had them in ages.  Then we had a chocolate stout cake with chocolate sauce that was always on Maggie's wish list when she was much younger!!!!  It was a pretty good day, although even quieter than our regular holidays are

We finally found a place

We have been looking for a new place for Ben for a few months.  We put offers on 3 houses, but didn't get any of them.  we finally started looking in Brentwood Forest and made an offer on a ground floor condo.  It will be perfect for Ben, he won't need to worry about a yard etc.  He absolutely loves it.  the whole thing has been renovated, the people who owned it had been renting it for a long time, I'm sure it needed it!!!!  He's so lucky to move into a brand new place

The bathroom is really nice

New tiles

Views from the deck on the back

The kitchen is lovely

Garden Glow 2020

The Garden Glow was much earlier this year, beginning of November!!! We went on opening night when it was members only and it was pretty quiet and really warm

I didn't take too many photos, I always like the lit trees the best