January went by in a flash

Winter and COVID adds up to pretty much doing nothing for a month, but I did get fully vaccinated so I achieved something!!!!!

And we had a little bit on snow at the end of the month.  Nothing else to report.....

New Year 2021

We woke up to freezing rain for the first day of the new year, let's hope this isn't an omen!!!!  I love it when the trees are encased in ice, I don't think it hurts them luckily.  We were lucky that the ground wasn't frozen and it was all gone in the late morning

We had dinner at Ben's condo, I made chili and took it over there.  He's not quite ready to cater a dinner party yet!!!  It was snowing then we got there, I tried to get a picture, but you can't really tell.  I'm very excited that he has this redbud outside his back deck

We took a bunch of games over, but only played Jenga before dinner.  It's a family favourite, we usually play with Jan and Julie when we go there.  Maggie is the champion, but wasn't on her game this time

Eating first "formal" dinner at the new table and chairs.....

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