Sunday, January 17, 2021

Thanksgiving Weekend

 This Thanksgiving was unlike any that we have experienced. We were supposed to have a meal with the whole Slagh family and then travel down to Cleveland. Travel was not recommended, so we cancelled our trip to Ohio, and gathering with big groups outside your house was also not recommended. So thanksgiving this year was just our family, at our house. Ryan smoked a turkey. And we had cake for dessert instead of pie. I made Grandma Betty's recipe for stuffing for my first time. We also had roasted sweet potatoes, squash, rolls, and mashed potatoes. It was our first time having to tackle the whole meal ourselves, but it turned out really good! We did a zoom chat with Mem and Jeff & Jen's family. Mary, Steve, and Jason came by to visit outside in our garage for a bit, too. 

The girls got to open their yearly Christmas Lego - a Gingerbread House! 





Helping get the turkey ready the night before


Cam and I made the cake the day before, too!






Our little turkey table


After 4 days of thawing, brining, and smoking, the turkey was ready to be carved! 


Veggie prep


We bought turkey wet food for the kitties, too! 




Christmas Tree 2020

2020 feel like a year where nothing is really the same. So we decided, since we were already home so much with Ryan still working from home (as he had been since March), both my district and the girl's were doing remote learning for at least the next couple weeks, that we would get our Christmas tree early this year. We went the weekend before Thanksgiving to KP Trees where we had gone last year. We had the tree field practically to ourselves. :) 















November 2020

 The Christmas lovies come back on November 1, decorating for Christmas happens early, Camryn and I try to bake a cake, Mandalorian watching on the deck, decorating Mem's Christmas tree with cousins, QUARANTINE for both Taylor and Camryn, school sent remote, remote learning at Mem's, one last golf outing. It was a crazy month.


Christmas stuffed animals!



New mask :) 

The girls watching the first female vice-president elect speak

Making a cake just because :) 


A warm day led us into making a makeshift pool for Jovie to play in... she loves batting around water

Christmas Claus

Christmas train + kitties



A rare warm November day for golf with Grandpa!


Took Jovie girl to the vet just to see about her weight and her dry heaves... turns out she is healthy, just a chunky little girl who doesn't need to eat kitten dry food anymore :) 

A note on Camryn's report card

Jason took our yearly family pictures :) 


























The cousins gathered to help Mem decorate her Christmas tree










Taylor and Camryn stayed at Mem's house that week for her to help with remote learning while Ryan and I worked. We got the call on November 1st that Taylor had to be under quarantine because of positive COVID cases in her 5th grade class, including her teacher who had to be hospitalized because of it. The day that Taylor was supposed to be able to go back to school, November 13, the entire district of Zeeland shut down and went to remote learning through two weeks after Thanksgiving break. We actually got a call 3 days after Zeeland shut down that Camryn should go under quarantine because of a positive case in her classroom, and her quarantine wasn't up until Thanksgiving day. It was a crazy month. 28 total days of having a kid not being able to leave the house. Luckily neither of them got sick, we were thankful for that. The cases really started to pick up around the state, and new restrictions came down for things to start closing down, again. 


New blue light blocking glasses for Tay - so much screen time! 


Enjoyed a fire at Mem's house one night. 

For Ryan's birthday, I accidentally got him a card meant for a gay couple - I had no idea! LOL! 


At least he liked his gift - a t-shirt quilt! 

Ryan got a projector from Haworth as a gift for being with the company for 15 years. They set up to watch the Mandalorian outside on the back deck! 


We are ready for Christmas :)