Looking Back: Winter 2019/2020

Hello again! Yesterday I posted some highlights of FALL 2019. Today I’m moving on to WINTER 2019/2020!

As soon as Thanksgiving was over and the fall decorations were packed away, we went straight into Christmas festivities. My tea ladies and I kicked off the season the last weekend in November with a tea lunch at a beautiful tea room, all decorated for the holidays! This leisurely tea time was our calm before the holiday storm.

The first weekend in December, our family went to cut down our Christmas tree at a tree farm we’ve been going to since our oldest was a baby. I took a lot of family photos, and won’t post those here, but it was a lovely, sunny day on the tree farm! It’s also been a longtime tradition to come home and make Christmas tree pizzas to eat while decorating the tree and watching a Christmas movie.

Once the tree and decorations were up, the Christmas teas and Christmas coffees came out! Peppermint Bark Tea was a favorite for cozy afternoons at home while finishing up schoolwork.

Speaking of schoolwork, my college daughter had finals to study for before she was able to really enjoy Christmas, and to make matters worse, her back went out during finals week. In the photo below, she is actually taking her Bible exam at home! Yes, her Bible professor had pity on her and emailed the exam to me for proctoring so she wouldn’t have to drive to campus and sit in those agonizingly uncomfortable chairs through a long exam. So, a little back story: a couple weeks earlier she’d pushed “print” on a 10-page Bible paper at the same time I was printing some school stuff for my 8-year old son….on ginger bread paper! Yep, the printer started spitting out 10 pages of her Bible paper on ginger bread stationary! She turned it in that way, which her professor loved! So, when he emailed the exam to me, he said he would only accept it on ginger bread paper, and we obliged him, lol! What a fun professor, right?!

Ok, moving along! Our small group went Christmas caroling at our Nonie’s assisted living facility. They enjoyed us so much they wouldn’t let us leave! We didn’t mind though because they were engaged and singing with us and cheering us on with each song. Such precious souls!! Afterwards, all our families went to Chick-Fil-A for a late supper and visiting.

Naturally, a lot of cookie baking and decorating happened throughout all of December!

And lots of puzzles for those days we needed to stay home and slow down the Christmas rush.

Christmas light-looking is always a must!

Another tradition we’ve enjoyed for the last several years is attending our town’s Christmas parade with friends. We love our little town! We call it our Mayberry!

We also have a fantastic little theater! I got tickets for my girls and me to go see A Christmas Little House (can’t remember the exact title). My older daughter was in bed with her back and there was no way she could sit through it, so sadly she had to miss it. I took this photo as we walked in the room to wait, but of course didn’t take photos during the play. The play was outstanding! And the funny thing is, I was at our neighborhood pool last week and got to talking to a mom there and found out she was the one who played Caroline Ingles in this very play! I said, “Wait, you’re Ma?!” She was really talented! If you have a small theater in your town, please go support them.

My girls and I always watch Little Women during the holidays. This scene has to be the saddest part in the whole movie. With all due respect to Lousia May Alcott, I’ll never be okay with Beth dying in this book.

There was much gift-wrapping going on in December as well, which made this word problem on my younger daughter’s math humorously timely. A day or two before, my husband had just commented on how much faster I could wrap than him, so when my girl came to this problem, I had to snap a pic and text it to him!

On Christmas Eve we always attend the candlelight service at my sister-in-law’s mom’s church (did you follow that?). It’s a very meaningful time of worship and reflection, and truly helps us reset our minds and hearts in the midst of the holiday craziness.

Christmas morning brought a flurry of activity including gift-giving, packing the van, and finishing the last of our cooking for the meals ahead. My parents hosted Christmas lunch and Joel’s parents hosted Christmas dinner. Needless to say, we did not come home hungry. In fact, we just kind of rolled ourselves into our front door that night.

A few days after Christmas, we took down the decorations and ole Barney Boy decided to help with the tree! Joel had drug it out to the back yard and while we were cleaning up the floor inside, Barney had some fun. The stinker!

On New Year’s Eve we celebrated Joel’s 49th birthday the way we always do–at home with a movie and peanut butter chocolate cake!

Our parents joined us for lunch on New Year’s Day and I got to use my new dishes, woohoo! This was one of my favorite table settings I’ve ever done. Just felt like a fresh start for the new year.

My older daughter and I joined another mother/daughter duo–some lifelong friends of ours since way back when our girls were in the church nursery together–for a scone-baking class before our girls had to start their winter/spring college semester. We had so much fun catching up with each other over our tea and freshly-baked scones. This was my third time taking this class and it was still exciting for me.

Once the holiday festivities were over, it was time to settle in to January which meant some cleaning out and delivering to Goodwill….

and getting back to our homeschooling.

My husband and son were invited to help with a cattle drive! Getting to be a real cowboy for a day is a good day for a boy! More on this in another post.

This guy also celebrated his 9th birthday!

This year he chose to forgo a birthday party for a family day trip to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham. We’d been before with our girls, but this was his first trip. It did not disappoint!

There is so much to see and experience there!

In addition to their usual science displays, demonstrations, and activities, they had a special display of guitars along with the scientific explanations of how sound waves work in regards to instruments. Below is the world’s largest guitar.

In February some renovations on my husband’s office were complete so it was time to get in there and clean up and do a little decorating. Sadly, that beautiful fiddle leaf tree did not make it through Covid-19 once everyone had to vacate and go home to work.

I managed to get in a good bit of blogging through early February with all our fun Valentine’s Day recipes and parties. February was pretty busy with soccer and other activities so the few quiet afternoons at home working by the fire were a welcomed retreat.

We did a lot of donut decorating and eating in February!!!

We also celebrated my older daughter’s 20th birthday with a Sunday lunch at home and her favorite spaghetti casserole and oreo icecream. Hard to believe I have a 20-year old! And what a sweet one she is! She endured a pretty challenging school year and did so beautifully.

Our area saw a LOT rain and flooding in February! This property below sits next to a river that overflowed. Kind of scary, isn’t it?

As I spoke about in another post, we lost my dear father-in-law at the end of February. The following week we took a long drive in Papa Melvin’s truck and have taken many more long country rides in it since then. It’s good therapy for the soul!

Soccer season for my daughter started back in January, so we’d been busy with weekly practices and games from January to mid March when the pandemic struck and cancelled the rest of the season. I took this photo at what ended up being her last game right before the stay-at-home order started. Wow, what little we knew then about what was to come!

A couple of weeks later, spring had arrived! A very different spring this year, but one filled with unique blessings, no less. In my next post, I’ll share those spring 2020 highlights as we finish out our 2019/2020 homeschool year in review!