Thanksgiving in a Pandemic

This Thanksgiving during our COVID-19 pandemic was quite different than any other Thanksgiving I've probably experienced in a long time. Families keeping their festivities to one household and not traveling. We did travel but only to our house in Michigan to have Thanksgiving on our own. We were able to spend an entire week in Michigan but the weather prohibited us from doing much such as finding some good daily hikes to go one which we have come to enjoy during quarantine. Still we went for long drives and discovered a new lake for boating just west of Kalamazoo (Gull Lake) and checked out a new ski resort (Timber Ridge) so that was our outing for one day. Another day, Tom worked while the kids and I went shopping for our Thanksgiving day feast including a tablecloth and a centerpiece. One day, we sought refuge from the rain at a mall to get in our daily exercise around the now sparse holiday shoppers. The rain finally broke on Thanksgiving Day, and Tom was able to smoke our almost 16lb turkey. He did an admirable job. We made sweet potatoes, carrots and salad along with pumpkin pie and German chocolate cake bars to round out our meal. It was just the five of us but we were able to Zoom with both families and get cozy on our coach while watching a lot of holiday movies. The day after Thanksgiving, we saw the sun for the first time all week and took a road trip to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It's something that's always been on our list of places to go and this was the perfect time to do it since we only wanted to walk around and you had to wear your masks even to just be on campus. Saturday we headed home but not before making a pit stop to cut down our Xmas tree with friends (all masked up). We had to change the way we do things this year from our Thanksgiving plans to our outings but we made do and we'll continue to do what we need to do to rid our country of this terrible virus. The end is in sight. Just a few more months to go before the vaccine becomes available, we hope! I just had to cancel another vacation that was planned for January. Boy are we going to travel once this is all over!

Tom's smoked turkey

Sadie chasing the fattest squirrel at U of M

Univ. of Michigan Union

We found our tree!

Our first Canaan Fir tree and it won't be our last!

20 years at Dudecks Tree Farm for tree cutting

Crazy Sayings and Crazy Hair

I'm trying to remember and write down all the funny things that my kids say and Hailey says enough of them that I have an arsenal of material. Last week at school, the kids were taking the COGAT test (another standardized test) but it was for 2nd-5th graders. They made this announcment through the intercom at school and after school when Hailey and Peyton got into my car, Hailey asked Peyton why all the 2nd through 5th graders had to take the COVID test! Ha! Then when she couldn't remember the Christmas movie we were going to watch, she called it "The Egg" instead of the "The Elf!" I know there are more but I can't seem to remember them all, hence why I need to write them down when I hear them. Lots of crazy sayings lately but also last week was crazy hair day at school (one of my least favorite spirit week days), But I acquiesced and the girls had choices for their hair and I was armed with color and ideas. However, neither of them wanted paint/chalk in their hair because they didn't want to have to come home and take a shower. Ha! Peyton chose some Princess Lea ensemble while Hailey went with a holiday theme (glad we went to that Xmas town in Michigan last year and I was able to think ahead to crazy hair days and buy a kit that made what Hailey wanted super easy!). So spirit week was a success!

A Little Vacation During the Pandemic

We've gone to only our house in Michigan and back pretty much since the pandemic started. The only time we've left the state and not gone to Michigan has been if Austen had out of state soccer games and they had one scheduled for St. Louis in November. Besides me, no one in our family had ever been to St. Louis so I thought it could be an opportunity for our whole family to go watch Austen play and do a little sight seeing. I booked a hotel that promised the rooms were sealed and sanitized, and then looked into what other things we could do for the girls while we were there. 

African Painted Dogs in Back

I discovered an endangered wolf habitat not far from where we were staying and knew that Peyton and Hailey would love that so I booked it. The next day we found out Austen's games were canceled because they couldn't find enough refs due to a lot of girls games being played that weekend in the area. Still we made the decision to go for one night (not our original two). Peyton and Hailey would've been so disappointed as they were looking forward to a brief getaway and they had the Friday before off school too. 

We headed out early Friday morning after dropping Sadie off at her boarding facility for the 4.5 hour trek. The ride was quick and we didn't need to stop til we were close to our first stop. We ended up at  having lunch outside at this place called First Watch Cafe. Super casual and cute. Then we headed to our 90-minute wolf predatour! We had to wear masks the whole time even though we were outside and there was only one other family on the tour (and at the whole conservation it seemed). We saw African Painted dogs, arctic foxes and many different kind of wolves like the red wolves, maned wolves (that smell like skunk) and black wolves. In fact, there was a whole pack ripping apart a dead deer which I didn't love seeing but everyone else in my family did. After we visited the gift shop, we headed to our hotel to check in briefly then head to dinner. 

I have some friends who are from St. Louis so they recommended a bunch of restaurants to eat. One of them was in the historic downtown of St. Charles which was really cute. We ate outside at Salt and Smoke with huge fire pits and great barbecue! The weather also happened to be unseasonably warm that weekend stretching into the 70s so it was a perfect weekend to be outside.

The next morning, we found a cute donut shop and then we had tickets to go up in the Arch so we walked around the park below and then through the museum inside and then up into the Arch where we could look out from above and over the Mississippi River and on one side and into downtown St. Louis on the other.  Again, all was very controlled and there weren't a lot of people so it was easy to keep your distance from others. The Arch did a good job of spraying everything down and offering lots of hand sanitizer. 

Afterwards, we walked around St. Louis and Busch Stadium for a bit. The stadium and the area surrounding it is amazing. I remember attending a game at the old Busch Stadium more than 20 years ago and this looked a lot cooler than that one! We then hopped in the car to watch our niece's soccer game (as she happened to also be playing that weekend in St. Louis but she got refs!). That was Austen's highlight of the whole trip - watching his cousin play soccer! 

After the game, we hopped back in the car for an early dinner at another recommended place, Katie's Pizza and Pasta. We laughed so hard at that place because I took the girls to the bathroom and while we were in the stall we realized we were in the men's bathroom as a man came in and started peeing in the urinal. Peyton who tried to warn me prior was all, "I told you mom!" and was mortified while I just shushed them to be quiet and get done so we could get the heck out of there! Made for some good laughs back at the table though! When dinner was over, we headed back home. It was a short trip but per usual we managed to cram in a lot in a short period. I think we were all just glad to get out and do something that was not at either of our houses - albeit as safely as we could! 

Watching the Wolves Eat a Dead Deer

On Her Way to the Gift Shop

The Gift Shop!

The Donut Experiment

Dinner at Salt and Smoke

Salt and Smoke

Hailey and the Arch

Austen @the Grounds Around Busch Stadium

Sadie at Her Boarding Facility 

My New Job

Don't get too excited because it's not a job that I'm hoping I will be in for the long haul but it's been my new job this fall.  I've turned into a teacher. Not just any old teacher mind you but an art, PE, science, social studies, math and reading teacher. You name it, I do all the first grade subjects with Hailey. And by doing them, I am reminded why I never wanted to become a teacher. Still because I'm anal and organized, we do it all. Well, maybe I'm a little behind on the PE (don't tell my mom) but my kids get plenty of exercise through extracurricular activities and walks so this PE is just annoying (in my opinion) and for the inactive kids to do when they have time! 

At any rate, I created a water xylophone for science class; helped Hailey figure out how shadows move with flashlights and a paper gnome; helped teach her how to keep the beat in music class or what's a ti ti and what's a ta; and am her art assistant - getting her supplies ready for her to begin her art class and getting yelled at if the video keeps playing and I'm too slow gathering the markers, eraser, pencil, crayons, etc. 

My other new job is chef. My kids quickly grew tired of having the same sandwiches for lunch so I created about 20 note cards (and counting) of different lunches I could make for them to keep it exciting (and give me yet another thing I need to do). But so far, we've discovered some really fun ways to eat lunch including waffle sticks, corn dogs, mini bagel sandwiches, homemade hot pockets and some holiday themed food like chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and mummy dogs. 

Maybe this beats making lunches for my kids every day but I also believe that social time during lunch is so important too. Hailey especially is missing out on bringing a lunch box for the first time to eat with her friends at school. I know this won't last forever but it's feeling like it may last this school year. I lost count of how many months we've been doing this now and was astonished to actually count 8 months. Eight. It's probably going to be much longer. I'm hoping by March/April things are somewhat back to normal and by that I mean the kids are back in school full time and sports/extra curricular activities can continue as they had before. Fingers double crossed.

Happy Halloween COVID Style!

I thought for sure we'd be able to pull Halloween off this year. I mean after all what other holiday are you already wearing a mask for and you're outside? But even though we had great weather and it was a Saturday, there were many who didn't participate in the Halloween festivities this year. Despite this, many chose to give out candy from their driveways or a homemade chute they crafted in order to keep an appropriate distance between themselves and their trick or treaters. 

Arctic Wolf, Cuddles & College Kid     

 

Austen manned our table at the end of our driveway for the first hour this year. For the first time ever we gave out full size candy bars. I mean why not? We're not spending much money on anything else and these kids deserve something good. After his shift, Austen went out with his friends for four hours (masked) and covered 8 miles to bring home a bag of candy that was likely close to 10 lbs. Today, he spent the day sorting his candy and donating most of it to a non profit organization that provides holiday candy to kids who have lost a family member to violence. 

Peyton has been planning for Halloween for about a month now. In fact, each day after school she would tell me a new plan and who were the new people going or who dropped out of trick or treating. Of course by Halloween Day she was trick or treating (masked) with a whole different group of kids than who she previously said but hey, that's okay too. She had a great time with her girlfriends and brought home a lot of candy of her own. 

Hailey was supposed to meet up with friends on our street. Tom walked her down, she chatted them up for a bit and then they all raced off to trick or treat (masked). Hailey soon grew tired of all the running and decided she wanted to enjoy the experience more (or not put forth the fitness required to keep up!) and slowed her pace to do her own thing with Tom trailing her. When they completed one side of the block, I swapped out with him to complete the other side and not soon thereafter, Hailey declared she was done.

Many good things came out of Halloween this year. I'm not going to lie, I kind of liked the table at the end of the driveway idea. I also got to stay and chat with my next door neighbor who was manning hers and it was just nice to be outside and interact with all of our neighbors and friends from a distance. (I did all the distribution on the table masked and gloved). I'm glad that my kids were able to get out and enjoy Halloween this year. It did look a little bit different but it didn't scare us enough to not do it! Boo! 

Peyton aka Cuddles from Fortnite & Friends

Lots of Candy!

Sadie Manned Our Treat Table!

Hailey and Tom Off to Trick or Treat