We had some last minute Christmas fun. A Shake Shack opened in Edgewater. Unlike the craziness at In N Out in Aurora (I won’t try to go there for a long time) they were organized and not very busy. They also had old-timey Christmas carolers! I embarrassed Jack by posing with them and accepting their invitation to sing along to Deck the Halls. When the food arrived we picnicked in the car with a movie playing for the kids.

Sam was thrilled to get a letter from Santa. He said that Sam is on the Nice list and to be sure to go to bed on time because Sam’s house is going to be one of the first stops!

Not pictured, I made four batches of cookies (while masked) to pass out to friends and church members. We saw lots of great lights while we went out driving, and we went out to see more elaborate lights on Christmas Eve. One of our church buildings had a little nativity scene that was nice to visit.

Of course, we had to have sugar cookies to leave out for Santa, and a fat carrot for the reindeer. We decided to go Japanese this Christmas and eat KFC. Ben has a penpal in Japan who didn’t reserve his KFC bucket in time, so he went to 7 Eleven for his traditional fried chicken. Ben said that he thought it was funny we decided to take back the American-food-via-Japan tradition, and that we could get a full meal in the drive through without advance notice!

Christmas morning was the usual rush of presents and chocolate and talking with family via video calls. It was sad not to see anyone this year, but at least we are used to doing Christmas morning just the four of us.

I made a roast beef dinner. The cats were delighted with their fish filet treats.

The next couple days were spent relaxing and playing with our new toys. The boys built legos and I built a book nook from Andy. We watched Soul on Disney Plus. We had a fire in the fireplace and enjoyed some fresh snow with new winter gear.

The kids are back in school now. Everyone is doing remote with the plan to return in-person Jan 19. I really struggled with the choice to stay remote. But that would have meant they needed to change teachers and classmates, and there wouldn’t be a chance to return to in-person for the rest of the year. I’m optimistic that the vaccine will roll out, the weather will get warmer and push people back outside, and that the numbers will continue to trend down now that they holidays are done. Maybe I’ll be wrong. But I think the kids need to be in school for so many reasons, and I have faith in the science of distancing, masks, air-purifiers, and all the other practices their school has done to keep the virus out. It seems worth the risk.