December 1-17, 2021

This post will cover a good bit of the month of December–up until Christmas break began. It details yet another COVID quarantine, but also includes plenty of fun Christmas activities. Here’s the recap:

I took Abigail with me to Bridge Street on December 1st, and she was excited to be stroller free ;)

Gabby was waiting patiently for her breakfast before school…

Abigail’s hair was looking cute on December 2nd with French braided pigtails! She is slowly starting to become interested in braids rather than just wearing her hair “plain” as she likes to call it.

“Take a picture of me, Mommy!”

Abigail has really gotten into swinging lately too.

Savannah and Abigail enjoyed playing together with their baby dolls, Rileigh and Lucy, that evening.

Tyler and Alisha had tickets to go see Voctave that night with Phil and Gena, but Tyler ended up being sick, so Alisha asked me if I’d like to use one of their tickets instead. One of Gena’s co-workers came along, so it was just the three of us who went. We had a great time, and the concert was really great!

My pictures turned out terrible, but they are a really talented group of acapella singers. That particular night was a Christmas themed concert. I’d love to see them again sometime! It was a fun evening.

The next morning, when Brooklyn tested positive for covid, I was regretting having gone to the concert after all because of possibly spreading germs to Payton, Gena’s son. (Thankfully, they didn’t end up sick).

Apparently our large family gathering at Thanksgiving led to a big covid outbreak. A lot of family members came down with it in the days afterward. Brooklyn started complaining of a dry and scratchy throat on Monday, but it didn’t really progress into anything significant until several days later when she started having a cough and congestion. By Thursday, she was feeling pretty tired and even took a nap after school. I was thinking it was probably just a cold or something like that until she started acting so tired. If I’d known earlier about the other family members who were sick/tested positive, I would’ve taken her to the doctor earlier in the week. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess. So both Brooklyn and Savannah ended up having to quarantine and miss school until December 13^th.

Overall, Savannah had to miss THREE entire weeks of school this semester for covid exposures even though she never had symptoms herself :( This quarantine, Savannah had to miss the Sight Word Superhero parade, both girls missed their holiday gift shopping at school, and Brooklyn missed her field trip to see the Nutcracker. It was really disappointing for the girls, but they actually took the news better than I thought they would. I tried to have a good attitude about everything and remember that things could be worse. In the grand scheme of things, Brooklyn never felt that badly overall, and the rest of us never had any symptoms.

After Brooklyn’s appointment where she tested positive, I had to take her home and go pick Savannah up from school right away. Savannah and Abigail spent some time that afternoon playing outside together while Brooklyn rested.

We tried to salvage the day by putting up a second Christmas tree that night in Travis’s office. It’s a hand-me-down tree with glitter all over the branches (not Travis’s favorite), so we don’t put it up every year ;) But this year we dubbed it the Frozen tree and added lots of blue and silver ornaments to it. I enjoyed having a tree that you could see from the street at night.

Cici to the rescue! She dropped off a bunch of crafts and fun activities for the girls to do while we were stuck at home :)

Savannah is our child that likes to let her teeth fall out on their own. She refuses to pull them and won’t let us touch them either ;) So they just end up hanging by a thread…

Savannah was eating her cereal the next morning (December 7th) and came to me with something in her hand. “Is this a bone?” she asked. It was her tooth! It came out while she was eating, and she noticed she was chewing something very hard in her mouth. I thought it was too cute that she thought it was a bone in her cereal ;) Tooth #3 is out, and tooth #4 (the other one on top) shouldn’t be far behind it!

Abigail joined in at the table while Brooklyn and Savannah did their schoolwork each morning that week.

I also ordered a gingerbread train kit from Walmart and picked it up with our grocery order. It worked out perfectly because it came with 3 sections. It gave us something else to look forward to during our week at home.

Hard at work!

I helped Abigail with her section, and she did a great job putting the candy on.

The finished train! Of course, eating it was just as much fun as decorating it ;)

Superhero Abigail to the rescue!

Notes from 12/10/21 – We survived our week of quarantine homeschool! It really wasn’t too bad. Savannah finished all her schoolwork for the week by Thursday, so she had today off. Brooklyn didn’t have too much to do today. We were finished by lunchtime every day. It was nice in a way to slow down and not be rushing around all week like we do in a normal week. We all got to sleep a little later, and the girls had a lot of playtime. We had so many people text to check on us, and quite a few people dropped off treats or little surprises for the girls. We felt very loved this week! Thankfully, Brooklyn has turned the corner and is coughing much less and feeling more like herself energy-wise. The rest of us have managed to stay symptom-free. The girls should be back to school on Monday just in time for the last week of school before the break ;)

Abigail has been playing “bakery” a lot lately and likes to call herself “Bakery Abigail” :) She and Savannah made a bakery on December 10th and wanted me to come upstairs to buy something from them. Brooklyn came upstairs too but acted like she didn’t want to eat anything because “it’s not real food”. Sniff. Why does she have to grow up? I could tell she kind of wanted to participate but she was a little embarrassed as well ;)

After loving the fall door hanger that I got for my birthday so much, I decided to order a Christmas one from the same Etsy seller. I am so happy with how it looks!

Where is Abigail? :)

I found out that one of the other moms and I would be able to help out during Brooklyn’s class Christmas party at school. Mrs. Prevatt asked us to come up with a ornament craft for the kids, and we found this skinny snowman idea on Pinterest. I made a sample to show the kids and thought it really turned out cute!

On December 11th, we decided to take the girls to the Madison Christmas parade. We’ve never had an opportunity to go before because Phil and Gena usually have their Christmas party on the same night, but this year it worked out for us to go. It was our first outing as a family after Brooklyn got sick, and we were all excited to get out of the house. We parked in the Publix parking lot and found a spot along Hughes Road to stand and wait for the parade to begin.

It was hard to get good pictures in the dark, but the girls enjoyed waving at the different people/floats and especially collecting candy :)

We even got to see Santa at the end of the parade. It was a lot of fun!

Sometimes Savannah and Abigail will hold hands in the car, and it always makes me smile.

Savannah’s other loose tooth came out on December 12th while she was upstairs playing in the playroom. She said it just fell out in her mouth…haha. My favorite look is when they are missing their two upper teeth…it’s so cute!!

The tooth fairy had to come twice within a 5 day period, but she didn’t mind too much ;)

The girls worked on a puzzle after school on December 13th while I finished up prepping the snowmen ornaments.

Abigail showed off her rock climbing skills on December 14th!

Savannah’s class had their Christmas party at school on December 15th, and she dressed for the occasion…

Had to get an up-close picture of those missing teeth! :)

Mrs. Pride shared a bunch of collages of all the fun that they had in 1st grade during the last few days of school before the break. So many festive activities!

They did a sock exchange as part of their party, and Savannah was excited about the socks she brought home.

Mrs. Pride also gave each of the kids a gift from her friends and family who had chipped in to buy them. I thought that was so sweet! They each got a board game, and Savannah’s was Don’t Break the Ice :) Mrs. Pride took a short video of them opening their gifts, and Savannah gave hers a hug as soon as she unwrapped it. So glad she caught that on video!

They also went around the school singing Christmas carols to various classes and administrators. Mrs. Pride gave each of them booklets with the words to the songs, and she used it as a good way for them to practice their reading skills.

Savannah’s class also learned about how different countries celebrate the holidays.

Mrs. Pride is so good about getting her students involved in doing good deeds for others. I love that about her!

It was a fun and busy time! Even the class elf was worn out ;)

Savannah made this Christmas card for Mrs. Pride. I liked how the bottom said, “Your present is a big…smile and hug!”

Here was Brooklyn’s card for Mrs. Prevatt that I included in her Christmas gift.

More fun with Tsum Tsums in Mrs. Prevatt’s class…

Brooklyn and Dylan

Abigail spends time each day drawing and coloring in her room. It has been neat to see her artwork change over time into things that we are able to recognize.

We played a few rounds of Don’t Break the Ice the night of Savannah’s school party. It was fun!

Brooklyn’s class party was on December 16th, and I was able to help with this one. (The 1st grade teachers had decided no parents were allowed at their parties, sadly). This was the first time I’d been in Brooklyn’s classroom since open house.

The first thing we did was help the kids make their snowman ornaments. I enjoyed seeing how each child made theirs unique.

I loved how Brooklyn’s turned out!

After the ornaments were finished, the kids got to eat cookies and donuts and drink hot chocolate. Mrs. Prevatt had the idea to set up a hot chocolate bar, and the the kids loved mixing chocolate chips and marshmallows into their drinks. It was a definite sugar overload!

I was so thankful to get to be part of Brooklyn’s fun day! I don’t take these opportunities for granted anymore.

That night, I went to a charcuterie class with Alisha and Melissa at South and Pine in downtown Madison. It was a lot of fun! We got to take home our boards (and all the food on them) at the end of the night…at least, whatever was left after we got done snacking ;)

I’m no expert, but I thought my finished board turned out pretty nice!

December 17th was the last day of school before Christmas break, and it was a half day. The kids were allowed to wear their pjs, and I loved that Brooklyn wasn’t embarrassed to wear her favorite zip-up Nemo and Dory pjs :)

Abigail wanted to get in a picture too…

Abigail took my order at her “bakery” that morning while the girls were at school.

Savannah’s half day was a lot of fun!

She got to bring a stuffed animal to school and chose to bring one of her polar bears :)

They also made reindeer food…

Our sweet girl had a great month of school!

That afternoon, Brooklyn and Savannah had appointments to get their 2nd COVID shots at CVS. I thought about postponing the appointment since Brooklyn had tested positive shortly after her first dose, but we ultimately decided to just go ahead with it. Everything went fine, and neither girl had any side effects other than a sore arm!

While we were waiting 15 minutes after the shots like they asked us to, it was a convenient time to walk around and browse the aisles. I had no idea that CVS carried Claire’s accessories, but we found all kinds of things that the girls liked. We didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to look!

That night, we celebrated the start of Christmas break by going to see the Woodard family light show. We look forward to going every year now because there are usually several new songs and many of our old favorites. We especially got a big kick out of Chewbacca’s Silent Night. We all laughed out loud!

Notes and Quotes from December 1st-17th:

• 12/8/21 – I was holding Abigail when I was tucking her in bed, and she was pushing against my arms showing off her strength. I told her she was getting really big and strong. She asked, “Did I break your bones?” I jokingly said yes. She replied, “Well, I can get you new bones after I get done squeezing your other bones.”
• 12/10/21 – Right now, Abigail likes to give me two big kisses…one on each cheek at bedtime. The biggest kisses she can give. And she likes me to give her my two biggest kisses too. Savannah has been doing “big, middle, and little” kisses for a while now. She gives me one big kiss, one middle-sized kiss (a regular kiss), and one teeny-tiny kiss that I can barely feel on my cheek. I love it! Brooklyn barely looks up from the book she’s reading to give me a kiss, so I’m trying to savor the bedtime routine with the other girls ;)
• 12/11/21 – It rained a lot overnight, and I was telling Travis about a road that was flooded on my way home from picking up a curbside order at Belk. Abigail seemed very concerned. “Did you drive through the flood?” Yes. “Did the car get flood on it?” :)
• 12/17/21 – I woke Savannah up for school this morning, and she said in her cutest, sleepiest voice: “I need to keep dreaming my dreams.” So sweet!