Christmas finally arrived and once again Santa delivered. Lots of thanks to all the friends and family who sent us cards and gifts this year. Lots of digital gifts too as most of the day after Christmas was spent hooking up printers, digital frames, ear pods, and many other items that required “work” to get them going. James got a chance to talk to both Aunt Criss and Grandma on Christmas eve which was about all the socializing we were allowed to do this year due to the pandemic.
After the gift opening we enjoyed binge watching the “God is not Dead” series of movies which were very good and inspiring especially during Christmas.

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Dad celebrated his birthday with his family and enjoyed many gifts and great eats as well. As usual Dad got his traditional “Boneyard” meal of ribs, chicken, and salad. Dads cake was unique in that it had a Halloween design but was just as delicious (if not more) than other cakes. Lots of gifts for Dad including an animated “cocoon” victim for the 2021 Halloween season. The party was fun and a great time was had by all, especially Dad.This year was also a little more fun because Dad took a vacation day as he had to “use them or lose them” this year since the family did not take a real vacation due to the pandemic.

We got a very good start on the Christmas decorating partly due to the horrible Thanksgiving Day Lions loss, but we just about have it finished come Sunday. Once again we went with the snowman theme, that way if we get excessive snow in January and cannot bring in the decorations it does not look so bad since we can claim its just a bunch of snow men. We still have a few odds and ends but for the most part the decorating is done and we already got a couple slow drive by’s from cars going down our street. The forecast calls for snow this week and there really is nothing better than these snowmen decorations when their is snow on the ground so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

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Another awesome Thanksgiving meal prepared by Mom was center stage for this years day of giving thanks. The pandemic did not make a difference in our Thanksgiving as the Lions still lost badly, next day the coach was fired (shades of the “mooch” era earlier in the century), and the team will again begin rebuilding for the umpteenth time since 1958. Once it became clear that another Lion loss was inevitable before half time (three turnovers in eight plays), work on the Christmas decorations began. Many of our neighbors already have their decorations up because everything is closed due to the pandemic, but we stayed with tradition and waited till the Lions lost to put up ours.

Halloween during a pandemic is a little different. We wore gloves and poured candy directly from the bag into a big bowl and placed the bowl on a small table right between the two halves of the front yard. James then set up a chair for himself six feet behind the table with the candy and as the trick or treaters approached James would instruct them to take one or two candies from the bowl. It was a sort of self serve trick or treat. The turnout was very good and probably 100 kids at least came by and received candy during what we hope will be the last year of the pandemic.

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James is a senior this year at Annapolis and we hired a photographer to take some pictures of him that he could view and choose for his high school picture. We met the photographer at Heritage Park in Taylor and walked around to select locations where she and her assistant could take some very cool pictures of James and a couple of the family as well.

It was a beautiful day for pictures and the park provided a great atmosphere and backdrop with its many different areas.

Later we got these pictures to select from and James picked out one that will be in his high school yearbook. The next step was to order James a year book which was not as easy as it seemed. We did get his name on the book with the year of his graduation and a paw print representing the Annapolis mascot (cougar). There were many other options including picture holders and personalized autograph pages but we thought those were a little over the top and that the name, cougar print, and year would be just perfect.

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James was selected as a candidate for homecoming king at his high school (Annapolis). His parents were invited to join him on the field at half time of the football game where a small procession was held and the winner was announced. While James did not win, it was a very exciting time for the whole family and good to be out with a group of people during the pandemic in a wide open area. The crowd was sparse for a football game as one might expect, but the enthusiasm of the crowd more than made up for any lack of size. It was a perfect fall evening for an event of this type, and Annapolis won the football game as well.
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James’ tenth Halloween party came during the pandemic and rather than trying to have only a handful of people at a time, we decided not to have anyone over but have a virtual event that we would record.

While the virtual party was all video, we made sure to take plenty of pictures before, during, and after the virtual party.

We also had a great spread of food to enjoy this day, just like we do when we have a live party.

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