Photos from Phones - December 2020 Round Up

We've been finding lots of fun things to do to keep us busy this month! (As if you couldn't figure that out by alllll the other posts between this round up and the last one. Sheesh! It looks like a lot, but it didn't feel like too much, so I guess that means it was just right?) Here are all the "leftover" sort of "ordinary days" kinds of things to round out our coverage of December:

12.1.20
(I revived my sad and sorry looking sourdough
starter that had been wallowing in the back of
my fridge since the end of August and it was
as alive as ever! This was just supposed to be
a feed to wake it back up, but it was ready for
bread so I ended up baking that day, too!)

12.1.20
(I made bagels in between the sourdough rises, too)

12.1.20
(Sam reminded me that I told him he could
get a library card when he turned five
and we still hadn't taken care of that, so
today was the day! He's smiling under that mask,
I promise!)

12.1.20
(I learned a lot about the Pilgrims listening
to this over Thanksgiving. It started way back
 in England and followed them to Holland
and then to America and kept going even after the
Thanksgiving feast.)

12.1.20
(now don't those look fine? if I do say so myself!)

12.2.20
(I had to snap a pic of our Thanksgiving
door before I took down these cards
and put up our Christmas cards)

12.2.20
(consider the mantel area decorated!)

12.3.20
(Heather texted that in her house the Baby
Jesus was the first thing up on her nativity
advent since Grace was in charge and I texted
back that we have a similar situation here.
And why not? I always thought it was kind of a
bummer to have to wait all month to add the
most important person!)

12.3.20
(name that movie that inspired this lunch combo. . . 
Return to Me ;)

12.3.20
(Christmas sewing project for cousin Melia - Cal
and I made this adjustable apron on the left from
an old skirt plus some additional fabric just by using
the red apron on the right as a "pattern")

12.4.20
(while I did some grocery shopping,
Gregg and the kids had a garage
visit with Grandpa and Grandma Blanchard,
complete with the trains for Sam . . . )

12.4.20
(. . . and cookie decorating for Cal.)

12.4.20
(after I finished shopping we all drove over to Weber
State for a quick round of disc golf)

12.4.20
(Wow! I wasn’t sure how this imagined story of the wife of Jesus would be, but I was intrigued enough by the premise to give it a try and I’m so glad I did. I thought it was brilliantly creative and so well written and I couldn’t wait to see how it all came together, knowing how Jesus’s ministry and life ended, but not how she would explain Ana’s part. It was so good. I especially liked the human-ness of Jesus and I also enjoyed learning so much about Jewish, Roman and Egyptian cultures.)

12.4.20
(Cal saw this salt dough ornament recipe
and project idea in The Friend, so we 
made the ornaments together in the morning
and she decorated and painted them later
in the afternoon - she did a darling job, too!)

12.4.20
(Sam ordered these monster trucks with a gift card
he got for his birthday and they arrived today! That's
a happy boy right there!)

12.4.20
(my friend was hosting a giveaway for her new
book on facebook and all you had to do to enter
was draw a picture of a bunny. This is what Cal
submitted! She watched a Art for Kids Hub video
on youtube, but wowza! I think she nailed it!)

12.5.20
We added a couple new postcards to the gallery wall
(not new visits, but moved from Gregg's office to here).

12.6.20
(look who lost her snaggle tooth last night?
also, if you're not putting cranberry sauce in your
oatmeal, you're missing out!)

12.6.20
(I just love all the memories on our December page
in the calendar - there's a pic from every year
of our marriage and it just makes me smile!)

12.7.20
(yes, he's riding his bike on Gregg-made
snow while wearing a tshirt!)

12.7.20
(I just liked this painting that the
church shared to invite everyone to the 
Christmas devotional. We didn't watch
it Sunday night because we had a Blanchard
family zoom that evening, but we saved it for 
Monday for FHE.)

12.7.20
(while we watched, Callie drew - can
you guess who this is?)

12.7.20
(and here's Sam's sketch - the PN at
the top might give you a clue who he
drew ;)

12.8.20
(Some Christmas gems from our holds this week.
I have shared most of these before, but Voices was
new to me this year and it is stunning!
Probably my favorite nativity picture book ever!)

12.8.20
(Some others that we loved this week that aren’t
Christmasy but are still delightful.
Highlight find for me was Meteor,
Patricia Polocco’s first picture book!)

12.9.20
(A brand-new this year Christmas book about a
mouse-elephant friendship! It was really sweet and
features accurately held knitting needles
(a thing I hadn’t ever noticed in books,
but I read a funny blog post about it and now it’s on my radar ;))

12.9.20
(case in point)

12.9.20

12.9.20
(first note from Sam appearing on my pillow.
heart melted!)

 

12.10.20
(Sam LOVES this repeat-checkout from the library
(any racecar lover in your life will agree) and
today he read it to me! Pretty proud of this reader!)

12.11.20
(Callie really wanted to make Melia a cookbook
for Christmas, so here's the final result - I just
had to snap all the pics because I'm pretty proud
of her for coming up with her own idea and
following through, even when it was hard.)

12.11.20

12.11.20
(this was her only own original recipe.
My favorite part is where she says, 
"I'm proud to publish in this cookbook."
all the heart eyes!)

12.11.20
(she picked recipes that she has made
mostly by herself or likes to help out with.)

12.11.20
(we also got her a cookie scoop so she
can make cookies and muffins easier)

12.11.20

12.11.20

12.11.20

12.11.20
(we counted her time writing recipes
as handwriting lessons for school and that
was a win for all of us (since she's not
crazy about her typical handwriting work).)

12.11.20

12.11.20

12.11.20

12.11.20
(she left a sticky note saying Melia
can fill in the rest of the pages with her
faves. it turned out darling!)

12.12.20
(pandemic puzzling is back! my parents
loaned us a few new ones and a couple were
Christmasy, so that was extra fun!)

12.12.20
(Gregg shared this collection of actual
headlines from this year with me - whoa!)

12.13.20
(that's a pretty nice sunrise!)

12.13.20
(we had a fun extended Thornley family Christmas
zoom on Sunday evening - it was great to see so many
cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma, even if we
were all on little squares on a screen)

12.14.20
(heat vent readers)

12.14.20
(this one is taking a bit longer than the first!)

12.14.20
(Snow!)

12.14.20
(that's a sneaky school smile if I ever saw one)

12.14.20
(I spy Sammy with some cars)

12.14.20
(my grandparents commented about our Christmas
card to them having a weird smudge on Callie's
face and that same day I got Heather's card with
a similar smudge - weird post office something
or other going on here!)

12.14.20
(it's done! and we're only a little crazy!)

12.15.20
(for science today, we had to listen and record
all the sounds we could hear outside and inside)

12.15.20
(I just think she is such a cute little
scientist!)

12.15.20
(gingerbread cookie making time!)

12.16.20
(A few more Christmas faves heading back
to the library today. (We’ll keep the goofy kid at the top, though. ;))

bonus video!

"Sam reading The Christmas Parade! by Sandra Boynton"

(I only snuck in for the second half, but I just adore his

inflection on the questions :)

12.17.20
(This was an absolute delight to read aloud with
Cal and Sam. We all loved the adventure story
and the writing was clever and fun.
Definitely recommend this one!)

12.18.20
(loved the colors of the sunrise this morn)

12.18.20
(Gregg cut my hair (!), thanks to my friend
Erin's sharing of her nice hair cutting
scissors)

12.18.20
(I liked the little peek of blue sky and the contrast
of the red barn on my walk this afternoon)

12.18.20
(Gregg's mom shared this pic of her as a six year old
with her mom, grandma, great grandma, two aunts
and a cousin taken 60 years ago!)

12.19.20
(the kids have been learning how to take over their
bathroom cleaning duties on Saturdays. I love to see
Sam in his unders scrubbing in the tub!)

12.19.20
(another one bites the dust!)

12.19.20
(Still on my Tasha Tudor kick, this was a fun
little compilation of stories, songs, poems, and
 insights into the Tudor family Christmas festivities.)

12.19.20
(Checked this one out after I bought it for my niece for Christmas. Figured I should have some idea of what she’s getting. :) Cute story (she wants to be on a kids baking competition show) with some heavy themes (finds out her dad in jail is actually innocent and tries to help him get out) handled really well. I hope she likes it!)

12.20.20
(some visitors outside our window enjoying some
nibbles of the frozen pumpkins we threw out there
this fall)

12.20.20
(I had to chuckle at this Christmas treat drop
off. But they baked up delicious and I was
grateful to have them!)

12.20.20
(check out that sunset!)

12.20.20

12.20.20
(even a bit of color when you look to the east!)

12.22.20
(we went out on a drive to drop some
cookies and a little gift to Cal's friend Abby
and Sam was out! please note his outfit
on this windy, frigid December afternoon?)

12.23.20
(Gregg undertook a baking challenge this
morning: merdenele, a Romanian pastry
that he used to love to get as a missionary)

12.23.20
(unfortunately they weren't anything like
what he had in Romania, but it was a learning
experience and I'm proud of him for trying
something new!)

12.26.20
(we all got puzzles for Christmas so we're
still puzzling still our puzzlers (or backs) are sore!)

12.26.20
(this was a thousand piecer, but we got it done in just
a few hours!)

12.26.20
(I had to take a break to stretch my back, so
I walked around the neighborhood and listened
to podcasts with my new wireless headphones!)

12.26.20
(looks like a storm's a comin'!)

12.26.20
(by the time I got back, they were finished!)

12.26.20
(This one was weird. But in a totally delightful way. It took me a bit to get into, but once I did I couldn’t wait to see what craziness would come next. Almost real life, but also slightly sci-fi? I’ve never read anything like it, but I loved it. And it just felt right to read this year, when I learned how to make sourdough.)

12.27.20
(we actually got dressed and hair combed
today - we didn't go anywhere, but
this is a feat that should be documented!)

12.31.20
(A few more Christmas/ early wintertime reads
we took back today. The drawing and craft books
 were especially loved and enjoyed by Cal this year.)

12.31.20
(our only pic of NYE: the spread! Cal made the corn
dog muffins, plus we had cranberry meatballs, guac, 
salad, oranges, cheese ball and mini martinelli's cider
bottles for each of us. we sat in the car for an hour
waiting for the Nordic fireworks to start, and enjoyed
the show once they finally got going
(they were supposed to start at 6, but didn't). Then we 
were home and in bed by 8:00 for the kids and 10:00
for the parents. Partay!)

Every other round up here (whew!):
2020:  Nov | Sep | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar Quar + Mar | Feb | Jan
2019: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sep | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2018: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2017: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2016: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2015: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2014: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2013: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June