Pandemic 2020 Fall and Winter - Making the Best of Things

 Ordinarily, our family will gather together several times during the fall and winter months. We would ooo and ahh over the grandchildren's new Halloween costumes and Trick or Treat at one of the their neighborhoods. We would support our Church's Trunk or Treat, and maybe participate in a Chili Cook-off. Leslie and I would set up the Etsy shop at a Sami Show. We would plan around school and work schedules to make the 8 hour trek to Palo Duro Canyon State Park for days spent hiking the canyons and evening gathered around the camp fire. We would either have our Thanksgiving meal at the Canyon; or, we would meet at someone's house and gorge on delicious food, play silly games, and plan our Black Friday shopping spree. Christmas would, once again, be scheduled around school, work, and our in-law's family celebrations. And, somewhere amidst the hustle and bustle, we would squeeze in a cruise. 

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic had us avoiding family gatherings, canceling our cruise and camping trip, canceling the Sami Show, practicing social distancing, participating self-quarantine, doing extensive hand washing and house sanitizing daily, taking advantage of grocery pick up, and attending church services online. 

The hardest part is not spending time with family. We haven't gathered together as a family since Jamie hosted a toned down Christmas in July. Life for each unit of the family is very different this year. The grands, even Seth, are trying to complete school assignments in either totally virtual, in-class, or hybrid models of instruction. Ron and I are still working hard to make life style changes that will help him extend his life after being diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and pretty much turning into hermits. Jamie is working from home exclusively while trying to keep her mother from sneaking out to play Bingo or go shopping. Ryan wasn't given a new contract at his old school, so he has completing his Honey-do list, helping with the twins in school, and searching for a middle school teaching assignment.  (Which he found; 8th grade math! Yay!!) The twins are in the virtual format for school and seem to be thriving. Molly is working for the state from home and trying to get to Georgetown often to visit with her parents. Scott is still healthy; but, the fire department shifts are starting to feel the effects of the COVID virus and are beginning to be undermanned.  Plus, the two of them are trying to figure out how to have a wedding with all of the crazy pandemic precautions. Seth is adjusting to living on his own in Waco, working at Dick's Sporting Goods, and going to school to complete his welding certification. Rebecca is trying to move on in life; but, having a terrible time tracking down her husband and getting divorce papers served. Leslie is trying to figure out how to provide speech services to a mixed bag of students who are constantly switching from face to face instruction, virtual instruction, or on quarantine. Gerson has taken a new position with a different HR company; which, luckily, is closer to home. But, because they both have to work on site,  they are trying to support their girls in virtual classes. Life is challenging. And, missing family stinks!!

I've been saying the same thing that I have heard many friends say: "The year 2020 just needs to end!" Sadly, I do not believe the end of 2020 will actually end the pandemic. I am hopeful that it will begin to have closure sometime in 2021; but, I totally expect another major world-wide event to rock our lives. After all, these are the end of times.  However, the end of 2020 brings the Christmas season. Many, many people feel the same way I do: WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS! RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE!

Throughout our new neighborhood, people started hanging holiday decorations in early November. Ordinarily, I would think that's insane. But, not this year! I would have been right there with them if we still had any Christmas decorations. When we downsized to the RV, I either gave most of our decorations to the kids; or, sold it in a yard sale. Because I wanted to bring the Spirit of Christmas into our home, I decided to actually buy a tree.

My collection of ornaments fits in a gallon zip lock bag. I really didn't want to buy a bunch of new ornaments; so, I found a pre-lit, slim tree with pine cones and holly berries, on Amazon. It wasn't supposed to be in until the 14th. But, I think God knew I needed it sooner. It arrive on the first. I spent a few days working on decorating the living room and kitchen area. Our townhouse is small and I didn't want to overwhelm the place. I really love the minimalist life style. Plus, everything we own now has personal meaning to it. Here are some pictures I took this morning, just for the blog. 

The tree sits in front of the living room window. Which, makes it really hard to get a good picture. It is 6 1/2 feet tall and no wider than a pizza pan. The ornaments are mostly the hand carved Santa heads, and a few hand made ornaments from my Mother and Grandmother. Leslie had a few extra wooden Christmas trees and bells, that she gave me. They fill ups some empty space and look nice on the tree. 

I found a couple of $10 pillows on sale at Target. They were bright and festive, so I caved in and bought them for the side chairs. 

The last few years that we lived in the house, I collected the pieces for the Willow Tree Nativity. We don't have room for the entire set, so I used some of Dad's carved boxes and set up the important pieces on the side table in the living room.

I gave my Pete Jr. cookie jar a cute bow to put him in the Christmas spirit.

We have always had a long, rectangular table. But, that's in Leslie's house now. We bought this small, square table when we moved into the townhouse. I bought a clearance table runner at Hobby Lobby and used some fabric to turn it into 4 place mats. Dad's carved trivet sits in the middle of the table. 

I have had this cute little guy for YEARS! Mom and Dad used to have an arts and crafts wood working business. It was one of the things they would have sold; but, Mom gave it to me for Christmas one year. One of his antlers broke of somewhere along the line; but, I hang him every year to remind me of my parents. 

This is one of the carved ornaments that Dad gave me. 

This cute little wooden ornament was in a craft kit that my Grandma Veach bought when I was young.  She gave it to me when Ron and I got married. I can still remember her saying, "Gwendy. This is for your first tree. I think of you and Ron when I see it."

Dad also carven some odd things from time to time. One year he gave me this enormous carved spoon.  At the time I thought, "Man! This thing is UGLY! But, now that he is gone, I'm sure glad I have it. 


I'm not really sure what our family Christmas celebration will be like this year. I hope there is some family time; but, if not, at least our snug little home feels like Christmas. I will focus on my Savior, enjoy the beauty of my sentimental tree, reflect on happy memories, and pray for a brighter future. 

Christmas 2019

In some ways, my life is much more simple since selling the house and living in the RV full time. We have fewer "things" to mess with; and, preparing for holidays is quick and easy. Decorating is minimal; only a few precious handmade ornaments and crocheted snowflakes. But, managing to see everyone is complicated! 

Getting together with family this year has been a struggle. Geographic distance and growing children with busy schedules seem to be the most difficult challenges to overcome. We also had a few medical procedures to work around, which complicated our lives even more. Ron and I ended up squeezing in what family time we could through the month. 

We managed to enjoy laughing at Scott and his new girlfriend as they dressed in 80s attire for Scott's shift party. Run DMC never looked so pale!

I also got to see Maggie's middle school Christmas concert because I went up to help with car pool duty when her dad was out of town on business. Ron was recuperating from a cardiac procedure so he missed out on a great concert. It is hard to believe how grown up Maggie is getting.

Ron and I went back up to Ft. Worth to attend a Pentatonic concert with Maggie and her family for her birthday. We stayed long enough to watch them open presents on Christmas morning. Scott was working that day, so we drove back into town to spend time with Ryan's family and share Christmas excitement with the twins. Of course, I totally forgot to take my iPad to their house for pictures. I really, really need to get a new camera.

After tossing around a few dates and working around scheduling conflicts, we managed to have family Christmas at the yellow house on December 29th. It ended up being a combination Christmas/Birthday celebration. The way things are going, it might be the last time we get together between now and spring! 

Scott doesn't own a Christmas tree, so as a gag, I cut a limb off one of the cedar trees and had Maggie and Sophie put his childhood ornaments on it. It was so funny hearing them complain about the smell and how prickly the cedar was. I guess it's a good thing they've never had a real tree before. 

Gift giving for the past few years has been limited to the grandkids in the family. But, I decided to surprise my children with some special gifts this year.  For the past 2 years, I have been completing some unfinished quilting projects that were left in my mother's fabric stash when she passed away.  A few of them were things she must have started working on when she was beginning to learn how to quilt. Others were projects she had simply not finished before cancer took her from us.  It was such a joy to finish her work and give them to my kids. Mom and Dad were such a huge part of their lives and I know they all appreciated getting something with a connection to her.

I wrapped each quilt, even though I knew the kids had seen pictures of them as I posted the complete items on Facebook.  I wrote a clue on each box, hoping they could figure out which quilt they were getting. I also managed to give each of them a quilt that had a special meaning to them. 

Molly got a quilt made from pink and black orphan blocks because Scott
didn't know what her apartment looks like, and she wears a lot of black.

Gerson got a throw quilt made from various star orphan blocks because
even Pre-serum Steve deserves a star.

Scott got my Liberty quilt for serving our country and community.

Sophie got Mom's applique quilt because she seems to
have inherited Mom's craftiness. Sweet, sensitive Sophie just
sobbed when she opened it. 

Samantha got a quilt made with mostly pink scraps because that was the
color her mommy assigned her before she was born.

Leslie got the Texas wildflower quilt because she
is my only true Texas born child. 

Rebecca got a scrappy quilt that she had claimed
years ago. It also contains scraps from dresses I made for
her when she was a little girl.

Maggie got a full sized quilt because she is now a big girl.

Seth got a rag quilt made of flannel that Mom and I
bought when her friend first opened her quilt shop.

Sophia got a purple quilt because that was her pre-birth
assigned color.

Ryan got my Underground Railroad quilt
because it was part of my teaching experience and
he is now a teacher.

Jamie actually got a Christmas quilt that Mom had made.
Unfortunately, there isn't a picture because she was our
photographer for the day.  Maybe I'll be able to edit this
post later and add a picture of her with it.

During our celebration, we were able to meet and get to know Scott's girlfriend, Molly. They have been dating for a few months now; and, everyone was anxious to meet her. Jamie went to the trouble of making her a "Getting to Know the Searls Family Handbook." It was such a thoughtful and touching gesture. While it was humorous, it was also so sweet that it had most of us in tears by the time Molly finished reading it aloud to us. Molly is an only child and certainly not used to such a large, loud family gathering. I really hope we didn't overwhelm her. I think she enjoyed her first experience with a Searls family celebration and we all hope to see her more often.

This year, we decided to give the granddaughters another outdoor play area. Scott's house isn't very large and providing the girls with an area of their own outside eliminates being cramped up inside and lets the adults have a little more uninterrupted time to visit. The gift this year was the beginnings of a tree fort. 

I'm lucky enough to have a son that is able to turn my ideas into reality. I had asked Scott if it would be possible to build a fort somewhere on the land. We had originally thought about using a large hackberry tree near their trampoline. Unfortunately, hackberry trees are notorious for breaking off in chunks.  Recently, a huge limb was blown off in a wind storm, revealing a rotten core. Scott works with a fellow firefighter who was an arbologist, so he talked to him about salvaging the tree and using it for the base of the fort. He highly recommended just cutting it down and not using it for safety reasons.  

Luckily, there is a large cedar tree next to the old hackberry. Scott was able to change his plans and we used it for the main support in the fort. Scott did leave a portion of the hackberry trunk to add another section to the fort at some time in the future.

                            

Sometimes working through our plans comes with a few stumbling blocks. Scott had built the frame of the fort while Ron and I were in Ft. Worth for Christmas with Leslie's family. We had planned to work on the fort the day after we returned; but,  Scott came home from his shift at the fire department with a terrible case of positional vertigo. Ron had already called our grandson, Seth, and arranged for him to come into town and help build the fort. We had him come anyway, and Scott gave them instructions to work on while I took him to the doctor.  After he got home, he was able to work with the guys and get most of the fort finished. 

                              

                                 

The granddaughters vary in age and athletic ability, so some of them had a bit of trouble climbing in and out of the fort. As a matter of fact, Sophia told her cousins she would, "Just wait on the trampoline" until they were finished playing in the tree fort. She eventually overcame her initial fears. By the time our family gathering came to an end, I think they were all at ease with it and enjoyed their day playing together in the fort. 

Birthday cakes and gifts were shared with Becca, Leslie, Maggie, and Seth.  Jamie did an amazing job, as usual. She kept them small, considering how many cakes she had to make and the fact that we had so much holiday snack food anyway.  Somehow or another most of it got left behind when everyone went home. I really don't think I can look at another sweet treat for a while!

It may be a while before we are all together again. I hope not; but, it is slowly becoming our new normal. I am thankful for the many years I had when my kids all lived within a 30 minute drive of us. And, I am still thankful we are at least all in the same state. Family time is precious to me. Hopefully, the time between now and our next gathering will pass quickly. 

2019: Christmas recap through spring break

Warning: this will be a long post. However, in my defense, I had a few weeks of panic when an email from Google arrived with notification that their blogs were going to be deleted. I have done a little more research, and if I'm not wrong (fingers crossed) my blog will be okay because I don't use google+. Admittedly, I was pretty upset thinking that years of family events and memories would be deleted. Not to mention the panic I felt trying to figure out how to save it all! Fingers crossed and prayers are being said that we are still going to have a digital journal of family events for a while. In the meantime, I need to figure out how to back up what is on the blog.

Because time has gotten away from me, I am going to try to summarize the major events that have taken place so far this year. Thank goodness it isn't July!!

January - Family Christmas: The extended families had numerous obligations for work, school, and family; so, we opted to not hold our annual Christmas Eve family gathering until after the holidays.  We all met at the yellow house and enjoyed brisk weather, warm fire pits, laughing children, crazy dogs, catching up, games, and relaxation.

The girls' Christmas present was a trampoline. It was a little hard
to wrap so it ended up being covered with extra cardboard boxes
and "unwrapped" on the family work day.

Because the living room in the yellow house is really small, we
decided to spend time outdoors. Scott moved Miss Lippy to
the side of the drive way and we used the parking area
for a gathering place.  He had a last minute brainstorm
and built 2 7 ft. long tables and several 2-person benches
out of the old deck boards. They are perfect!! I just need
to give them a new coat of stain and they will
last us for years.  The changes in the parking/driveway
made to accommodate the 5th wheel gave us an
abundance of parking space.

We always have to go through some doggie adjustments
when the family gathers. Tico and Maya got along fine.
The rest of the boys in the pack needed some time to
acclimate to one another. But, the grand girls always
pick up right where they left off.

This year, we decided to eliminate adult gift exchanges and focus
on the kids. They got some interesting gifts this year: money,
journals, games, Hogwarts wands,
 and 400 dum-dum suckers!

I believe if they had been given a bag of rocks and sticks, they
would have been just as happy. They seem to thrive on the fresh
air and outdoor activities when they get together at the
yellow house.

To explain the 400+ dum-dums: Leslie & Rebecca's gifts for
the girls were delayed for one reason or another. Leslie wanted them to
have something to open so she made a mad dash to Sam's club
and bought gigantic bags of suckers!

Jamie and Ryan were so excited to see THAT surprise!  Actually,
they were really good sports about the sugar overload.

Family pics wouldn't be complete without Scott's weird face.
It's a good thing Seth hasn't picked up that habit. It still shocks
me to see Seth standing next to Scott and wondering if
he will be taller than him
the next time he comes over.

We were all joking that Uncle Scott will eventually become know
as Uncle Moneybags if he continues to use
 his spare change as gifts for the girls. 

Not one to let a reason to celebrate Christmas pass,
Jamie planned crazy gift opening games for the girls.

It consisted of trying your best to wrapping gifts wearing oven mitts.
It had to be opened before your partner rolled doubles. If not,
the give and mitts were passed to the next player.

She didn't leave out the adults. They got their share of frustration
trying to unwrap extremely well wrapped gifts.

I think it was more fun taking pictures and listening to them
than it would have been had I played as well.

G... no words.  If he wasn't sneaking inside to warm up, he was sleeping by
the fire pit.  he does not like being cold, smelling like smoke, or being
outside. But, he was there and didn't complain... at least not
to me! Now, Leslie might have gotten an ear full.

My handsome guy... Can't believe he is a senior!!!

Scott set up targets for a bit of shooting competition. We just used his
pellet gun and some paper targets 

Leslie was sent to get targets and only found these.  We
had to get a little creative and give points to who
hit closest to the bull's eye on each target.

Even the grands got to try out their skills.  Once
they figured out which eye to close and how to
put the stock near their shoulders, they did ok.

It really wasn't that loud. No idea why ears needed to be covered.
Maybe she was cold??

After numerous missed shots, Scott finally got out
his fancy shooting chair and the girls started
hitting the target.

January - February Winter Birthdays:  Leslie and Rebecca had their birthday in January and Seth had his in February. I didn't realize how neglectful I've become about taking pictures until I started looking through my pictures for this update. I had to scavenge pictures from everyone's Facebook pages. Needless to say, I need to start remembering my stupid camera when we get together!  Here is what I was able to find; not much but better than nothing!

The family decided to meet in Temple to celebrate Seth's 18th birthday.
It is a 2 1/2 hour drive for Leslie's family; an hour for Ryan's family;
35 min. drive for Becca from work; 40 drive for Seth from Gatesville; and 30
min drive for us from Killeen. Schedules were crazy at this time of
the year and we were determined to NOT put off this important
milestone for Seth.

He hasn't ever been too thrilled about getting his
picture taken. But, his aunts and mom were
relentless and got a pretty good shot of him.

He was even really good natured about the Roadhouse
birthday tradition. 

How can this sweet, gentle giant be 18?!?!?

Jamie has become the official baker for birthdays. She managed
to make a personal cake for Leslie...

another one for Rebecca...

and one for the family to enjoy. We are so
lucky to have her... the cakes are always
amazing!

March - Granddaughter Sleep-over; Sophie's fund raiser; Family Camping: One of the things I noticed while we were at the Roadhouse was how much the girls miss each other. They were disappointed that we had to end birthday dinner so early and it was so hard for them to say good-bye. I decided to have their moms bring them to me for a weekend around their spring breaks. Unfortunately, their breaks weren't at the same time; they were back to back.  But, luckily it worked out. Depending on the day and hour, they had a great time, an ok time; and a not so good time. But, they managed to create lots of sweet memories. We played on the trampoline, colored, visited a local Rock and Roll Ice Cream Parlor, shopped for books at Barnes & Noble, had a visit from Aunt B, stayed up way too late, went to church, and ate a lot of junk food.

Uncle Scott and Poppy set up an outdoor table under
and awning because we had simply beautiful weather.
Too beautiful to stay inside for meals.

I love that the girls enjoy coloring. I'll admit that I'm a coloring
fan and cherish the time we spent coloring and chatting. 

The girls managed to fit on the new IKEA sleeper/sofa. But,
a couple of them have issues with gas so one of them
moved to the love seat in the middle of the night.

I managed to get a beautiful picture of the grand girls
with my feathered girls in the background.

Who can pass up a chance for a silly pic??

The trampoline was a rest spot, jumping spot, snacking spot,
and chatting spot. Still one of my smartest purchases ever!

March - Baking and Camping: During part of the Ft. Worth grands' spring break, Sophie needed to learn to make cinnamon rolls.  She was chosen to attend a leadership conference for a week. However, it will cost $1,000. Leslie wants her to earn as much of the fee as possible so she decided to sell cinnamon rolls to the school staff, Gerson's work associates, and their church family.  I drove up and spent a couple of days with them to teach her how to make them.  Sophie did an amazing job and worked so hard. Together we managed to get about half of her orders filled.  She finished up the orders once they went home after our camping trip.

Sophie learned how to use the bread machine to make her dough.
She used regular yeast for the first batch and it took forever.
Once we got the rapid rise yeast for bread machines, the
process went much more quickly.

Before long, she had two bread machines going at once
and didn't need any help at all.

Doesn't everyone need an apron this cute??
The socks really set off the outfit.
It's a shame she looks so serious.

We had originally planned to camp at Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately, the government shut down made it tough to get reservations in time. We ended up going to a local Corp of Engineers Park. It was okay, but quite a let down after planning on Big Bend.  Leslie, her girls, Scott, Ron and I went out early and got camp set up. Ryan, Jamie, and the twins joined us a couple days later. Rebecca came out and spent a day with us. It was cold but bearable and the girls had a great time.

The camp site we had backed up onto a huge, empty field.
The grands were able to play baseball, kick ball, horse shoes,
climb trees, and shoot off sky rockets. 

For some reason, the guys preferred to assume
the responsibilities of the spectator section.
However, Scott had a pretty good reason to sit around.
The brakes on Miss Lippy locked up on the way out.
He spent the first couple of days at camp working
on getting them in good working order again.

The nights and early mornings were pretty cold. However,
the afternoons warmed up beautifully. The girls were
able to remove several layers of clothing and got
plenty of exercise.

Unfortunately, there was only one hiking trail at the camp grounds.
We were only able to cover part of it because one loop was
overgrown.  

The part that was cleared was fairly easy to walk, nice and wide,
and had a few really scenic areas perfect for pictures.

Like this one...

And this one...

and this one.

Any time spent with family around a camp fire and enjoying
nature fills my heart with joy and happiness.

Unfortunately, this camp out wasn't all joy and happiness.
We experience the sorrow only pet owners understand.
Crazy Hoss, Rebecca's bulldog, died while we were at camp.
He was eleven years old and we think his old heart
just gave out after a day of running, barking, and
being loved.  We will miss the crazy, sloppy guy.

Whew! The last time I got this far behind, I swore it wouldn't happen again. Never say never! Anyway, that's the last few months in a nutshell.