I used some of my birthday/Christmas money to get some indoor plant things. It brown and cold and bleak outside. Most years at this time I would start taking trips to Brookside and the Botanical gardens in D.C. but due to Covid and the Capitol hill riots I cant do those things and am instead concentrating on making the house a bit greener.
This is basically a picture frame for air plants. Hopefully more cool stuff to come on the houseplant front.
We went by Scearce's to pick up a few things to ship to Japan and were happy to see a fair amount of split wood. Kathryn's dad has been working like crazy!
Also they got some good stairs and a hand rail put in. They are a little slanted but way way better than the wobbly rocks that were the steps before.
On New Years Eve the kids and I went to Haven for a socially distanced celebration. I am going to paste here what the Haven holiday announcement said because its just perfect.
"This year was hot garbage. So we are doing ALL the things from all over the world (where our members are from) that traditionally guarantee a good New Year and allow for social distancing. We would love your (socially distanced) company to join in the fun from 8pm till 10pm, AND to accept a gift from us, and to exchange gifts with each other as part of Secret Santa!
-Paying the piper? Yep. A full set of Bag Pipers.
-Burning wishes and frustrations on rice paper as they do in Ecuador and China for the new year good luck? Yep, fire pit and paper setup.
-Tossing Sugar? Indeed all over the place
-Lighting Candles? For sure and a couple gross are ready.
-Fireworks? Of course! Bright light to drive off ill will.
-Noise Makers? Tons and some less safe than others as we scare away the bad luck and attract the good.
-Smashing Plates (Denmark style)? Oh the destruction
-Thai Water Tossing? We have the buckets prepared
-South African Furniture tossing out the window? Well we have the chair for it, and a second story window.
Scottish First Footing? We need a tall dark man, but yes.
Joya no Kane? The Buddhist priest will be coming with his bells.
Casting Molten Metal? Join us we do as the Finnish do.
Romanian Coin Toss into the Creek...Why not!
Irish Bread Banging? Yes. Yes will be banging bread against the walls.
All this and more as we enjoy a social distance outdoor party at The Historic Haven!"
So we went. The weather turned foul and we wound up being indoors with only our family groups as the Haven guys herded us from tradition to tradition.
Here are Kiernan's onions (greek tradition).
Here is bread for bashing and candles for lighting.
It was actually pretty cathartic. Also we felt very like we had done a holiday thing by the end of it all.
At home we had a big meal and did fireworks and sparklers.
The next morning I made New Years pancakes.
We got an announcement from FCPS that they would be starting the hybrid schooling soon so we started getting ready for that.
Kiernan particularly needed a few up grades.
Here is his old backpack on his first day of school. He has decided to have one backpack per school.
He ran his poor creeper backpack into the ground.
The zippers didn't work anymore and it was a beaten and stained mess.
Also, boy is Kindergarten Kiernan smaller than 6th grade Kiernan.
He is now over 100lbs and almost as tall as Nana. His bed was too small. So we gave him our guest room bed and re-did his bedroom.
No more bunkbed no more creeper backpack no more little boy.
We did the traditional tossing of the Christmas tree. We cleaned up all the things and I felt the lack of pine smell immediately. But the house looked clean and empty and full of space.
We did a few New Years resolutions this year. We are aiming for splits 2021. I am giving up desserts for the year and drinking no sweetened drinks. This is going to be very hard for me as I have a massive sweet tooth.
We had a meeting with our Jow Ga instructors about our Kung Fu goals. We are all going to work on a new form plus the aforementioned splits.
David is seen below doing the wall stretch.
Wish us luck.
On the 6th we watched a lot of news. There was a storming of the Capitol Building. I was watching it on and off from work and then pretty steadily as soon as I got home.
It was not surprising but it was a train wreck that I couldn't look away from.
I am a political news person. Here are my regular political Podcasts:
I read news and political news especially. Nothing that happened was therefore unexpected.
It made me sad though. I heard one of my podcasters wishing for a day that wouldn't be remembered in years to come.
Ha
There is a certain fatigue from all of the political divisiveness and a stupidity that gets to me sometime. Surprisingly this is not one of those times.
I had the kids come watch it with me. I talked a lot to my friends. I prayed. I thought. I was sad.
I missed chocolate and ate lots of oranges.
I cooked nifty things from my new Christmas cookbook.
My excellent friends got me some watercolor kits for my birthday and I started painting.
Megan painted with me. I really like these strawberries.
I took the kids and the dog to Cunningham falls for a hike. I was feeling terrible with a multiday headache. It was cold. On the other hand it was not as cold as it had been and I had a day from home and had finished my work.
It was beautiful.
My headache stretched into day 4 and I skipped Kung Fu for the first time in a long while. I watched the kids do their though.
We have moved the tv into the dining room where there is more room. We can easily move out the table and chairs and now the family can kick without knocking into each other and the furniture.
This is a good upgrade.
My floating bonsai stand arrived. This is another of my indoor plant upgrades. Look a floating plant stand!
Its just so neat.
There was an impeachment.
There was an inauguration.
There is a new president.
I have a new poet I like.
Holy Mole!
I finished my rooster painting.
Kiernan turned 12
Megan got a fancy new hair do.
We had a big birthday sushi meal.
Kiernan now loves snacks and Star Wars and Minecraft.
He is an Imperial.
He is always hungry.
Here are his Exquisite Pajamas (seriously please click that link if you like star wars even a little).
I gave Megan a bit of a haircut to go with her new dye job. Plus we cleaned the heck out of her room.
Megan loves
Black Pink
Roblox
Clouds and rainbows and rain
she loves to drink water and eat salty semi spicy snacks
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