This has been an extremely relaxing winter in contrast to the last few years for our family. It's been a real treat to actually see my to do list shrink for once! Another treat was the weather this winter, golly! Here's a bunch of photos we took over the past few months.
We had a nice Christmas. There were a handful of holiday parties that we attended, we even hosted our own winter solstice party. It's always so reassuring when you finally make it through the shortest day of the year and the days just get longer for the rest of the chilly months. Also around the holidays our friends hosted a chilli cook-off. I was so excited to show off my vegetarian chilli and our cornbread recipe.
After the holidays is when things really started slowing down. It was exactly how I planned it (mwahaha) for I had a devised a dastardly plan to play as many video games as I could for the remainder of the winter! So was it schemed, and so was it enacted. I had gotten a Playstation 4 Pro for Christmas and immediately got to work. I 100% beat Spiderman and it was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Next I played Ghost of Tsushima, which I rented from the library. Did you know the Ramsey County libraries have video games? They do! But I live in Dakota County you say?! Keep it down snitch! As far as they know I live at my parents house. If you turn me in I'll know it was you so don't even think about it! I also played the first Phoenix Wright game for DS and a game called Hypnospace Outlaw on Switch. It was aesthetically inspired by turn of the millennium personal websites. Quickly beating that game and thoroughly enjoying it was the motivation I needed to finally put some more work into my neocities website. I had neglected it for years. After about a month of updates I finally have it much closer to where I want it to be. I still have a long way to go but it's becoming a very nice website.
Video games weren't the only things I've been doing. I got a lot of organizing done, got through my mending pile, worked on some hobby projects and home improvement projects. I've started a couple books but I just haven't been able to stick with them. Though I did read the entire Akira manga series. My friend lent them to me and I'm glad I found the time to read them because it was such an epic series.
Elena has been spending her time away from sports really focusing on music. She has been practicing piano a lot. She's been excelling at violin in school. She's also been revisiting the ukelele and taking up the guitar independently. She is part of a youth choir in Minneapolis too. She and her mom have gone to a few musicals, and Elena went to see Clue at the Orpheum with her aunt Liz. We sadly said goodbye to Elena's cool loft bed, she was getting sick of using the ladder, especially after some of these big days she was having in the fall.
Maya is no longer Little Bear most days (she still is some days, just not most). Now she is usually Elsa from Frozen. When she isn't Elsa, often she is Anna from Frozen. Yes, Maya is obsessed with Frozen. Both sets of grandparents made sure to buy her Frozen toys for Christmas. Amelia got her an Elsa play dress and boots. For a while Maya was wearing them everywhere. She even got to wear them to Disney on Ice. Even though we've slowed down, she hasn't. She's growing up so fast, learning so much every day, and never runs out of energy. I'm taking her to ECFE 3 days a week now and still going to storytime also. She's starting to make friends and really learning to play with other kids. Maya has also been helping a lot in the kitchen, it's one of her favorite things to do at home. I taught her how to use a computer mouse by having her play Little Bear games on our old iMac in the basement. Some days she'll go down to the basement by herself, fire up the old Mac and play some good old 90s point and click edutainment games. She was glad we got one good snowfall so she could go sledding for the first time. She's also been enjoying the early warm weather, as we've gone to the playground a few times recently. We got to spend a lot of time with her aunts and uncles this winter since most of them are in the twin cities now, and Maya has been really loving that.
Having free time and having Amelia's siblings around has opened the door to a few board game nights, which are so refreshing. Board games are one of my favorite things to do and we don't play them nearly enough. We also got a couple puzzles done this winter.
Clara is the happiest baby in the world. She's always smiling and loves staring intensely at people's faces. She is 6 months old now and can sit up, eat solid food and make the cutest noises. She loves seeing Maya play, and Maya loves watching Clara and helping feed her. A few other people we're close with have had babies in the past year too so it's been nice to be able to get the babies together for double cuteness. Clara has also entered her beard pulling era, which isn't great for me, but she seems to thoroughly enjoy it.
Amelia is in two choral groups right now. She started working days recently and it has been a really welcome development. She's still working on her Master's in nursing.
I'm sure things will be ramping up again soon, but I'm trying not to think about it and just enjoy the time I've been given. It's been a blessing to be able to feel like I'm accomplishing a lot, while also having recreation time and being able to stay grounded and feel truly present in this special time in my family's story. You're not supposed to know they were the good old days until they're already gone, but damn if these aren't the good old days.
