We are so happy to finally be off from school and (mostly, kind of) free of work. The weekend felt like the beginning of Christmas.
Steve got inspired and put up even more Christmas lights!
Our stairs were covered in packages - some shipped and some picked up curbside. We unboxed and wrapped and our tree looks very festive now.
The kids' elementary school has held a holiday food drive every year since the school opened, 20 years ago. We deliver boxes of food right before winter break to three elementary schools in NE and SE Portland, where they are given to kids who rely on school breakfast and lunch for their daily needs. I organized it last year, coordinating parents, teachers, staff, and kids to gather nonperishable food, money (a classroom coin drive contest), and boxes, and to get the food packed and delivered.
This year, because of Covid, things had to be very different, and so we decided to coordinate an online fundraising effort with which we would purchase grocery store gift cards. The community really came through; we raised $8750. On Wednesday, two of us went out separately and bought the cards; on Thursday, I drove around and delivered them to the elementary schools. It lacked a lot of the community building and joy that the boxed food drive brought, but I feel really good about the money we raised and the kids we are helping out.
Liesl and Arianna had a lot of fun after school today constructing and deocrating gingerbread houses. I picked up a bunch of extra candy to make the decorating even more festive.
Anja and I have been regularly meeting on Sunday mornings to go for a trail run in Forest Park - 5-6 miles on the Leif Erikson, every week. The Leif is a fantastic trail with some gentle ups and downs, but we were starting to feel slightly bored. So on Sunday we drove (separately, because Covid) up to Moulton Falls in Washington to run 6 miles along the east fork of the Lewis River. The trail was graveled and wide and surrounded by moss-covered old trees; we could see the river far below us, rushing along with a high volume of water.
We got a Christmas tree on Saturday morning and had a lovely afternoon decorating it and our home -- stockings, Advent calendar, ornaments and decorations. It is very festive here now.
Liesl and Arianna have been inseparable since April - the Covid shutdown of normal school and activities has led to the blossoming of this wonderful friendship, based on both proximity (A's mom, where she spends about 3/4 of her time, lives four houses away) and shared interests. They are often playing outside: running, biking, riding scooters; tromping through the forest to explore or build forts and treehouses; venturing to the local market to buy treats. They sit and snack in the afternoons: bread w butter, cheese sticks, tea with honey, and popsicles. They create workout routines for home and the playground that involve yoga, pull-ups, monkey bars, and soccer drills. They are constantly pretending and playing dress-up, and have created various movies on the iPad. There is a lot of singing and dancing, and for awhile they were making up routines. Recently, there has been a lot of playing charades and Twister. And then of course sometimes they're tired, and just curl up on the couch together to read books or watch tv shows. We feel so lucky that L&A have found each other and that they have thrived in each other's company these past months; I think both would have been extremely lonely and bored without the other.
