December 2021

Christmastime! Rose did the photography for the Old World Christmas Market at the Czech & Slovak Museum (& Library):

A lovely derecho sunset from our bedroom window:

Christmas day! Emily got a scorpion in resin on a necklace. Who wouldn't want that??

A collection of cocoa, yo:

Then we had Christmas with my parents in their church basement:

Rose took this picture from outside, I thought it was kinda cool:

And these people menaced the slopes again, posing in front of the "no sledding" sign as is their annual tradition:

Our church does this thing called "The Last Word" where people sign up to read Psalms all day on December 31st, starting first thing in the morning. Everyone reads in 15-minute time slots and then signs their name in the Bible with the date and time. Cynthia and I read during my lunch break:

Goodbye, 2021!

January 2021

As cold and foreboding as January often is, there are still plenty of ways to make the most of it. Sledding, going for walks when it isn't too cold, watching movies, reading, and planning home improvement projects are all ways to make good use of time.

Lily chooses to burrow under blankets and sleep through it: 

Rose turned 16! She had all her friends over for her party and later that night they went on a scavenger hunt downtown. Dressed like that:

Cynthia made a fancy cake, cuz that's what she does:

Blowing out the candles!

And after the scavenger hunt Rose opened her presents while everybody thawed out. Some of her friends are wearing her clothes in an effort to warm up, ha:

Sledding! The steep hill behind Roosevelt is a great spot:

You can pick up some serious speed on that hill. The fast (and bumpy) ride down makes it worth the trek back up again each time:

See? January wasn't so bad.

December 2020

It was a weird December and a weird Christmas. As Covid numbers went up and we began discovering just how fast the virus spreads, a lot of people made the choice to shelter in place for Christmas and try to ride it out until a vaccine becomes available. That's what we did. As several people we knew caught the virus and experienced firsthand how dangerous it can be (including Cynthia's cousin Danny who was hospitalized and died from the Coronavirus), it became clear that we needed to forgo any holiday get togethers. So we spent a lot of time hanging out as a family this December.

Lily loves spending time with us (not so much):

The snow on our front bushes melted and refroze, creating this trippy display of colors and shapes:

Cynthia and I went on a lot of walks to get out since we couldn't really go anywhere. One morning as we walked around downtown I took some pictures of the hoar frost:

On December 21st we walked up the hill from our house to Mt Mercy to watch the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, which only occurs once every 20 years. When they align it appears as one really bright star, but in Iowa it is only visible momentarily right at sunset, which makes it a little difficult to spot. We found it with our binoculars, though. There were a cluster of people with us up on the hill watching the event take place. The sky was very cool:

Cynthia caught a good shot of a sundog as we were driving one morning:

These people got together and took their annual picture in front of the "no sledding" sign where they often, you know, go sledding:

Christmas Day!

Lily is going to hide until this whole ridiculous thing is over:

Emily got a new baja hoodie:

And Rose got some stuff:

The aftermath:

Rose decided to do Emily's makeup afterward:

Later that afternoon we did had a zoom call with my family and later with the Conrads. It felt really weird to be so distant, but hopefully by this time next year we can have a normal Christmas again:

I hit a parked car! Dangit, that is the first time I've ever been at fault in an accident. Luckily it was a slow-motion collision and no one was hurt. We were sliding slowly down a hill and couldn't avoid the car parked at the bottom. Ah well, time for a new bumper I guess:

It was definitely an unusual December, but at least we are healthy.