Hunt Family Adventures : Christmas 2020

Since I couldn't sing at the Arlington Nativity Festival this year, I spent a lot of my time this past Christmas season driving up to Arlington and making singing recordings with Meledie (you can view those on my other blog, https://vocaladventcalendar.blogspot.com/). I would often go up to Meledie's house on Fridays when the kids were at camp, but if that wasn't an option I went up on the weekend when Oscar was available to watch the kids. Here they are at the park one Saturday while I was busy singing.

Here's sweet Allison sitting on Tyler's puzzle and spelling out her name in her Zoom meeting. Tyler got really into floor puzzles this past month.

Cabella's let kids meet Santa this year, though it looked a little different. Allison put that plexiglass to the test.

Allison does a great job participating in Tyler's remote music lessons. He has to make a video once a week to show he's participating, so she she always wants to make one too.

Tyler is learning how to pump himself on a swing. He's never had much interest in swinging, so it's been a delayed skill.

We started decorating for Christmas later than usual because we decided to order a smart Christmas tree thanks to some mad money dad gave us. It didn't arrive until the December 7th. Usually I start decorating just after Halloween. Festive Fry made his usual appearance and even Leela got in on the fun.

Many places hosted drive thru Christmas lights this year. The first we attended was the Trees of Christmas at the Everett Bible Baptist church. We were greeted by Frosty and Rudolph before pulling into the church. There was a bit of a line to get going through the displays, but then they handled traffic really well.

It was really well done. We were given a storybook to read and each tree corresponded to what was happening on the pages.

The first trees were all about toys, baking, Santa, etc, then moved on to the story of Christ's birth with trees commemorating Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, wise men, etc.

Allison colored a bird for her project on Schoology then came up with an adorable "I am a Flying Bird" song to go with it. She then made up songs about her other toys, but the best was still the original. Her teacher loved it!

Here are the kids doing Tyler's remote PE class.

Oscar made purple pasta for the kids per Allison's request, and Allison made a dinosaur out of Legos.

Tyler and I made yummy eggnog cookies together. He discovered the joy of adding fresh nutmeg grated on top of eggnog and on the eggnog frosting.

The Lights of Christmas up in Stanwood also held a drive thru event. We were able to go for free thanks to some friends in our old ward having an extra ticket. It was lovely!

12 Days of Christmas

It's sponsored by Warm Beach Bible camp, so they always have a really beautiful nativity.

It was good to come back. We came once 6 years ago.

Tyler really liked the mountains and Allison liked the whales.

I didn't get a picture of them, but there was a dwarf display we drove by. Allison asked "dwarves are members of the elf family, right?"

There were also flying unicorns and a Cinderella carriage for my darlin' girl!

It's a fair distance away, but it was totally worth the drive, especially with a free ticket.

Allison's been giving the cats plenty of attention these days, which they're sometimes happy about.

Church performances looked a little different this year. Here I am making orerecorded accompaniments with strings for 3 of our Sunday services. It was my first time ever playing with an orchestra. I'd sung with an orchestra, of course, but never played with one.

Here are some of the kids' winter crafts this year.

The same person who put together the Halloween map we used also put together a Christmas lights map. I took advantage of it to find many beautiful neighborhood Christmas lights. I never get any good pictures while driving around, so I decided to take a walk one Sunday evening in Fern Grove, a neighborhood that always lights up big time.

I highly recommend walking through it rather than driving, which is often slow and crowded. Parking is a bit weird though. It's hard to tell where exactly you can legally park.

Here are some other homes I found thanks to the map.

Irwin family lights is always a great stop. This family also did a Halloween light show.

Here's Allison in her Christmas dress, which she wore once. You can't tell from this picture but it's already above her knees. She's growing like a weed!

The week before Christmas I started working my delivery job. They've kept me busier than ever this year since so many people are eager to reach out to their loved ones. This map shows an ideal day. I first take a quick route that loops me back to the store followed by a big route that takes me home. I do a lot more north deliveries now that the Mill Creek store has shut down.

Sometimes people leave snacks out for their delivery drivers at Christmas time. One left it for me in a little gift. It totally made my day. I'm always grateful when people leave snacks and water bottles out for the people dropping off their packages, but they went the extra mile by wrapping it up like a gift and covering it in a plastic bag to protect it from rain. It made it feel that much more special to me. It was greatly appreciated since I'd forgotten to pack a lunch for a 9:30am - 7:30pm shift. That time of year brings on many temporary drivers like myself who try not to take breaks so we can get as much done as possible during daylight hours before it becomes dark and challenging to read house numbers. This helped me out tremendously!

One day I had to head home early due to snow. It poured all day long and then started snowing, which was getting a bit scary on the roads. It didn't stick, but it was pretty slushy to drive in. The roads were totally clear the next morning, and I didn't have to deal with snow or rain again.

The kids got extra time with daddy during Christmas week. Here they are helping with the sweeping (or at least staying occupied while Oscar cleaned). One of my favorite things about the week before Christmas is I get temporarily elevated to daddy status. Daddy status is the best because I get to be both familiar and novelty. This only happens when I'm the one who works all day at my seasonal job while Oscar uses some PTO and stays home with the kids. This day for example, the kids were wild heathens for him, then when I got back they were sweet, playful, and affectionate with me. For some reason Oscar is always eager to get back to work after Christmas...

Oscar and the kids helped out with deliveries too. I would get everything ready for them so they wouldn't have to be at the store very long. I only give Oscar single family homes so the kids could stay in the car while he dropped the deliveries off at the doorstep.