Darr Family Blog – Page 66 – The place to follow the Darr Family

Christmas 2020

Well, 2020 was definitely a year for the books. There was a lot that wasn’t good (with the global COVID-19 pandemic), but so much of it was still wonderful. Christmas was a big part of the wonderful. Here’s our Christmas 2020 run-down:

Paul: new shoes, a new wallet, a couple of gift cards (Lowe’s and Google Play), a mouse pad for his computer, and a new phone.

Sarah: new slippers, a complete Calvin&Hobbes collection, a new book, a piping set, and a new wallet.

Joseph: a new video game, a new small video camera, some video game accessories, a new sweatshirt, and tons of new books.

Abigail: a singing Anna doll, new pink boots, a Frozen play castle, a play shopping cart, tons of new books, and a cradle for her baby dolls.

We also got some yummy treats, some cool toy airplanes, and a fun new game from a really close friend.

That’s the temporal stuff. In reality, being home this Christmas has helped us bring back into focus just how dear our little family is and how wonderful it is that our Savior was born, that He lived, that He sacrificed himself, and that He was resurrected…all so we could return to Him and our Father in Heaven again someday. We will ever be grateful for that and for this time of year that reminds us of His birth! Merry Christmas, y’all!

Trying to convince us to let them open up some presents early. 😉

I used my roll dough recipe to make cinnamon rolls.

She was so happy that Santa brought her a singing Anna.

Joseph got a new video game in his stocking.

One of his accessories was a game controller that can be paired with his Switch.

Playing with one of her new books. It’s called “Busy Santa” and has a little Santa in a sleigh that is a pull-back car. There are tracks on each page for the car to ride on. It’s a super fun book!

All About Abigail

December 22nd was Abigail’s 4th birthday! A little about her at age four: Some of her favorites are: unicorns, Frozen, anything Halloween, and the Hulk. She’s a good eater as long as carbs and cheese are present (and as long as her veggies are seasoned appropriately), and loves fruit snacks (only the red and pink ones, though) and plain Greek yogurt (still trying to figure that one out) as snacks (separately, of course). She loves picking out her own clothes and loves to sing along to her favorite songs. The sass can be strong with her, but so can the cuteness and love. We sure love our caboose! She rocked her well visit to the doctor, too. She had three vaccines and a finger pick and didn’t freak out or cry at all (there was a bit of a pouty face right at the end, but she was so brave)! She’s 41 inches tall (77th percentile) and 37 pounds (66th percentile).

She loves unicorns, bright colors, and spiders. 🙂

I told her it was time to decorate her cake, so she ran upstairs to her play kitchen and found her chef’s hat…

They loved getting to put a ton of sprinkles on the cake. 🙂

Cake, plates, and napkins. We had pizza for dinner. 🙂

Abigail loves all things girly, but also loves Incredible Hulk…

…so this was what I came up with for the cake.

She got this Peek-a-Boo Magenta (from Blue’s Clues). If you squeeze the tummy…

…the ears lift up from in front of the eyes to play peek-a-boo.

She really loved getting to rip off the wrapping paper.

This is a Blue’s Clues activity house. It has some fun characters and a lot of little interactive things it does.

Snuggling with me and Hulk after her doctor’s appointment.

I found my old Marvin the Martian and decided to let Abigail play with it.

Little did I know that he would be her constant companion (even to the grocery store)!

She was a bit sad to take down her birthday decorations, but was happy when I told her we could hang them in her room.

Delightful Days

Weekly Happenings: We’ve finally made it! This past week flew by (even though we didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary) and we’ve finally made it to Christmas break. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is less than a week away! The only thing that’s really been out of the ordinary is that we’ve had some guys come and push our fence out closer to the street so that more of our side yards are in the back yard as opposed to the front. It’ll be nice to have extra space to work with back there.

The Weekly Weather: The mornings and nights have been rather cold (sometimes dipping down below freezing, even). The days have been slightly warmer, but I think the warmest we’ve gotten is 70.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy at work and also overseeing how the fence guys are doing.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been doing pretty much my same thing: ferrying Joseph back and forth from school, keeping Abigail happy and entertained, piano lessons, etc.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s doing well in school and was happy to have an easy day on Friday: art time, a class party, and a movie at the end of the day made for a pretty fun day.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been hilarious this week. Just one example: One morning, I was having a hard time buckling her into her car seat…and then realized it was because she had all five of her little snowman ornaments shoved into the pockets of her sweatshirt. The snowmen were relocated and we got on our way to drop Joseph off at school. As I was getting her back into the car after walking Joseph up to the door, she told me her hands were cold and that she was going to turn into the Hulk (have I mentioned that she really, really likes the Hulk?). She’s so much fun!

This Week in Pictures:

This was the weather on Wednesday. It was a pretty chilly!

I wanted to change out the fabric under my table’s centerpiece to something that was a touch more festive, but not in-your-face. I think these cloth napkins from Target (Hearth and Hand line) fit the bill.

This is his “Christmas is almost here” face. 🙂

She wanted me to take a picture of her and Mickey. Well, originally she just wanted Mickey in the picture, but I convinced her it would be way cuter if she was in the picture, too.

Checking out what was going on outside (with the guys who were building the fence). This reminds me of when Joseph was a toddler and was watching the people build the house next door.

I absolutely love these window benches that Paul built…Abigail loves them, too.

I love it when I can make it look especially “Christmasy”.

I was helping Joseph clean and organize his room. He found his landforms project from 2nd grade. He was willing to part with it if I took a picture of it. 🙂

This is a picture of the Grinch (when he was in his Santa Claus outfit) that Joseph drew at school. I was really impressed (especially with the face).

One side of the new fence. I’m not sure what we’re going to do back here, but I know we discussed moving the compost bins back here. The fence guys said our gate was still in really good condition, so they reused it instead of building a new gate.

The other side of the new gate. Over here, we’re probably going to put some plants in pots so that we have something pretty to look at when we look out. It will be nice not looking right at our neighbor’s windows (they were exactly lined up with ours).

We had them stop right before getting to all the meter. This way we can still keep our gate locked.

The front on the other side. They were able to reuse a chunk of our old fence for this part, too.

Bonus Video: Abigail singing along to Frozen