A Sentence (or two or three) a Day in December 2020

 Having switched up my Friday Favorites posts to just list a quick 5 favorites from the week has caused me to leak a little extra into my Sentence a Day posts.  I love looking back on these to see what we were doing each month and now that I don't have these things documented anywhere else I needed more than one sentence most days to sum up what we did.  All in all it was a pretty good month! 

1.  It was in the upper 50's so Evan and I shrugged off our schoolwork and headed out for a nice long hike.  We found out that someone we had been in close contact with tested positive and began our 10 day quarantine (though we were ahead of the game as it had been 5 days since we last saw them). 

2. Just a quiet day of everyone working from home. 

3. We tried to hike a new trail to the tri-state marker but only made it to Benson Mountain before turning around since we were running out of time before my husband's Covid test.  

4. We hiked a new trail out to the tri-state marker; it took us 2 hours to cover the 4 or so miles and was quite a workout.  It felt great to be able to hike that far again.  As an added bonus we got my husband's Covid test results after dinner and weren't all that surprised they were negative (we were surprised they were that fast though as it has been taking some people up to a week to get their results!). 

5. It was a rainy/snowy day so I spent it watching Christmas movies, building a new puzzle, reading my book, and enjoying a nice warm fire in the fireplace. 

6. It was beautiful and sunny when we woke and found that not much snow had stuck to the ground or the trees overnight.  Alec and I cooked up a new cheesecake recipe for the holidays and I painted my nails to coordinate with my new Color Street glitter nail trials.  

7.  We get to rejoin the land of the living having made it 10 full days without any symptoms.  Alec school requested he wait a full 14 days before returning so he was schooling virtually while the other two boys did school at the table. It was a quiet day at home ending with some beef stew and homemade no- yeast rolls. 

8. With Ian at work and Alec completing lessons virtually, Evan and I had a real short day of school.  Alec did use a good portion of his day making up flatbread but sadly I burnt the flatbread pizzas and we had to have take out pizza for dinner instead.  I spent most of the cold, dreary day reading my latest book. 

9. Since Alec only had a 1/2 day and Ian was heading out for another 2 hour driving lesson, Alec and I thought it was the perfect afternoon to try tackling his sugar cookie house.  As soon as he was done making and cutting out the dough Evan and I left for an hour long hike; it was chilly and tough going with the ice but we were still happy to get out. 

Rolling out the dough

As soon as the dough came out of the oven we cut out the house forms/ pieces he needed

Then we left them to cool for several hours before storing them in an air tight container overnight. 

10.  With Ian at work Evan and I flew through his schoolwork and since Alec had a big gap in his schedule we decided it was the perfect day to put together our gingerbread houses (I used the one in the kit while Alec decorated his sugar cookie house).  It was delicious fun.

He was so proud of how it turned out. I just love his Kit Kat window boxes! 

11.  We woke to no water; our well pump had died and since we have geothermal heat it was getting pretty cold in the house by the time we got it fixed.  Luckily my husband was able to come home and had everything replaced by mid-morning. While I was outside with him I did manage to take some great frost shots.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful with school for all three boys, a few games of Clue and an evening run to the grocery store.  

12. I spent a busy morning in the kitchen cooking up some Rolo bites for snack, a turkey pot pie, a turkey/broccoli/rice casserole, a ham alfredo lasagna, and started the pot roast for dinner.  I spent my afternoon watching Christmas movies, creating some more Christmas cards, finishing up my final two Christmas gifts, and painting my nails.

13. I rearranged the entire living room to make room for a table with our village on it (taking it out of the great room to make room for another chair) and then continued cleaning up and organizing the downstairs.  In the afternoon we all went on an hour long family hike.

14. With Google's servers down our day started out rather stressful as all of Alec's classes work off Google Classroom; luckily it was up and running with him only having missed 30 minutes of classes.  Ian and I headed out for Ian's driving test (in the rain) and he passed!  

15. With Ian gone to work, Evan and I had a shortened day of school which was a very good thing since Alec had a ton of schoolwork and needed quite a bit of help with it.  We finished up at 5:00; just in time to cook dinner. 

16. I was up at 1 a.m. and just knew it was going to be such a long day!  I helped all three boys get their schoolwork done and then Ian headed out to lunch with my mother in law as a congratulations for getting his license. I spent my afternoon starting a new puzzle and reading my book. 

17.  We had a huge snowstorm blow through our area and dump more than a foot of snow on us. I spent the day cleaning house, doing all the laundry, making cinnamon swirl bread with chocolate chips, and helping the boys with schoolwork. 

18.  Alec only had a 1/2 day of school so we planned to head out snowshoeing after lunch; we all got snowshoes for Christmas last year but it never snowed enough to use them.  We went snowshoeing for over an hour at Pulaski park with some other family members and it was a beautifully day.  Then my husband and I ended our night with a run to BJ's and a heaping carriage of groceries.

I wore my fleece lined leggings but should have worn ski pants to keep the wet snow off my legs.

19.  I spent my day on Saturday cleaning house, rearranging a bit of furniture, doing my nails, and putting my new chair together.  We got take out from the Black Dog for dinner and ended our night watching 3 or 4 episodes of Man With a Plan as a family.  

20.  We had Christmas brunch with my husband's father side of the family; though we kept it real small this year so there were only a handful of people there with us.  We had some delicious food and exchanged a few gifts, and played a game! We ended the day with some more snow and some sledding.

21. Ian and Evan had a real short day of work since I had a 9:30 hair appointment and went grocery shopping on my way home.  Alec had a full day of virtual school and we cooked up some fresh French bread loaves when his day was done to go with our homemade turkey noodle soup for dinner. 

Just before sunset

22.  It was a beautiful sunny day so as soon as Alec was done virtual school we strapped on our snowshoes and went for a walk in our woods. It was much harder walking in the wet heavy snow than the light fluffy snow the other day. 

23. All three boys just had a 1/2 day of school so we spent our afternoon baking (Heath/ eggnog cheesecakes), playing games (Scattergories), and I finished up my book.  It was such a cute story!!

24. Alec, Evan, and I started our day playing Overcooked 2 then Alec began baking while Evan and I cleaned the whole house.  We headed to my mother's in time for dinner and had a wonderful time visiting with our family.  We opened gifts, ate lots of yummy food, and played a few games. 

We beat the game!

25.  Despite not sleeping most of the night due to the storm raging outside our windows we were all up early.  Alec and I finished up his croissants and then we all opened gifts. We hosted Christmas brunch and then I took a nap in the late afternoon.  Alec and I finished up his butterscotch truffles and I put together a broccoli casserole to bring to my brother in law's house for Christmas dinner.  We had a fun night of games and food and family.  

26.  I spent most of my morning cleaning the oven, piling up the Christmas decorations to put away, and planning our meals for the week. 

27.  I started my day helping my husband at the hydro then we packed away all the Christmas stuff. That led to rearranging several rooms worth of furniture.  Evan ended up clearing out his room and rearranging his furniture as well.  His rooms looks so big and clean now. 

28. The boys and I went hiking for a bit before lunch; all the rain on Christmas washed away the bridge to our favorite hiking trail at Old Furnace state park so we had to find a new trail.  After hiking we ate lunch and then spent our afternoon playing Star Wars Family Feud. 

29. I started my day with grocery shopping, preparing foods for the week, and doing lots and lots of laundry.  I did find plenty of time to play board games though and we must have played 3 or 4 rounds of Harry Potter Clue. 

30. I spent the morning washing all the bedding in the house then playing Labyrinth and Harry Potter clue with the boys. My mother in law took us all out to lunch and we tried a new restaurant; the food was delicious! 

31. I spent most of my day reading my latest books (yes, books plural), working on my puzzle, and watching tv.  

How was your month?  

Linking Up With:  Sentence a day, Spread the Kindness,