Thursday, December 31, 2020

New Year's Eve - 2020

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Ahsoka has the right idea. 
New Year's Eve is a good time to relax and chill. 
It was a little weird this year not to have any fam come over. 
With the Pandemic, we opted to stay in, and just put on a spread by ourselves.
It ended up being quite nice. 


I did my nails with some Colorstreet from my friend Jess.  
It's Berlin It To Win It with a Coming Up Rose God overlay. 
Now I'm ready to PAR-TAY! 


Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a Drum Set for Christmas.  
And it is loud.  We put it together yesterday, and the kids couldn't wait to play. 
Thank goodness Santa also brought headphones. ;) 


The kids played hard. 
We also watched Avatar: The Last Airbender 
The movie isn't nearly as good as the tv show. 

Though New Years' is always about food. 
Since we were staying in, and just being home by ourselves, we put out quite a spread.


As on any special occasion, Eric started the day with a special breakfast. I love how we do this as part of our regular routine. We used the leftover Christmas bacon to put on egg, cheese, and honey flakey biscuit sandwiches. Oh My Goodness! They were heavenly. 

Our Charcuterie tray (s)
Since we were going to be home by ourselves, we put out a Charcuterie tray... or 3. 
Honestly though, we've been doing fruit/cracker/cheese/meat trays for years, we just never called them Charcuterie. 
These were pretty "cute" though, weren't they?  
And more importantly everyone ate!  


As a treat for me, and a nod to Mom W, Eric got me some shrimp cocktail. We picked up a small pack of frozen shrimps and had some St. Elmo's cocktail sauce from my Dad on hand.  Dude.  That sauce packed a punch.  


As another nod to Mom and Dad, we included veggies. We don't often remember veggies, that's usually Mom's job on New Years to make sure we remember to eat veggies. We did do a good job on our own. 



Eric found some toasted treats, some Brazi Bite Brand Empenadas. 
They were a little different from my traditional Brazi Bites.  I think I prefer the originals better.


We got a sprinkle of snow, and that made Ahsoka go nuts. 
She loves to bound and leap in the snow. 
And she insists we always go out with her. 
She's a maniac, but she's really been a great joy for our family this year, she really refreshes our lives, and makes us laugh every day. 
Like when she does stuff like this. 
She's a nut with a frisbee. 

Or when she sleeps like this. 
It's not the most flattering shot of the kids, but the dog is hysterical.


Or this. 
If you're getting tired of pictures of Ahsoka, I'll stop now.  



We stayed in, stayed up, and simply watched the Ball Drop together. 


Cheers with our Sparkling Grape Juice.  
The kids love it and so do I! 

Cheers! 
Happy New Year! 


2020 Christmas Cards

This was my favorite photo of our family that we put on our Christmas card this year.
It seems appropriate for 2020, we're all Done, so we're on the floor.  And we're also all in our Jammies.  It seemed perfect. 


For our actual Christmas Cards this year, I did something different.  I hand painted watercolor cards.  I've been practicing watercolor painting over the Quarantine.  I'm not fantastic, but enough that I could create some basic stuff with my watercolor pens and water brushes.  

For every person to whom we sent cards, I made something special.  I don't know if they loved them, and I repeated a few styles that I enjoyed making.  But Eric told me that I should take photos of them before I sent them.  So I did. I missed a couple, so if you got one you don't see here, please take a pic for me. ;) Anyway... Here you go.  Feel free to tell me if you got one, or which one you like best. 


Christmas star filled with love


Christmas Star - also a cross. 



3 hanging ornaments

Rainbow Tree

Holy Family

Impressionistic Christmas tree with Blue Angel on top. 


Christmas tree - wet first


Christmas tree - wet brush

Holy Family with evening sky. 

Christmas tree with golden angel and gold sparkle


Christmas Star over blue mountains


Christmas star in starry sky



Peace wreath with berries

Watercolor trees


Holy Family with Christmas Star


Tree sillouettes at Sunset


Joy wreath


Christmas star/cross




Choral Christmas Tree


Watercolor trees


Christmas Tree with Gold Angel


Joy to the World with Wreath


Magi Find the Child


Gifts under the Tree


Christmas tree


Christmas star cross


Watercolor trees with a touch of gray


Rainbow tree wet first


Christmas Star with Cross


Christmas tree with two tone swooshes.


Wreath of Peace



Kathy's dogs got paw print balloons for Christmas - 
I had a friend in mind when I painted this.


Ahsoka on a card with trees- my first dog
Little wonky, but Lisa said she wanted it, sight unseen.


Sunset at Lake Michigan 
This one was for Uncle Rick and Trish who joined us in Michigan City this past year.

I know it's a lot of photos, thank you for checking them out.  
I'm quite proud of myself for completing these.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Maybe next year, I'll try again... but start before December. 


Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas!

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