M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ! ! !

Similar to most people, Christmas looked different for us this year.

With the rise in COVID-19 cases and the reduced ICU capacity coupled with the fact that Cindy’s mom is a nurse working in close contact with COVID-19 patients, Cindy’s family opted for a virtual celebration rather than an in-person one. Even though our Christmas celebration was virtual, it was still very special.

We celebrated with Cindy’s family on Christmas Eve. Earlier, in the afternoon, Cindy’s parents stopped by to drop off a Christmas dinner (that Cindy’s mom had prepared beforehand) and some apple cider. We also exchanged gifts. Then, later in the evening, we toasted with the cider and opened our gifts together over Facebook messenger. It was so thoughtful of Cindy’s mom to prepare the Christmas dinner so that we could all enjoy the same meal even though we weren’t eating together in the same house. And it was so nice that her parents made the 60 mile drive to Los Angeles just to deliver the meal and the gifts!

Even though it was virtual, we had a lot of fun and Christmas still felt special.

---

We celebrated with Jake’s family on Christmas Day. We did celebrate in-person with his family, but stayed outdoors and as distanced as possible. We’ve shared before how Jake’s family gatherings usually include A LOT of fun physical activities and games. This year, however, was different. We mostly just sat outside on the deck and talked and ate. On the drive over to Jake’s family’s house, Cindy couldn’t stop talking about how much she was craving Jake’s mom’s special artichoke dip and how she was really hoping his mom had made some. Well, his mom did make some!! So we were perfectly happy with just sitting around and stuffing ourselves full of the dip.

Still, we miss the normal rambunctiousness of Jake’s family Christmases. We had a lot of fun, but are definitely looking forward to a more normal Christmas next year.

---

Other things we did this week…

We went on a 7 mile hike the day after Christmas. Now that Cindy’s morning sickness (which has really been all-day sickness) has subsided and Jake’s foot is semi back to normal, we’ve been able to do more physical activities together– like hiking! We’ve missed hiking so much and had almost forgotten how good it feels!

Cindy’s sister and her sister’s boyfriend have been really into tennis lately. They live right across the street from some tennis courts. On Sunday, we impulsively bought some tennis racquets just so we can join them and play some doubles tennis. We all suck (lol) but it was so much fun! We ended up playing for 2 hours!

Oh, we were also so bored that we decided to have a water drop drawing competition. We followed this tutorial we found online. Who’s is better? lol

And that was our Christmas week! We hope everyone had a safe and fun Christmas!