Happy 2022!

I'm honestly not sure what happened to 2021! The whole year flew by. COVID is still present, but once the vaccination rolled out, so did most people's desire to mask up or follow social distancing guidelines. We went from masks at school in the spring to no masks in the fall. Jeff, Danny, and I were vaccinated in April, and Jonas was recently vaccinated in December. Because of the ease of certain COVID restrictions, we traveled way more! Jeff and I traveled to 27 states between December 2020 and December 2021, plus 3 Canadian provinces. We visited family and had family visit us. We had such a fun family trip to Tennessee with the Lowe's. We spent every summer weekend we could on a lake somewhere, including Lake Powell and Flaming Gorge. Thankfully, none of us has ever tested positive for COVID. Each year, I try to identify a "word" to define that year - something I want to work on or desire to achieve. The word I chose for 2021 was "gather". After a year of quarantine and separation, I wanted to gather. I wanted to bring my family home as often as I could. I wanted to be present at family and friends' events. I simply wanted to encircle those I love. There were so many moments of gathering! So many memories! 2021 was a great year; that's not to say that there weren't moments of trials, frustration, tears, or struggles because there definitely were, but when I look back, those moments pale in comparison to the joy and love I have experienced. I acknowledge the hard, but choose to embrace the good. I am still contemplating my "word" for 2022. There is so much I probably need to focus on that it is a little overwhelming; I'm just trying to narrow down what that focus should be for 2022. However, my lack of word choice for this year didn't stop us from bidding farewell to 2021 and ringing in 2022! 

New Year's Eve was a snowy day for us. We have had more snow in the valleys in the past month than we did all last winter. Jonas has loved it...and I have loved that Evan, Kristina, and Thomas like to go play in it so I don't have to. Jonas had a blast sledding, building a snow fort, and just rolling around in the snow while I stayed cozy inside as I prepped for our small New Years party.

That evening, we started our New Years party with a yummy chimichanga dinner and a whole dessert charcuterie board (in the picture below I'm not sure if Jonas is excited for the new year or just the sugar in front of him). This year was a little more low-key than the past couple of years. It was just Jeff, Jonas, Evan, Kristina, Thomas, Westley, and I. Danny was skiing and joined us later for about an hour before he moved on to his friend's party. Knowing there wouldn't be many people joining us, I asked Jonas what he wanted to do to celebrate the new year. He wanted to keep the tradition of the "timed" game bags that we have used the last couple of years so after dinner, Thomas and Jonas went on a hunt for the bags and the games ensued. There was bingo, ping-pong toss and bounce, snowball toss and fight, marshmallow race and building, and finally ending the evening with a minute to reflect on the last year before lighting sparklers, setting off little fireworks, and ultimately toasting the new year...at 8:00 p.m. Obviously, we didn't wait for the hours indicated on the bags before we worked our way through all the games, but we adults were more than ok with that! Jonas was asleep by 8:30 p.m. and Jeff and I were in bed by 10:30. We stayed up long enough to watch the ball drop live in NYC, shared a kiss, and said goodbye to 2021. After a fun, family-filled Christmas, a lower-key New Years was perfect. Maybe it will be a sign of quiet things to come in 2022? Probably not!

New Years Day was just as quiet as New Years Eve. Danny went skiing again so it was just Jeff, Jonas, and I. Jeff has been working hard to get things prepped for more concrete to be poured on Monday so Jonas and I helped him set some forms. While we were outside, we decided to make snow angels. There is something beautiful about the ground being covered in white, especially when the sun or moon catches the individual flakes that shine like little diamonds...but I'm still not a huge fan of the cold. Haha! Hopefully, we'll get enough snow to fill our reservoirs for the summer when I do enjoy the feel of the warm sun as we cruise around on the boat. The day wasn't all work (or cold). We finished up our work in the morning then went out to lunch (at Cafe Rio). After lunch, we headed to a warm movie theater to watch Spider-man: No Way Home. Jonas had already seen the movie at a friend's birthday party, but he was nice enough to agree to watch it again. I'm not sure if I watched him or the movie more. He is so funny! He had such a hard time not moving around as he pretend fought the bad guys and was "shooting" the screen. The movie was fun and the evening was nice to just chill at home. I'm not sure what 2022 has in store for us. I am, however, certain that it will be an adventure!