Perfect Ski Day

 Sunny, 30 degrees, and fresh man-made snow made for perfect east-coast skiing conditions. The west can have all that annoying powder.

Grooming machine at our doorstep

The entire mountain was open ... including Far Side and Ledgewood.

  

RJ looks for any jump he can find. Fortunately they made some 'authorized' jumps on Jib-Junction.

Julia learned to do ski the 'box' on Jib Junction.

The kids take off skiing.

The light blue arrow points to our house

The Springers joined our quarantine group so RJ and Julia could hang out with Summer and Sedona. A great time was had by all!

Hot chocolate time after lifts close at 9pm

Boys and Bibles

Sara thought this was a funny picture ... the boys reading the Bible. I have been trying to learn more about the history of the old testament. Now I know why it is called 'the passover' and the origin of the term 'shekel' that Grandad used growing up.

Hiking the High Road

 Ski passes were sold out, but that didn't stop Julia and me from having fun! We hiked up the Blue mountain bike trail labeled "High Road - 5". We saw some deer, followed rabbit tracks, and drew in the snow.

Julia Draws in Snow

The Perfect Guacamole

 Guacamole and chips is a favorite for lunch as well as a side for taco night. RJ always insists on more salt. Here he is making the 'perfect' mix. 

RJ mixes his perfect guacamole

 

New Years Eve-ish

Sara prepared an awesome tapas dinner for New Years Eve. The kids ate while Doug drove to Whitetail from a week in McLean.

Tapas for dinner on New Year's Eve

After dinner, the gang played Beanboozled. You spin and pick a jelly bean. The flavor is either good or really bad. As you can see below, Julia is gulping water after eating a bad bean. The entire half of the room smelled like rotten eggs, stink buygs, etc. Apparently the bad ones were really bad. Doug was glad that he was on a no-sugar diet.

Beanboozled

After dinner we rang in the New Year a bit early (10pm) with a incredible fireworks display over the 7 ponds. Sara zoomed with friends past midnight. Doug passed out a 11pm.

Christmas 2020

We didn't get to travel, so we had a stay-near-home Christmas. Kids and Sara took a day off from skiing, we did zoom calls with Sara's family, and Grandad Johnson came down from Baltimore to watch us build our new Lego sets.

RJ open his Lego Freight Train Set

Julia was super excited about her gingerbread house Lego, her new doll, her katchup shirt. But the highlight was a 3-foot massive stuffed unicorn that was named "Uni."

Julia super excited about her huge unicorn

We delivered some cookies (that we could not eat: Sara - no gluten, no dairy; RJ - no nuts; Doug - no gluten, no sugar) to neighbors.

Julia and I posed in front of the "Christmas Night Fever" at the Gray's house.

Sara optimistically thought that we could have a nice family photo. After about 10-15 minutes, we ended up with what you see below. Julia is happy because she got to press the picture button.

Family poses for pre-online-church photo

Pre-Christmas at Grandad's

Since Aunt Debbie had to work, we had an early Christmas at Grandad's house in Baltimore. We played games, opened presents, stayed warm in front of the fire, and hung out with Walter.

Walter wears his UPS hat