Welcome to the Roaring Twenty-Ones

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

This was a New Year's Eve ritual that i didn't fully understand

It's SO FUN having neighbors who want to set off fireworks all night AND a cat who demands attention at 5 a.m. every morning (I was really really looking forward to sleeping in, but apparently my options were "get the f up and brush me or I will wake up your sleep deprived crazy five year old with my yeowls")

But hey, here we are. The promised land. 2021. 

I gotta say, you know how there's the single person who jumps from bad relationship to bad relationship without taking a beat between the acrimony of breakup to the flush of new love, each time claiming "this new one will be better"??? That's some of you and calendar years! Remember 2016 and how it was the worst year ever (David Bowie!!!)? Doesn't sound so bad anymore does it? I guess 2017 and '18 were kind of rebound years though definitely for some they were objectively worse. 

Then there was 2020. Everyone had a lot of hope, but boy did we sour on the year fast and hard. Which is complicated because objectively a global pandemic that's largely mismanaged is not a great thing to dominate a year. But a lot of beautiful moments happened, milestones were met, dialogues moved forward, little promising things happened. Which I guess is why people are maybe happier about 2021? Or maybe it's just that 21 is a way better year than 20 in our own life's histories. This I buy. Most definitely for me.

Well, here we are, then! 2020 has been happened. Quite the year for us, as it was for everyone. Some amazing travels. A completely different way of living on return. An old preschool. A new preschool. The magical world of Disney Plus. A new kindle for the bae!. A whole lot of Zoom!! Some upheavals every which way. A big move. Fun with the world of immunology. A surprisingly great Halloween. A very low key "holiday season" and a very nice handful of very very appreciated date nights.  A new yeowling furry little family member who's as crazy as the rest of the females of the family. 

Oh and Allan's a full on princess now, albeit in a little but more chaotic of a way than I was. I wasn't the girliest princiess, because I was often She-Ra the warrior princess, but I was a little more likely to take a bath, pretend to know table manners, or dream about marrying handsome princes after fighting dragons.. Allan is more likely to "break the house" (this is something she threatens when she's upset), spit-scream into mommy's ear that she's a "bad muffin!!!, fight bad guys and then bite the cat's tail before returning to her royal fort.

We still have never seen the actual movie, but Allan is fairly obsessed with Frozen. We've seen grainy footage of the musical on youtube, all the lego Frozen episodes, any number of origin stories and shorts on Disney Plus, and a few Frozen books as well. 

We know that Elsa is the one with Ice Powers. And - as i like to point out - she's actually a Queen. So that's cool. Anyways, Allan had been sniffling about not having enough jewelry, so now I think that's been sated and then some!

She wore the entire regal get up for the first 48 hours, except for some times in the bath and when her gloves got covered in mac and cheese. 

Which brings us to holiday tradition time: THE NUTCRACKER! Ok, I thought maybe this one would land with her. I've told her lots of stories about how I was in the Nutcracker when I was younger. 

And she loves them.

We dance around the house listening to the music. She loves my little Rat King Nutcracker. She knows the story ok.

Going to the Nutcracker was a huge deal for me starting from younger than Allan. We used to go every year. I'd dress up all fancy and be thoroughly dazzled by sugar plum fairies.

Besides, we figured we might as well support the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB has been doing amazingly cool things with their socially distanced programs, featuring awesome camera work and really cool new choreography so any way we can keep them going is good by me). So we purchased a streaming option for what turned out to be an "archived performance" from the beforetimes. It was kind of surreal watching all those people just on a stage together. Touching and breathing in each other's faces. 

So... we gave it a whirl. 

Allan was into it for the first half hour or so. 

Then she was watching but batting mommy in the face with her wand and kicking daddy in the face with her feet. Then jumping around the couch. Then slipping over to the computer and stopping and starting the recording. And then... "When are they gonna talk???"

We actually made it through all 90 minutes, but not without effort. 

Ah well. 

Christmas came regardless of our traditions. Boy did it. We shuffled the little 'un off to her Gramma Pam's to get her some maximum exhaustion by the time of Christmas. Meanwhile, Daddy Bunny worked, Mommy Bunny had some more fun medical appointments to cram into the end of the insurance year, Mommy Bunny also actually had time to wrap and get things re-set for Christmas, and Mommy and Daddy Bunny watched two whole grown up movies!!! 

We retrieved our little bunny-monster on Christmas Eve and had a nice brunch before heading back to start the Christmas shenanigans. 

Mostly Allan asking "what can be we do NOW" and then refusing to accept any answer other than "open all the presents in some wild present opening orgy." 

...

Which she didn't end up doing. But we did open one gift and she now has her long coveted pink camera (I had told her that when I turned four, I got a little pink camera, and since that time she's been desperate for one). 

It was a hit. 

She may never sleep again. Naw, we've negotiated that it has to go "in a special place at night" For now... 

Somebody might have been tired after the visit for Pam's house. Many mornings, I'll go in to see her and she'll have been up for hours happily talking to herself and her extensive bunny family. Christmas morning, I went in a couple hours later than usual and she was konked. 

At which point, I was a bit stuck because - having already entered the room - I didn't want to wake her up trying to leave again. So had a few sweet moments watching her toss and turn and remembering how nice it is that we do not share a bed (and all the ensuing contusions and scrapes and cuts that come with that)

She was very sweet when she woke up. Kind of a slow dazed start. We wandered downstairs to see the cookies that I had somehow managed to magically concoct at 5 a.m. that morning after Allan had had a Christmas Eve meltdown that we had not made cookies for Santa and Frosty the Bunny (Frosty is the Easter Bunny - they help with most holidays around here these days). I'm not sure if the official story was that I made them and Santa and Frosty left some for her or if they brought the cookies, but there were cookies. 

Albeit not for very long. 

And a candy cane hunt. 

A somewhat dental-themed stocking. 

(Don't worry there was candy and patent mary jane shoes in there too. The shoes are something she went out of her way to save a catalog for me to show very very pointedly... yet by yesterday she was mildly pleased with them and then moved on to the electric toothbrush. Ah well). 

After Allan had a fairly spontaneous melt down about the unfortunate fact that she so desperately wishes to be a bunny but is just a girl, Andrew and I suggested we give her pigtails. That wasn't really a hit, so Andrew did my hair instead. Allan's response was "no, that does NOT look good" and a fair bit of relief that she had refused intervention. But it did make her forget about the whole bunny in a human body conundrum until a little after bedtime last night. 

After I attempted - foolishly - to make a little breakfast ("pancakes?? Why did you give me pancakes mommy? I don't want pancakes? Or eggs!") for our cookied up bunny girl, the rest of the day unfurled at a leisurely pace. 

Every gift got its due after it was opened. We still have a handful to go through. What amazes me is that I pretty much limited our purchases for Allan to the stocking. Everything else under the tree is from family. Kiddo is loved. 

And eventually, be-pigtailed as well...

Christmas took about two and a hafl days to get through, due to our exceedingly gentle pace. Each present was fully enjoyed before the next one and often with hearty breaks before the return to the tree. 

I didn't know if we'd make it through the giant pile of gifts before 2021, but somehow we managed ok. 

And with the tree officially bare, Froggy moved in to investigate. The tree, somehow remains standing... for now. 

The rest of the week was pleasant. A relaxed weekend. A back-to-work work week. A little New Year's Eve countdown at noon over zoom. Some epic epic meltdowns. And the aforementioned fireworks and yeowling cat. 

And now we wait. What lays in store for us? 

Well then... today probably will be a lot like tomorrow... tomorrow will probably be kind of similar to today. And the week after that a bit more business as unusual as usual. It's cool to know a handful of people who've had their first covid vaccine even if "at this rate" I wouldn't be getting my turn for roughly "ten years" at which point no doubt the virus will hav emutated to turn the infected purple and green with a penchant for human brains. Just a guess. But of course once things open up, I'm going to have a lot of figuring out to do with the 2020-developed allergies to the outside world. So we'll see. But we'll be in this house. With this meowy little cat who thinks sleeping in is bullshit. 

Happy 2021 everyone! Let's take this slow and learn from past years this time? Maybe? Or I dunno, just stay home and watch Disney Plus (Soul is pretty good) until 2022.