Reese is a Decade

Of course you can't get to Christmas without celebrating Reese's birthday. Even our elf on the shelf, Sam, knows that. Every year Sam is in our tree making sure Reese knows the special day has arrived. And this year was all about double digits.

It was also supposed to be about snow, but the weather had other plans. It was in the 60s on December 11, and that meant that our trip to go tubing at Perfect North was less than perfect. The slopes were snowless and closed, and we had to come up with a Plan B real quick. With a little help from the staff at Perfect North we headed to a place that wasn't really on our radar - Full Throttle.

In case you can't tell, Reese is somewhere in that helmet above. That's right, Full Throttle was an indoor go-kart racing establishment. We would never have sought this out, but as it so happens, the Bowes family apparently has a need for speed.

It should not come as a surprise that Sarah was ready to put the pedal to the metal. Reese was a bit more cautious, and soaked in all the safety video tips. On her very first lap she demonstrated perfectly the hand signal you give to the person behind you that they can pass because you are going very slow. Sarah saw the signal, roared past, and never looked back. By the third lap, however, Reese was feeling much more comfortable behind the wheel and no longer used the pass signs.

What made it even more fun is that we were literally the only ones there and could have stayed there driving all afternoon. But we had tickets to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo and didn't want to miss our entrance window. The zoo was a lot of fun and the lights were beautiful. They had a number of food trucks as well, so we were able to eat outside and enjoy everything the zoo had to offer. 

This was a travel birthday year for Reese, and while we couldn't make dedicate a whole weekend to celebrate, we still managed to make sure she felt special. It is still hard to believe she has left the single digits behind. But the fun wasn't over because the very next morning we went to the mall to get her ears pierced. For Reese, this was probably the highlight of the whole birthday experience. 

She was very brave and didn't flinch when the piercing gun went into action. Even better she was very good and dedicated about the cleaning routine. No scary ear infections for her, which was another sign of her getting older and more mature. She is definitely no longer a little baby.

Preppin' For Christmas

It's amazing what you will do during a pandemic to spend time with friends. Easier than a cotton swab up the nose is spitting into a vial so your scientist friend can go back to her lab to test your saliva for Covid. This is exactly what our wine group did so that we could spend an evening in a garage with the door open in December drinking wine and celebrating our ongoing friendship. It was all worth it to spend time together. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of the actual night, most likely because Sarah didn't want to take her hands out from under the heated blanket.

This year the chocolate dipping extravaganza was truly a family affair. Kelly, Sarah, Claire, and Reese all worked hard to dip as many treats as possible. Ella showed up after work and Callie came in after soccer. Both arrived just in time for the tasting of the finished products, which is the most important part of the day. And even though school was still virtual, they packed up treat boxes for the girls' teachers so they could drop them at each school's main office. The day was fun, as always. 

In the spirit of keeping traditions alive during the pandemic, but most importantly, keeping it real, we also had to decide what to do for our annual Christmas card. Sarah knew she wanted the card to acknowledge the reality in which we were all living, and her final idea was brilliant. The front of the card had a close up of the four us looking as put together as one could look without a proper haircut, and the back of the card displayed the image below which showed what was happening to all of us off camera. We were pretty proud of it, though John made a point of getting his hair cut shortly thereafter.

The pandemic would again limit our travel for the holidays and Christmas would be spent in Lexington. And despite past success at Costco, John insisted that we go back to the more expensive place where you can actually see what your tree will look like before you get it home. No grab bag Christmas tree this year.

Years from now we will all be explaining how we were smiling behind our masks in pictures like the one above. 

But the real (non-spiritual) preparation for the Christmas season involved newspaper, numbers, and a whole lot of packing tape. This year Reese helped John make the tape ball and it was massive. We were ready for the fun to begin.

"Worst" Thanksgiving Ever

Starting any holiday with a jab up your nose could be a sign that your holiday isn't going to be normal. Of course we knew this Thanksgiving would be different because we weren't heading to Connecticut or California. However, we were looking forward to three days at Pine Mountain State Park with the Abrahams to celebrate the holiday outside of our houses. We didn't know just how outside it would be.

Unfortunately for the second time in the fall our family had been exposed to someone who had tested positive for covid-19, which meant we all got to experience the joys of the nostril invasion. Although we tested negative we still wanted to take all precautions. And this was going to make things a bit different than planned. Each family already had rented its own cabin, so we were good there. The cabins even had fireplaces, so that made them nice and cozy.

However, we decided that it would be best if we had our meals outside, including Thanksgiving. Truth be told, we lucked out weatherwise, because it wasn't raining and it only dipped down into the 40s at night. Kelly and Sarah pre-made as much as they could at home so that when we drove up that day we only had to reheat the main dishes. It truly was an impressive meal. 

Despite her smile for the picture here, we later learned that largely because of the outdoor nature of the affair Ella had described this as the "worst Thanksgiving ever." We will now be spending every Thanksgiving reminding her of how we occupy such a special place in her personal history. And if Ella wasn't interested in the outdoor eating she certainly wasn't interested in the outdoor hiking. 

Truth be told, we're not sure that any of the kids really enjoyed the hiking, except maybe Reese who was excited that she got to hike with Scout, the Abraham's dog. It was perfect hiking weather, though, and the trails were all right outside our cabins. Pine Mountain is a delight and we can't wait to go back.

We even managed to get a good family picture or two while hiking the trails. As you can see, the days definitely got warmer and made being outdoors more enjoyable. But not enjoyable enough, because the next hike included only the four adults and Scout. We made our way to Chained Rock that overlooks the town of Pineville. It's not a strenuous hike and the view is quite nice. Most important for us, of course, is that it lends itself to fantastic photo opportunities like the one below. Kelly was never in danger during the taking of this photograph.

To try and bring some holiday cheer to the younger contingent who were their own barrels of joy, Kelly and Sarah made a run to a few local stores to pick up gingerbread houses and decorating materials, aka candy. So while the adults hiked the kids decorated, and most likely stuffed their faces with candy.

Here is that fake smile again from the girl having the worst time ever. Poor Ella. And below we see the creations of her compatriots. They clearly did put some effort into their houses, so we can't be too hard on them.

This picture sums up the whole unique Thanksgiving celebration. We are posed on the stairs in front of the Pine Mountain State Park lodge, masks on and smiling with our eyes while a masked state trooper takes our picture. Happy Thanksgiving 2020, indeed.

 

They say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Well, when in Corbin, stop at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken. They have revamped that original joint, of course, and at this time the main building wasn't open. But we were able to hit the drive through and sat in our separate cars enjoying the delicious and greasy meal.

If this was the worst Thanksgiving ever, we consider ourselves lucky. 

Fallin' Towards Thanksgiving

 

Falling is exactly what Sarah is doing in the height ranking of the household. Despite her best efforts, including her excellent posture, she was unable to hold onto the second position and had to concede that Callie had grown taller than her. Safe to say she will never be able to reclaim her former position now that Callie has passed her by. The only question is if she will stay at #3 or fall to the bottom.

Although we weren't in school and play dates were very limited outside of our family bubble, there were still opportunities that we felt couldn't be passed up. Case in point, Reese's friend Ella invited her to visit their farm with their new miniature cows. Reese was in love at first sight and was beside herself when she got to bottle feed them. She certainly is a girl that loves animals and has the bad fortune of living with two parents who aren't going out of their way to bring any creatures into the home.

First Fixin's is an event we always look forward to at our church. As with everything else it was far from normal this year. However, we tried to reinvent the process of packing 150 Thanksgiving meals for local families. We went to the store and purchased enough for ten meals, decorated bags, and did our best to recreated the chaos of assembling the bags so that every family got every item they would need for the meal. And just like the youth event, we had to have a responsible parent do quality control because, ironically enough, even with only 10 bags we still had some hiccups.

Another tradition that we couldn't let go by without some manner of commemoration was the fall mix. In a typical fall we bring these to our offices to share with our colleagues. But this year our co-workers were actually our family members and we couldn't send the mix via zoom to others, so we just made a smaller amount and enjoyed it together.