On Monday the 27th we headed back to NY; the kids were eager to open the presents we’d left behind under the tree.

Blaine was particularly excited about this Harry Potter lego set from Gram and Grand-dad!

Sarah also got right to work on her Harry Potter lego sets!

Once she’d finished her legos, she moved on to this robotic snake.

And we got started on our new puzzles!

On New Year’s Eve, Sarah helped me plant these paperwhite bulbs we’d received from Gram and Grand-dad.

Sarah also did her class winter reading challenge.  For this one she was marking off the item for “reading under a table.”

That afternoon we met up with friends at a playground for some outdoor playtime to end the year.

For dinner we had delicious takeout from Lala Taqueria, followed by a one layer chocolate cake and sparkling wine to celebrate.  No one attempted to stay up until midnight this year!  2021 was a mixed bag — some good (we all got vaccinated!) and some bad (flooding from hurricane Ida).  Mostly it’s sad that our lives are still so centered around dealing with the pandemic.  Hopefully things will be better in 2022!

On New Year’s Day Andrew made his traditional stew of black-eyed peas and collard greens for good fortune in the new year.

To start the new year off right, the kids did return to school as planned on January 3!  And so far, knock on wood, school is still open.  We hope it stays that way.

Lastly, here is a winter picture Sarah brought home.  She has hidden some secret bathroom humor inside the painting, which she proudly told us about (she did not point it out to her teacher).  We were impressed with her creativity and sneakiness.  See if you can find it, or scroll down for the explanation.

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Shh… solution below

The snowman makes a shape like a “B”…

…so Sarah hid the letters “U”, “T”, and “T” in the snowman’s buttons.  BUTT-ons, get it?  Oh boy.  Apologies, just had to share!