Joy To The World

 

Merry Christmas 2020

We had a Merry Christmas. Lillie got a lot of nice things. Santa is always good to her. We can’t believe we have been in quarantine since March. Every year Santa brings Lillie an ornament. This year he gave her a mask ornament!!  Very funny to remember this covid year. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Because of Covid we didn’t do our normal tradition of heading out of town, going out to a scrumptious dinner at a fancy restaurant and going shopping at midnight. This year we stayed at home and made our own thanksgiving dinner and decorated for Christmas!!

 

Happy Halloween

 Our little Lillie always has fun during Halloween!!

Our Minnie Mouse Playing her Violin

 Playing a recording for her school Halloween concert. 

Chesapeake Youth Symphony COVID style

Here is our Lillie playing with her youth symphony COVID style. They bought each student all the equipment to be able to play all together over the internet. It is very cool. 

First day of school 2020

Our usual neighborhood bus picture got messed up because they are all online and not going to school. But we saw Jake Parsons riding his bike and stopped him for a picture on the first couple of days of school!!

Our little musician

We are so proud of Lillie.  She has practiced her violin so diligently over all these years.  We got this email from the Chesapeake Youth Symphony (CYSO).

Dear CYSO Musician,

Welcome to the 31st season of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra. We are busy planning a wonderful 2020-2021 season for you.  We are excited to offer you a position in the Chamber Orchestra & Symphony Orchestra.

She made into the two highest orchestras.   In all this pandemic the orchestra will try to play synchronously online twice and month, and meet the other two, really distanced out from each other, wearing masks.  And the winds and brass will never meet because their instruments spew too much aerosol in the air.  So they will use a program to play with the strings online.  Should be interesting. 

First day of school--Sophomore year!

Today was Lillie's first day of her Sophomore year.  We just can't believe it.  She has Honors English, AP Government, Honors Pre Calculus, Honors Chemistry, Orchestra, Health and American Sign Language.  She is such a smart girl.  We never have to worry about her.  This year, the first part of school will be online.  So things are a little different because of the pandemic we find ourselves in.  Here she is set up in the guest room office.  It has a nice desk for her to use.  We all need separate areas sine we are all on zoom meetings at the same time.  She is going to have a great year!

23 years—our anniversary

We celebrated in covid style by going to a resort town, Middleburg Virginia. We went to a very safe Red Fox Inn. It’s a very quaint inn, in a great town. There were lot of little shops on the Main Street. Middleburg is about 2 hours from our home. We had a little cottage for our room, with two bedrooms and two baths!!  Unheard of.

We had a nice dinner at the Piedmont Grill. It was a special weekend to celebrate a wonderful event!!!

Music for sacrament meeting

While in Covid we sometimes make musical numbers for family to use during their sacrament meetings.  Jaeden and Lillie really worked hard on their piece.

Bach duet with Lillie’s violin teacher

Mother’s Day Covid Style

We celebrated yet another special day all quarantined. We celebrated Mother’s Day for Kim. She is the best mother and wife ever. There is no one else who clearly understands her role as a mother and wife and her relationship to the Priesthood. She is a good example for all women to follow.

We celebrated beginning on Saturday with a very fancy dinner take out style from our favorite fancy restaurant, Little Pearl!!

On Sunday we showered her with breakfast in bed, and a sukiyaki dinner and presents...and her favorite cake, mandarin orange cake!!

Thanks Kim for hands down being the best wife and mother.

Covid days

Covid-19

This is how we look now when we go shopping.

Happy Birthday Kim!! 50 Years!!

We celebrated Kim COVID style--all quarantined and unable to celebrate at our favorite restaurants.  But Lillie and I wanted to celebrate our favorite person in a big and large style for a very special 50 years!!  How could we not?  Kim does so much and adds so much to our little family!  Thank you sweetheart for being so good to us.  We hope you had a great day COVID style!!  I am sure you will remember this birthday for a long time!

We celebrated with 50 gifts!!  And Momi and Nai and the kids sent 50 gifts as well.  So in total, Kim got 100 gifts on her special day!!

A special birthday cake from our new favorite bakery!!  Luckily they were selling cakes to go!!

And we celebrated with a BIG sign across our lawn to wish our favorite person a special day!

Easter 2020

Amid the covid quarantine, we were able to celebrate Easter!  What a great day we had with Easter baskets, dinner, music and church at home!

Student of the month!!

Our Lillie was the student of the month!!  We are so so proud of her. Especially for her accomplishment she was recognized for!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

We celebrated by eating at our favorite Chinese restaurant!!  Silver Fountain in Kensington!!  It was especially festive with a traditional lion dance!!

Friends playing music!

15th Birthday!!

Today we are celebrating Lillie’s 15th birthday!!  We are so proud of her. She is a good girl. Smart, organized, obedient, never really give us any problems. We are very lucky to have her!!  She has been a blessing to our family!  We just cannot believe she is a freshman in high school already!!  We have had a lot of very sweet memories with her!!  We love our Lillian!!

50th Birthday

It is unbelievable that I am 50 already. Time goes by so quickly. Kim organized a small birthday for me. All my favorite friends, my favorite food. Momi sent a box of 50 gifts!!  All my favorite snacks and candies. So sweet for the family to send well wishes!!

Happy New Year

Our regular tradition of traveling NYC over New Years, had to be curtailed this year because we went to Vegas for Christmas.  We opted for a more quiet new years this year.  But it was soooo good that this might become the new tradition.

On the Eve we went to our favorite fondue restaurant!!

Then that evening we went to Annapolis harbor and had good luck in getting really close, with our car, to view the fireworks, and not have to fuss with the crowds and the cold weather!!  It was perfect!!

Then on new years day we made tempura for dinner!!  A family favorite!!