Christmas 2020

 While we had hoped to go up to Canada for Christmas to celebrate Dennis' (Papa-Z) 80th birthday, the Canadian border said "no way" and remained closed through Christmas.  With the fact that we couldn't travel, we had a lovely Christmas here in Orlando with Mom, Lyle, Jeff, Niesha and Sadie!  

Two sets of matching pajamas - lots of red! :)

What a great family pitcure of the Steinke's!

We started off the day with brunch and then we dove into opening presents!  The kids had a LOT of presents -- apparently we went a little crazy this year.  It was fun to watch them smile and shout (Addison was the loudest) with delight about their gifts.  

Sadie looked a little overwhelmed with how many gifts she had to open! :)

And of course immediately after opening gifts, you have to start playing with them!  The kids had lots of fun checking out their presents!

Sadie was listening to Zachary's heart with her new doctor tools!

And of course just playing around - so there was time outside on the soccer field, and on the riding toys inside!

And while the little kids played, the "big kids" also had fun playing games, doing puzzles etc.  

Puzzles are always a fun time!

A new spy code game - it is very fun!  And Addison is showing off her glitter tattoo!

And the fleece pajama pants started to get a little hot - so Amy caught Jeff sporting a new pajama look! :)  We all changed before lunch to go into normal clothes!

We also watched a lovely short film about the birth of Christ, which was very well done!  And then after lunch (there was lots of eating on Christmas!), we decorated cookies.

A Canadian flag masterpiece!

Art palette

Two loving hearts!

And a partridge in a pear tree -- ha ha - lots of creativity!

Grandma and Addison had sewed matching Christmas masks for the group -- Addison had lots of fun doing that, so we took a picture with our masks as well!

And with any Christmas, there was lots of lounging around - relaxing and talking to far-away loved ones.

Snuggling and talking to Jeff's mom!

And just "hanging" around in the hammock!

Braces!

 Eeks - how is this humanly possible!?  Kaleb is old enough to get braces!  He is getting them a few months earlier than Zachary did at this age, because his poor mouth is so crowded that two of his teeth can't come in properly without putting on the braces to shove the teeth apart to make enough room.  So with that in mind, he only has the top braces on right now, and then will get the bottom ones on a little later.  So the journey begins.

Before he went in - love the fact that the office has his name on the wall with a welcome to your new smile!

And afterwards, he chose orange elastic bands!

Zachary had a fun outing to Top Golf to celebrate a friend's birthday.  At this age, golfing is quite the thing so he enjoys it very much.

In an unexpected turn of events one Sunday, we were inviting a friend to come and hang out with Zachary when his parents invited us to come with them to watch the drive-in Amy Grant and Vince Gill concert! It was really fun, and the company was even better! :)  We had front row parking spot - so that felt very pamper-ish for sure!

Addison was delighted to go and celebrate London's 6th birthday at a local petting farm - the weather was a perfect mild 70 degrees overcast - perhaps for jeans and a jean jacket out to do "farm work"

With the birthday girl!

Petting the pig!

Super cool - listening to the goat's stomach/heart area

One Sabbath we were watching the Christmas concert, and all of a sudden Addison came out in her ballet outfit and had done her hair (all by herself) in a bun.  She gave us a little concert :)

A little difficult to get the bun perfect in the back, but it stayed up there for a bit!

she still remembers the pose!

Daytona Christmas Lights

With the craziness of Covid, we decided to curtail our normal Christmas outings, and of course many were outright cancelled.  The Daytona International Speedway did a drive-through this year which you could enjoy from the isolation and safety of your car.  We thought that sounded like a lovely way to launch the holiday season, so we made an outing of it by going to the beach for a bit in the late afternoon, eating supper, and then driving through the Speedway.  

The weather was cool and lovely, so it was quite perfect.  We went out with our friends the Biris, and when we got there we realized that there was a group of other friends there as well, so it was awesome to visit and catch up while the kids played soccer (what else is there to play of course!)

We kept our chairs apart so that we were socially distanced :)

And after the soccer, there was just standing around chatting while the sun set.  This was as the moon was rising, it was pretty with the  moon shining across the water!

Addison was tiny up on the lifeguard stand!

After that, we ate supper at Chipotle and then drive through the lights.  They had different areas with different themes (famous buildings around the world, Disney characters, famous things in florida like the shuttle, and of course the nativity scene).  At the end, you could drive through a tunnel of lights.  It took a long time to get into the Speedway (about an hour) but it was fun nonetheless.

About to get into the lights

Watching from the sunroof

Amy's company has an entrance to the speedway, so it was fun to see our gate

The tunnel of lights

Still happy as we left, although Addison was not smiling in this picture!

We also did our annual family pictures - trying to capture how fast these kids are growing is just incredible! Where did the time go?

And the last update for today is that Zachary and Karis had a fun outing to watch Orlando City soccer with our friends the Ws.  They were in the box, so how chill is that - talk about being pampered! :)