I can't believe I haven't updated the blog since the beginning of December. I had almost decided to give up on it, mainly because it takes so much of my time to update (usually around 2 hours due to my computer being slow with picture loading,) but this week Ellie found a couple of books that Worth had made from the first few years of our blog. She has enjoyed going through them so much, and I've enjoyed talking about the memories with her. I decided I needed to keep up with this for the kids so they will have something to look back on from their childhood that goes a little beyond just pictures.
December 2020 was not as busy as years past due to the never ending COVID saga, but we still had lots going on. We had family Christmas celebrations, time off of school, trips to the new beach house, Worth and I received the first round of our COVID vaccines, Emma and Mack got started with basketball, and much more. Unfortunately, due to 4 family members having Coronovirus, we were unable to have the Chancey Family Christmas gathering. After losing Uncle Jim in the fall to this crazy virus, we opted to stay apart this year and not put anyone at risk. It's the first time the I'm aware of in my lifetime (42 years) that it hasn't happened.
January has started with a bang as well. Emma and Mack are already in full swing with basketball games, Ellie is preparing to try out for the Hahira Middle School golf team, church is online again now due to rising numbers in COVID cases - so Ellie is beginning her Confirmation training via ZOOM classes. We are saying daily prayers that more and more people will get their vaccine and this country can return to some sort of normal. I'm so thankful, however, that our school system, Lowndes, is remaining in person. They are working so hard to keep from going virtual and so far, everything has gone well.
Here are some pictures of the last 2 months:
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| The Nutcracker was phenomenal this year. Emma was a "gingerbread girl" and Ellie was a "cousin" and an "angel." |
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| Ellie was in the beginning party scene and she did a fantastic job. She has grown so much as a dancer just in the last few months. |
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| The obligatory mom and dancers photo. A very sweaty mom that is. |
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The weekend of nutcracker, the girls were asked to acolyte at church for Advent. This was Emma's first time as an acolyte. They haven't let acolytes participate in the service due to COVID, but during Advent, they made an exception. The girls did great. It was so precious to see them at the altar together this way. |
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| Also, the weekend of Nutcracker we had continued volleyball games. Ellie's team won out until the end. They lost the last game to make it into the championship game. |
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| Due to CDC recommendations, there could only be so many people in the audience at one time to watch the Nutcracker performances. Therefore, there were 6 shows. We were in Cast 2 - thankfully, Ellie and Emma got put in the same cast. The girls performed in 3 shows - Thursday night, Saturday night, and Sunday matinee. |
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| Ellie was a beutiful angel. |
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| I was asked to be a helping mom for one of the shows with Emma's class. It's amazing how these girls go from wild and crazy to quiet and serene just before they get onstage. |
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| Emma was so fun to watch as a gingerbread girl this year. Her and the girls in her class have come a long way since last year. |
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| The cousin's dance is so cute, but all of the girls looked so similar on stage! |
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| Emma definitely wins highest jumper in her class. |
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| Ellie with a party guest. |
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| The kids wanted a puzzle to put together this year that they found at Hobby Lobby. They worked intently on it for a couple of weeks. it was definitely a down time activity during all of the crazy Nutcracker weekend. |
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| More shows, continued great performances! |
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| This picture is blurry, but I just love Ellie's hair in it. Her enthusiasm is represented here. |
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| My backstage wild and crazy crew for the Saturday night performance. |
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| I wish I could say that she is always "angelic" HaHa!! |
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| My beautiful ballerinas |
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| The grandparents came to the Thursday night show and the girls were thrilled to have them there. |
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| Immediately after nutcracker, the girls went for haircuts. They asked the girl to curl their hair and it turned out so cute. |
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| Just because, I thought I would document Ellie's massive stye. This popped up the weekend we went to get pictures with Santa. She ended up needing an antibiotic it got so bad, poor thing. |
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| I let the kids dress themselves this year to see Santa. Ellie had a huge painful stye and was NOT in the mood, Emma refuses to do anything with her hair but a ponytail and Mack's shirt was about 2 sizes too small. We made it to our appointed time and were grateful we didn't have to wear a mask around Santa and his crew. We have an awesome neighborhood. |
The doughnuts at the Santa visit were key. The kids didn't even speak to Santa, but they were sure to get their doughnuts.
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| More puzzle time with Daddy |
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| ....and they finished it before Christmas! |
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| Worth got celebrated as well despite all of the chaos of December. We took him to a Mexican Restaurant downtown for his birthday then came home for Cookie Cake and Ice cream. He's trying out the air pods we gave him for his birthday in this picture. |
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| The kids' favorite part is Daddy opening the gifts from them. |
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| Mack has a dry erase board in his room in which he leaves himself reminders. Here I found a note he left himself to remind him of his teacher's approval that he could "breng" his guitar for show and tell on the 16th. |
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| Emma had a party and received a trophy for her work on their volleyball team. This girl loves a trophy. |
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| Next up was Mia's house for the Bowers/Berryman Christmas celebration. This is Emma helping Banks practice his part of the bible reading. |
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| Mack and Bo are teamed up for the reading from Luke. |
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| Stuffed Hairy Dawgs for the grandkids from E.W. He couldn't have gotten a more perfect gift! |
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| Grey was moral support for Ellie while she did her part of the reading. He will get to read when he's in Kindergarten. He did get one little part to memorize and say, and he did a jam up good job on it! |
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| The gift exchange is their favorite! |
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| "The children are precious" |
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| This picture is slightly out of order, but I had to throw in the hugs the cousins were giving after receiving the gifts from each other.
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| Little did we know that this Christmas Eve service would be our last in person church service for the next several weeks. It was a sweet and special service and the kids actually all sat and listened like normal human beings. I had them take their masks off really fast for this quick picture by one of the trees when we were leaving. |
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Leonard wanted his picture by a tree as well. He had a great resting spot during Christmas this year.
 | | Our Christmas Eve church service was early enough that we were able to continue with our previous tradition of having a Waffle House dinner and then riding around to look at Christmas lights. |
 | | Mack was thrilled for me to take his picture. |
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| The kids left some milk and cookies out for Santa. |
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| SANTA CAME! |
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| The girls were thrilled with their gifts. Among other things, Ellie got air pods, and Emma got wireless headphones. |
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| Fake nails for the win for Ellie. |
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| Santa brought Mack a new lego set. He and Emma had it put together before lunch Christmas Day. |
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| The sweet tradition of them buying each other gifts steals my heart. Especially when they genuinely hug each other with thanks. |
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| This was Emma's pile of what Santa brought. |
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| More sibling hugs. |
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| Ellie's pile from Santa. |
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| Santa brought Mack a Nintendo switch that Worth and I thoroughly enjoyed before Mack realized what he was missing out on. |
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| Christmas bed head. |
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| No caption needed. |
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| Mack's loot pile. |
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| I've been so terrible at documenting lately that I don't even know if I have posted on the blog about the new beach condo. Worth and his dad purchased a condo at St. Simons Island for us all to enjoy. We've all been trying to get it ready to use and have guests. These are some "so far" pictures. This is the living room. |
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| This is the bedroom Worth and I are using. |
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| The ugly brown blinds have since been removed and replaced with new white ones. |
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| Kitchen |
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| The room with twin beds. |
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| Other side of the living room |
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| Dining area. i think this table and light fixture are my favorite pieces in the entire condo. |
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| Entryway |
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| Back patio |
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| The Bunk Room |
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| The bedroom Ms. Pendy and E.W. are using. |
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| I had to document my 1st installment of the COVID vaccine. I'm ready for this to all be over and we will do what we can for that to happen! | |
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| I had to document my reaction to the Coronavirus vaccine. 6 days post injection I had this pop up. It lasted several days and was VERY itchy, but other than this and a slightly sore arm post injection, I had no reactions to the vaccine. |
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| Mack got a shaving kit from Grandma for Christmas that he uses every night. At least I know he will be prepared for grooming later in life. |
How my body responded to the vaccine. Not sure why, but I had this reaction 6 days post injection. Weird and VERY itchy, but it finally went away after about a week like this. Other than this and a sore arm after injection, I had no side effects.
We celebrated New Year's Eve with Amos, Anna, and Hardy. We opened Christmas gifts and rang in the new year all in one night. Hardy was so sweet but couldn't make it up til midnight with his cousins.
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| Mack on the B-Ball court for his first game this season. |
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| We headed to the beach condo for MLK weekend. There is a park beside where the condo is and we were able to go out there and test out Mack's new drone. (Another Christmas gift from Grandma) |
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| We had basketball games all morning yesterday. Mack's team won 10-5 beating several of his church friends on the Scintilla team they played. |
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| I didn't get any good pictures of Emma playing but her team played awesome and came away with a big win (see picture below!) |
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| Emma's team annihilated the other team. It was a good game, but they aren't much fun to watch when the win is that big. |
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| This was a big accomplishment for Ellie, she squeezed by on just honor roll last semester, but pulled off all A's this semester. She is finally figuring out this middle school thing. |
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| These pictures are all out of order, but this is another picture from Mack's first game. He made his free throw! |
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| Leonard is nothing short of lazy. He found the open box of CLEAN masks and used it as a bed Friday afternoon. |
