My Pokemon Go playing has slowed down a little with the colder weather. My obsession has not slowed down though! Dad has even taken me to a raid night when Mom took Ellie to volleyball on a Wednesday night. Mom and I are trying to get to level 40 by the end of the year to get a special badge, but that last level takes 5 million XP. Mom hopes we get to level 39.
We play a lot of family games like What Do You Meme, but sometimes I don't understand them and it frustrates Ellie. One day, I chose to play Candyland. I lost and Ellie asked, "What do you want me to save you?" and I replied "VICTORY!"
It was a very strange Thanksgiving this year. We usually go to three different houses on three different days. This year, we stayed at our own house and made Thanksgiving dinner. I even helped Mommy cook like I promised! It was pretty good too!
We decorated for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving as we always do. It felt nice to keep one of our traditions. I even got to put the star on top of the Christmas tree! We celebrated St. Nicholas Day as we always do and I got some cool hair chalk. I love the unicorn hair colors!
Ellie and I went with Mom one Saturday afternoon to Cedar Ridge so we could create an outdoor playground. It was so good to go to school and see other kids. The playground looks so cool! I got to paint the play structure with my new friend Cutter.
Mom and Dad needed to be with Ellie at an appointment one Sunday afternoon, so I got to spend some time with Nana Arden and Papa Rodney. I got to watch a movie and go to the park. It was almost like the old times, only with masks.
Mom and Dad surprised Ellie and me with one last present in our stockings. They told us that we would be getting a new golden retriever puppy on December 20th! Ellie was obviously so excited, and I wasn't sure how to feel. We decided on Athena for the name (I thought Pancakes or Waffles or any of the other 50 names I came up with would have been better!) I was a little scared of her at first, but I am slowly warming up to her. I love to show her off to my class!
Mom took me to Cedar Ridge for a short time one afternoon to deliver Christmas gifts and work for a short time. It was so strange to be in the building. We did have a Covid scare afterward because one of the staff members touched my hair and later found out she had Covid. Luckily since we were both masked and it was less than 15 minutes, we were not considered a close contact and did not have to quarantine.
Our family went to see the beautiful Christmas lights at Veteran's United. I wasn't too happy about it at first, but then saw how many there were! I loved the tunnel where we were surrounded by lights. When we went under it, I said loudly, "I can't believe we are doing this!" They also gave us some kettle corn for our family and we saw Santa Claus on the way out. It was really cool!
I'm so glad we were safe because the next weekend we went to Washington to do strange Christmas visits with family. We went to Grandma Rose's to give her gifts and stood on her indoor porch and talked to her through the glass door. Dad had me run around her yard a bit to get out my energy. Then, we got to visit with Papa Ron on his outdoor porch. We exchanged gifts and he gave me a very special angel pin that was Nana Carol's. Then, we went to hang out in Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom's garage with a space heater. They fed us a spaced out yummy lunch and we were able to swap out gifts for a later Christmas Zoom. It was so good to see everyone but so hard to not hug them. I can't wait to hug my family soon!
Sometimes Ellie is willing to give me a ride on our family walks
