The lady in the background of this video is my overall vibe lately. Cannot stop laughing.
❄️ 1 inch of natural snow overnight
🌨 16 inches of snow this week
🎿 21 slopes and trails
🏂 3 terrain parks
🚡 9 am – 9 pmSnow Report: https://t.co/rw4pGi01Tx pic.twitter.com/gNAT7Q99Ct
— Seven Springs (@7SpringsPA) January 20, 2022
So here we are. January 2022. I meant to blog several weeks ago; about TV shows I’ve been watching, about what we were doing over the holiday break; about 2021 in general.
I didn’t get my brain together enough to do all of those ideas. I still probably will even if they are a little bit late. But tonight, I find myself wanting to write a bit of a hybrid about 2021 and the beginning of 2022.
Happy 12.22.21! For old time’s sake, here’s one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time. I know I’ve posted it at least twice before but it’s a holiday classic, just like Die Hard!
We were notified that Zachary was exposed to covid at a birthday party he attended on Saturday. One of his classmates that was at the party tested positive. Thankfully, because he has been fully vaccinated for more than two weeks, he does not have to quarantine, but we will all get covid tests on Wednesday or Thursday just to be safe so we don’t bring covid to Christmas dinner.
It seems that everyone I know is getting phone calls and emails like the ones we got. All weekend, friends and family told me that they’d been notified that they or someone they’d come into contact with had been exposed. Jay and I came to the realization last night that although we’ve been lucky and thus far haven’t had covid (that we know of; we suspect Jay & Alex had it in February 2020 but will never know for sure), that we probably won’t be able to escape Omicron. It’s a weird feeling; like the walls are closing in. Like we’ve been playing a video game or hide ‘n’ seek and have thus far managed to outrun and successfully dodge this big bad that’s been looming large for almost two years, only now there’s nowhere left to hide and although we’ve armored up, it’s going to get us. It’s inevitable.
I know that when we get COVID, it shouldn’t be that bad. Three of us are vaccinated, and Alex is young and shouldn’t be hit hard by it. It will be annoying to be stuck inside for two weeks but we’ll all be fine. As I’m writing this, we JUST got an email from Alex’s school saying that a child in the other preschool class has tested positive and everyone from that classroom will have to quarantine. See? It’s is coming for us.
I know this post sounds alarmist and is probably making a lot of eyeballs roll, lol. The amount of people I know right now who have been exposed or tested positive is just really messing with my anxiety right now. It just feels like we can’t escape it anymore. Does anyone else feel like this?
Every year for the past few years, Jay and I have started a tradition of going to The Angus Barn for a Christmas dinner. The Angus Barn is our local “fancy” steakhouse. They go ALL OUT for Christmas. I’m talking a giant Christmas tree, lights and decorations from floor to wall to ceiling, and more. It’s spectacular.
Anyways, we did a little test run back in April and took Zach and Alex with us for our anniversary dinner. They did well, so we decided it was time to add them to our Christmas dinner. We had a great time with them. They dressed up accordingly and ate more food than their little tummies could handle (even though we warned them!).
After a tough couple of years, it’s really nice to expand a nice holiday tradition into a full holiday tradition. 🙂
Ahhh, we’re so close to Christmas and I cannot wait for a break, haha. This week’s episode of The Broadcast continues our (now) annual tradition of watching holiday movies and talking about them. Not all of the movies were good but I have a fun time watching each one and even more fun talking to Amanda and Shandy about them. Happy Listening! 🙂
Official description:
It’s the night before the night before our last episode of 2021, and it’s all about holiday movies! We discuss or touch upon the following movies:
Holidate, The Princess Switch, The Knight Before Christmas, A Castle for Christmas, A Boy Called Christmas, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Home for Christmas, The Holiday Calendar, Love Hard, Single All the Way, Nine Cats of Christmas, Christmas at Castle Hart, An Unexpected Christmas, Christmas in the Wild, and the 12 Dates of Christmas.
May we all have as much fun in life as Vanessa Hudgens does, and may we all get some Brandon Routh kitten action. Ho, ho, ho!
As always, you can listen to the latest episode below or via jayandjack.com, iTunes, Spreaker, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, etc. You may have better luck searching for us as “The Broadcast with Amanda, Shandy, and Colleen” since there are a few other shows called The Broadcast.
As always, happy listening, and thanks for listening!
Listen to “Ep. 6.23 “A Very Holiday Movie Episode”” on Spreaker.
Zachary got his first COVID shot last night. We went to a mass vaccination site run by Wake County. If anyone is living in North Carolina and looking for an appointment for themselves or their kids, this is the site we went through, but you can also now schedule through CVS, Walgreens, etc. At first, he was nervous, but when we got there and he saw a lot of other children also getting their shots, he got this sudden burst of energy and bravery and basically ran in, haha. As Zach literally bounced down into the chair, Alex said, “I’m nervous for my brother!” It was so cute. Zach said he was a little nervous but rolled up his sleeve with a “Let’s do this!” attitude. And just like the flu shot, it was over within a few seconds.
Kids have been paying attention over the last 20 months; they know things aren’t “normal,” yet they don’t spend their time sitting around looking for political reasons to keep people sick or reading propaganda that fits their narrative. They just want to be able to talk while they’re eating in the cafeteria. I think he realized at that moment just how important it was for him to get vaccinated. We’ve let each other down as a society so much over the last few years decades. I hope we don’t fail our kids. Let’s get ourselves and them vaccinated so we can stop the spread of COVID, end the pandemic, and get back to normal. Remember how cool it was to go to Target back in July without a mask on? Let’s do what we can so we can do that again.
We’ve started a new tradition on Sunday mornings of making waffles out of Pilsbury Cinnamon Rolls. They’re easy to make and the kids think it’s this great treat. Shoutout to my MIL and SIL for introducing me to this recipe.
To Make:
You need:
Production:
Episode 6.18 of The Broadcast came out on Friday, November 5. I cannot believe we are in November already. DANG. Anyways, on this week’s episode, we were live for the Hangout-level Patrons and had some fun with them talking about Halloween, a Twitter/Reddit thread about companies’ “real” slogans, and the toxic dumbness that is No-Nut November and Destroy Dick December. <insert eye roll here.>
Official description:
Shandy got her COVID booster shot, Eden tolerated her first Halloween, and Colleen went trick-or-treating. The Broads read companies’ “real” slogans and decide that they are either “Poop Talk With Your Current Events,” “Three Good Beavers,” Or “All Nut November.” They also cast an episode of “Ted Lasso Does The Christmas Carol.”
As always, you can listen to the latest episode below or via jayandjack.com, iTunes, Spreaker, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, etc. You may have better luck searching for us as “The Broadcast with Amanda, Shandy, and Colleen” since there are a few other shows called The Broadcast.
As always, happy listening, and thanks for listening! Cheers!
Listen below! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Greetings from Minecraft Steve, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Roy Kent, and Keely Jones! Halloween 2021 is in the books, and we had a blast. This year was the first time since 2014 that we didn’t do a family-themed costume. I was a little bit sad that the day had finally come, but I knew it was only a matter of time. I’m not losing hope that someday in the future we’ll find ourselves back with a family costume again, but in the meantime, my wonderful, understanding, good-natured husband has told me that he’s down to dress up with me no matter what I want to do. <3 Thanks, Smoopsys, you’re the best. <3
Zachary went as Steve from Minecraft. He’d known since late August that he wanted to be a character from Minecraft but had changed his mind as to who/what he wanted to be several times. First, he wanted to be a Creeper, then Steve, then Steve(?)/some warrior in diamond armor, then back to Steve again, lol. Alex originally wanted to be Doc McStuffins, so back at the end of September/beginning of October, I ordered him a lab coat, the Doc McStuffins medical kit, and Hallie, Stuffy, Lambie, and Chilly. Last week, approx. 8 days before Halloween, Alex changed his mind and wanted to go as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for the second year in a row. I was concerned about finding him a costume with so little time, but we got lucky and found one. He was THRILLED when he tried it on. It’s a little small on him heightwise, but it worked. Both kids were so happy and confident in their costumes this year, and that’s all that matters. 🙂
