As the sun was setting on 2020 in our backyard, all I could think was 'good riddance, and hopefully the door will hit you in the but when leaving!'

 

Like everybody else we're hoping for a better 2021 but I'm afraid it will get a lot worse before that. Yes, we got rid of Trump, but he now seems to call for trouble on January 6th, urging “patriots” to defend America on his twitter account. What the %$#@!

As for the virus, yes, we have a vaccine, but so far the numbers are still rising everywhere (275.000 yesterday, the highest so far!), many countries are in lock-down, and vaccinations are going slower than hoped ..

 

      

Oh well, we still raised a glass to the New Year, hope springs eternal!

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas, listening to peaceful Christmas music all day long and watching 'It's a wonderful life' in the evening. As usual , there was a lot of nice food involved, although we have it down to a science by now and don't over-eat as much anymore as we used too ..

There was Panettone for breakfast, with which we made the best ever French toast the next morning, and scallops in a creamy sauce over linguini for dinner. Apple cranberry pie for dinner the first night, and chocolate mousse the next. Yum!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we drove through the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights. Here's a few more pics, they were quite nice! And prolific!

Old Year's involved more good food ..

It has become our tradition to have lobster!

We didn't stay up until midnight, but I did wake up at 10 minutes past, due to some fireworks nearby. OK, I thought, we made it .. 2020 is over with! I listened for a little while, but not much more was coming, so I went back to sleep .. how exciting ..

The next morning, while James was installing a few floorboards in the den, I worked on the oliebollen:

  

They came out pretty nice, a little denser than I would like, but still good enough!

Because we stuffed ourselves with the balls, we opted for a light lunch. We did have Champagne though. I'd been pleasantly surprised to find our favorite one (Martini Asti) at Walmart, of all places!

   

But we didn't only eat this week, a lot of work was done too! The guys were out of school again, and worked several days in a row, just like the week before.

The den was given a new, somewhat rustic look, by installing (fake) wood panels against the walls. They're actually floor-boards, but they look great on the wall too!

Talking about floorboards, when taking down the cabinets on the right side of the den, it turned out that they didn't install any boards underneath them, so now we were left with two holes in the floor.
Fortunately though, the area in the dining room where the wine-cellar is going to be and where the same floor-boards were installed, is going to be tiled, so previously James and Jaden had pried them up ... easier said than done by the way, since they were a bear to get out!

 

 

So, like I said, on New Year's day, whit nothing much else to than studying (and who wants to do that?), James filled in the holes:

The rest of the week was dedicated to the master-bathroom ..                                    

The drywall was painted red with a waterproof paint (which goes on pepto-bismo pink by the way), the floor got a water-proof membrane and a little bench was build, after which they finally started to set the tile!

The floor is going to get the same small mosaic tiles as that decorative band on the wall. Still a lot to do! They only got one more week to finish, since Doug and Brenda are coming back on the 8th.
No pressure there!

In between all the cooking and baking and cleaning up after the guys, I did some 'real' work too!
I first helped installing different hardware on all the inside doors (they went from silver to bronze), next I touched up all 374(!) holes in the walls after they were patched, and than I painted all the areas that were still grey in the house brown.

                 

Which included the half-bath in the hallway ..

   

Out with the grey .. in with the brown!

And with all the 'porking out' we did,  I tried to stay on top of my walks.
Here's a pic of one of the walking-paths that cuts through the neighborhood. This one follows a 'wash', apparently a vital necessity here in the desert, for when they have one of their 'flash-flood' rains happening.

You'd think Fall has only just started with the trees finally turning colors down here, but that's Arizona for you, the seasons here are not like they are anywhere else!

 

I even managed to snap a few bird-pics. That's a Gila Woodpecker on the left, which are everywhere down here, and on the right a beautiful little hawk, which I'm not sure of what it is .. yet .. just give me some time, I'll figure it out.

          

In the midst of all this activity, I make time every day to work a little on my various 'Christmassy' puzzles I seem to have.

                    

I'm actually amazed I have so many of them, and what's even more amazing is the fact that I only make them once a year, around this time, and that that seems to have been only yesterday!

Really! Where does the time go?

So, despite everything, we had a nice time this last week of the year, and actually 2020 was a very good year for us!
By now we've recovered completely from our truck-disaster (including our bank-account), Trump is gone, there is a vaccine and soon we are going to start a new chapter in our lives, but more about that next time.

This about sums it up. Bring it on, 2021!