tales from a far-land

With the start of a new year, January was relatively quiet for the Farrell-Landers clan.  The kids participated in their normal extracurricular activities of cheerleading and lacrosse, which always keeps us very scheduled.  But, we didn't have too many other obligations, so it allowed us to spend more time as a family.  We spent numerous Shabbats and Havdalahs at home, which we really enjoyed.  One Saturday, we even opted for ice cream sundaes for dinner.  It was a fun treat! One of the January highlights was a family hike we did to commemorate  Martin Luther King Day and the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat.  We hiked the Blue Wash Trail near Cave Creek.  It was gorgeous and the kids loved scaling the rocks while Harley loved playing in the water. (Sadie's hip had been bothering her, so we left her at home to recover.) On the last Sunday of January, Aiden and Josh had the opportunity to go to a Suns game.  Aiden was excited to be spoiled and loved all of the snacks.  Josh was

For the third year in a row, we opted to stay home the week in-between Christmas and New Year's Eve.  In all honestly, I think we were still feeling drained from the aftermath of the coronavirus and its impact on the world.  We were super happy to just chill at home and be with people we love.  In fact, we were very blessed to have spent New Year's Eve and a couple of days before the holiday with our good friends Ian, Rose and their adorable son, Calvin.  Madilyn and Aiden really enjoyed spending time with him.   During their visit, we went on hikes, played games, had a movie night, visited our neighbor's tortoise, and spent quality time together.  We were super excited that New Year's Eve coincided with Shabbat.  It was fun to integrate the two holidays together.  Madilyn even convinced Ian, Josh and Aiden to do a "polar plunge" in our pool to conclude our New Year's Eve celebration.  They were nuts!  The pool was so cold, but they had a good time being c

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations were quaint and filled with family.  Christmas Eve this past year was a little more wet than we'd like.  Sadly, we were not able to place out the neighborhood luminarias as planned.  Josh was super disappointed.  In full Jewish tradition, we had Chinese food for Christmas Eve.  Then, we opened gifts with the Landers family.  It was pretty adorable watching Finn with his older cousins.  He was so excited to help them open their gifts. Christmas morning started off as it has for all of our kids' childhoods -- with the kids sleeping in and the adults waking up before them.  This year, Santa visited more in our hearts than physically.  Throughout the year, leading up to Christmas, the kids had slowly been learning and discovering the truth behind Santa.  In fact, they were very excited to share in the secret of the holiday and be their own "Santa" to others. After opening our family gifts, we enjoyed spending the rest of th

Our December was filled with holiday festivities, gatherings and traditions. Thankfully, we felt like this year's holiday season was a little more back to "normal" than last year. We were, at least, able to celebrate some of our annual traditions with many of our friends once again. That, for sure, made the holiday a little bit more joyful and bright. We began the season by decorating the tree.  The kids were very excited to assist this year.  I think that only two ornaments broke this year.  It may be a new record.  I am very thankful that my kids really like to kick off the holiday season with me. Tree Decorating One of our most favorite events to attend each holiday season is the APS Electric Light Parade.  Last year, the event was cancelled due to COVID-19, but it endured again this year.  As in typical fashion, we reserved the patio at Sun Up Brewing, so that we could imbibe and eat pizza while watching the parade.  The kids were lucky enough to secure front row