Alex has gone back to college, sigh. Beth is taking it pretty hard, too. She wasn’t ready for him to go. We drove him to Midway in Chicago on Thursday, unfortunately it had to be a few days early for him because the airfares went up so much (like from $350 to $650) after the 30th. Not sure why, since I do remember that back in the days when Beth and I were flying to Phoenix for Christmas we’d fly on Christmas and New Year’s because the fares were so much cheaper. Not this time. Anyway, all was clear for Alex to fly back (and it’s a bummer that we have to leave him so far away from the gates nowadays) but the weather was rotten in Seattle. Very snowy, very cold. Our friend Scott picked him up again at the airport, although luggage was pretty tight again since he returned with more than he left with. The roads were also bad enough that the Miata couldn’t get up the hill into Alex’s apartment complex. And also there was little food in the apartment and the pizza places were closed. But he got Uber Eats once he got there. Then we found out that because of covid, his classes are all going to be online only for the first 2 weeks of the term. If we’d known that, he could have stayed home longer. I just hope it doesn’t turn into online only for the whole term. That would suck. He also needs to have a booster shot to go back to campus, which we should have had done while he was home. But he got it scheduled there himself, and will have it next week. So back to the new normal with Alex away from home, sigh.

We spent Monday visiting with the Pinksters in Shipshewana. We met them in the early afternoon and went shopping with them in all the shops up there (I had to take Nat home after a while because she was having an episode) but then went back and we continued shopping. Alex rode back and forth with me because he wasn’t really into the shopping part either. But, after shopping the place dry, we headed out to the Essenhaus in Middlebury for dinner, only to find it unexpectedly closed when we got there. Apparently it is always closed on Monday and we forgot what day it was. So we headed back to Shipshewana and ate at a big Amish restaurant there instead, the Blue Gate. Julia loved the cookbook that Beth made for her.

Laura and Thomas (and Chloe) came to visit while Alex was still here. They spent Christmas with Thomas’ brother in South Carolina and drove up here on the way back (so a lot of car time for them). They got here on the 28th, and Beth made pretzel dogs (Alex’s request for a home meal) in time for them to have dinner with us at home. Then we all played Jackbox at home the rest of the evening. They had never heard of it, but really enjoyed playing it. Wednesday Beth and Laura took the girls to the Beaded Peacock to spend the girl’s gift certificates, while Thomas and Alex and I went to Super Geeks to check out their closeout sale and Chimp’s to check out stuff. I got a new game at Super Geeks since the business is closing and everything was on sale. We had planned on trying axe throwing at Super Geeks but they’d already closed the lanes, so we discussed going to FW for axe throwing or laser tag or escape room, but in the end decided to stay home and play games. Especially Jackbox. We also took them out to dinner at Oak & Alley in the evening. They got us McDonald’s for breakfast on Thursday before heading out again.

New Year’s Eve was also low key for Beth and me. Missy went to the Monsma’s for a sleepover with Kathryn and Natalie was with Reallity all evening, so Beth and I just went out for sushi for dinner and then watched movies at home. We were waiting for Nat to call us to pick her up but as it turned out they dropped her off (at around 1:30 am) so we didn’t have to go get her, which was nice. Beth was taking Alex going back to college pretty hard so she wasn’t in much of a mood for anything anyway