Winter Break in Driftwood

COVID has presented all sorts of questions and conversations that we've never had to consider in the past. Above all, we have chosen to prioritize the health and safety of our family, figuring out what that looks like responsibly for us. With school being possible from anywhere and a huge escape compound an hour away, we made the decision to take the risk and spend an extended Winter Break in Driftwood with our extended family, believing in the safe and responsible choices they were making.

Debbie took the preschool crowd first, and the others came afterward.

Rona's first road trip!

The 5th night of Chanukah had arrived, and the team worked together on latkes 2 ways - traditional potato and zucchini parmesan.

Candle lighting on Night 5:

Gildens and Cohens exchanged presents that night, and while all were exciting, the highlight of the night quickly became Joey's new rocket launcher.


The next day, Team Cohen was "in charge" of children for a remote TCDC day. We were excited to paint our canvases gifted from Grandma and Grandpa a few days earlier!


The fun moved outside for recess!

And more exploring with the new rocket but OUTSIDE!


Pregaming our fun together the next week through video communications:

Chanukah, Night 6:

Nana and Zayde gifted Spencer 789,000 PJ Masks stickers, and this kept Shayna and Spencer busy for quite some time.

Gabi, Nana, and Aunt Syssa tried out our new game Quirkle. As more nights together increased, the women's competitive spirit with this game did as well.

Highlights from the next vacation camp day at Driftwood TCDC:

making pumpkin muffins

Chanukah, Night 7:

Another day, another Driftwood TCDC:

science with Nana!

Gotta love all this nature to explore, literally in the backyard!

They loved the tree stump drums and exploring the different sounds made by each.

Chanukah, Night 8, full of light!


Technically, we still had one more DAY of Chanukah, and we were grateful for yet another craft from Grandma and Grandpa to help celebrate the season!

On Shabbat morning, Aunt Sandi and Mira both read Torah - from Houston - and there we all were in Driftwood cheering them in with grand support.

We enjoyed tons of togetherness and gorgeous weather outside with unseasonably warm temperatures!


On one special night, we went for a drive through the neighborhood to see lights and holiday decorations.

After the weekend, TCDC was back in business for Vacation Camp. We decided to go out on a field trip to explore a new park but had to stop before leaving the neighborhood to say hi to this guy!

Our Field Trip took us down the road to Charro Ranch Park, a perfect COVID park with little to touch, lots to explore, and well-established trails. Debbie stayed mostly with the little guys at their pace:

Jon kept up with these wackos:

As if the park wasn't perfect enough for the day, we came upon THE SOLSTICE CIRCLE - on December 21st - on the WINTER SOLSTICE!!! We had a fantastic mini science lesson about how the angle of the earth affects the length of sunlight in a day, and the monument helped tremendously by making it more concrete and comprehensible.

More fun from our field trip to Charro Ranch Park:


Back at the ranch, we were excited to open one of the very last gifts of Chanukah 2020: personalized crayon letters for each little Cohen from our Cohen cousins in Florida

But wait - There's more! More people and presents, that is. Team Cohan arrived for the 2nd week of our vacation in Driftwood, bringing along the gifts of craft, painting, and new treasure boxes (along with their company, of course)!

multi-day, multi-step project

If the children ask for hot chocolate at Vacation Camp, the answer is, why not? They want candy canes inside? Extra marshmallows? Sure!


We played in Driftwood for a full two weeks, Team Cohan joining us for Week II. There were so many fun cousin moments, and it was great that they could entertain each other during a worldwide pandemic with very few playmates.

(Remember, Rona was there too.)

Another field trip took us to NW Austin for a change in scenery and a visit with the kitties.

Dairy Queen blizzards for the ride home!

Being that we were all together (missing Boston, of course!) on December 23, we decided to have extra fun for Nana and Zayde's anniversary with a custom-made, group experiential puzzle.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Even though his birthday had been a couple of weeks earlier, we just had to celebrate Jacob turning 11 with an ice cream cake!


Since TCDC had really enjoyed Charro Ranch Park earlier in the week, we introduced the rest of the fam to the exploration fun a few days later.

another gorgeous day!

so much for social distancing... or groups limited to 10...

We made our very own homemade gingerbread cookies before calling winter break a success. We even decorated them with - whatever we could find in the pantry.


And in conclusion-