Grandpa and Grandma Becky posted this picture on the Buckwalter family chat:  Taken at 9:21 pm - The 21st minute of the 21st hour of the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century!

So we had to do the same!  Bri took the day off, so he happened to be home when I ran into the office to capture the moment (MST).  :)

Since November, China has started getting Covid cases again.  Seems like they started in Shanghai and Tianjin, and we were fine here in Beijing until close to Christmas.  Shunyi, where a lot of the international schools are and embassy families live, cases spread from one man contracting it on a flight.  Pretty quickly because of contact tracing, everyone that had interacted with him were tested as well, and other positive cases were discovered.  I guess because of what seemed like a quick spread, different Shunyi neighborhoods were locked down and schools were closed and went virtual.  After the Christmas holiday then, most schools required a negative covid test result.  I started hearing from friends days before the New Year that they had to be tested, but our school didn't notify us until 5:30pm New Year's Eve.  Awesome.  The parent chats for the school were bustling with frantic parents asking where they could get tested, and I may have added my own complaint about the short notice.  It was Friday night as everyone is about to celebrate the holiday of the new year, and we had to have the results by Sunday night.  Luckily someone recommended BJU for quick testing.  So I called and made an appointment for the next morning.  Here we are in the taxi.

Luckily they did the testing by appointment, so it was very organized and the line was fairly short.  We did have to pay about $65 per test though compared to some much cheaper and even free locations, so I'm sure it deterred a lot of people from going to that location.

These kids are troopers.  No complaints at all.  They've learned to accept and do what needs to be done.  And we were grateful it was just a throat swab instead of the dreaded nose swab we have experienced before.

 

Love these kiddos!  They're still smiling for me after a Covid test that made them stand out in the cold for 45 minutes on the first morning of their New Year.  What a way to start 2021!  We're hoping this is not a foreshadowing of how this year will play out.  We're hoping for better this year with the vaccines that are starting to be released!

 

There are really no words to describe 2020 with the pandemic that took over and stopped the world from functioning normally.  Up to this point, we have had nearly 350,000 deaths in the U.S. alone.  Everyone is ready to move on from masks and obsessive hand washing, social distancing, canceling major events, virtual school, limited travel, and working from home, all while dealing with political division sweeping the nation with the 2020 Presidential Elections, and Trump claiming the election was stolen from him the last two months.  Enough already!  Suffice it to say, that everyone is looking forward to a hopefully better 2021.  There have been some pretty funny memes and quotes on the subject, and this was one of my favorites.  It doesn't sound too promising, but here's to hoping!

For our Friday night meals, Sally usually makes dough for us to make pizzas, and we had her do it this week as well.  Everyone loves her pizza dough and the individual pizzas everyone gets.

I scrounge up some leftovers while the pizzas are devoured.

After eating dinner, we walked over to Solana Mall just down the street from us to look at the lights.  The mall is decorated with an adorable cartoon monster theme.

 

Rhea got eaten by a Venus Flytrap.

For the past few weeks, the lights have attracted people to the mall by the thousands.  Luckily we can walk there and not have to deal with traffic and parking!

 

An awesome sea monster was coming out of the walls of the mall.  We did not expect to see all of the little European looking booths that we loved in Latvia!

 

It was super cold, and even with our multiple layers on, we were freezing.  So of course we had to grab some hot chocolate from McDonalds!

Fun lights everywhere.

When we'd had enough lights and cold, we headed home.  For an hour or so, Savannah played some online games with friends scattered around the world, while Thomas played Rocket League and Hollow Knight with Carter and Rhea watched fireworks Briant and me.  We found some live fireworks being broadcast from Sydney, Australia.  It was fun for Rhea to see the harbor bridge and Sydney Opera house and be able to say, "We've been there!  I remember that!"

 

Some people felt like it was fake to celebrate after the challenging 2020, but we definitely wanted to celebrate the END of 2020 and the beginning of a New Year with new opportunities!

After fireworks, Savannah was done with her friends and joined us for some games of Qwixx and a few episodes of West Wing that Briant has gotten them addicted to. ;)

Thomas stayed on with his friends.

 

All of us amazingly made it to 12:00am to ring in the New Year, even tired mom and dad.  We gave our New Year's hugs and kisses and said a family prayer before heading to bed.  Rhea was proud of herself and made sure we knew that she's capable of late nights now like the other kids. ;)

Here's to a healthy and happy 2021!

 

 

The traditional gift for a 20th wedding anniversary is China, and Briant literally gave me that!  So here we are now on December 18th celebrating 21 years of being married while living in Beijing for five months, and after walking around in HelloMart with a variety of Chinese food options, we chose to be fancy and go to Taco Bell.  :)  It was the first time we'd eaten there since we left the States, so it was a real treat.  We were actually trying to make it to an early 3D showing of Wonder Woman 1984, and we didn't have much time from when Briant ended Mandarin classes to when the movie would start.  So we knew dinner needed to be fast and easy.  It was perfect.  It didn't taste like home, but it was as close to American Taco Bell that I think we could get.  I actually wish our Taco Bells back home served sweet potato fries like this one did!

And we had a laugh at Briant's little doughnut balls. He was expecting more than three.  ;) 

So I guess there's no real traditional gift for a 21st anniversary, but suggested gifts are brass or nickel.  I think a few of our purchases over the past few months qualify. ;)

 

All week we reflected on the last 21 years and the memories of different school and job opportunities and raising the kids in different states and countries, what we've learned about the world, ourselves, and each other.  We had moments of laughter, moments of thoughtfulness, and moments of wonder as we think of our future.  A number of times, we wondered about different "what if" scenerios--what if Bri hadn't gone to law school, what if I hadn't gone to graduate school and taught special education, what if I had just gone to the Indiana Jones Trilogy that Bri asked me to instead of telling him that I had to study for a test 3.5 years before the infamous barbecue where sparks flew after my mission, ;)  what if we had joined the foreign service earlier, what if we had invested my hard earned babysitting money in Amazon in 2000 instead of 2017, etc.  And the big question was, what if we could go back 21 years knowing what we know now, would we want to?  What pain could we avoid and prevent by going back and applying what we know now?  We concluded that every decision we've made has led us to where we are now and we think it was all important to actually get us to this point.  We don't know if there's anything that we should or could have changed, that would have still kept us on this trajectory of happiness and contentment.  We are where we need to be, and all of this crazy living we've done has helped develop us individually and strengthen our love and commitment to each other and our marriage.  Our rough imperfections are slowly, and beautifully softening as we help each other and are taught by our patient and loving children.  They seem to be our greatest reminders of our weaknesses and we appreciate their patience with us as we learn to be better parents.  The past 21 years haven't been easy, but they've certainly been worth it and I'm grateful to have gone through them with my honey bunny, cuddle bear Bri who I love with all my heart.