Hi Y'all. Haven't been in this space ever. We had another blog we used at the beginning of our marriage but we hadn’t updated it in like... three years? In that time Aaron joined the Air Force, we had another baby, we moved a couple times, etc. Life gets busy. And when we went to share this fun post with you we discovered our old site was infected with Malware. So here’s to a fresh start!

But, as Ted Mosby would say, I'm back babydoll! And the thing bringing me out of blogger hibernation is a celebration I just HAVE to share.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that 2020 has been a year full of unexpected challenges and constraints. Coronavirus has rocked all of our worlds. It's also made a lot of the things our family might usually do for fun, if not full-on canceled, then a lot less safe. We're being extra cautious because I have severe asthma which puts me at higher risk of adverse outcomes. Our kids have been out of school since March, we barely interact with people in person who don't live in our house,  we didn't go in stores for something like 6 months and we still won't eat inside restaurants. It's a season of life full of obstacles, but we decided that we will not let Coronavirus kill our fun.

We are embracing this time together as a family and leaning in to a core strength of Aaron and I as a couple. We throw great parties, and are always willing to go all-in on a theme. Enter our family holiday calendar. If you're coming to us from Facebook or Insta, you might have seen some of our themed celebrations along the way... but we recently decided, we could do MORE. We made a big calendar of traditional holidays, real celebrations, and a couple of zany named-days and we've committed to fill our schedule with festive fun.

First up, OKTOBERFEST! They officially tapped the kegs in Munich this weekend, so we followed suit with a celebration in our backyard.

Here are pictures of our fun!  While we've finished our celebration, there are still 2 weeks of Oktoberfest left, so if you want to throw your own Oktoberfest I'll share resources and recommendations below.

The great thing about at home celebrations is that you can make them as simple or as elaborate as you wish. This year for us was about establishing the tradition, so we went all out on costumes and decor and we left catering to Door Dash of a nice little local German Restaurant (Edelweiss for you COS locals) and a couple of take-home growlers from a local brewery.

I believe this is a party you could have on wide range of budgets. My dirndl is the real deal and Aaron’s lederhosen are leather, but there is a really wide range of options to fit a whole bunch of price points, or you could skip the garb and just go for hats! Really once you’ve filled a couple steins, you might not notice the difference :)

Clara wore a shirt we picked up on our last European adventure. It was purchased for Magnus in Munich when he was about 16 months old and Charlie was in utero, but it paired perfectly with a jumper for that #babyfashion. Everything else came from Amazon!