Hot & Humid in Houston: Christmas

We gave the kids the board game, Sorry!, as an end of the semester gift. We thought it would be good to have a new game to play during our break, especially to help pass the time before Christmas. They tend to get so excited and eager for Christmas, that they don't often know what to do with themselves, so this would give them something to do. I played this game as a kid and always liked it, so I thought I'd pass that joy along. Well, the first game ended with one child throwing all the game pieces off the board because they thought they were going to lose. That child was sent upstairs. The second game ended with a different child throwing a tantrum because they did lose. Not the Christmas joy that I had expected. We have played many games since while learning how to lose graciously and not bad-mouth our opponents. The lessons that must be taught with each new game we introduce.

A few days before Christmas, we stopped by Chick-fil-a and got the kids dinner and milkshakes right as the sun was setting. Then we drove around a neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. The neighborhood we drove to is known for their lights and it did not disappoint. House after house had huge displays of inflatables and lights covering their entire front yards. Each year there are pick-up trucks hauling Christmas-decorated hay-filled trailers packed with people to tour the neighborhood. (We looked up how much it would cost to do this because it looked like fun. It was $125! So, we'll continue to tour the neighborhood from the comfort of our own car.) After we left that particular neighborhood, the kids asked to drive around our neighborhood a little to look at lights. We didn't because it would have been like going from F.A.O. Schwartz to Walmart.

Todd took many walks with Henry and Caroline over the course of this week. He took them out individually, so he got close to 10,000 steps on his walks alone. Josiah had me draw with him. We watched an artist on YouTube teach us how to draw. We did Jack Skellington and a young Robin. As a family, we watched a different Christmas movie each day. We got in all the favorites: Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc.

As Christmas approached, Caroline created a security alarm in front of her room. It was quite effective for the grown folk who couldn't pass it, but the little folk all managed to squeeze by.

We did not make it out to our church service for Christmas Eve, but we did watch it online. Since they always light candles for Silent Night, we held birthday candles. I don't know when we will go back to church, but I think it is going to shock our systems to sit for the whole service, to dress up nicely, and to pay attention. We tend to have a lot of hot chocolate making, drawing, walking around, snacking, and lying on the couch during church-at-home.

Henry wanted everyone to wear our green Family Fun Run t-shirts to bed Christmas Eve. We only had two kid sizes left, so Josiah got to wear Todd's. Todd wore his Calvinist Santa t-shirt which said, "Everybody's on the naughty list." All the kids slept in Josiah's room. Henry fell asleep first, followed by Josiah at 10:00 p.m. Caroline was still awake at 10:30, but I was too tired to stay up any later, so we just shut Josiah's bedroom door and delivered the gifts under the tree. Josiah, for the first time in his life, did not wake up at 3:00 a.m. Christmas morning. Thank. Goodness. I actually got up at 5:00 a.m. with Benson and was shocked to find everyone still asleep. He and I spent some time in the backyard, but then went back to sleep ourselves. Josiah woke me up at 5:55 a.m., which was pretty good. And Christmas began. The kids got Lego kits and doll clothes, games and clothes, video games, books, soccer balls, and candy. So many things. They wanted to put everything together all at once. The boys disappeared to put together their smaller Lego kits while Todd made our traditional sausage balls. Then after all the presents were opened, they went back and completed their larger Lego kits. We got them a pogo stick as a joint gift to the 'Cool Kids' (the name of their stunt group). My grandparents had one at their house growing up which I loved, so I was hoping they would like it, too. Henry took to it right away and it wasn't long before he reached 100 jumps in a row. Caroline continues to practice, but she's still in the single digits with her jumps. The pogo stick is a little big for her. I think she needs a bit more weight to get it working easier. Josiah is practicing to get his number of jumps up, too. And, since Todd says I am really a twelve year old trapped in an adult body, I reached 35 jumps in a row.

And a few days after Christmas, we had our first pogo injury. Henry said he was trying to do tricks on it already when it came up and hit him on the chin. He had a circle mark on his chin and a busted lip. We have reminded the kids that we just paid off Caroline's broken arm from a year and a half ago. We really do not want to pay a medical deductible at the end of December. If they have to get injured, could they at least wait til January?

One of Josiah's favorite gifts this year was a fountain pen. He kept talking about how much he wanted one because Charles Schultz had one. We figured out how to attach the ink cartridge and he was a happy camper writing with it.

Henry got a digital watch for Christmas and he has been timing everything with the stopwatch portion. He timed Caroline opening the rest of her Christmas gifts. He times everything. Sometimes he just keeps the timer running and announces that it's up to three hours. He really likes to push all the buttons on it and inform us all of the time.

We had our traditional Christmas dinner of tacos. Tamales are actually the Christmas tradition in this area of Texas. The grocery stores were filled with them. Instead of regular tamales, Todd picked up dessert tamales at the store. A pumpkin cheesecake and a strawberry. They were much too sweet for me, but the kids liked them. We also made a birthday cake for Jesus. Caroline's Awana leader dropped off a Christmas bag with all the things we would need to make the cake. Henry was really against making a cake for some reason. He thought it wasn't part of our tradition and he didn't want to change or add any new traditions. However, I knew we had made a birthday cake for Jesus before because I had kept the email recipe from 2017. I remember it distinctly because we were to make a chocolate cake - dark to represent our sins, with white icing which was Jesus covering our sins. When we ate that particular cake, Henry remarked that he liked the sin part best.