Hot & Humid in Houston: Christmas 2021

Josiah and Todd started their week off with some healthy exercise. They walked to a Goodwill store nearby. Todd was looking for dress shirts. Josiah was looking at everything. When Josiah finally made it to the clothing section, Todd noted he had an affinity for 70s looking clothing. Yay?!!?..... Josiah did end up getting one long sleeve blue & white dress shirt, which had more of a classic look. Todd found two shirts for himself. Though they enjoyed the walk there, they did call for an Uber for the return trip. The kids and I picked them up and we stopped for milkshakes on the way home.

Tuesday, we went to see the new Spiderman movie. It was good, but I think it was better just because we got to go to the theater again. The last time we went, it was a covid-free (for humans) world.

And as soon as we got home, Josiah started drawing.

Midweek, Caroline opened up our new gate/fence for Benson. We have a corner of the yard that we want to keep him out of because he punched through a weak spot in the fence. He liked to stick his nose out and bark ferociously at those who passed by. Caroline opened the gate in the school room and immediately got the idea to put herself in jail. Her idea. The kids went all-in on this idea and decided that Henry and Caroline would spend 24 hours in jail with Josiah as their warden. They literally moved into jail and were as happy as could be. Josiah was a special kind of warden. Every minute he had them doing something. He'd give them 10 minutes of rec time in the back yard. 10 minutes of games in the playroom. 10 minutes to find a book to bring back to their cells. 10 minutes for snacks. Bathroom breaks were closely monitored. It was a bit camp-esque. All I could think of was trying to explain to a real police officer, "Sir, I promise you, they want to be in the cage. They asked to be in the cage." Not too surprisingly, they did not last a full 24 hours. I think they made it through two hours before they started to rebel against their warden.

We left early for Christmas Eve service in case there was any traffic along the way. There wasn't so we ended up 45 minutes early for church. We walked around outside before taking our seats 30 minutes early. We did a lot of people watching at that point. It was a short service with lots of Christmas songs and the story of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. The service ended with a candlelight Silent Night singing. In years past, the kids held their candles very still and enjoyed watching them burn. This year Henry got a little fire-happy. He wanted to play with his candle, the wax, and mostly the flame. During the course of this one song, his candle mysteriously blew out twice. After he lit it for the third time, he used the light to look at his burned finger. From what I gathered, he "accidently" dripped some wax on it. Caroline was on the far end from me, but Todd said she, too, was quite interested in the melting wax. Josiah stood stationary and had no wax incidents.

Christmas Eve photos before church:

We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas before the kids sent themselves off to bed at 7:30. They were too excited for Christmas and they all decided to sleep in Henry's room. They played and chatted for a long time. They really wanted Benson in there, too, but he spread out on his own bed.

Christmas morning started early for the eldest. Josiah said he woke at 3:00 a.m. and was too excited to go back to sleep. He took Benson for his early morning walk with Todd. By 6 a.m., he couldn't wait any longer. The kids started with their stockings and played with their new keyboard while they waited for Todd and I to get ready.

After we had finished Christmas morning, Caroline downloaded an app that is teaching her how to play the keyboard. She's already learned C, D, & E and says they're teaching her a song.

The kids were incredibly blessed by their grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. Legos and toys, books and games, crafts and gaming systems. So many things.

All day on Christmas they crafted & played, they competed & fought & made-up (usually).

Caroline made a special Christmas card for Josiah. It wasn't Harry Potter, but Harry Pooper. Potty humor is still alive and going strong around here...