December had fewer activities and concerts than previous years, but it was still a month full of the anticipation and excitement of Christmas. We tried to keep most of our family traditions to make the month feel as normal as possible.
We went to a drive-thru community Christmas event and it was a bust. We had to wait a really long time to drive through and see Santa. The kids got grumpy and then the promised goody bag was a disappointment. We got one bag with only 1 packet of hot chocolate, 1 candy cane, etc. The kids weren't happy! They were excited to see Santa though.
We had some really mild days in December and the kids brought the sidewalk chalk back out. This is Lincoln's depiction of Grinch mountain and Whoville. He did another drawing a few days later with more detail that took up more of the driveway. I thought his drawings were very clever.
I said good-bye to another friend this year. Our church congregation tends to be fairly transient, but this year I lost a lot of really good friends. It has been hard to be socially distant from them and then realize that we won't be together once we can get together again. I did give my friend a big hug goodbye and we are looking forward to a visit maybe this year at their new house on the Maine coast.
I love Lincoln and Annika's teacher. She is really doing her best to teach the kids this year and still do fun activities with them. They made these Grinch faces in school and Lincoln had me hole punch eye holes in his face so he could wear it as a mask.
Did you see it? Did you see the Christmas star? I guess it's better known as the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, but I was really excited to see this astronomical event. No surprise, but it's frequently cloudy in Syracuse, but on Friday, December 18th we had a clear evening and we were able to go outside and see the conjunction. I realize the peak day was December 21st, but it was cloudy that day. We made a big deal about this with the kids. We sat at the end of our driveway in the van watching the "star" above our neighbor's house. In the second picture the moon is on the left of the picture with the star above the point of our neighbor's garage.
The last two days of school were supposed to be in-person learning days for my kids, but with the rise in Covid cases in the area the school moved to full remote learning. The kids' teacher still tried to make things fun over class Zoom meetings. Her college-aged son was willing to dress up as Santa and visit the class. They kids were SO excited and he was a perfect Santa. Lincoln knew it wasn't the real Santa though because Mrs. Corl and Santa "weren't wearing face masks!" I thought his reasoning was hilarious.
Annual Gingerbread House decorating.
I bought gingerbread house kits last year after Christmas 50% off. It was SO nice to have the kits ready to go this year without having to make the house pieces. I already bought my discounted kits for next year. Sometimes I just need to simplify because it makes for better memories.
Eden's house quickly fell over, but she took it in stride. Lincoln's house didn't fit in the above picture so his is pictured below.
Christmas Eve
The morning started with a Monopoly game. The kids played a lot of Monopoly before Christmas and most of the games ended well without too many tears. I have no patience for games that take hours of my day, but I'm glad the kids enjoy these games.
Our annual re-enactment of the Nativity was fraught with fighting over angels, Mary, etc, so the three little ones and Joseph were the only ones willing to participate while I read out of the Bible. Rebecah did a video recording.
Mary and Joseph lovingly looking at Baby Jesus.
For Christmas Eve dinner we ate dinner in the family room while we watch The Nativity Story. A friend told me about this full-length movie depicting the birth of Christ so we watched it. It was interesting and I enjoyed it. To end our evening the kids opened presents from "Grandma" Bev. She always puts together fun gift bags for the kids. She scored a HUGE win with Kimball this year giving him a package of 2020 football cards. I looked multiple times at multiple stores for football cards for Kimball for Christmas and couldn't find any. Bev just happened to look at Target and she was there at the right time and found a box of cards for Kimball. It was probably his favorite gift.
Christmas
Christmas morning before the kids came downstairs.
Kimball had a disappointing Christmas not getting exactly what he wanted or thought he would get. He is finally at that age where he really needs to be consulted on his gifts. I guess it's a trade off...be surprised but disappointed, or know what you are getting, and be happy. I would always choose the latter. Kimball and Joseph made a few returns the day after Christmas and bought other things and then everything was okay.
The rest of the kids were so happy with all of their gifts. I did make one "oops" on a coloring book for Annika. I admit that I can't keep up with all of the coloring books that enter our door and I picked out a coloring book that she had bought with birthday money. Her facial expression was great. She looked at me with eyes that said: "Are you serious or is this a joke?" I realized I had goofed and asked her if she had that one already. We just made a return and let her pick out her own coloring book. Annika LOVES to color and she and Rebecah spend a lot of time coloring out of adult coloring books. My faux pas was not to be taken lightly!
I found this Harry Potter 8-disc set a few months ago for a bargain. Rebecah was SO excited. She thought owning the movies was only a dream...now it's a dream come true.
Scooters for the little ones. They have loved riding in the basement!
Dear, dear Joseph loves cherry pie, but he is the only one. Annika and Rebecah each had a small piece of the pie, but decided other pies were better. Since the pie was left for Joseph to eat, he ate it in style! I actually think he ate that large wedge over the course of a few days, but it makes for a good picture. At least the crust didn't have a soggy bottom!
We had a quiet New Year's Eve and New Year's day. Joseph worked both days. We had fun appetizer food for dinner on NYE and we watched Soul. The only one of us to ring in the New Year awake was Kimball and even he set an alarm to wake up at 11:55 pm.
We had our first big snowfall the evening of December 28th/29th. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow and we woke up to a foot. The kids enjoyed building forts and having snowball fights. Eden doesn't stay out long so she was my inside buddy.
We received word that our school will continue with remote learning until January 19th. I'm pretty bummed! The kids need to be in school and remote learning just isn't the same. The holidays over the last few months have really caused the Covid cases to rise in our area.
