Merry Christmas!
Mom gave us a fake-snow machine! It’s more convincing than one might think–particularly in pictures.
I baked gingersnaps, orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, chocolate shortbread, baguettes (for Christmas Eve cheese fondue), and dinner rolls (for Christmas dinner).
I bought twinkling lights for the tree this year and so had several extra strands of lights leftover. I tried my hand at writing “Merry” on the fence (I think it came out pretty well).
On Christmas Eve everyone took turns reading stories. Heather played a few songs on the cello. I played a few songs on the trombone. We opened books from the girls and spent some time reading and eating treats. London practiced being a present under the tree. And then Santa came.
The girls were up about their usual time on Christmas morning–which is about 6:45. But they let us sleep a little longer and we got the morning moving around 7:30.
After pictures and stockings in the living room we moved on to the family room with the tree. But first Corinne had a few surprises of her own for the morning. She created, in secret, a surprise gift randomizer. This entailed her writing down gifts from herself on sheets of paper and sticking them in the pages of a picture book. We each opened the book to a random page to receive a special gift from her. Several of them involved her making us special items in Minecraft. She also gave us gifts she made at school including her “Christmas is…” book in which she describes the memories that make Christmas special for her.
I ordered the family campfire art from Uncommon Goods. Took a few back and forths with the artist to get the proof correct, but it came out pretty well. Even has London and Phoenix curled up by the fire.
Corinne was super excited to receive a box of “Captain Crunch’s Oops all Berries.”
I found a copy of the Springbok “Twelve Days of Christmas” puzzle on eBay for a non-absurd price. Jess’ family had it growing up and she’s been wanting it for nostalgia for a while.
Corinne became enamored of the horse toy when she saw it in a local shop. So she was extremely happy to find it under the tree.
Heather received a variety of things, but I think the thing she ended up being most excited about was the wireless computer mouse that she can use at school with her Chromebook and at home with her tablet.
Amongst other things (including the aforementioned snow machine), I received a variety of 3D printing supplies including some fancy filaments and a case for my newish Kobo eReader (which I keep meaning to write up a quick post about because I’m very pleased with it).
It was a good year. Though for unknown reasons I really had a hard time feeling much Christmas spirit this year. Didn’t feel like Christmas was near and then it was here and even during the day it somehow didn’t feel like it was happening. The girls all seemed to have a blast though. Corinne still has the unbridled joy and excitement of childhood that clearly comes through in her pictures. Heather is reaching the more subdued teenager stage.
I think perhaps next year I need to spend less time in the immediately preceding days trying to get baking done and more time just enjoying things. Maybe it will be easier if there aren’t car repairs needing to be scheduled (still not done), leaking ceilings to be worried about (hopefully resolved), and broken dryers to be fixed (seems to be working again now). Being an adult can sure be a drag sometimes.