Twas the Week Before Christmas

The week leading up to Christmas is usually busy and full of final preparations, family gatherings, and last minute shopping.  This year, however, was quite the opposite.  The kids had the entire week off school.  When my running partner tested positive for COVID after we had run together, I found myself quarantining at home with my family.  Although the hospital policy allows you to work as long as you are asymptomatic, I chose to take my 2 days off work that week to err on the side of caution.  So our week leading up to Christmas was spent together...at home...much like the rest of our 2020.  It was a nice way to ease into our Christmas and we found some fun activities to fill our time.

Although I didn't get to wear my festive work shirt the week of Christmas, I did get to put it to use the week before.

We filled our days at home with play time, finishing up homemade Christmas gifts, doing Christmas cards, cleaning, and baking.  Here Adelie is acting out the Christmas story with our nativity set while Fuzzington watches.

We filled our evenings with family games, Christmas treats, and Christmas movies.

We enjoyed driving over to watch the Christmas light display at the Barn 3 one evening.  My kids love Christmas light displays and we found some new ones to add to our repertoire this Christmas season.

We made sugar cookies and gingerbread men.

And then the kids spent a long time decorating all the cookies we made.  We also made bread that the kids delivered to some neighbors and friends.

The kids wanted to sleep in a tent in the girls' room one night.  Although all 3 of them started the night in the tent, only the littlest made it until morning.  Staley woke up around 11:00 and went to sleep in Briggs' bed.  Adelie then woke up around 1:00 and ended up sleeping in Staley's bed.  Thankfully Briggs made it all night in the tent since we were out of beds as we had to move Adelie's bed to put up the tent.

And since Uma and Papa recently recovered from Covid, they were comfortable having us over for a little family time on Christmas Eve.

We enjoyed brunch, lots of family games, visiting, and play time.

We have sorely missed spending quality time with our families, so this was such a wonderful day to be together with Uma and Papa again.

My positive exposure made us rethink getting together with my family.  Instead of being together in person, we instead spent time virtually on Zoom to open gifts.  It was not typical.  It was not ideal.  But it was still Christmas with the family and we made it work.  The kids still loved seeing their cousins and got fun new things like binoculars, new pajamas, Lego sets, games, bug catchers, books, jewelry, craft supplies, Hatchimals, and clothes.

Instead of rushing into Christmas full-steam ahead, we had a week of ample time at home to ease in without any stress or pressure.  We enjoyed family time, had plenty of time to get all our preparations done, and were all ready to enjoy the big day when it arrived.

Question of the Day

We are trying to teach our kids more responsibility and self-reliance.  Since making themselves simple meals is well within my children's capabilities, we have now made it their responsibility to prepare their own school lunches.  If they choose to be cold lunch, they then are in charge of making their own lunch the night before (according to health guidelines spelled out by their mother).  So the question is:

Should I be proud that my kids have taken on the responsibility of making their own lunches?  Or should I be disappointed that the act of making their lunches has revealed a complete inability to clean up after themselves?

Take note of the open peanut butter, jelly, graham crackers, bread, cheese, and mustard spread across the counter.  Don't miss the lid to the jelly jar face down on the kitchen floor, the dirty knives on the counter, or Briggs' actual sandwich that didn't even make it into his lunch box.

Lunches made?  Check!

Now it's time to move on to step 2 in this 'learning-to-be-responsible' lesson.

Virtually Christmas

Most years, December is one of the busiest months of the year.  Amidst the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas, there are a plethora of Christmas programs, Christmas concerts, Christmas performances, and Christmas plays.  And although the kids' Aladdin, Jr. play that was scheduled for this past week-end has been postponed until they can have a live audience, most of the usual programs continued on in a virtual platform.  I do find joy watching my kids in all their programs, but I definitely enjoyed being able to do that in my comfy clothes on the couch.

The school Christmas concert is one that I did NOT miss attending in person.  It is always ridiculously crowded, hot, chaotic, and difficult to even see my kids.  Watching them at home on screen was a way more pleasant experience.

Each of the grades just sang 2 songs with 4th grade singing 3.

The camera got lots of wide angled shots, but also panned the children for up-close views of the kids.  They never got a great up-close view of Adelie, but they were able to get a few close-ups of Briggs.

Staley was front and center, so there were plenty of good views of her during the program.

We have not been attending our church throughout this fall/winter, but the kids were able to still be part of the church Christmas program by submitting a video of Staley and Adelie reading Bible verses that were included during the hybrid in person/virtual Christmas program this year.  I think it helped them to watch the program and realize that we are not the only family choosing not to attend church in person at this time.

The girls also got to perform in the NTA Christmas Cabaret with their Broadway Dance class.  Although this is generally a fun in-person performance, the pre-recorded virtual fundraiser worked well and was really fun to watch.  We especially liked that we could pause and rewind and watch the girls' dance several different times.

We have enjoyed our more relaxing, laid back Christmas season.  And although the Christmas programs this year were not typical, there was definitely something pleasant about watching them on our own time, in our own home, as a family.  No crowds.  No time crunch.  No having to change out of my comfy pants.  The kids still got to be a part of their Christmas programs while we got to enjoy the programs in our own way.  In some ways, I wouldn't mind keeping it this way every single year.

He Says...

Aunt Melissa was texting the other day, asking a few questions about some of Briggs' favorite things.  First she texted to ask what his favorite animal is.  When I relayed the question to him, he replied, "Baby chicks and giraffes and all the animals, even unicorns."  When I asked him to choose his most favorite, he responded, "The prettiest unicorn in the whole entire world." 

Aunt Melissa then asked about his favorite movie or TV show.  He said, "Probably Thomas, but I have lots of favorites.  Like a thousand."  

I'm assuming for Christmas, Aunt Melissa will be getting Briggs the prettiest unicorn in the whole entire world and a thousand different movies and TV shows.  Fingers crossed!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

In the midst of a global pandemic, there are plenty of dark points.  But when things are dark, it just makes those bright spots that much more hope-filled and uplifting.  With Christmas less than 2 weeks away, we have been filling our early December days with the hope and light of the Christmas season.  We have stocked up on Christmas books from the library, enjoyed Christmas movies on family movie night, worked hard on making Christmas gifts for others, played for hours with the Christmas train, and rejoiced in the fact that one of our favorite Christmas time activities (driving around to look at Christmas lights) is perfectly suited for pandemic life.

We went on the day after Thanksgiving to pick out our tree.  There is nothing like the smell of a fresh evergreen tree to make the house feel full of Christmas cheer.

The kids were very helpful in getting the tree and the house decorated for Christmas.  

We've enjoyed some Christmas "recitals" of Christmas songs on the piano.

We have also had recitals of non-Christmas songs by the newbie who hasn't quite advanced to playing Christmas songs yet.

There have been dress up days and festive activities at school...

filming of various Christmas programs for virtual viewing...

and the purchase of a new train Christmas decoration that has been the highlight of the season for one certain member of the household.

In the midst of dark times, I am so thankful for the light and the hope that the Christmas season brings.

Question of the Day?

Zach got a handwritten thank you note from Fleet Feet with a $25 gift card to thank him for "all his support" over the past several years.  So the question is:  What is the dollar amount that a person has to spend at a given store in order to end up on the short list of handwritten thank you notes?  And how concerned should I be that my husband has now officially made that list? 

Sleep Walking

We have experienced some of the childhood sleep issues that many parents face.  We have had infants who didn't sleep well at night.  We have had nap-time issues.  We have had kids that had difficulty falling asleep at night.  We've had night waking.  We've had night terrors.  Now we can add another sleep-time issue to our list.  We now have a sleep walker.

Over the past 2 months or so, Briggs has started sleep walking.  Thankfully this usually occurs about an hour or two after he falls asleep when Zach and I are still typically awake.  It does not happen every night, but has been about once or twice a week.  Briggs has wandered downstairs one time.  He fell partly down the stairs another time, as the thump alerted me that someone was up and I found him curled up on the landing of the stairs.  He has wandered into our room a few times. Once he walked into the girls' room, curled up on the end of Adelie's bed, and went to sleep.  Once he walked into our room, curled up on the floor, and went to sleep.  The other night I had just checked on the kids before getting myself ready for bed.  Everyone was sleeping soundly.  I went into the bathroom to use the restroom and brush my teeth.  Upon coming out, I realized that the light was on in Briggs' room.  I went into his room and Briggs was standing in the middle of his room, putting on another pajama shirt over his current pajamas.  I asked him what he was doing.  He replied in an exasperated tone, "I'm doing THIS."  I helped him take off the second shirt and walked him back to bed.  As he was climbing into bed, he murmured, "This is boring.  This is boring."  And then he fell back asleep.  Briggs never remembers these excursions in the morning.

There is a little concern over this new phase of sleep-time issues.  I worry that Briggs will fall down the stairs or walk into something or wander somewhere in the house without us realizing it.  I am thankful for our home alarm system that should alert us if Briggs goes downstairs after we are in bed or if he opens a door.  If Briggs indeed thinks sleep walking is boring, maybe this will just be a short-lived phase.  Here's hoping.