Christmas Happenings

Best Christmas present this year?  Sam came home for Christmas!  His first Christmas home since 2016.

Least favorite December event?  Jack sprained his ankle.  Again.  He sprained the same ankle back in May. 

Miss Katie in her Christmas Eve pjs.  I pass out new jammies to all the kids sleeping here on Christmas Eve.  Makes for reasonably decent Christmas morning stocking pictures.

Feeling short and blessed.

Grumman got a new mouse for Christmas.  Last year, I got him a bird cat toy.  I left it on the cutting table in the sewing room, and come Christmas morning, I couldn't find it.  We searched and searched, and eventually found it under my bed.  Grumman had helped himself to his present a little early!  This year, to prevent that, I kept his Christmas mouse in the closed up tote with all the stuffed stockings.

Grumman's favorite toys are these specific mice that rattle.  Only he rips them up until the rattle fall out.  So I bought a bag of rattles, and Eli's been sewing them back into the mice.  We decided Christmas Mouse needed a rattle, too.  I think this was a good plan, because he loves Christmas Mouse.

I got a bike for Christmas.  Eli assembled it with the new tools he got for Christmas.  Win-win!

As we were celebrating, the neighbor brought over TWO mis-delivered Amazon parcels.  One was Brayden's gift from Buddy, a new Lego set.

I also got a Cricut (affiliate link).  Eli has been calling my gifts "your crikey and your trikey."  It's a little intimidating, but I've made a couple things so far.  I'm pretty excited about all that it can do.

Marines are sometimes referred to as "crayon eaters."  So Josiah made Sam a batch of chocolate crayons for Christmas. 

One of our favorite leftover traditions, Turkey Enchilada Casserole.  Sam specifically requested that we have this while he was home.  I made 2 9x13" pans of it, and Eli was disappointed that we didn't have more leftovers.

Eli and Miss Adorable doing day after Christmas at her house.

Eli tests out the assembled "trikey."

The annual faux gingerbread house making event.

I made a Crazy Cat Lady House this year.  And then broke a tooth a couple days later, snacking on the fence posts.  Sigh.

Eli's house sports a flag roof.

Katie's house had sprinkles for the path.  We ended up with like 5 jars of green sprinkles, so I may have encouraged their generous use this year.

Jack's creation.

Miss Adorable joined us this year.

Hannah's walls collapsed, but I like the China flag she has on the lawn.

Still enjoying Unstable Unicorns, a Christmas gift from Buddy last year.

I enjoyed a total of TWO rides on the new "trikey" before An Incident occurred.  We're off to take one of the wheels to the bike shop today.

I hope you and yours had a lovely holiday, and I wish you health and learning and blessings in the new year. 

Starting On December

Let's see if I can get at least the first half of December written up while it's still December.

Grumman is delighted with the season.  He's pretty sure my militree (military tree, with red/white/blue lights and patriotic/military ornaments) is his own personal enrichment. 

And while that wasn't my intention, let's face it, he's not wrong. 

The December craft I taught at the kids' school was fleece cat beds for SPCA.  I cut and cut and cut a stack of fleece for us to start with, using up roughly 2/3 of my fleece stash.  I'm really happy to be moving some fabric OUT of the sewing room, and for a good cause, too.  (Grumman, of course, thinks my bed is a cat bed.) 

Hannah cutting fringe for her cat bed. 

A finished bed.

Jack, tying his fringe together. 

It was fun to see all the old prints again.  The sharks he's working on there, I used to make Sam a hoodie, when he was obsessed with whales, sharks, and dolphins. 

I finally donated the Lion Dance costume.  It's too short for Grumman's long body.  But I consoled myself by getting him a Santa hat, instead.  He's Not Amused. 

I've mentioned our Nativity tradition before, but I thought I'd show an update with more animals.  Each year, I buy a new animal for our nativity set, and we donate the same animal to a family in need through World Vision. 

Oh Grumman. 

While we're talking about animals, I saw these ducks on one of my walks recently. 

We use fabric gift bags at Christmas instead of wrapping paper.  Well, over the years, as we've added more people to our family, I occasionally need to make a few more bags.  I'm blessed to have been given a lot of Christmas fabrics over the years, so I was even able to pick black fabric to go with the black thread already in my serger.  These little bags were made specifically to hold gift cards. 

My cat is kind of a jerk. 

Gifts wrapped.  I also added reusable name tags a couple years back.  I printed gift tags onto card stock, filled in 3 for each kid, and laminated the whole batch.  Less waste. 

This was a miserable failure of a race.  First, it was raining.  Second, we parked a MILE from the start line.  Third, the race started at 4 pm.  In December.  In the rain.  (Photo above was taken when we got there, so it wasn't dark yet, but by the time we started, it was dark.)  We were only a few blocks in when I turned to Eli and Josiah and said, "This really sucks."  They were over it, too, as we sloshed along with water in our shoes, in soaking wet clothes, so we called it quits.  Actually, my race timing app says we did a whole 5K, if you count the walk to and from the car, but we didn't do the 5K the race organizers planned out.  As we drove home, the thunder and lightning started.  I decided I'm not a die hard fitness fan, but a fair weather walker.  I won't be doing a rainy race again. 

Miss Hannah played hand chimes for the school's church one Sunday recently. 

I think this is most of the middle schoolers. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Best wishes for a healthy and purposeful New Year! 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Which means it must be time to blog about November, right?

Paul took the boys to an airshow. 

Grumman "helped" me make Eli a cape for...

...The Super Run!

It was a disorganized race, but it was neat to see all the capes.

Zach and Brayden got to participate in a Salute to Service event, seeing the game and meeting some players. 

I helped with another sorting party for Book First.  We made "class packs" from stacks of books.  Each class pack will be taken to a classroom at a local school, and distributed to first graders by a librarian who explains about libraries and encourages kids to read. 

Grumman "helped" me make a poster for Mission San Jose, the mission Katie (and Eli) built. 

This is Kylee, the grand-puppy. 

We dog-sat for Zach & Heather while they went to Disneyland. 

I think they enjoyed SW land more than Kylee enjoyed the antlers I found at Hobby Lobby. 

It was fun to see what having a dog would be like, without the commitment. 

And I think the Hugg A Planet was the only casualty of her visit, and we were pretty much done with that, since we're no longer homeschooling. 

Getting ready for Gobble Wobble, the Thanksgiving Day 5K.  

Josiah did this one with me. 

We had Thanksgiving with Zach & Heather & Brayden & Kylee.  Zach introduced Kylee to Tuzi, our bunny. 

It was pretty cute.  There was a lot of sniffing, but neither one knew quite what to make of the other. 

Tuzi doesn't get as much time out of the cage, since his playpen got destroyed by a foster bunny. 

The ever popular Magni-tiles were played with. 

We celebrated Heather's birthday, too.

My beautiful daughter in law. 

I'm mostly done with Christmas preparations.  Neither Annaliese nor Brianna will be home for Christmas this year.  Not sure yet about Sam.