Monday, January 22, 2018

December 2017

Christmas!
The biggest event of the entire kid year, and it’s basically all month long! We started with the advent calendar(s) and the advent treasure hunt on December 1. That first weekend, we went to get a tree; slim pickings out there, but we found one we all liked at the second lot we tried, and brought it home, spending what’s maybe my own favorite afternoon of the year decorating it. Even Lukas is old enough now to hang the ornaments, so it was all the more fun. School was basically camp for the last week or so (including Pajama Day, on which I’m assuming very little work gets done by anyone), and the kids were super excited to be the first to put presents under the tree (both homemade and things they bought from the “Penguin Patch” gift shop at school, with their own money). We all loaded up in the Highlander and went to Fantasy of Lights, a perennial favorite. A couple of days before Christmas, we had family movie night and watched A Christmas Story — which finally, FINALLY the kids are as into as we are; the entire rest of the break, they would recite lines from it, re-enact bits of it, fall to pieces laughing at scenes they remembered … Christmas Eve, we baked cookies, snuck off to wrap last-minute presents, hung stockings, and put out treats for Santa & the reindeer, then off to bed (after a bedtime reading of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, of course). Christmas morning, the kids woke early but not awfully so … and Santa had been here!!!! The pile of presents extended well into the living room, and it was all we could do to hold the kids to a couple of presents and the contents of their stockings until R. and I could get the turkey into the oven. But when we did dive into the pile … hoo boy: a giant pile of Harry-Potter-themed pillows, some gorgeous stuffed animals, 1500 wooden dominoes (to set up and knock down), a baseball glove and a guitar for Lukas, these crazy little Cozmo robots for both kids, cameras for both kids, a cool metal jewelry-making kit for Annika, a two-wheeled scooter for Lukas, books, games, puzzles, a fox hoodie for Annika — these kids made out like bandits! The cousins came over for a little while, late in the afternoon; meanwhile, Lukas had come down with a fever that ended up spiking pretty high (103) and lasting for six days, poor thing. But all in all, it was a really really nice Christmas for the whole family. 
Kid Stuff
—Quitting karate (for now?):
Just as quickly as it arrived, the karate train has apparently left the station. Annika stopped first — just flat refused to go anymore, for reasons we don’t understand because she won’t tell us, and then Lukas. We are annoyed and baffled and suspect that at least on her part, it’s about screen time and the fear of being unable to break a board, but she stonewalled us and he doesn’t really care all that much. So for now, at least, we’re allowing our pre-paid term to expire mid-month and that’ll be that for awhile.
—Grandma & Grandpa arrive: The grandparents showed up mid-month, for what might be their last long visit on account of with any luck, their condo will be finished and ready to move into before the next trip!
—Girl Scout stuff: The Scouts were active this month, with a trip to a food bank to deliver their troop’s donations and get a behind-the-scenes tour, and of course the Christmas party at the troop leader’s house, where I helped the girls make ornaments and decorate cookies.
New Year’s Eve
We had a pretty quiet NYE at home — just us and the TV — and Annika had Raina over for a sleepover (long-planned and basically the reason we didn’t do a NYE Sauce, lol). Grandma & Grandpa stayed up through East Coast NYE, then went to bed; we made Lukas go to bed around then, but promised to get him up for the ball drop (which we did). There were noisemakers, those little exploding poppers, homemade crowns for the kids (Annika’s doing, of course), and sparkling beverages (cider for kids, Schramsberg for the grown-ups). Here’s to a great 2018!

Quotable
—“Hey, kid!”
and “I can’t put my arms down!” — both kids all the time, post ACS

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