I hope everyone had a nice holiday, we did! I figure I should update now, because we have two president's birthdays tomorrow and Tuesday(the last two you guys!!) so I will have to update with those.
So, lets rewind to about a week and a half ago, we spent our last few days at home baking cookies.
And doing some Christmas punches- including the ever popular Christmas Tree Sleepover.
We played the flour game. Basically you place a mini candy cane on top of a pile of flour (shaped by a bowl)...
...then everyone takes turns cutting the flour with a knife.
the first person to make a cut that makes the candy cake fall...
Has to fish it out with their teeth.
The boys liked it so much, we played it a few times.
We also celebrated the season finale of Survivor Second Chances with Sur-FRY-vor night.
We also all pulled out our predictions for who we thought would win. We made these after the first episode. But, none of us got it right- Jeremy won.
Then of course, we had our Ohio trip.
We were back Wednesday with another Christmas punch- the Christmas present guessing game.
I wrap a bunch of random items, and the boys guess what they are.
At the end of the game there's always one present for each of them to open. Hayden got a Minecraft card game that the boys all seemed to enjoy. (Sadly, it's only a 4 player game).
On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Santa or Reindeer pancakes.
We had a note from the Home Office too.
In case you're wondering, Cassidy was trying to steal Christmas in Greece.
In case you're wondering how Ellie is adjusting- she is doing really well. We're still working on her relationship with the other pets, though it certainly isn't anything dramatic (and is not so much Ellie's problem- as it is everyone else's). But, she is the sweetest dog with all of us.
And we are making progress. They will all sleep together on the same couch.
Ellie also does excellent on walks. Even though she weighs 50 pounds, and could drag anyone of the boys, they can all walk her no problem.
And, they told us she wasn't a player- she never showed interest in toys or anything- but she LOVES the rope, and even likes to fetch tennis balls every now and again.
Christmas Eve Dinner was the traditional snacky fare.
Our neighbors brought us over a lovely little gift bag with some treats.
And we did our last Christmas punch.
We played some Christmas minute to win it games. We did the cookie on the forehead (where without using your hands you have to eat the cookie).
Then we had the boys blow Christmas cards across the table.
You had to get it so only half the of the card was off the edge. Asa was the only one who did it.
Then we had the reindeer nose (excuse the green- I was out of red pom poms)- where you had a little Vaseline on your nose and had to get the pom pom to stick.
And then we had a snowball fight where you used small snowballs to knock off big snowballs.
The boys also got their traditional Christmas Eve presents.
This year we did something a little different- their pajamas, some hot chocolate, and some snacks were all in the box.
Then Asa went over to the neighbors to get Calib's big present they had been harboring for like a month now (thanks Shawn & Natasha!)
The boys all helped put out the presents..
And we had our hot chocolate out of our Santa mugs.
Then we watched the Grinch.
And played some games.
After the kids went to bed, Asa and I filled the stockings (since we don't wrap those).
We got up at 9 on Christmas morning and sorted presents.
Peyton had to open his big present first- since he got a DS, and had games and things that wouldn't make sense to open first.
This is about as excited as Calib looks before noon. It's so hard to come up with a way to wrap gifts like money for Steam, or ESEA which Peyton asked for, or an NBA League Pass to watch all the NBA games for the rest of the season, so I did my best. It doesn't have the same effect if you just tell them, hey, we got this for you.
Hayden also made us all some homemade gifts- including a chef hat for Asa.
And it was Ellie's first Christmas- well, her first Christmas with us anyway. She got a care package of treats and toys. (So did Porkchop, Phenom, Dipper and Maybel- of course. They just refuse to sit still and are much harder to photograph than Miss Eleanor.)
Asa and I had a few things for each other too.
He LOVES this cookbook.
(Sidenote: he's already made two recipes out of it, and they were both really good.)
I got the last two presidential Pez! That's all of them!
Calib got his basketball hoop, which we had before he started asking for one.
And then we had one last surprise for everyone.
Our boys are now the proud new owners of Universal Studios Season passes (we got the ones with blackout dates, but that should work out fine.)
Asa did an awesome job on my presents all together!
And the boys are pretty excited about their presents too. Peyton got right to playing with his.
They also had some Christmas mail from the Home Office- Cassidy was caught, and Christmas in Greece was safe.
We did have quite the Christmas mess. Mom can't make it to come visit this year (that's ok, we've luckily gotten to see her a lot lately), but that means my motivation to clean it all up is pretty non existent. We did get to it late last night to make sure no puppies got into it all while we were gone today though.
After presents, we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.
(See how Ellie just follows us all around- she doesn't like to be by herself- even in a room alone).
Our other wonderful neighbors (I have a whole slew of great neighbors!) brought us over a plate of goodies to enjoy.
And Asa spent his afternoon putting together Calib's new hoop.
But once it was done, everyone was excited about. We've had a lot of use out of it in just the last couple of days.
Madison even got a basketball for Christmas so she was over playing too.
And then there was Miss Ellie enjoying her first Christmas (with us anyway).
I just cannot get enough of her. She is so sweet, and I can't believe she spent so long in the shelter. She just needed someone to give her a home, and she came right out of her shell.
Oh, and she is a chewer.
Her toy didn't even make it till Christmas night (I think it would have been fine if Asa used the rope for tug of war instead of the stuffed animal, but oh well). We did discover she LOVES rawhides though.
Our traditional Christmas dinner is seafood, which we've been doing since we moved to Florida. I just had turkey for Thanksgiving, I don't need it again.
And we always have Justin join us.
After dinner it was time to start in on our new board game haul.
Exploding Kittens is super fun.
But, so far the favorite (to be retired soon) is Presidential. Basically, you work the electoral college to get elected.
\
It's one of my favorite games ever, already. Oh, and we did get triominos too, which is fun.
We had our last couple Elf on the Shelf sightings- so we'll have to vote on our favorites.
Today we were out at the last Bucs game of the season. We did some tailgating with our usual Chicken sandwiches. (They are slider buns with chicken tenders, pickles, Asian slaw, and a drizzle of honey- so good).
One last afternoon tailgating and playing football under our tree at Al Lopez park.
And then we were off to the game. It was HOT though. We all got a little suburnt- and the feels like temperature got up to 90.
It sure looked pretty, even if we all sweated to death.
Like, it was really, really hot.
The last home game of the season is always a little bitter sweet.
But, this was the year of Famous Jameis, and things are looking promising for next year.
Oh, and I didn't get a picture of it, but we did get a fly over, and I love fly overs!
Our opponent today was the Bears- and holy geez were there Bears fans there.
But we had fun anyway.
We timed how long it took Peyton to get a refill on the pop (15 minutes!)
And cheered on our team even if they didn't win. We left a little early though- we were all concerned about Ellie who had to be in her crate for the first time. We still haven't heard her bark- but she did cry when we put her in there, and it broke my heart. She was fine though, and super happy to see us when we got home.
That is it from here. I will be back tomorrow with our second to last birthday. I can hardly believe it!
Next Up: Happy Birthday Woodrow Wilson!
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