Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had as fun of a Christmas as we did here at the Waterstrauts, despite the germs. (Ugh, germs... so many germs). I am pretty pleased with myself that I made it through all the Christmas activities on the punch board, everyone's favorite Christmas tradition (per their Waterstraut Weekly articles, anyway), and all our traditional Christmas meals. But, being sick during the holidays stinks. Instead of loving all of our usual fun activities, I've had to muster up the strength and power through the illness to just get through them. Which, is just not the way you want to be feeling about things that should be fun. But, we've done them and we've arrived to December 26th, where we can all collectively take a sigh of relief, and a whole lot of dayquil.
But before we could get to December 26th, we had some more activities to do, countries to celebrate, and traditions to uphold. One of our usual activities is the Christmas paper plate game, where you hold a paper plate on your head and follow the instructions. (Like, draw a floor, draw a tree, put a star on the tree, ect...) Since you can't see the plate on top of your head, it's a challenge. I, however, in my sickened state, did not get paper plates. So, we went with a piece of paper and some blindfolds.
Calib did the best. He got his tree on the floor, and his stocking on his mantle. His star is a little off though, and his fireplace is below the floor, but you know, good effort!
Another game the boys really like is the "guess the present" game.
I wrap a bunch of random objects (a jar of peanuts, a bowl, a brush) and they have to figure out what it is.
We also celebrated Christmas in my country, Denmark, this week. In Denmark, they call Santa they have a mischievous elf, called Nisser, who plays tricks on families (kind of like April Fools, or our Elf on the Shelf). The elf is so popular there are TV shows about him, and people have ornaments of him on their trees (which also include fairy lights, and a star with a fairy hair on it). They eat a Christmas dinner similar to ours, but they have a rice pudding. Whoever finds the whole almond (as opposed to the sliced almond)in their rice, gets a small gift. And some rice pudding is usually left out to appease the Nisser, who will then leave the family alone and instead leave them with happiness and goodwill for the year.
In Denmark, they believe even the smallest of animals should enjoy Christmas, so on Christmas Eve they go out to parks and bring bread for birds and nuts for the squirrels. So, in celebration of that traditions, we let our smallest of animals open their present a little early. Simpson and Buchanan got a brand new wheel, which they have been enjoying immensely (I know this because it does squeak slightly, and I've been hearing it nearly nonstop for days)
And it took us a day to find Deleno (he likes to hide throughout the house), but he did eventually get his tortoise pellets.
The boys got a fun box from up north, which was nice.
Lots of goodies, and a couple of gift cards.
To celebrate the winter soltice, Sonic was having one day of "Winter of Shakes" (you know instead of the "Summer of Shakes" which we love so much), so we piled in the car and headed over to collect our half-priced shakes. Phenom was more than happy to come along too.
Monday night (I think? or something like that), Calib tripped over Peyton's PC headset, and broke it. Peyton was in tears. He didn't know we had gotten him a new one for Christmas, and I didn't want to just be like "well, here you go", so instead we had everyone do our usual 10 minutes to cleaning. Then, knowning they'd pick the option of a gift, I told them they could have points or open a present. Somehow, I don't think Peyton saw this coming. It was supposed to be his 'open last' present, but I didn't want him to have to wait.
The only other country we had left to celebrate was Asa's. He chose Argentina. They had snow once for Christmas, and since then decorate their trees with cotton balls to remember the snow. They eat some kind of gross Christmas bread (this according to Asa), and celebrate the whole time between Christmas and New Years with big parties and fireworks. They also send up lanterns (think Tangled).
Since we weren't able to do our lantern during Tangled day (the boys had a library lock-in that night), I still had one sitting around. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it!
We tied it to a string so it wouldn't get too far away, and it was slightly windy, so it never really got up too high. But it sure was pretty.
Oh, and they also put nativity scenes under their tree. Like big huge ones that cost a lot of money. So, we put ours under the tree, and added a few presents for the boys to open early.
I thought the book I had made for Peyton about his trip to Saint Louis would be perfect to give him early.
It gave him time to really sit down and look at it.
It is pretty amazing, and he LOVED it.
I also thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give Calib and Asa one they had to open at the same time, in case I missed that opportunity on Christmas morning.
They both got the Bucs fishing hats they wanted! (Seriously, they've been talking about these things since training camp) These are proving to be quite the hit, as they have both been sporting them a lot since they got them.
I had been putting off the "indoor snowball fight" until I felt better. But, when we were two days away from Christmas, and that didn't seem like it would be happening, I bit the bullet and did it anyway.
Basically we throw a whole pack of paper around the living room, you know, so it "snows"
Which seems like it could be enough fun in itself. They love this part.
(Meanwhile Gracie was like "I'm too old to care, I'm not moving".)
And then they take the "snow" and make snowballs.
We usually divide the room into two sides, and then commence making and throwing snowballs while we play some Christmas song. When the song is over, whichever side has more snowballs on their side is the loser.
Really though, it's just madness for a couple of minutes.
Also worth noting, Asa passed his last class of this term - and so we had to have some rootbeer floats. He has six classes left, but two are his final project. If he can cram it all in, he'll graduate in June. But, that seems awfully ambitious, as normally by that time he would have only 4 classes done, so I'm thinking it'll be a little later. Either way, 2015 should be his year.
One tradition I didn't take part in, was the very popular Christmas tree sleepover. I just couldn't do this one, and I didn't want to keep everyone up all night coughing and sneezing. But, the boys had a good time.
Christmas Eve we had our traditional breakfast of Santa pancakes. I didn't even miss these last year when we were in Ohio on Christmas Eve morning (we flew back during the day on Christmas Eve last year).
Oh, and I made Asa a reindeer!
We played some Christmas Minute to Win It games on Christmas Eve.
We built some snowmen.
Apparently stacking three mini-marshmallows on top of each other is harder than you might think.
And the boys used one candy cane in their mouth to try and hook another candy cane from the table.
And they used a Christmas box to fan an ornament from one end of the kitchen to the other end of the kitchen, and onto the square of wrapping paper.
We had our traditional Christmas Eve spread for dinner.
And the boys got their traditional Christmas Eve present
---Pajamas!
Asa, however, got the best pair of all.
The boys all helped set out all the presents.
And there we have it, our ugly Christmas tree realizing it's dream of having all kinds of presents underneath it's branches!
The only thing left to do was to have our Hot Chocolate in our Santa mugs. It's the one and only Waterstraut family tradition we carry on here.
We settled in, and watched Home Alone, before heading to bed.
We did have to fill the stockings though. We don't wrap anything in those, so we fill them after the boys go to bed.
We got up about 9 on Christmas morning, and woke up the kids. Yes, we woke THEM up.
My stocking presents. Asa did a good job!
Then we dished out all the presents. Everyone had a pretty hefty stack.
Santa brought Benny a present. I was as shocked as everyone else.
Oh my goodness, it's Jenny the Beaver. Santa brought Benny a wife!
Santa (or Justin), also brought a present for Asa. And to my surprise, one for me too.
It was a very nerdy Christmas, but we love that sort of thing around here. Peyton's been wanting this shirt forever, and I finally found it online. (We couldn't even find it when we were in Springfield)
He was way more excited than I expected about Axis and Allies. He also got some really cool Science and Math stuff in a box of fun home school stuff including a mentos contraption for the top of a soda bottle to make the volcanoes, some more clothes, new headphones, a rice cooker, the Hogwarts library (which included Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), an awesome book called "How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Bad-Asses Who Ran Our Country", an Arizona Cardinals Pillow Pet (which he wanted not because he's a fan, but because he thought it was so cute), the Spiderman Disney Infinity playset and a couple of other games.
Calib got a new Miami Heat jersey (notice he's still wearing his hat), a whole slew of new clothes (just a ton! It's what he asked for), some new board games, some Disney Infinity characters, a Steam gift card, and a Publix gift card (yes, my 14 year old asked for a grocery store gift card for Christmas).
And Hayden was happy to finally have some more princess "action figures" to play with. He got all kinds of new toys, a bunch of drawing paper (1000 sheets!), a new outfit and some pajama pants, and more toys. He's really the only one still on the toy phase of Christmas, and we picked up a ton of Avengers and Star Wars action figures at the summer toy clearance at Target, so he really cleaned up.
I was super excited to give Asa his presents. We each took about $125 to spend on each other, which is the biggest budget I think we've ever had. I got him some Deadman's Reach Coffee (his favorite), a coffee grinder, and some new knives, along with some other odds and ends.
But the most exciting was the tajine. He's been eyeing these in the Morocco pavilion at Epcot for just about a year now.
Of course, we couldn't leave out Maybel, Dipper, Sophie, Gracie, Phenom and Porkchop. They all got treats.
Then we let everyone have their "open last" present. Hayden got a razor scooter. Peyton got Super Smash Brothers for the WiiU, and Calib got a pretty awesome pair of headphones.
Then they did the very last punch on the Christmas board, that said: "But wait! There's one more!", and they got to all open on last present. Hayden got a new Imaginext castle. (He said he can now have the best country game ever).
Peyton got a Harry Potter wand.. THAT CONTROLS HIS TV!
And Calib got tickets (16 rows up!) to a Miami Heat game in January. He's totally excited about them! (I am too, because I get to go as well!)
I didn't have an open last present, but I did have some of the best Christmas presents ever. It's such a "I'm a home school mom" collection, but I LOVE it. I got two toned color file folders (100 of them!!), a TON of printer paper, the Lewis and Clark board game, my favorite egg chapstick, a new wireless mouse and lapboard, some bubble bath and this little contraption that should let me fill up the bathtub to the brim, a new cup, a flipbook of presidents, AND a collection of presidential pez guys.
Gracie was pretty funny with the stuff all over the living room. She's nearly completely lost her sight, so navigating with all the presents was not easy. Eventually she gave up, and used it all to her advantage.
Dipper meanwhile, was pretty fascinated with Asa's new manual coffee grinder.
We had our traditional Christmas brunch.
Ah, the best kind of mess: the Christmas mess!
Ah, look at all these new wonderful board games. We actually got a few late additions from my brother in the mail today too. (Thanks Clint!)
Hayden is really enjoying this crashlings contraption I got him. It was a last minute purchase, and a lightning deal on amazon for $1.68! It's actually pretty fun and durable.
And Asa is happy with his knives. Look at the fun bright colors! (No worries, they're all in their sleeves here)
I told you they got lots of fun stuff we can use for home school.
And in Florida, for Christmas dinner, we don't do ham or turkey- we do seafood!
We always invite Justin over for Christmas dinner.
I think this Harry Potter wand that controls the TV might be one of the coolest presents ever. There aren't any buttons or anything, it's all done by the motion of the wand.
He loves it!
This morning, Asa only had to work two hours to make up for the holiday pay of 8 hours, so he's home now and we're enjoying his company. We also got a package from Clint.
Great minds (and Rudy Sattler's kids!) think alike: He too got us Axis and Allies. But he also sent along this game that looks like tons of fun. We can't wait to play it. I also got one of the funnest Christmas cards ever from them (thanks to everyone who sent us one, maybe next year we'll get in on that tradition!)
Christmas may be over, but the mess remains. My mom is coming to visit us today, this is probably clean enough, right? RIGHT?
Next Up: A visit from our favorite grandma! (And, I'm totally excited too, it's much more fun when she comes to visit us than when we go to visit her!)
