Wouldn't you know it, I wasn't even home 24 hours when I came down with my usual Ohio cold. (For real, it happens every year- even my brother said he couldn't believe I wasn't sick when he came to Fremont last Saturday.) It's been pretty terrible, and it's getting worse every day, it seems.
I've been pretty upset by it, because since we went to Ohio and did nothing for Christmas before we left since we were still celebrating all things Thanksgiving, our Christmas season is essentially 10 days long. We even nixed our usual Disney Christmas Day this week because nobody was feeling all that well (Hayden is sick too), and we'd seen pictures of how crowded it's been this week.
One thing we couldn't nix, though, was our chopping down a Christmas tree. On Tuesday, despite feeling less than 100 percent, we went out to the Lazy Lay Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Dade City. Yes, you can actually chop down a tree in Florida.
If you know us, you know about five years ago we decided that we'd start a new family tradition and pick out the ugliest tree on the lot. First of all, it keeps my OCD/everything needs to look perfect self in check. Secondly, there's usually no argument about which tree it get, the ugliest is always pretty obvious. Third, we're doing a good thing and helping a tree realize it's dream and purpose of becoming a Christmas tree, when you know nobody else is going to pick it. (And it also helps that we can usually get a deal on the ugly tree nobody else wants too!) The ugly trees are pretty easy to spot in a sea of perfectly trimmed, very pretty trees. We immediately walked over to this one.
We decided it was pretty ugly, but we'd go see if there were any others that could out-do it.
Ultimatly though, we came back to the first tree. This was the winner!
And Asa chopped her down!
Last year we went out to the Ergle Christmas Tree Farm, and it's not nearly as nice. The people aren't as friendly, and they don't have the mini farm petting zoo that the boys always enjoy.
I SO wanted to take these piggies home. They would have made a wonderful Mr. & Mrs. Pigglewiggles.
Oh, and at Lazy Lay, they put the tree on the top of the car for you. Another added bonus I enjoy!
When we got it home, it was even uglier in the house. We really outdid ourselves this year!
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but a little less than halfway up, it splits into two trees. So, we put lights around the bottom, and then lights up one side at a time, like they were two different trees.
I always give the boys ornaments when we put the tree up, but I hadn't gone to get them yet. (Total parental fail). They didn't seem to mind too much though. Maybe I'll brave the crowds before Christmas to get them one, or maybe I'll wait till they go on clearance this year.
There we go, all decorated and up in the living room. Along with a few minimal decorations. I got out the stockings, and our countdown to Christmas thing, but other than that I decided it wasn't really worth it to put everything up for 8 days, especially when I was feeling so yucky and the boys agreed.
And, despite my fears, the cats haven't bothered the tree too much. Though, Maybel really enjoys laying under it.
Of course we had to have Chinese for dinner, per Sattler family tradition.
Every year, about a week before Christmas, Asa (out of nowhere) announces "Let's just have Christmas NOW!" This has gotten worse as the boys have gotten older (and now that we don't have any Santa believers in our house), and Thursday night I had them all in my room (as I was coughing and dying) yelling at me that we should do Christmas. I caved and let them open one thing.
Hayden got his body pillow he had asked for.
And Peyton and Calib both got some clothes (Isn't Peyton's shirt the best?!)
We worked on our "Christmas In.. (Various Countries)" project this week. Everyone did a report and made a poster. The boys all gave their presentations. You might remember we all drew a continent randomly, and then picked a country from that continent. I just realized I never took a picture of Peyton with his poster. But, his is in the middle on the board. He drew Asia and picked Japan. In Japan, Christmas is treated much more like Valentines Day is here. Couples give each other candy, and go out to look at the lights together. Since only about 1% of the population is Christian, it's not widely celebrated like it is here. They don't even generally take the day off work. For dinner on Christmas, they go crazy over fried chicken- KFC in particular, thanks to an ad campaign in the 70's. So much so, you often have to preorder it months in advance, so you don't have to wait two hours in line at KFC to get some! They also have fruit cake, but not that gross kind we have in America, that nobody actually likes.
Hayden drew Africa and picked Egypt. Their holiday is celebrated on January 7th. It's a very religious holiday for them, due to the area of the world that it's in. Fourty-five days before "Coptic Christmas", they go vegan (or in some cases vegetarian), and usually feast on fata (lamb stew) when the holiday finally arrives. Christmas is much less commercialized, and most people buy their gifts at various 'Christmas bazaars. Here, you might find Santa (in his blue and yellow), coming in the window instead of a chimney. Hayden announced at lunch (after he had eaten half a turkey sandwich), that he was going to become a vegan until Christmas in solidarity with them. That lasted until dinner, when he went from vegan to vegetarian. Which lasted until the next night's dinner when Asa made paprika chicken tenders for dinner.
Calib drew North America, and picked Greenland. Greenland takes great pride in the fact that "Father Christmas" resides there. They even take on a lot of the mail that is sent from around the world to Santa. Here, Father Christmas' sleigh is pulled not by reindeer, but by dogs. They decorate their house with a "Christmas Star", a bright orange star that adorns almost every house when those in Greenland are dealing with very little sunlight. Presents that are given usually includes sealskin mittens, and toy sleds. They feast on barbecued caribou, raw fish, and whale.
We built some little sleds out of craft sticks for an activity. I had big plans of making a day out of each of the countries- doing all these activities and meals. But, sometimes, when you're feeling crummy, you just have to do what you can do and say that's good enough. Asa and I still have our countries to present. I was hoping for full days for those, but I'm still not feeling all that well. Surprisingly though, the boys seem to retaining everything about each country (not just their own), since everyone's been talking about all the unique traditions from around the world.
Since I did still have guilt over shortening the days like that, I figured we couldn't celebrate Christmas around the world without opening presents, so I caved again and gave them another. The good news is, if I give them one a day until Christmas, they'll still have plenty to open Christmas day.
Besides all that, I've been trying to get to our Christmas activity punch board. Some activites were gimme's and required no work.. Like getting the tree, or watching a Christmas movie. Some we put off for a few days. We finally got around to our reindeer cookies.
The boys made them today with pretty much no help from me. (Except to cook them, which shockingly enough I screwed up, but I hear they still taste good)
Then we have some like "Snow Day" and "Do you want to build a snowman" that I had envisioned big, all encompassing days for. Instead, we've put off our usual "snowball" fight until we don't have anyone that's feverish, and our whole Snowman day (think going to SnowFest, making a snowman on the door, doing a snowman craft and having a snowman pizza for dinner), turned into one lone craft. (Ugh, not only do I feel sick, but I feel bad for being such a lazy parent this past week- mom guilt is just the worst)
But, even though I went from sweating to goosebumps during our lovely snowman activity, I think they turned out adorable. And they were SO easy to make. We took some rice, and filled a white sock with it (it's super easy to do if you just put the sock over the cup and tip)
We used rubber bands to give it the shape, and then cut off the tops (Excuse the fact my white socks are not perfectly white, it's just one of those things I can't bring myself to care about)
Then we used some felt to add some eyes, some scraps of material for a scarf, and the end of another sock for a hat. I even pulled out my jar of buttons (don't judge, EVERYONE should have a jar of buttons) and let the boys pick some of those.
A little hot glue later and we have some pretty cute snowmen if I do say so myself.
I have been using my time laying and sitting down wisely, though. I figured if I can't be up and around doing things with the boys, I'll be planning for when I can. Next year, since there's nothing fun like an Olympics or Presidential Election, we came up with our own fun project- we're celebrating all the Presidents birthdays. (I by the way, got my Shutterfly calendar in the mail complete with all of them on it, and I LOVE it) So, I've been getting ready for the first one-- Millard Fillmore. And let me tell you, this guy is not the guy I was hoping to start the project with. I also used this time to get the calendar for home school all set for the new year. Lots going on with some MOSI and Aquarium classes, library events, presidents birthdays, a theme week, and lessons by dad, along with Super Saturday, an unplugged day, and a new monthly feature -- STEM day. But, I'm really finding they retain SO MUCH MORE from our special days and theme weeks than anything else, and I'm taking some advice from Asa that they could stand to do workbooks a bit more, and I don't have to make EVERYTHING fun (just, you know, most things). That should take the pressure off though, if I just get to plan the fun special days, and not every single day. They do have some projects on hand though. Calib is going to plan a family vacation... TO HAWAII. Peyton is back on board with sending out Flat Peyton, and Hayden wants to go back to a Daily Board. All good stuff.
That's it from here. Justin, Asa, and all the boys are off to the theaters to see The Hobbit tonight. I wasn't so sure about sending Hayden out, but he seems to be doing a little better today, and he really wanted to go. Meanwhile I have big plans of climbing into bed, catching up on my girly DVR-ed shows, and maybe if I'm feeling ambitious- finishing my plans for Harry Potter Week, Fillmore's birthday, and Nixon's birthday (his is early January too). Oh, and working on the 'Jeopardy: Year In Review', that is just going to be awesome.
We sold our tickets to the Bucs vs. Green Bay game for tomorrow (we got almost three times what we paid for them!), and Asa has to work anyway, but we're planning a taco bar and a nice relaxing day at home. It'll be weird to see them playing at Raymond James from home though- that hasn't happened since 2012!
Next Up: More Christmas, Less Germs (hopefully)
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