Hey everyone, I hope you all had a happy holiday! We had a low key Christmas here. Calib was the only one to make a trip to Ohio, and my mom won't be here for her annual Christmas visit until Friday. There's no big Christmas mess to clean up, because the boys actually did a pretty good job of that themselves. There is a pile of laundry calling my name, but I'm putting that off at least a tiny bit.
So lets begin with a little surprise gift from Nate and Allison. Allison sent me a penguin ornament last year. It's sort of becoming a tradition.
My Christmas cactus was blooming in time for Christmas!
On the 22nd we celebrated three years since we adopted Miss Ellie (we made her cake a few days early so Calib was here).
Asa and I spent Saturday shopping for last minute items and then Saturday evening we went to PDQ for dinner (Asa and I both had $5 off), and then off to see Spiderverse. We had gotten free tickets for that too, and Asa had rewards for a free popcorn. Overall, a nice night out (and a fun movie!) for not too much money.
Sunday we had a taco bar, watched football, and picked Calib up from the airport. Peyton was just thrilled to have Calib (and his megaphone) back. Etta was also happy to have back her source of people food. Oh, and I lost the Fantasy Football Super Bowl to Calib by 4/10 of a point. Not even a whole point. Not even HALF A POINT! If Juju hadn't fumbled on the very last play anyone on my team had the ball, I would have won. And if Patrick Mahomes didn't scramble on the very last play anyone on Calib's team had the ball, we would have at least tied. Ugh.
Anyway, we did our second to last Christmas punch, Minute to Win It games. We decided to split the games up into two different nights. On Christmas Eve Eve we did our hot chocolate chugging contest. We used a measuring cup to make sure everyone had the same amount of liquid.
Calib was the winner, and Hayden was disqualified for laughing so hard that he spit hot chocolate out everywhere.
Next up we did our usual Christmas tree building out of cups.
But instead of using one hand, we did it blindfolded. Biggest tree at the end of a minute was the winner.
Calib thought we were trying to mess with him while he was blindfolded.
But Hayden and Calib ended up tying.
And before we knew it, it was Christmas eve!
So we had our usual Christmas Eve breakfast of Santa and reindeer pancakes.
Peyton didn't make it to brunch, because, well, it was before noon.
We also decorated our gingerbread house. My mom got us a prebuilt one at Costco, which is kind of amazing. They got to decorate the house without dealing with the frustrating part of putting it together.
I think they did a nice job!
Our neighbor Sam came over that afternoon and brought all of our furry family members toys for Christmas. It was really very nice of him. Ellie especially enjoyed her 'flea' stuffed animal.
I put out the Christmas Eve spread of dinner. We had a Sattler classic like the cream cheese and crab did, and some charcuterie. We also had some warm dips with various breads and bbq meatballs.
By request I made some deviled eggs, picked up a Publix sandwich ring and sushi, and picked up the Cheesecake bites from Costco.
Overall, a nice spread that we enjoyed while watching Home Alone. It might have been made in 1990, which doesn't seem like that long ago- until you watch it with kids born in the 2000's and they point out all the ridiculous things like the power going out resulting in a missed alarm, or being able to get on a flight 45 minutes after you wake up. We do, however, love the new Home Alone google commercial.
Clint and Jess always send us a new game for Christmas. A box arrived from Knoxville on Christmas eve. I suggested we wait until the next morning and put it under the tree. I lost the vote. The boys wanted to play their game.
And as it turned out, they sent us not one, not two... but THREE games this year! Thanks, guys.
We enjoyed playing them that evening.
We also had a few more Minute to Win It games. We got out our stuffed snowballs, and the wreath from the front door. The person who got the most snowballs through the wreath was the winner (which was Calib).
Then we played to see how many candy canes they could hook onto one in their mouth.
Peyton was the winner there!
And then we took a wrapping paper roll and a yard stick- and the person who could hang the most ornaments on the yard stick without knocking anything over would be the winner. Hayden got four in a minute.
Peyton didn't even make it a minute before he knocked it over.
And Calib went to put a fourth on, but decided against it, thinking three would be enough to win.
I dished out Christmas bucks for the last couple games, and then it was time for the last punch on the Christmas punch board, the Christmas bucks auction. Asa and I purchased everything from a four pack of cream soda to Amazon and Google play gift cards, to white elephant gifts, and the boys bid on them.
But by far, the most exciting thing in the auction was one of those Moose mugs from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Peyton had the most money left, and outbid everyone. He was thrilled.
Hayden won a lego robot and a Triceratops Taco holder. It's kind of amazing.
Calib ended up with some gift cards.
The auction was totally successful and might very well become a Waterstraut tradition. Another Waterstraut tradition: New Pajamas on Christmas Eve.
And of course, hot chocolate out of our Santa mugs.
And while we drink our hot chocolate we watch National Lampoons Christmas vacation.
Around 11 we all put out the presents. I always let the boys help, and it's always done in no time. Plus, I get my closet back! It's been hard to navigate since Thanksgiving.
There was lots of room under the tree for presents, but we still had a little overflow in front of the TV.
Asa and I got up around 9 and enjoyed our quiet morning coffee time. It was a little chilly with the doors open, so I went into my stocking to get some nice new fuzzy socks.
Meanwhile, the cats sniffed out their gifts.
We got the kids up around 10 and Calib dished out the gifts.
Ellie was very excited about her gift. I think she knows she gets a new stuffed animal to tear apart every Christmas.
It didn't take long before she tore the poor thing's leg off, but she was pretty happy about it.
And then Etta took a cue from Ellie and realized there was something for her too.
It was a far cry from last Christmas where Etta couldn't even handle being on a leash around all the commotion and had to go in her crate.
So this year, I told the boys I was sticking to a strict budget and gave it to them before they made their lists. Calib specifically asked if I could get the stuff on his list, and then spend whatever was left on a lego set. Basically meaning he wanted the biggest lego set he could get with his remaining money. He was excited to find out he got a pretty good one: The Hogwarts Express.
Peyton meanwhile gave us two lists to choose from. So once he figured it out, he wasn't shocked that his big present was a new computer monitor.
Hayden had a different strategy. He wanted as many items as he could get for his money, so he asked for a lot of little things.
Here's our obligatory Chirstmas mess picture.
Asa and I only got each other stocking gifts this year. After cleaning out grandma's house and doing all of that, I'm kind of 'stuffed' out. BUT, Asa got his desk about a month ago and said he had to get me something, so I said he could get me a Disney gift card, and that he could get me one every month from now until our anniversary. My biggest gift would be the fact that I could make whatever dining reservations, and by the time our anniversary comes around I won't have to budget for meals, because we'll have all these gift cards.
Plus, the boys got new games, and playing all those new games is like my favorite thing about Christmas.
While I prepared Christmas lunch, Asa helped hook up monitors (Calib got a new one too- although not as fancy as the one Peyton asked for), and putting together things.
Since Peyton wanted an expensive monitor that took up most of his budget, I didn't want him to have too many fewer presents than everyone else, so I ended up also getting him all of his favorite foods and condiments. That boy loves a good mustard and hot sauce.
The pets all enjoyed their new treats, at one point Calib had all six of them climbing on him.
And even with the missing leg, Ellie continues to de-stuff her giraffe.
Christmas dinner around her is always seafood, and this year was no different.
And we spent our evening skyping and playing various new games, per usual. Sheriff of Nottingham is an early favorite, but I can't tell if it'll go the way of Ticket to Ride, where it's still going strong six years from now... or Lifeboats, where everyone gets so angry about it we only get to play it on Mother's Day.
This afternoon we're all pretty chill. Asa is working, but it is SLLLLLLOW. So he's working on his VERY. LAST. SCHOOL PROJECT!!! And, I decided to just put out leftovers for people to graze on.
And now that Christmas is over and New Years Eve is next up, there's been some fireworks outside and poor Etta is stressed as stressed can be about it.
Next Up: I'm working on next years project, a fun new years eve thing, and my mom will be here Friday!
