Calib's Christmas

This Christmas has been kind of weird. Since Calib is off in Italy with my mom, brother, and sister in law, we did all of our traditions early for "Calib's Christmas"- but in an effort to keep things sort of normal for Peyton and Hayden we're also having regular Christmas, or as we like to call it"bonus Christmas". But it kind of feels like those days back when I had marathon Christmas's of having to visit a bunch of families, and I had lots of things to do at various times, and it was just... a lot. 

But, we've gotten most of our holiday done here, so now I'm just kind of hanging out. But, lets rewind back about two weeks ago. We had all ordered various things for various people on Amazon, and nobody could open anything. A neighbor came to our rescue, but a book for Layla really threw everyone off. Etta, meanwhile, is very unhappy when you pop those air packets that come in packages.  

In between all the Christmas madness, I've been trying to work on one of next year's projects- we're doing the presidents again AND since it overlaps with an election year, we're going to focus on the elections. But, that means I have to learn about all of them first. 

Hayden has been doing lots of library classes in between everything too. He even did wood turning and made a pen. 

But most things here have been Christmas related. We still had some punch board items to attend to. We had the Tic-Tac-Toe races. 

And the "guess the present" game where I wrap random items and they have to guess what it is. 

With my mom going to Italy, they did the cookie boxes early, which means I got my cookie box early. But, it did not ship well. Everything was crumbs. Plus there were no cheesecake dreams and no fudge, and ONE pinwheel, which we agreed we'd wait and decide who could have it. But, Peyton was napping when we made that decision. He then came out of his room, and popped the one and only pinwheel in his mouth (not knowing it was the only one). Calib lost it. 

We did get more buckeyes than normal though. Gwen thought it was hilarious to tell us she sent us a whole bunch, except they were the teeny-tiny-est buckeyes you've ever seen in your whole life. 

We played the antler ring toss game. 

And we played Yankee Swap. It gets very intese. 

This year Calib got the dinosaur blanket and Hayden got the shark headphones and they were pretty happy. (Five below is my new favorite place to get Yankee Swap items for sure!) 

And then it was time to celebrate Calib's Christmas Eve. 

We had our usual spread of Christmas Eve food. 

I had seperate lists for Calibs' meals and our normal ones- but Calib requested the crab dip and Publix sandwiches for his. 

Of course, we had to be done with all of our Christmas games by the time Calib left so we could hold the auction with their Christmas Bucks (it's what they win from all these Christmas games). Usually we play Minute to Win It games for Christmas Bucks on Christmas Eve, so we did that for Calib's Christmas Eve. We did the blindfolded Christmas tree building. 

And the ornament balancing game. 

We also have the toss the snowball through the wreath game. 

And the Christmas present wrapping game with your partner. 

And, per tradition since they were teeny-tiny, they got new pajamas on Christmas Eve. (Peyton and Hayden have been asking me if they get new ones on real Christmas Eve, too. I refuse to answer- but they are!) 

I color coded my wrapping this year, green meant 'GO head and open this now' and red is for next Christmas. 

We did our usual Christmas Eve Hot Chocolate out of our  santa mugs- and we watched a Christmas movie. This year the boys picked  The Nightmare Before Christmas (thanks Disney Plus!) 

The next morning I filled everyone's stockings (Peyton and Hayden are getting two stockings this year, lucky guys!) and woke everyone up. 

Peyton and Hayden's Christmas is split into two- so they had less presents. 

Calib got all of his- so we opened one from Hayden, one from Calib, one from Peyton, one from Calib and so on, and it worked out pretty well for him to go every other present. 

Calib mostly got stuff for his trip, lots of things from REI, travel bags, and adapters for his phone. But Asa, Calib, and Hayden did get their tickets to Wrestlemania this year. Peyton mostly got odds and ends- he's getting his bigger gift on Wednesday for bonus Christmas. Ellie, meanwhile, is getting two presents too. That's good because she's already made pretty good progress tearing apart her fox from Calib's Christmas. 

I meanwhile, got some things from Asa including lots of the books I asked for! 

But mostly, Asa and I got each other a new washer for Christmas (and it was delivered on Calib's Christmas!) Our old one was really old (we got it with the house), and it was on it's last legs. The drum was all off kilter and it made a TERRIBLE noise when we ran it. Technically, this is the first time we got a new appliance BEFORE the old one was completely inoperable, so that's cool. Plus, it's a real fancy washer. Even the boys were interested in it. 

Usually we have santa pancakes on Christmas Eve, but this year we're having them on both Christmas-es (since the kids aren't usually big breakfast eaters). 

Christmas must have been exhausting though, because Calib napped while the rest of us watched a movie. He was joined by Etta at first.. 

Then Ellie found a little spot... 

And Porkchop finally climbed up with him. 

Christmas dinner is always seafood, this was Calib's seafood choices, though. Peyton and Hayden get their choices on the next go around. 

Of course, no Christmas is complete without playing all of our new board games. 

Hayden got Santorini, which is a fun two/three person strategy game with Greek Gods, so right up his alley. 

Calib got Shadows in the Forest. You play this one in the dark and one person tried to find all your little guys with a lantern. 

Peyton got Throw Throw Burrito, which is a card game and dodgeball in one. 

Clint sent us a couple of games, including Just One where you have to describe a word with one word you come up with (Calib's word was Italy!) and someone has to guess the original word based on the one's everyone came up with. 

Super Slow Sloths is fun too- whoever is the last to cross the finish line is the winner! 

And of course, I had to get Calib Sherriff of Nottingham. I got him it for Christmas last year, and we all loved it. But somewhere along the way it got lost. We've looked for months, so finally I gave in and bought another copy. 

Other fun Christmas pictures: Hayden with his Llama mug, and Asa setting out my penguin with one of my new books. 

We had Christmas on a Saturday, so Sunday we were off on our normal bike ride- Asa submitted the boardwalks to be some Pokestops. 

And then we had the last taco bar of the season with Calib. The Bucs had been on a roll (until they lost yesterday, sadly.) 

Even after Calib's Christmas we had a few more punches to do- like the Snowman Races. 

Where you work in partners and make your partner a snowman. 

And the seran wrap ball you have to unwrap for prizes. 

On the 16th we celebrated two years since we adopted Etta, and we made her some peanut butter doggie cupcakes. 

And while a little out of order- we also had our annual New Years Cookout. 

It won't be anyone in this house winning the Fantasy Football Championship this year (I missed the Superbowl by 1.7 points- which is better than the .4 I lost by in the Super Bowl last year). But Calib had yet to engrave his name in the trophy from winning last year, and I told him he better get it done before he left (this week is the Super Bowl). 

We were still missing one of the boys favorite Christmas punches- the Christmas open bar, where they can order all kinds of things free of charge all evening. 

They really love it, and they really drink and eat a lot. 

The night of the Christmas Open Bar we also played our annual New Years Eve Jeopardy, hosted by Asa, where he asks all kinds of questions about the past year. 

I also realize the boys don't pay any attention. 

Question: Where did we eat dinner for Hayden's 13th Birthday?

Calib: "WHAT? Hayden's THIRTEEN?"

But they did all get Final Jeopardy correct. Calib was the winner this year. 

And then everyone had their Christmas bucks for the auction. 

I try and get some things everyone would be interested in, but usally everyone ends up pretty happy. Asa got a drinking glass, from the Office. 

Peyton cleaned up on giftcards- he got a Wawa and a Publix one. 

Hayden got a t-shirt and a burrito blanket. 

And Calib got Chewbacca slippers and a blanket hoodie. 

After the auction we went back to the Christmas open bar and we finished that up. 

In historical news, we all know what happened this week. Asa was nice enough to get up early to get a newspaper to add to my collection of historical papers. 

Thursday was Calib's last night home. We had a very narrow window of one evening to see StarWars before he left, so we had gotten our tickets weeks ago. No spoilers but we give it mixed reviews in this house. Fun fact: Moes also has $5 burritos on Thursdays, so we had that before we headed out to the movies. 

That's it from here. I leave you with cute animal pictures. (Poor Etta, though, she's is such distress with Calib gone). 

Next Up: Calib arrived in Italy today, so he's gotten there safe and sound. The rest of us are looking forward to all of our Christmas traditions one more time this week. Asa has off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!