It's ironic that last year, at what was previously the height of the Pandemic, with no vaccine, my mom was able to spend Christmas with us (and Thanksgiving and New Years, and nearly Easter- she was here for awhile!) But this year, we weren't so lucky. She was exposed to covid (but tested negative multiple times), and couldn't make her annual Christmas trip down to see us. I'm sure with cases as high as they have been, she wasn't the only one.
But, with all the doomscrolling, there was some good news on Christmas Eve- King of the Coop was giving away free tender boxes. I asked Asa if he wanted to go when they opened for lunch, and he was in.
Calib was at work (which was weird for Christmas Eve), Hayden was still asleep (they open at 11, so we left about 10:30), and Peyton wasn't interested (he would be if he had ever had their chicken before, I'm sure of it); so it was just me and Asa off to collect our free boxes.
You had your choice between hot (Nashville) or not (Biddy). So, I think you can guess which one of us went with which. We grabbed our to-go boxes and headed on over to the picnic tables at the Grove.
On our way home, we swung by Publix to pick up our curbside order. Even in non-pandemic Christmases (whenever that might happen again), I am ordering curbside. Because, man, that parking lot was packed. And I don't want to deal with that. They were right there waiting for us with our curbside order when we pulled up, and we were in and out in MINUTES. Afterward, we swung by Aroma Joes for one last 12 days of rewards. It was $3 off any coffee!
When we got home, I got to preparing some things for our Christmas Eve spread. You have to have the crab meat and cream cheese dip (and that's a peanut butter ball back there too).
Chipotle closed early, even earlier than originally planned- because of some plumbing issue. So, Calib came home around 2. He even had time to swing by and get us some crumbl cookies on his way home.
They went on our dessert try along with some cheesecake bites, macaroons, and some Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts (Asa and I tried to pick up donuts but they were all out of basically everything but Munchkins).
Our spread included lots of appetizer type things. Pigs in a Blanket, Mozzerella sticks, some Waygu Beef things from Costco, deviled eggs, bbq meatballs, and a Publix meal wheel. Calib also picked up some sushi on his way home, too.
Of course, there was a charcuterie.
And the PB ball and crab meat.
We sure did eat a lot of food- and we still have leftovers for days!
That evening, we had a family zoom call, complete with mom quarantining at her house, Clint and Jess with Sue (Jess's mom) in Cleveland, and Cort's family in Cincinnati.
(Etta also very much likes to Zoom)
Shout out to Clint and Jess, who on their way to see Sue, swung by my moms house as safely as they possibly could, so she would at least get to see some of us over Christmas.
After zoom, we got to playing the last of our Christmas games: Minute to Win it, Christmas Edition.
For our first event, you had to drop a candy cane onto the garland.
Then, we had the usual place the ornaments on the yard stick game.
New this year: hang some, and lay some on the yard stick (read: I couldn't find enough hooks).
Then there was the "Candy Elevator" where you had to use the 'elevator' made out of yarn and a craft stick to eat the m&m
This next one is like one of my new favorites. The boys were blindfolded and they had to scoop up as many cotton balls with the spoon as they could. Since cotton balls don't weigh anything, it's hard to know if you got any or not.
It doesn't translate to pictures, as well as videos. But, you can find a video of Calib doing it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rE42G_nQE8&ab_channel=CorinneWaterstraut
We also had the snowman stack. Using only your mouth, you had to stack three marshmallows on top of each other.
And finally, the snowball toss, where you have to knock all the cups off the table in as few throws as possible.
Once all the games were done, it was time to have the Christmas Bucks Auction. This years featured slippers, a Jelly of the Month Club tshirt, a couple of gift cards, some Jones Soda, a gaint thing of Sour Patch Kids.... And a little soda refrigerator. Which, I knew would be in high demand. But, when I didn't foresee was Calib and Peyton both having $22 Christmas Bucks when we got to the last item. Peyton bid first, but Calib was still counting his money, so I wasn't quite sure what to do.
So, we decided to do New Years Eve Jeopardy early. We had planned to do this on NYE and then give out three prizes. First place would pick first, and so on. We decided to nix the rest of the auction and make the mini fridge one of the prizes. (And then threw in a Little Cesears and Amazon gift card)
This years categories included: Name that Date, In the News, Vaccines, Places we Didn't Go, and By the Numbers.
As predicted, they were all pretty terrible at it.
But Calib came out the winner, and got himself the fridge.
Peyton wasn't too mad about his gift card. And, he did get the Jelly of the Month tshirt, which goes well with his Moose glass.
Of course on Christmas Eve night we had our customary hot chocolate in santa mugs.
While we watched National Lampoons Christmas vacation.
And then we finished up the evening with some Cards Against Humanity.
The boys all got their Christmas Eve pajamas, too.
And then we put out all the presents, and headed to bed.
Christmas morning 2021 Headlines. *Sigh*
When Asa and I got up, we filled the stockings.
And Nooms went looking for his present.
Once everyone was up, we put on Christmas music and the Airendale fireplace and dished out the presents.
Hayden noticed there was a new present that hadn't been there last night. Turns out the big presents this year were open first. Hayden got a new mattress.
Calib and Peyton both got new phones: The Google Pixel 6. (They had to change numbers for us to get them bogo though- so if you need their new one, just let me know!)
Of course, there were presents for all the pets, too.
Highlights included a rice rinsing bowl, some new pillows, and lots of USF stuff for Calib.
I knew all my presents this year, but I did open my finger puppets last, because I couldn't remember who I had ordered when my mom told me to get a few on her.
But then, at the very end of all our gifts, Calib totally shocked us, by saying "But wait! There's More!" And he grabbed his keys and ran out to the Fit to get presents for us. They were even wrapped! And he went to the Dollar Store to buy paper and tape so he wouldn't have to ask me for it and spoil the surprise. He said he wrapped them in the Chipotle parking lot on Christmas Eve.
He brought in Hayden's first: one of those round foldy chairs!
Peyton got a really nice fuzzy blanket.
And for me and Asa...
Brand new cookware. It's litterally the first time in our lives we've had a whole set of matching pots and pans. (Check out Hayden's face, it was, in fact, that shocking).
If you know Calib, you know how stingy he can be with his money. Like, he doesn't want to spend $5 if he doesn't have to. He's the only one that gets the change out of the tip jar at Chipotle, because nobody else ever wants it. (No joke, I got him a jar to count his change for Christmas and he loves it! All that change nobody wanted is nearly $150.)
But to have spent all that money, and then secretly gotten those gifts. It was a surprise for sure. None of us saw it coming (In fact when he ran out to his car, we all looked around at each other and was like 'did Calib get us presents?!!" completely shocked.
We did then zoom with mom real quick, and apparently I didn't take any pictures. But, they all got some new shirts, an Amazon gift card, and UNIVERSAL PASSES! That's right, when this next wave is passed, we're hitting up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter again!
And after all that, here's the Christmas mess of 2021.
Asa quickly got to putting away his new pots and pans (and getting rid of some old ones).
Hayden unwrapped and unrolled his mattress, and hung his new umbrella up by the door (I have no idea why, but he has an obession with an umbrella- as opposed to a rain jacket, so I finally bought him one).
Since Calib was working Christmas Eve, we decided to have our traditional santa pancakes on Christmas instead.
And then we just spent the day hanging out.
Ellie was very photogenic with her sloth.
Here's my hull: lots of Cricut stuff, some finger puppets, my Hamilton sweatshirt from when we went to see Hamilton, a USF magnet, and a few things the HSA purchased. Yea, we totally Amazon shopped for me on the HSA card. I'm so old.
And this years games:
Calib got the Catan expansion, but I also made him this shirt to go along with it.
For dinner, we got to use lots of our new pots and pans.
I spring for the butter tree, like the turkey tree at Thanksgiving.
Dinner was, of course, our traditional seafood spread.
Complete with lemons off the tree, and cheddar bay biscuits.
I even sprung for some crab legs, but only a few- they are extra pricey this year!
We still had lots of leftover desserts from Christmas Eve so I put that tray back out.
All in all, not bad for Pandemic Christmas #2, but lets not go for #3, ok?
Hayden was extra cozy in his new bed that night.
Even the doggies were pooped from all the excitement.
Next Up: The void that is the week between Christmas and New Years.
