Christmas break

I took the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day. Of course it immediately got cold right after Christmas, but on Monday we decided to go out to the park anyway. It was very wet from a previous rain, and pretty cold. We had lunch, played at the playground for a while, then tried to hike some of the trails.

That went fine for about 2 minutes. Damon, after seeing me and the girls walk around a puddle, defied all common sense by walking straight into it up to his ankles in water. That cut our hiking short a little, but he survived.

On Tuesday, Amber and I went to see the new Star Wars movie. I loved it, I think it's at least as good as the original movies, if not better. I wanted the girls to see it too, so I took them the next day and liked it just as much the second time. The girls took their new Star Wars Itty Bittys with them and held them up as each character appeared on screen, it was very cute.

We finally got around to making gingerbread houses on Wednesday. Better late than never, according to the kids.

During the week we rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy, along with the new Lego Justice League movies Damon and Miles got.  Olivia got her first project done on her new sewing machine (a bag for her new Boogie Board). Amber reupholstered one of our dying banana chairs. I took down all the Christmas decorations.

We went to a friend's house for New Year's Eve to play games until our kids were loopy, then came home and celebrated in our usual way -- playing a Lego game (this year it was Pirates of the Caribbean).

Our last bit of fun before the week was up was to attend a Pantomime show with one of Olivia's friends from school and his parents. It was a spoof on the Snow Queen story. It was very silly, but fun for the kids. Carmen even got to go on stage at one point as part of the show.

Christmas

It was 80 degrees outside, but the calendar said December 25, so we had Christmas anyway. Everyone was very excited to open presents in the morning. We did stockings, then had cinnamon rolls, then took our time opening and playing with presents for the rest of the day.

Damon and Miles were the most fun to watch. They're young enough that Christmas isn't old hat like it is to the girls.

Olivia and Carmen liked their presents, but were too cool to show it most of the time.

Olivia's big present was a sewing machine. Carmen got a big Lego Friends set and the rubber band loom she'd been asking for. Damon got a new bike, and Miles got lots of toys. Amber's big present was a new guitar, which she got to pick out a few days before Christmas. (Mine was this computer, which I bought for myself in October.)

Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day, but had a good time. Here's a video compilation of our Christmas day (the highlight is at 2:14, if you don't have time for all of it).

Christmas Eve

I didn't take any vacation before Christmas this year, so my holiday started on Christmas Eve. We had Amber's traditional clam chowder, then read and acted out the nativity story.

Joseph accompanied Mary as she rode her donkey to Bethlehem.

Where she had (grumpy) baby Jesus in a manger.

Here are the wise men with the gifts.

And mighty King Herod, considering the news of the Savior's birth.

It was a pretty good production this year.

We sang a few Christmas songs, but the kids were getting too fussy. We forgot to have them open their new pajamas in our hurry to get them to bed. Once they were snug in their beds, Santa Claus made his visit.