We will be out of town for Christmas
this year. Jeff and I went through several plans in order to minimize our
luggage on the trip. At first we thought we'd have our own Christmas at home
before we leave, then just do stockings again on Christmas, but that plan just
didn't seem right. We thought about just doing one Christmas at the big family
gathering, but the thought of packing the gifts was overwhelming to our
minimalist travelers' sensibilities. At last we decided to spread our Christmas
gifts out over the month of December to allow for maximum enjoyment and fun. So
every weekend before Christmas break, we are opening a present on Saturday and
a present on Sunday. So far we are loving it. It's kind of like a mix between
Hanukkah and the twelve days of Christmas, with a White family flare.
Before we made this revolutionary
decision, I had already plotted, budgeted, and ordered all the kids' gifts. It
came out to six gifts per kid, plus a family gift to share. We got each kid a
blanket, a book, a project kit, something artistic, something active, and a
just-for-fun gift. We decided to pack one gift per kid plus the stocking stuff
and open everything else at home before our trip. December 1st was the first
day of early present-opening, and it was fun! It felt kind of naughty, but Jeff
and I are grownups and we are allowed to buck tradition every now and then.
Going rogue with Christmas is an exciting way to live, let me tell you.
For our first weekend of
Christmas, we wrapped up the heated blankets so the kids could open them and
have time to use them all month. We already had one heated blanket that the
kids alternated weeks using in their beds at night. When I saw these blankets
on sale at Costco, I knew they would be perfect, even if the colors were
boring. Now each kid has his/her own plug-in blanket and we get to keep the
original heated blanket on the couch in the cold basement.
On the second day of our
pre-Christmas extravaganza (Sunday December 2nd), Amber gave everyone her
gifts: darling squishy lumi-pet lights to Jay and Rose and a curry comb to
Jeff. Amber was happy to give her siblings the same light she got for her
birthday, and now everyone has a rechargeable light to keep in bed. Practical
and whimsical don't always go hand in hand, but these cute little glowing
silicone animal lights combine the two perfectly.
Amber gave Jeff a curry comb. As
silly and weird as it sounds, Amber enjoys brushing Jeff’s hairy back like a
kitty, but her hairbrush and comb were a bit rough on his skin. One day I joked
that he needed a curry comb for his back. Light bulb! I found one on Amazon and
it was the perfect gift for Amber to give her Daddy-kitty. Jeff didn’t know
what it was when he opened it, but when I explained that it was a rubber brush
used on horses, he caught on. He says the curry comb feels wonderful on his
back. Haha! He’s not nearly as hairy as a horse or a cat, but he has some hair
and Amber now has a way to comb it.
I did not help Amber wrap a gift
for me, so she will give me hers later. :)
On that same Sunday after Amber's
gifts had been opened and enjoyed, we opened our family gift as well: Amazon
Alexa devices—Echo Dots and Echo Spots. These smart speakers are pretty cool,
although it is yet another way for technology to invade our house. We put a
Spot in each of the kids’ rooms so they can use them to listen to music and
audio books, as an alarm clock, and play a few verbal games. They were a hit.
It’s such a different interface, completely verbal. You have to tell Alexa what
you want to listen to. The kids love it. I overheard this
"conversation" between Rose and Alexa:
"Alexa, do you like stuffed
animals?” –yes, I do. My favorite is Ty multicolor bunny plush."
“Why are you named
Alexa?” --My name Alexa came from the Library of Alexandria, which stored
all of the knowledge of the ancient world."
So far it looks like equal parts
marketing and education, haha. Jay enjoys playing a verbal video game with
Alexa called Skyrim. It is hilarious to listen to. "You come to a
small clearing of trees next to a stream. An ogre approaches. What do you want
to do? Yell, attack, or run?" It's like a choose-your-own adventure
book revamped! Jay also likes the feature that allows Alexa to read any book
currently in your Kindle library. She is still just a computer so she doesn't
do cool voices or anything, but it's fun.
Even Amber has gotten the hang of
talking to Alexa. Alexa doesn't always understand, but Amber does her best to
get music going. She's always saying " 'lexa, play 'usic." One
day Amber tried asking Alexa to "play Aurora music" (aka Sleeping
Beauty), and Alexa interpreted the way Amber said it as R&B music, and an
R&B station started playing a soulful rhythmic song. Amber put her hands on
her head and said "NOOO!"
Jeff loves the paging feature on
the Alexa devices. He can send a message to everyone in the house by saying
"Alexa, make an announcement." Then he says something like
"dinner time!" and Alexa plays it on all of her speakers throughout
the house. It is a handy feature and cuts down on shouting. I even used an
Alexa announcement this morning when it was time for the kids to get their
shoes on for school. They listened to the Alexa announcement faster than they
normally listen to me, haha.
As for me, I kind of feel like
Alexa is an extra child. Whenever one of the kids tries to get Alexa to play
something when I don't want anything playing, I say "Alexa, stop."
and she stops. Or when the internet slows down and the song playing stutters
and pauses, I say "Alexa, STOP." and she stops. Immediate silence at
my first request? I guess it's nice to have at least one kid who always listens
to me!
Rewind to Saturday night,
December 1st: We went to the Annual Sunnyside Lighted Farm Implements Parade.
Well, we didn't go to the actual parade. We went to the parade line-up area. We
know just where to park to walk down the long line of vehicles waiting for the
parade to start. Just like last year, we walked down the parade row, turned
around, and walked back up the parade. We saw the entire parade in about half
an hour. Our walk was one mile long. Then we got back into our van and drove
home. The kids were in bed (or at least in their rooms reading) by 6:30pm--a
much-needed early bedtime. They were extra-tired that night for some reason.
Christmas festivities take energy!
We had a bit of a learning curve
on remembering present wrapping techniques with the first gifts of Christmas.
Rose got our first attempt and was a bit confused about why it looked so
crumpled and torn. We wrapped the blankets on Saturday morning, carried them
upstairs, and the kids ripped them open all within about half an hour.
Trying out their new
bland-colored but well-heated blankets. I gave Rose the prettiest patterned
blanket because I thought she'd care the most, my little aesthetic daughter.
The parade:
- Santa driving his Rudolph-dump-truck-sleigh.
- Jay wasn't really mad or sad; he was just being contrary whenever the camera aimed at him.
- A tractor pulling Santa in a motorboat...?
- A panda driving a glowing tractor with his teeth. RANDOMNESS. But hilarious, and somehow festive at the same time.
- I love walking down the middle of this road, being dazzled by lights on all both sides.
- The steaming horses from the funeral home are always my favorites, although their green-lit carriage reminded me more of The Hound of the Baskervilles than Christmas.
- Note to self: don't wait till the end of a one mile walk at bedtime to take the family selfie. This was the best we could do. Rose especially was feeling exhausted and grumpy.
SUNDAY morning:
- Welcome, Alexa.
- At church, Amber got these hilarious "scripture specs" in her primary class and brought us the extras. They say "Scripture specs help me see my way to heaven" and the glasses are made up of the Bible and The Book of Mormon. They were delightfully goofy and I cracked UP when Jeff showed up in the primary room wearing them. When I turned away from the piano and saw Jeff standing there tall and proud with his scripture specs balanced on his nose, I couldn't stop laughing.
- MINECRAFT on Sunday afternoon. I am conflicted about the whole institution. Blah.
- Amber is getting pretty good at Mario Kart. Again, I am conflicted about this. As an anti-video games and screen minimalist, it is tricky being married to a video game loving technologically savvy man. Compromises must be made, and we try to meet in the middle with our kids' electronic consumption. It always feels like too much to me, but I'm getting a little better at letting it go.
- On Sunday afternoon, the sun almost broke through the clouds so I interrupted computer time and summoned the family for another quick Christmas card photo attempt. It is fine--pajamas, Sunday dresses, and all, but I didn't use it on our cards. I ended up digging through our past year of pictures and using one of our good ones that we had already taken.
- Our old house was a split level with a big beautiful banister to fill at Christmas time. I got all of our Christmas decorations when we lived in that house for five years. Most of our Christmas decor revolves around those banisters. Our current house is significantly smaller, with no visible banisters. I try not to be too cluttered in our Christmas decor, but I loved all of the things we hung on our banisters so I still hang our Christmas card ribbon, our advent pouches (on the shelf), and our lighted garland--although this year I opted for the lightweight paper snowflakes above the windows instead of the heavy evergreen garland.
- I love this little handmade advent pouch garland I made a few years ago. It's a bit quaint, but I love hanging a photo of Jesus every day before Christmas. Last year we read a scripture to go with each picture, but this year we're just hanging the pictures. It still feels good.
- And last but not least: SNOWBALLS! aka Mexican wedding cookies, aka Russian tea cakes. How can so many countries lay claim to these delicious little bites? My dad always called them snowballs and we only had them at Christmas time when I was growing up. These are my favorite Christmas cookies. This week I squeezed a double batch--113 cookies-- onto one pan. A new personal record!
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