Christmas Day

Christmas Day of 2020 was absolutely lovely! The rigors of 2020 left little energy left in my tank for grand Christmas plans. In fact, we've been home-home-home together for so MUCH of the year that I was hard pressed to feel that Christmas sparkle in my heart. Being at home together was more normal and less novel. Finding gifts for the kids was harder than usual. The weeks leading up to the big day simply didn't have any special zest to them. For as little anticipation, festive-ness, and excitement as I had leading up to December 25th, however, the day itself ended up being as sweet and happy a family day as I have ever hoped for. It just goes to show that planning and prepping only goes so far--Christmas magic (aka love) is what really makes the day special. 

It felt good to let go of my inherent love of detailed plans and go with the flow for once. Christmas without specific expectations was the easiest, most relaxing family day we've had all year. We began the day at 7am with stockings, and rolled immediately into present giving and opening. That whole process was done before 9am. Watching the kids' excitement and joy over both giving and receiving gifts was cozy. Our family room was a disaster zone. We turned on the Netflix fireplace and soaked in the Christmas morning ambience.

Sometime just before lunch, Jeff and I went on a 4 mile run together. As a Christmas gift to myself, I pushed my healing ankle to its limit and ran farther than I've run in over a month. Thankfully, my ankle is far enough along its road to recovery that my "long run" on Christmas didn't set me back in the healing process. I won't be running four miles every day for a while, but it was nice to indulge in a bit of a longer trot, especially with Jeff. Running with Jeff is always a nice time to talk and be truly alone together--a rarity this year especially. We called it our Christmas Date, and when we got home, we found the kids arguing ferociously over a game of Monopoly. (Actually, it was Sunnyside-opoly, a customized small town version of Monopoly with many of our local favorite locations on the board--the kids gave it to me for Christmas.) We dispelled their disagreement with difficulty, and the day went on from there relatively smoothly.

Around noon, it started snowing! On Christmas Day! A novelty! A rarity! It was pure magic. By 4:00, we were all outside sledding and playing in the 2 inches of white. Dusk was fast approaching and the gray clouds got darker by the minute, but we managed to squeeze in a full hour of snow playtime before conceding to the night and coming inside for hot beverages. Since we were outside during the usual dinner prep time, we had hot chocolate (or hot cider), cold ham, and leftover fancy pecan pear pomegranate salad for Christmas dinner, without the traditional cheesy potatoes. It was so easy and cozy and Christmas-y, and I didn't plan any of it! I enjoy taking credit for well-laid plans, but I discovered that I also enjoy the opposite easy-going flow as well (under the right circumstances, haha). 

After dinner, we all draped ourselves all over the family room, where Rose and Amber gave their parents foot and back massages that lasted nearly five whole minutes. It was a merry white Christmas at the White house!

My cereal barricade worked well, although I did find several Lucky Charms scattered on the carpet later.

Yearly child torture: the Christmas morning wait. Muahahahaaaa

Stockings! Jay was the only one who noticed that the stockings were sitting on top of new desk chairs. When we mentioned the new chairs to the girls, they were surprised even though they had been right there next to the chairs for ten whole minutes. It must be 2020: we gave our kids new desk chairs and new Nintendo controllers for Christmas. Haha.

Amber gave Jay an air lounger just like hers and Rose's puffy chairs, and Rose a large box of her very own Legos.

I love how easily Amber slips into book-worlds, even amidst the chaos of Christmas morning. She opened a new Princess in Black book and was immediately engrossed.

Rose gave Jay a fuzzy blanket and Amber some hilarious "Scribble Scrubby Pets" which came with markers so you can color a kitty and then wash it off and color it again. Crayola figured out the perfect Amber-toy.

Amber's Christmas wish was fulfilled when she opened a pink "kitar" (guitar) which was actually a ukulele.

Rose was the only kid who did not submit a Christmas wish list, hoping instead for a nice surprise. So we gave her Magna Dots, and she was in heaven...until she lost them a few hours later. They have yet to be found as of December 29th, four days later.

Grama Leslie gave Amber Candyland, and it was a hit.

Coloring the pets so she can wash them in their special pink bathtub with a pump-action shower.

Grama Leslie hand-knitted us all hats!

Jeff warned me that he went a little "overboard" on my gift. When I opened a Roomba robot vacuum, I understood what he meant. It is hilariously overkill for our minimal square footage rental house, but it is also really cool! 

When it parks at its charging dock, it automatically empties the dust and debris into a bag. 

We stood and watched the Roomba vacuum the entire computer room, dodging out of its way. The Roomba has an app, which encouraged me to name our device. I named it Roombaby.

My gift to Jeff was a bunch of mysterious computer parts that he selected and ordered, then dutifully refrained from opening until Christmas afternoon. He and Jay spent some time tinkering with computer guts together on Christmas.

Rose and her Magna Dots before they were lost. I'm 90% sure that they were lost all in one magnetic clump, but Rose did find four of the tiny dots on the carpet, so who knows? They were fun while they lasted and quite mesmerizing, the strong magnets sticking together and allowing Rose to create sculptures and patterns.

"Warming up" at the fire. Classic Jay humor that Amber embraced.

In addition to Sunnyside-opoly, the kids gave me Giant Jenga, which is exactly the type of simple game I actually enjoy playing with my kids. We had to jump out of the way when it finally came crashing down to avoid being bruised by the large wooden blocks!

Our Christmas Date run.

Jay was on the better end of the Monopoly argument so he was smiling while his sisters were in distress.

Christmas lunch: leftover tamales with avocado and cider.

SNOW!

Amber preferred running alongside sledders and alternately racing them and pelting them with snowballs.

Rose likes wearing a fleece neck gaiter pulled way up.

Jeff sacrificed some of his recently adjusted vertebral alignment for a couple of sled runs. Thankfully he was able to recline and twist his back till it felt better later.

That junk pile next to the barn was a bit of a risk, and several kids crashed into it or put on the brakes just in time.

Jay mostly chose to throw snowballs at everyone. The snow was not super wet, but it did form into snowballs nicely--a rarity for our dry powdery snowfalls.

Resting at the bottom of the hill on my sled, with Jeff belly-whopping in behind me.

Amber's hair is so lively that she can't keep winter hats on, even custom-made hats. Her new hat kept riding up and popping off her head the whole time we were outside.

JAY.

The selfie cam cast everything in blue.

Obligatory family picture! They were so reluctant as always, everyone except Jeff. He knows not to act reluctant when it comes to pictures, haha. Right after this picture was taken, Amber threw a snowball at my phone and knocked it off the farm equipment that I had propped it on to set the camera timer. Amber the imp! Thankfully she didn't break my phone.

It was getting quite dark by the time Rose, Amber, and I finished our small snowman.

I used the night-vision setting on my phone for this picture, but I think it just kind of made everything a weird yellowish color.

Cold Christmas dinner. Cold but festive and yummy!

The girls serenaded us with Amber's new "guitar."

Christmas massage session! Jay got a new massive Brandon Sanderson tome for Christmas and was off reading for many of these moments.

The boy in his new fuzzy blanket, reading one of his new books. We wrapped one big paper book and loaded six other new books onto his Kindle. Jay's Christmas wishes were so easy!

Our Christmas card, for those who didn't get one in the mail. I always do my best but several got returned for wrong addresses and I don't even have other loved ones' addresses. Merry Christmas anyways! If you read my lengthy blog posts, you are my people! I mean, I like plenty of people who don't read my life-encyclopedia of a long blog, but I can say for sure that the people who DO read this old unadorned blog are some of my dearest folks. One more time...

Merry Christmas!