On Tuesday, Dec 20, we drove the 5 hours to Charlotte to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We stayed two days and came home the next night. Grandma and Grandpa were fun to be around and they got the kids some of their favorite gifts like 3 new nintendo switch games.
The next day after we got back, Ruth got busy on all of her sewing, I organized the weekly house cleaning, and then got wrapping. It took me nearly 5 hours to wrap presents. At the end of it all, Arwen, Gideon, and Eliza all had fevers.
The next day was the 23rd and more people were sick and by Christmas Eve, Gideon, Eliza, and Arwen were better but everyone else was sick. That obviously changed some of our big plans like some more shopping and a big sit down to the table family meal.
Christmas was supposed to be small this year, and in essence it was. We spent under $200, but between the Sam's cash and used toys that were given to us, and the presents that Ruth and Kate made, it ended up being quite a large Christmas.
Arwen, Susan, Sam, Gideon, and Eliza got a very nice toy kitchen with food and dishes to go along with that. None of them noticed it when they first came into the living room to open their stockings. Ruth sat down by it, and when Sam noticed it, he came over to Ruth and said, "Is that your present? It's a really nice present." Ruth said that it was not for her. Sam then came over to me and asked if he could play with that nice present and that is when I notified, Arwen, Susan, Sam, Gideon, and Eliza that it belonged to them and that they could play with it. Well they played with it during the two hours that we opened the presents.
Susan wrapped up some things that she decided to give to different family members. She gave Adam $.27, which is absolutely adorable. Adam will use it to buy Magic cards, which he can buy for that price.
Arwen built some pretty cool lego sets for Josh and Joseph and gave Susan a really nice wooden box with a mirror that she had previously bought with her birthday money.
One of the biggest and most loved gifts was books 1 through 9 of Promised Neverland. We got a really good deal on the set, and Anya, Rachel, and Joseph were very excited and pleased.
John was excited to give the Pokemon card game to Josh, Arwen, and Susan. I got Johnny a toaster because he always burns toast in the oven and we have not had a toaster for 5 years. It is a batman toaster, so it will be neat to see how that turns out.
Ruth made ninja costumes for Rachel, Josh, Joseph, and Sam and that seems to be a big hit. She also made a an apron for me, a batman cape for Gideon, and she is almost finished making 4 beautiful and classic dresses for Arwen Susan, Eliza, and Anya.
Sam and Gideon got batman and ironman toys and a large bad guy and several monster truck cars and they were all excited about those, and they were all given to us. Johnny got Sam some skylanders that he carefully picked out and bought from ebay. Gideon got a lego wolverine mech that we found for $7.
Kate got a movie and knitting needles. Ruth got a basketball, rose oil, and a manga she wanted, though I found out later that she would like a new dress. She really loves clothes, but has never said. I am glad to know that now because I have always been told by John that clothes are the dumbest of gifts. I think they are, for boys.
Josh got the Chronicles of Narnia. That was hard to get here. The first set we bought got lost in the mail and the second set got dropped off at the neighbors. I am very happy for Josh to have reading material. He also got toy trains that were given to us.
Johnny and Adam got leather work gloves and manga books.
All December, we have been singing together and cooking things like cookies and such. We have a set of movies that we traditionally watch and that has been fun. Several kids decorated the walls with paper snowflakes.
We've worked and been stern to try and get our kids to really learn the Christmas story. A few of them even managed to memorize the relevant parts of Luke 2. I hope Josh knows the story now.
This is a bunny that Kate crocheted for Eliza. She also made a penguin for Sam and a blue whale for Josh.
