Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

The Christmas Eve Nativity Cast--smaller than in past years.  But merry nonetheless. 

I didn't make a program this year, because Brion wanted to do the nativity from his scriptures.  But we had 2 numbers, Ann singing something in Swahili along with a YouTube video, and Ben singing his Covid 12 days of Christmas.  Then Libby played Mary and Sarah played Joseph.  We roped in a few other characters --Ben as angel and Geneva as sheep.  Derek even went and costumed on his own.  He was the wise man.  

O Holy Night, with lots of "missing the Hardies" tears from Libby. 

Cast photo using photo timer.  Not a great angle, but we are all there. 

The grammy jammies were a big hit this year.  Libby had been wanting these when the boosters sold them and I said no.  Haha.  Surprise! Derek had to work on Christmas morning, so Santa managed to come while the kids were off with Grammy getting their jammies.  As requested by Ben, he did leave a scavenger hunt to their special gift--Hantens like Dad's. (A Japanese house jacket--like a quilt you can wear.  They are great!)

Sarah in Hanten.  She sort of got short changed somehow.  Not as many gifts as the others.  So I took her shopping during the week.  She got a leather jacket and the vans she's been wanting.  Christmas is tough! 

Buddy was pleased with all his gifts.  It was a good that I overbought, because I gave one to Spaghetti and one to Ellie, the neighbor's dog.  Buddy's been growing, losing his baby teeth, and is upgrading to a bigger crate tomorrow.  We also got him an outdoor dog house that we haven't put together yet. 

We did Christmas morning & waffles at Maren's. 

Derek took Ben & Sarah out for some Christmas Eve Christmas shopping.  This was one of Ben's wrapping jobs.  Haha. 

My favorite gift for Derek. 

And then, on the 26th--SNOW! 

It was very snowy all week.  I'm glad the roads were still pretty okay (and Derek has 4 wheel drive) so we could still get around, even in the worst of it.). I hate taking Buddy on walks in the snow. He's so distracted and sniffing everything.  But it's supposed to melt off today.  (I'm hoping for a late start tomorrow.) 

We only have one pair of snow pants for grown ups, so Libby went out with Maren & Ben.  I went out earlier with Ben and my sit bones are still sore from trying a run in the parking lot.  It was fine for Ben and not me! Ouch.  

The rest of the break (before & after Christmas) we had fun in mostly our own ways.  Ben on Fortite, Sarah watching Vampire Diaries, and Libby with friends, or playing Valerant (sp?).  I did puzzles.  Derek worked and napped.  We did go to Spiderman, No Way Home.  It was pretty good.  But Derek left the Yukon unlocked (as he always does, to avoid a window breaking) and his wrestling scale got stolen.  Yikes.  It's a pretty big deal--he'll have to get a new scale and get it certified.   We also spent a night with the Maple Valley Fehlbergs.  Super fun.  We just love them!  

New Year's Eve was fun and games.  And sub par fondue! 

Me getting overconfident that I remembered how to do fountain fondue.  I didn't. 

And me adding a little too much apple juice to the cheese.  I need a redo on the fondue.  Maybe for my birthday. 

Uno Dare (I won!) and the paper slips game helped Maren forget a little about the tragic 
Michigan loss happening.  

The girls got all dressed up for "Midnight" aka 9:00 pm. 

Maren couldn't find poppers this year, so we got full on confetti cannons!  It was a lot of clean up, but really fun. 

The silly string was less fun for cleanup. 

Cheers to a New Year! 

And cheers to team cleanup. 

The next day Buddy found a leftover blower.  Happy New Year! 

I didn't got to the spa.  Instead, I finished taking down Christmas and set my goals at home.  Then, I headed to Maren's.  New Year's Day at Maren's was very small.  The kids played some football in the park. Yes, seriously, still all that snow. 

Buddy also had his first obedience class, sort of.  Somehow my online registration hadn't gone through.  And Buddy tried to up out of the van while the door was opening and got his head caught in the door mechanism.  I was panicking and shouting for help and desperately trying to get the door to close so I could get his head unstuck. It was horrifying.  But once the door started closing, he was able to slip out. He seemed unfazed (except for not wanting to get back in or out of the van.). We did a partial little class while they got us officially signed up.  So, get ready for him to become one super obedient dog--hopefully.