New Year's Eve

We made it to midnight this year, and for Maddie there was never really any question.  Nana was off to sleep about 11:30 or so, but the rest of us stayed up for the final countdown.

You can see we had our paper crowns on, the ones you get inside of Christmas crackers, along with other prizes.  Just before midnight, we pulled apart the crackers, and each one of us actually won with the sound of the loud snap.  We found these crackers not long ago and were happy to keep up the tradition.

Mom had the place settings all made up, along with a nice centerpiece to celebrate the night.  The weather was warm and the fireworks in the neighborhood were going off all through the night.  It wasn't as much the sound of a war zone as the Fourth of July, but there were plenty of explosions heard all around, particularly just after midnight, of course.

We were happy to see the return of a live countdown and fireworks show down at the Magic Kingdom, and that's what we tuned in to see once more this year as we counted down the final seconds of 2021.  We don't have to worry about new bands being promoted or politics or crazy things going on at Times Square - it's just Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald counting down with everyone else at the Magic Kingdom, along with a whole lot of fireworks.  There weren't even any hosts this year online, although that may return next year.  We were just grateful to have something live to follow this year, and of course Maddie will actually physically be there at the Magic Kingdom later on in 2022, so that'll be fun.

On this laptop, we also had another New Year's Eve celebration pulled up - we watched the "Possum Drop" from Tallapoosa, Georgia.  They have a stuffed possum that they put into a ball with lights on it, something similar to what you'd see at Times Square.  Then they slowly drop it off the corner of a building there at the town square as the final seconds tick down.  

His name is Spencer the Possum, and he's not real.  At least not anymore.  But yeah, they just made a frame structure that the put Christmas lights around, and then stuck a taxidermied possum inside it.  And as ridiculous as that sounds, we love it.  They canceled the Peach Drop again this year, so there was nothing to see there in Atlanta.  So why not check out small town life, and visit with the good people of Tallapoosa.   From time to time, we were watching their celebration through the night, listening to a local band play "Free Bird," amongst other things.

Of course, we weren't primarily watching that tonight - it was more about the actual possum drop itself.  Our real programming tonight, the thing that got us to midnight, was our "Spider-thon."  Tonight we watched "The Amazing Spider-man" and "The Amazing Spider-man 2," along with a break for snacks in between.  Mom had prepared an amazing cheese tray with crackers, and some delicious sweets too.  In between the movies, we took a break to snack on those, and as midnight approached, we even had one of those bottles of sparkling apple cider to enjoy, along with some tall plastic wine glasses.  We're so fancy!

Can you believe that none of us had ever seen "The Amazing Spider-man 2" before?  It was actually a better movie than I'd heard.  There were things that weren't great about it, but there were plenty of good things in it too.  It made us wish there was a conclusion to the Andrew Garfield trilogy, actually.  I know there are some moments within "No Way Home" where these movies get addressed.  But it would be pretty awesome if we had some closure there.

Anyway, we had a pretty good night.  At one point, I put on a vinyl record of Guy Lombardo that we have, "New Year's Eve" with Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.  I remember my dad's dad really liking this music on New Year's Eve.  Mom, Nana and I were singing along with some of these tunes, in fact.  And of course, there's Auld Lang Syne there with everyone calling out, "Happy New Year!"  This record is from 1963 - we were playing it while cleaning up the piano room somewhat.  Almost there - I have a feeling the Christmas decorations will be down a lot quicker this year.  Except the living room tree, I suspect.

It was a good day too.  We started the DeSantafication Process, getting down the tree in the piano room, along with a few Nativity sets as well, including our Nativity Empire.  Maddie and I were doing a lot of board games throughout the day - we did the old "Monorail" board game, and did the Charlie Brown boardgames too, which is somewhat like Chutes and Ladders, but with additional cards and characters.  Some time ago, I had printed out a Phineas & Ferb board game, and I'm not 100% sure where I got that from.  But I had it inside the Monorail game box for protection, and sure enough, we put that board game down and played that one too!

It was a nice day today.  The Orange Bowl was tonight, and the Bulldogs defeated their opponent again, just like they've done in all but one game this year.  In fact, it was another huge beatdown, which leads to a rematch on January 10th between Alabama and Georgia again.  I think the general feeling here is "We'll see how it goes..."

Our Atlanta Braves won this year, and we can certainly sit back and savor that one.  Overall, the year 2021 had its moments.  Not as many, we'll just say it that way.  But I'm still here, and so is our family.  Eventually, we'll be able to escape this quarantine that we've been stuck in for two years.  Maybe sometime in 2022.  But until then we'll be grateful for what we have, and for me, that's summed up in this one picture here:

Yes, even including the annoying screaming rubber chicken.

New Year's Eve Eve

The show must go on, so to speak, and so I had to spend some time thinking about what we were doing at KidPak this weekend.  We came up with a fairly decent three point message about the upcoming year, tied to the Neverland theme that's still on our set.  I think this should be good - Mom started the brainstorming out with a thought about still using Neverland and also doing somewhat of a New Year's Day service.

  

1.  Keep seeking.  Tick-Tock seems is always seeking out Captain Hook, and is rather relentless about it!  If only we could all seek out God in that same way, always looking for Him each day of this new year.  Don’t worry - our Heavenly Father is easy enough to find.  The important thing is to keep seeking with all your heart, and when we knock on His door, don’t worry.  It will be open for us.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIRV

2.  Keep sowing.  Tick-Tock’s constant ticking reminds us all that time is moving by.  This upcoming year, we’ll see exactly 525,600 minutes, and God is seeing what we do with each one.  In our Bibles, He watched a man named Cornelius use his time to serve others, building up a memorial offering before God.  He saw Rebekah serving strangers, He saw Joseph help a prisoner realize his dream, and He saw a starving widow serve food to a visiting prophet.  In every example, these people kept showing love to others, and found out that God will reward those who give - pressed down, shaken together and running over with blessings.

"Let us not become tired of doing good. At the right time we will gather a crop if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIRV

3.  Keep standing!  This upcoming year may look like a big scary thing, maybe even like Tick-Tock the monster crocodile.  But that crocodile is not after you - he’s only after Hook!  And although the new year may look like something to be afraid of, it’s really not at all.  That’s because God is with you!  So keep standing up and keep standing out.  Be strong and brave, do not be afraid, and do not lose hope!

"Here is what I am commanding you to do. Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you everywhere you go.” Joshua 1:9 NIRV

Afterwards, we did a few more board games today, including a new one, "Fear Factor."  I got this one pretty cheap a few years ago, and just haven't gotten around to it, but in the end it's a simple little fun game that dives into the whole series that used to be so popular.  Things come in waves, so there may some day be a resurgence, but in the meantime, we were reading different challenges and of course imagining one another actually being challenged to do this or that.  Would you?  In pretty much all cases, the answer was a resounding "NO."  

We also played the Star Wars LIFE games a few rounds, and I'm pretty sure we may play that again soon enough.  Mom was wanting in on the board game action tomorrow, and she may join us for some Avengers Monopoly.

The television was on for Nana, with "Nailed It" playing all day, binge-style.  One episode after the other.  They're funny episodes, and a lot of fun.  Meanwhile, I was going for a walk by the Corn Palace.  That was today's destination on the treadmill, a walk around Mitchell, South Dakota.  

The weather was rainy today, and in fact really suddenly stormy last night.  A violent front swept through late last night, and there was actually a tornado touchdown in Hall County.  More rough weather is on the way this weekend, and it seems like we're having spring weather right  now with the temperatures so warm and the rolling thunder so frequent.  We'll have storms on Saturday and then Sunday too, and after that, we'll actually have a chance of ice and snow.  Odd weather indeed.

Tonight we continued the Spider-thon with "Spider-man 3," which used to be Tobey Maguire's final outing as the webslinger, until this most recent movie.  It's not my favorite of the series, but there are some great characters and moments in it.  I love Flint Marko's character in this one, but I'm not a huge fan of the inclusion of Venom.  Still, it concludes the trilogy and it really ushered in the new era of superhero movies, making way for the MCU and beyond.  And of course there's the fun fact about this particular movie:  while in China, this was the movie playing in the hotel the day we met Maddie for the first time.  While Mom was getting a shower and getting ready to go out the door, I was watching "Spider-man 3" on that television in the hotel room.  Right about the time the movie ended, we were soon out the door and down the street to meet Maddie.  I'll always remember that, I think. 

We read tonight, and we prayed too.  The weather is quieter now, and we're pretty tired too.  We'll sleep in tomorrow, and of course it'll be a late night tomorrow night - we've got to stay up until midnight, right?

National Pepper Potts Day

Each Wednesday for Camille's small group night, I like to help out and make a game, and we thought it would be fun to celebrate whatever random holiday pops up on that Wednesday, and use that to make a theme for a game out of.  So what is today?

 

It's National Pepper Pot Day.  I have no idea what that is.  And sure, I could look at the picture there, or look up the ingredients.  But that doesn't make for an interesting game for girls' small group.  So here's a new twist on the holiday:

The whole idea is that I didn't know what a pepper pot is, so instead I made it National Pepper Potts Day.  The girls played a game where there were three suits of her "Rescue" armor, each one with the helmet on.  The girls had to figure out which of the three suits actually had Pepper Potts inside it.

Maddie's online small group keeps going on, and it's nice to see.  While she was doing that, I've got Sunday to consider, a new message.  I had one idea in place when Mom thought it might be better to go with the Neverland theme one last time, as we're still with that set.  And that's not a bad idea.  The whole tie-in with the New Year and Tick-Tock the crocodile might be interesting.

We did some oven shopping, but what Mom wants is either not available or not created yet.  Either way, after a little over an hour of looking online, we came extremely close, only to have it shot down because the color wasn't perfect.  So back to the drawing board on that.  Our current oven has officially bit the dust now, which means a bit of creative cooking in the near future, and possibly a new toaster oven until Mom finds her utopian stove.  Maddie's got to have her pizza and nuggets and tater tots, so a toaster oven it is.

Maddie and I played a game of "Worst Possible Scenarios," which is a fun trivia game that challenges each player to figure out the best way to survive a train crash, avoid black bears, keep from staying lost at sea, find drinkable water in the jungle... and so on.  It was a close match actually, the two of us racing on to the finish line, barely surviving.  But we did, and we learned a few things along the way.

Tonight's Spider-thon continued with Doctor Octopus and the incredible movie "Spider-man 2," which is one of my favorite superhero movies of all time.  The subway sequence alone is one of the best action scenes ever, but the overall story behind this movie is just a masterpiece.  Seriously, this might be my favorite superhero movie ever still, even after all the MCU material that's been released, and all those movies are really good too.  It's just that "Spider-man 2" is still my favorite.

Another bit of viewing today:  Boba Fett!  Yes, the first chapter in the "Book of Boba Fett" was released today, and we actually watched it first thing this morning!  True story.  We obviously won't be able to do that as school started out, but we were so anxious to watch the first episode today that we did it this morning.  And it was great, of course, a long-awaited moment where we see how Boba Fett actually escapes from the Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon, and we also see a lot of interaction with some of my favorite characters, the Tusken Raiders.  It was a win-win.  We loved this episode, and will probably watch it again very soon because we're such geeks!  Also, Fennec Shand.  So glad to see her in this episode, and looking forward to seeing her in action as we move forward.  It was a good start to the series!

We closed out the night by saying our prayers, and reading from our "Kingdom Keepers" book.  Mom and Nana got some grocery shopping done, getting ready for the big fast in January, but other than that, it wasn't a terribly productive day.  But that's okay - it's winter break.  And National Pepper Potts Day.

Spider-thon

After watching "Spider-man: Far From Home," it became necessary for something that I'm fairly certain many Marvel fans all over the world are now doing:  having a "Spider-thon."  We started tonight with the first of the "Spider-man" movies, the one that started it all nearly twenty years ago.  I'll always remember the state of the country at that time, as does anyone who was alive then, and how much this movie was needed in a way.  There were other uplifting moments to be sure, but at that time we really needed a superhero blockbuster.  And it was done so well too - up until this first movie, we had a live action Spider-man series that was embarrassing, mainly because special effects were so amazingly limited back then.  But this new movie handled the webslinging and swinging in the way that comic book fans had always dreamed of.  Before this movie, we had the X-Men movie, and the Batman movies and way back before that the Superman movies. So we didn't have much in the way of CGI.  So you can imagine how thrilled we were to see Spider-man swinging up and down the streets of New York, or the Green Goblin actually flying by, throwing those terrifying pumpkin bombs.  But even more than the CGI effects, the characters and story of this movie is so heartfelt and enjoyable.  We finished up this movie tonight, and of course tomorrow night it's on to "Spider-man 2."

We were out very briefly today, mainly because Nana needed to get out of the house for a while.  We went over to make a donation to Goodwill, and we stopped there to shop for what was supposed to be a super quick visit.  But Mom and Nana found a bunch of things, and we found some friends too, and Maddie found a Ghostbusters hoodie she liked, and I found a white elephant gift for next Christmas, a murder mystery literally called "White Elephant."  That should be pretty funny.  

We stopped at Chick-Fil-A after that, actually going into the restaurant to stop and eat.  We used up a few of our gift cards, and joined a lot of other people at that place.  It was packed.  I suspect everyone else had the same idea.

Tonight before bed, Maddie and I played the Star Wars trivia game again.  It's a funny game that goes between extraordinarily easy questions and insanely trivial ones that I don't even know.  Maddie likes this game, so odds are that we'll be playing it a few more times this week, but the goal is to do more board games as the week goes on.

I put up the mezuzah on the front door this afternoon, saying the proper blessing and then fixing it to the door post at the proper angle in the proper location.  It's there now, a very nice gift from Mom, and a reminder of the importance of God's Word in our lives.  A scripture in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 tells the Jews at that time to put God's Word on the doorposts and elsewhere.  I've always wanted one of these, and was glad to post it up on the door today.

This morning I took a walk around Devil's Tower.  One neat thing about the internet are POV walking videos that you can watch while on the treadmill.  It was about a 45 minute walk, but for just a short time I was right back there at Devil's Tower again.  I think I've been there about three or four times in person, and miss those trips terribly.  So these POV videos are a consolation prize, and on top of that there's exercise on the treadmill, so it all works out.

Speaking of exercise, we replenished the wood pile today, and gathered up a lot of the kindling as well.  There's a cold snap coming next week, and we'll be ready for it, at least with the firewood.  We went through a lot more of it than usual, burning fires in the fireplace all throughout the Christmas season.  We didn't go through the entire pile last winter, and here we are at the end of December, already going to get more.  It's a lot, and it took a good while to pile up, but again, we should be good to go until at least February, right?  Although another warming trend is on the way after the cold snap, and the weather lately has been so warm that I was even somewhat tempted to put on the ceiling fan last night.

It was sprinkling a bit today, a sign of things to come as tomorrow will be rainier.  That was another reason to get the wood today.  The weather was still decent enough to have all kinds of visitors to our back deck.  

Mom put out bird feeders, and we saw finches, cardinals, tufted titmouse, chickadees, and a long-awaited woodpecker at the suet feeder.  We just put the suet feeder out, so it wasn't that much of a wait really.  Mom got some new feeders for Christmas, and some birdhouses too.  A few of those were hung up already, with others coming soon.

Our oven is pretty much gone now.  We were oven shopping today, and we're hoping to get one quickly, as Maddie needs her pizza.  We can use the stove top for heating things up, and the microwave too.  But the oven is older, and we're needing a new one.  Thirty inches wide, range, five burners, two ovens... we'll see what we can find here.

Tonight we continued our reading of Kingdom Keepers, and this book is shorter and moving along quickly.  Maddie had a good day today, doing a lot of cleaning up in her room and relaxing too.  We were watching a few things throughout the day, listening to Christmas music still, because that's okay.  It was a decent day, and we went to sleep earlier, the sound of rain helping us sleep through the night.

Girls Go Shopping

Maddie spent much of the day down a few exits from here drinking bubble tea and doing some shopping with one of her good friends from school.  She loves that bubble tea, slurping on it still loudly when she got home.  She really had a great day today, as they just hung out together, going off shopping and visiting a bookstore where Maddie used a gift card she got for Christmas.  It was a super nice day out together, a much-needed outing for several hours, and we were glad she could enjoy her time together with a friend.

We had a decent day today, keeping Nana busy and watching a few things like this new movie about Louis Wane, a guy who did all of these paintings of cats.  I recognized some of the images, but I had no idea about this guy's life story.  Interesting and well done movie, although tragic in so many respects.  

When Maddie was home, we watched "Encanto" together, which was also good, with some great music to it.  Maddie said she liked that one a lot.  I don't think she would have enjoyed the other one with the cat paintings though!  

It was a decent day.  We're sort of trapped here, but we're getting a few things done around the house, and doing the best we can.  We said our prayers tonight, and soon after reading, we were off to sleep.

The Day After Christmas

Today is the traditional day to just lounge about and play with our Christmas toys.  Although with Nana in the house, that was not entirely possible.  As usual, we took turns doing things with her, which usually means just sitting down and watching something on television that might interest her, or taking her out for a ride to do some chore that's somewhat needed but in fact the whole purpose is to get her out of the house for a short while and give the others at home a window of quiet.  Her mornings are especially difficult, as she still refuses to eat or do anything more than wander around in circles and then go back up to her room, muttering about this or that.  Then she stays in the room about ten to fifteen minutes, and then comes downstairs to repeat the process.  As a human being, one may feel obliged to help or cheer up or console, but that only drags the other person into the same dark hole for a time, and thus there's this place of feeling callous, which brings about guilt that more can't be done, but more really can't be done, or at least by us, and there's no other options, so here she is, muttering, crying, not wanting to eat, and telling everyone who offers her something that "she's fine," which means, "No, I don't want food, I don't want to sit there, I don't want this or that."  She's miserable, and of course we've been along for that ride now for four hundred and seventy-five days, unable to go anywhere or do a lot of the things we like to do.  The idea of Mom and I actually spending time together is a dream.  Camille has offered a "babysitting" night where Mom and I can go out to eat on an actual date together.  We got a gift card that Camille made up for us that said all that, and we both nearly cried. 

One show that's brightened her up a bit, and the rest of us too, is a show called "Nailed It."  It's a holiday-themed season of a cooking show where supremely inexperienced contestants attempt to recreate a nearly impossible culinary masterpiece.  The end result is hilarious, and Mom and Nana were enjoying watching the epic fails for a few episodes.

Meanwhile, Maddie and I got some boardgames time in, playing a new game first, "It's a Small World," which I just got for Christmas.  After that, we did a Star Wars trivia game, which Maddie enjoyed so much that we'll be playing again soon.  It was so great sitting and playing board games!  I miss that.  "It's a Small World" is a great game visually, and it was fun to play, although we found ourselves having to get up and circle the table and the board game frequently to look for different Small World characters.  In the end, Maddie won that one, and she won the Star Wars trivia game too, actually.  That game was going on and on and on, simply because each time we rolled the dice (it's an R2-D2 that makes noises and randomly gives out a number that tells us how far to move), we could never land on the spot we wanted to, and then had to answer more questions just to keep moving forward.  Some questions were ridiculously easy, and then other questions were so left field that I didn't even know the answers, and I thought I pretty much knew it all.  Still it was fun, and like I said, Maddie wants to play again later this week.  We may couple that with another board game.  I was organizing a bunch of them downstairs and there was a longing to try out a few more.

We were starting to put away the clothing and toys from under the tree today.  Maddie was trying on some of the clothing she got, and she was testing out this miniature printer she got from Aunt Rebecca yesterday.  It prints out images from a cell phone. So she was testing that out, making prints here and there.  

I briefly started reading a new book on Ulysses Grant.  We were organizing the board games and movies downstairs, returning a lot of the Christmas movies to their proper place on the shelves.  We have SO MANY of them now.  This year we got a few more, and in fact I'm not quite done watching Christmas movies this year.  This week is that sort of twilight time for Christmas, where you can still go see lights or listen to Christmas music or even watch Christmas movies.  Mom got a few new movies for Christmas, and we might watch one or even two. 

We had Chinese leftovers for lunch today, and it was a pretty big meal actually.  In fact, there's still wonton soup left for another meal upcoming.  

Tonight's movie was "Ron's Gone Wrong," which everyone enjoyed.  We did not have a fire roaring in the fireplace for this one, as the temperature is in fact pretty warm outside.  And we've had all kinds of interesting wildlife right here near our house.  We had a loose cow right in front of our house, and about five houses down, a porch camera caught sight of a black bear.  Mom put out some new feeders we got for Christmas, and the birds are going to work on the suet feeder there, and our squirrels are at the plate in the front yard, enjoying some sunflower seeds.  It feels like spring, but the weather is supposed to change rather violently this weekend.  We'll see how that goes.

Tonight we were reading the next book - book eight - of the "Kingdom Keepers" series.  We'll be barreling through this one too.  The gang is all back, with most of them a bit reluctant for a new adventure, but they're in for one anyway, at least for the next three books - four, if you include "The Syndrome."  Maddie and I will be reading these a bit into the new year, and might even be done just in time for the latest release to be published.  

We prayed tonight, and we went to bed, or at least we went to our bedrooms to read for a bit before falling asleep.  It wasn't that bad of a day.

Wonderful Christmastime

Christmas time is here!  Maddie - in all her years - has never, ever gotten up before us on Christmas morning.  This cracks me up because it goes against all conventional ideas about kids and Christmas, bursting forth from their bedrooms and bounding down the stairs and diving head-first into a pile of presents.  But not Maddie.  In fact, this morning, we played the soundtrack of "The Polar Express" on the television, and nearly got to the end of it before we heard that door crack open upstairs.  Peeking over the balcony up top, she saw all the presents down below, and gave everyone a happy, "Merry Christmas!"

Mom had her cinnamon doughnuts ready, but there were all kinds of other treats too, including our Christmas cookies of course.

The stockings were filled, and these were the first we went through, each of us sitting at the couch and going through our gifts and treasures.

The Wise Men look on, the first gift givers.  We watched "The Nativity Story" today, such a great movie about the real reason behind the Christmas season.  

Not so much this gnome nutcracker.  But he looks fun.  I was taking pictures of various decorations this morning while waiting for Maddie to arise from her slumber.  The gnome is perched atop Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy for a reason, of course.

Our Nativity empire - Zechariah emerging from the temple, speechless.  And a nearby Roman soldier, helping to enforce the command from Caesar that all the world should be taxed.

A candle display with the Holy Family sits by the front door, a remarkable moment.  What these parents must have been thinking at that moment!

First thing this morning, we had Nana call over to England to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  They were there and happy to receive the call.  Christmas wishes were shared across the pond as Nana paced about with the phone attached to her ear.

One of my favorite Nativity scenes.  I love the retro stained glass behind the pieces.  This is also near the front door, greeting visitors as they enter, or visible as coming down the stairs.

Ah, Santa's cookie, a bite clearly taken from it, obvious evidence of Santa's presence in our house.  These cookies don't eat themselves, folks!

One of the smaller sets we have sits on one of our shelves, a collection of characters from "Mickey's A Christmas Carol."  A few of our Christmas cards we've received serve as backdrops, along with a smaller copy of "A Christmas Carol," of course.

And here on the opposite side are some pictures of Maddie with Santa, plus our own Gävle Goat.  This one is safe from fires here inside our house.  You can also see to the right our collection of Christmas glasses.  Look through these and at the tree, and you'll see all sorts of designs and illuminated shapes within every Christmas light.  

Here is Maddie's first picture with Santa.  I remember this moment, as does Mom.  It brings back happy memories of our uncertainty about her being with Santa.  We weren't ready for a picture - we were just walking by the him at the Mall of Georgia, and sure enough she wanted to go run up and take a picture with him.  And she was clearly pretty happy about it all too.  If we had known, we would have dressed her up for Christmas, but at the same time, this picture tells a story greater than any of that.

Now look at her, thirteen years later.  She had a good Christmas, she told us, and we were glad of that.  You can see just a few of the items she was opening here, Marvel related, of course.

Nana had more than a few gifts to open herself.  This puzzle was a gift from Maddie, a picture of a big cat lounging in a beach chair.

Mom had a good Christmas too.  Maddie was serving as "head elf" or whatever, passing everyone gifts to open as we sat on the couch.  Big piles of wrapping paper and gifts quickly rose in the living room this morning.

Ah, here's Jinky!  A Build-a-bear Jawa teddy bear, something picked up several months ago, one of the first gifts of Christmas.  It actually talks, and has a small Jawa rifle with it as well.  Jawas and Maddie go back a ways, of course.

Oh, and look at this collection of Edge merchandise here.  There's the new sweatshirt she's wearing, plus the t-shirt she has in her left hand of course.  But in her right hand is the frame we got for her black belt certificate.  She loved that and wants to have it hanging in her bedroom.  No problem, Maddie!

Here's one of the gifts I received, a collection of Star Wars themed soaps.  Yeah, you read that right.  There's "Only Hope Soap," and "Wisdom Wash," and for a cleaner Sith experience, there's "Darkside Scrub" and and "Ruthless Rinse."

Here is a gift long awaited, and straight from Fozziwig's Rubber Chicken Factory!  Fozziwig and Mom, Ltd. (established 1843), have the highest quality rubber chickens, so as you can imagine, this gem here was a cherished prize Christmas morning!  Yes, Maddie got her screaming rubber chicken, and this was on Santa's list.  This is one of the most annoying sounds a toy can make, and when we got these at KidPak - a flock of them - Maddie just had to have one.  We'll be hearing that sound now for quite some time.

DAD (calling up to Maddie from downstairs):  "Are you okay up there?"

RUBBER CHICKEN:  (from upstairs)  "SQUEEEEEEEEK-WHEEEEEEEZE!"

Here's a really nice gift that Mom gave me.  It's a mezuzah, something that I've always wanted on the doorpost of our home.  Someone hand-wrote all the scriptures inside, and it's protected in plastic and put inside a decorative container that's put at the entrance to our home.  Deuteronomy 6:9, "And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."  

Here's a gift that Maddie and Mom made for Aunt Shain.  We didn't want to hand her some cash and a card, so Maddie folded this Christmas tree farm, I made the labels there and Mom did everything else.  Jonathan wanted cash too, but again, we tried something different.

It's a cash pizza!  The sign reads, "This might be cheesy, but here's a little dough."  Mom made a gift for David - ELF SNOT.  She spent a good amount of time mixing clear Elmer's glue with a contact lens solution, along with some green coloring.  We put it into a glass jar, and I made a label for it.  And then... right in the middle of that was placed his gift card, right in the midst of the snot.  For Hannah we got about four Pez dispensers, and inside was a little cash for her as well.  We can't just give money - we have to do something creative, so this might be a new tradition for us.

Maddie took a few pictures today - here's her new crew at bedtime, with Jinky there amongst the others.

Here's the sun rising at Christmas morning, a sunny day - and a warm one too.  It was a gorgeous day outside, although we spent most of it indoors with each other.  

We ate some of those Christmas cookies too!  And doughnuts.  And chocolates.  And ... well, we ate a lot. But that tends to happen on Christmas, right?  The cookie above is a joke cookie, another masterpiece from last night's cookie making.  It's a super small one with a bit of holly on it there.  Maddie ate this one this morning, but not before taking a picture of it.

We packed up the gifts this afternoon and headed over to Nana and Ye-Ye's house, and of course that's tradition!  Nana's sister Rebecca and her husband Richard were there, a bigger family gathering this year than we've had in some time.  There was a massive feast waiting for us there, although we brought along that ham with us as well.  There was ribeye there, potatoes, peas, rolls, macaroni and cheese, and about a zillion more dessert items, including gluten-free cake, Christmas cookies, fudge and more.  

Gifts were opened after that, and there was the usual chaos and laughter.  It was very nice, all the gifts and wrapping paper scattered all over the living room.  And after that it was time for the yearly white elephant gift exchange, which was hilarious.  There were some really odd gifts this year, although there were a few cute ones too.  We came home with something terrible, but that's part of the game of course. 

In the end, we said our goodbyes after loading the cars with new gifts and leftovers.  Everything is so pleasant and festive there, and always something to look forward to.  

We got home and it was time to wind down, of course.  We were watching a few Christmas things online, opening up boxes with new toys and just sitting down to rest finally.  We read tonight and said our prayers, I called out goodnight to Maddie, and in response, I heard a rubber chicken squeak from her bedroom.

It was a wonderful Christmas time!

Christmas Eve 2021

 

Christmas Eve is here, and it started out with a parting gift from Jingle.  "And now it's time for my friends and I to finally take our leave.  But before we go we'll give a special gift on Christmas Eve."

That gift was a prank gift, and Maddie sort of saw it coming because of the box, but didn't connect the dots until it was too late:  it was the ugly porcelain clown doll that keeps showing up year after year in all our white elephant gift exchanges.  Funny moment to start the day, but we also opened a few other gifts over the course of the day - Nana started the day out in a bad way, so we opted to open a few gifts from Camille, and here's the one Nana got.

She was talking about that scarf all day long.  The weather outside, however, was not scarf weather.  It is warm outside, and it might be one of the warmest Christmas days we've ever experienced, actually.  

We had a nice breakfast together, and after that, Maddie, Nana and I headed out to do a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping.  We went to the Mall of Georgia for the first time this year, and the place was packed!  This sort of statement may seem fairly obvious, but given all the challenges of this year, I wasn't sure what to expect.  We were able to pick up a few things from a few stores, and also able to give Mom some quiet time for a few hours.  

This year we weren't going over anyone's house for Christmas Eve, so on the way home, we picked up some Christmas Eve dinner from a local Chinese restaurant.  They even gave us a complimentary calendar there!  I don't know why I'm so excited about the calendar, but anyway, the food was perfect.  Mom had all the Christmas plates and bowls set up on the dinner table, and it looked so nice when we got home.  We set all the dinner out, and I think we've started a new tradition!  Part of it was based on Maddie remembering that the family eats Chinese food on Christmas Day in the movie "A Christmas Story."  Another part of the decision is that many Chinese restaurants are actually open pretty late on Christmas Day, as many don't celebrate it.  And lastly, Chinese food is awesome.  Mom and I have discovered Jade Green dishes, while Maddie goes with General Tso, and his army of spicy chicken warriors.  Nana chooses sweet and sour chicken, and after a prayer over our food, we have a nice meal together.

Following the meal, it's time for Christmas Eve service.  Once again, we did not go in person because of family dynamics, but we were able to watch it online, and once again we had candles in our hands.  This time, the candles were the battery-powered flickering candles that we gave away last weekend at KidPak.  No wax on the couch.  But the four of us sat together on the couch and watched the service, singing Christmas carols and listening to pastor speak about the wonderful indescribable and unspeakable gift at Christmas time.

After the service, we got busy making Christmas cookies for Santa.  Okay, and ourselves.  We had a Christmas movie playing on the screen while we were sitting there with our decorations and sprinkles, making our new designs at Christmas.

This Christmas sweater shape is always fun.  And of course there are the gingerbread men shapes too.

These were decorated somewhat traditionally.  We're sitting there with sprinkles and so on, using toothpicks to make straight lines, or carefully placing certain colors in certain places.  Maddie creativity and humor really shines with some of her more unusual cookies below:

This cookie presents a question that needs an answer.  A snowman may be handing someone he loves a small candy cane.  But will she accept his gift?  We have such compassion towards this pitiful character - of course we'll take that candy cane, if only to take that worrisome expression and make it something more happy.

This Santa cookie clearly belongs on the third floor of the High Museum.  This daring expression of Christmas spirit uses bold colors that attack the conventional ideas of what we think this time of year should be.  The yellow emoji face with a green smile and a ginormous empty beard bring seasonal joy unlike any other cookie imaginable.

Except for this masterpiece.  What you are seeing above is true art in its highest form.  The shape of Santa's head is certainly there, but gone are any of the typical ideas one may have about what a cookie should look like.  The only suggestion of Christmas here are the green and red sprinkles scattered in a  festive yule tide pile approximately where Santa's beard should be.  A thick coating of purple sprinkles lines the top of the cookie, topped off with another thick light blue line.  What does it mean?  There's no face there to really convey any answers.  Perhaps the suggestion of two blue eyes, tiny blue dots there, and perhaps there's a small purple mouth as well.  When put together, the face suggests a stoicism in the face of a year that brought more coal than candy canes.

This deer appears to be caught in the headlights, its expression somewhat stunned!  Could it be that his body is purple and his head is green, and as he was prancing through the woods, someone has spied upon him mid-dance?  How is he going to explain having a purple body and a green head to his family?  Oh well, the secret is out now.

I feel like this is a cookie that Tim Burton would be proud of.  I certainly am.  

Ah yes, the angry gingerbread man.  It is our tradition once a year to make at least one of our cookies somewhat disgruntled.  Maddie made this gingerbread man really disgruntled.  He's perhaps not happy about his holly tie that he's wearing - or it could be this entire past year in general.  If 2021 was a gift handed to us, many would be tempted to return it for at least some store credit.

Anyway, we finished baking the cookies, and Mom was working on her cinnamon doughnuts as well for tomorrow morning.  I had a lot of wrapping to do, so I was lurking in the basement for a bit with tape, scissors and wrapping paper.  We had all kinds of Christmas movies and specials playing on the television today, thanks to all the streaming services we were using, from TBN to Disney+ to Netflix.  

But soon enough, it was time for bed.  Tonight we actually finished book seven of the Kingdom Keepers series, which of course isn't the ending - there are four more books to read currently, with more on the way.  And after that, I had to read "The Night Before Christmas," just as I have every year we've been with Maddie.  

The table is set and ready for tomorrow.  And Santa dropped by with lots of nice little presents for everyone.

It looks like Maddie's been good this year, and so has Mom and Nana, and even I got some goodies under the tree too!

Even our stockings hung by the chimney with care were loaded down with all kinds of nice gifts.  Above you can see Mom's stocking and Maddie's next to it with Spider-man inside.  Mom has some Crunchie bars, her favorite candy bar.

Oh, here's my stocking, and Nana's next to it in gold.  Nana got a box of Quality Street chocolates and candies, a traditional British treat that can be found at an import shop down in Duluth.  

Santa took a bite out of his cookie, and putting his finger alongside his nose (not up it), up the chimney he rose!  But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"