A Very Merry Christmas

We have had a very fun week celebrating Christmas!

Issa had blast with her dance studio family at the Christmas party. She made a very festive tree:

Buddy the Elf brought big laughs and much family fun:

We finally went to see The Christmas Carol at DPAC:

It is a Triangle Tradition in its 48th year, and I loved it. The verdict is out for everyone else. 

For the first time, we successfully made hot cocoa bombs--I should say Issa did:

And me made Solstice Lanterns:

Unfortunately, it was a cold, rainy mess the night of the Solstice, so we opted not to actually do the walk. We did enjoy our glowing lanterns and a Christmas movie, though!

We made the traditional Christmas cookies at Nana's:

Well..sort of traditional. Same recipe--odd decorations:

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Issa's Jean-gerbread Men army. They were hysterical with their blue pants and different colored tops.

Christmas Eve was a full day of happy. Issa found a gift from her studio on our porch:

And we went to Nana's for apps and a mashed potato bar. This year, the kids had to win Minute to Win It games to open their gifts, and they had to pick the game based on the supplies laid out here:

We started with a snowball catch:

Issa and her plie won that game; it let her actually keep the pompom snowballs in the bucket:

They tied in the snowman wrap competition:

Issa won pin the nose on Rudolph:

And we took a pause in the action for Christmas PJ pictures:

There was a Christmas version of Headbands:

Charades:

And jingle the bells out of the ribbon spool:

Christmas morning was quiet with just the four of us:

The dogs loved the giant balls in the stockings:

They didn't survive the day. The cats were much more gentle with their stocking of toys:

Evan's big gift was a phone; he is finally able to communicate independently with the outside world:

Issa is very thrilled with her new apple watch:

We had a lot of tech support set-up before Nana and Aunt Shannon joined us for an afternoon of The Sound of Music and board games:

We ended the day with a fabulous beef rib roast that Brad worked on for days:

It was a very holly jolly Christmas, and we are enjoying a quiet week before we return to the real world again.
 

Full Circle Moments

 One of the great joys of my life is the full circle moments that surprise me at work. Every so often, I hear myself say something that one of my professors told me. I see my student teachers become cooperating teachers or my undergrads become my graduate students. But this week, I had two very special full circle moments.

Monday, I went to see a teacher who just finished my program in his classroom. He teaches in a school that was on my caseload when I worked central office, and it was also one of my grant schools while I was working on my doctorate. The last time I was in this school, I was carrying Evan in his car seat. He is an excellent teacher, and it was so good to be back in that particular school.

Yesterday, I went to observe one of our students who graduate last May--or so I thought. As any excellent interventionist would, though, she realized she had an extra resource if I was coming. She had a whole list of kids for me to meet and evaluate. We did some co-coaching in a couple of classrooms. In short, we taught and assessed elbow to elbow all day. I had over 20,000 steps by the time we left. I was exhausted in the best possible way.

As ready as I am for break, these moments and days make it all worth it. 

A Festive Weekend

We had a lovely weekend! Friday night Issa had dance, so we ended up having a late dinner followed by Buddy fun. We listened to Christmas music, and when the kids went to bed Brad and I stayed up way too late working. But...my grading was finished and I could enjoy the weekend!

Saturday, the boys had the dojo, and we girls worked on Christmas gifts before I went to DPAC with Mom and Shannon. We say Ain't Too Proud, which is the story of The Temptations and absolutely incredible.

Yesterday, we did out annual Christmas cookie baking for the neighbors. Evan gave up on using a straw, so it looked like he was literally drinking from a Christmas light:

Issa did all of the mixing. I just helped roll and box:

We made more deliveries than ever, and it was lovely to have big kids who did all the delivering while I cleaned up the kitchen.

This year is a different kind of Christmas magic, but I am soaking up every minute of it!
 

A New Kind of Elf

Christmas with big kids is a different kind of fun! Now they are a part of the magic, which means that we have divided into teams to be Buddy the Elf this year. Issa and I took the first week, and we had great fun staging fun scenes with individual family activities each day. The boys took the elf in another direction for their weeks! They have actually created a whole D&D-style game where we have to get rid of grumpies from traditional Christmas villains. We each have our own character, and each day Buddy brings a new challenge and game for us to play:

Look at these grumpies being banished:

Yesterday, Santa's reindeer escaped and were flying over the North Pole and we had to heard them back in:

 Evan was very proud of his staging:

It has been so fun, and we are looking forward to more weeks of fun!

We Might Have a Problem

When we redid the landing last Christmas, we added an air popper for movie night. It has seen a lot of use! I love having everything right there with limited mess and a healthier option!

Now, we have added a Keurig:

Mom was getting rid of hers, and Issa noticed that Brad's favorite coffee is now making pods. I had a BBB gift card, which is adding an upstairs tower of mugs, a small trashcan, and some hot cocoa pods to the mix. It has become our very favorite place for movie watching, and I see a lot of that in our future over the break!
 

I Love a Parade

Yesterday was the return of the Hillsborough Christmas Parade! It was also our first parade as Monarchs, and Issa and I were very excited to break out our new jackets:

This parade was 11 years to the day from Issa's first parade! This year, I pulled the wagon with the stereo system while she danced with her friends. The high school girls were great leaders:

 It was so fun to watch them dance and interact with the littles, who are pretty sure they walk on water. It was also fun to actually walk through town and see so many familiar faces on the sidewalks. Issa was super hot and tired by the time we finished, but it was a great parade!

Advent Calendars

For the first time this year, we decided to give the kids Advent calendars. Brad did some looking, and he ordered a really cool Sephora one for Issa. We originally found what looked like a really cool D&D one for Evan, but when the confirmation came in, we realized it was really sketch. We managed to get a refund and order him a fun Office set. Both kids have had a blast opening their windows every morning.

But we have all laughed hysterically about the D&D one. Even though we cancelled and were refunded, it still arrived in all it's shady glory:

Yep...it's a tackle box with a sticker over it. The online description said that it had figurines and items for the DM. The first day it was a gumball machine egg with little dinos in it, and yesterday was this Zelda necklace:

This morning was more dinos. It has brought us great joy since it cost us $0.
 

All Decorated

We are fully decorated at our house and loving every moment! Following tradition, we started with our teddy bear tree in honor of Grandma Luzny:

All of the ornaments on it were hers, and we put many of her Christmas toys, along with some of our own, on the landing to enjoy all season:

We had moved furniture again, so we had to find new places for treasures:

But the mantle stayed the same:

The armoire now holds ornaments that don't quite fit on the tree:

But the tree is filled with all of our memories:

Even my office door got a little holly jolly:

I love looking around and seeing little bits of Christmas and Christmas memories. It's my very, very favorite time of year.