Go Buckeyes!

On the night of the Buckeye's ill-fated championship game, Zac and Alice show off their new Ohio State hoodies they got for Christmas.

Gifts from Ohio

When we got back from the hike, there was a package of Christmas presents from Cam and Don, so we opened them after we ate supper. The kids were really excited for another round of Christmas presents!

Thanks, Cam and Don!

Holiday Hike

On the day after Christmas, we just stayed around the house in the morning. Alice finished her loom-loopers project.

Then in the afternoon we took a family hike at Umstead to try out all our new hiking gear. The kids had new backpacks and binoculars, while Zac and I had new hiking shoes to try out.

Alice loved her backpack, although she was self-conscious about the water tube and would try to hide it whenever we passed other hikers. Simon refused to have anything to do with his bag.

The binoculars were fun, but there wasn't much too look at besides more trees and leaves.

Here I am, exactly 5 weeks after my surgery, finally hiking again!

We hiked down to a really cool creek, where the kids practiced their rock-hopping skills.

Alice was quite grumpy for a while until we finally managed to get her to eat enough food.

The weather was warm and we had a really nice afternoon hiking.

Home Alone: Christmas 2019

This was our second Christmas in our own home and our first with just our nuclear family. We started off the morning by coming down together and letting the kids unpack their stockings.

Ok, so the story is that we got them new stockings, since they seem to have grown out of their old ones, but we wanted the new ones to be a surprise. So we pranked them a bit by leaving up their old ones and putting boring things in them like underwear and flossers.  Their new, and real, stockings were hidden in the snack closet, hanging where we normally hang the backpacks.  It took them a long time to notice them, while we were getting breakfast ready.  But they were really happy once they finally found the new ones. They opened all the fun little presents inside (mostly from the dollar store) while Zac and I finished making breakfast.

Simon and Alice looked through all the names on the presents and sorted them into piles for each of them.

Here follows a list of some of the items they got (for the historical record). And, since I'm actually writing this post a week after Christmas, I shall include anectdotes about the fate of some of the gifts. 

It was cute that they decided to first open the present addressed to both of them. This should be a new tradition.

They got small pots and tickle-me-plant seeds. On his own, unbeknownst to parental units, Simon decided to plant his seeds and put the pot in his "shop" in the garage. This turned out to be a problem for two reasons. First, the seeds needed prepped (soaked in hot water) and the next day Zac accidentally dropped his bicycle on the pot and it broke. Simon cried. Zac got him a new one a couple days later and Alice will share her seeds.

Simon asked for more chalk. As you'll see in a later photo, this was just to smash up.

Both kids got a pair of binoculars. So far they've taken them on hikes and not lost them.

This math dice game seemed fun, since the kids like math. We've played it once so far, unfortunately right before supper when both kids were hungry, so it didn't go very well. We'll try again.

This is a child-size backback with a water pouch and spout. Both kids got one. Alice loves hers and wears it on all the hikes (although at first she was self-conscious about it). Simon outright refuses to wear his backpack.

Simon got some gardening tools. I don't think he's used them yet, but they're prominently displayed in his shop.

Alice got a plastic guardian dragon. She was disappointed at first that its wings don't move, but she likes it. It often guards her while she draws or appears in various menageries she sets up.

More lego sets! You can never have too many. Simon got a really cool airship and Alice got a dragon. Simon built his with Zac that day, and Alice built hers the next week with the neighbor, Ed.

Simon got a child-sized hammer and nails. When he opened the package and saw the nails on top, he was so excited. This kid loves to hammer.

Alice got some loom loopers. She made one and finished it in two phases over two days. She put the colors in rainbow order.

Simon got a box of gears. When we were at the mountain house, a section of the mouse trap game had a gear and he seemed to love it, so Santa must've noticed that.

Alice got a diary with a lock on it. She tried writing in it, but got frustrated because she didn't know how to spell words, and then didn't want to ask me because then I would know what she was writing.

Simon got the game "Guess Who."  He mostly refuses to play it, but Alice really likes the game.

Alice was happy to receive her traditional bag of Christmas Doritos. (Simon got some gummies.)

Simon got a mandolorian mask. I don't think Simon knows it's from Star Wars, but he'll wear it around the house occasionally.

Alice got a Darth Vader mask. It makes your voice sound weird and everything. It's apparently designed for an adult sized-head.

We played one more trick on the kids. The one thing they'd asked for from Santa was light sabers. They kept wondering as they were opening gifts which package would be their light sabers. So once they'd opened all the presents, just like in A Christmas Story, they were kind of disappointed because they didn't get what they'd asked for from Santa. But, after finding the hidden stockings, and two presents I'd hidden in the tree, they were on to the idea that presents could maybe be hiding. So we didn't have to do much to get them crawling around the tree on all fours looking for presents, and Alice spotted them under the credenza.

The sabers make lots of noise and are super annoying. Good thing they'll break soon.

After opening all the gifts, they spent the rest of the day playing with some of their new things.

Simon picked a hard picture from the gears book for me to build. I kept trying to give up, but he wouldn't let me. These STEM toys are no joke.  Anyway, I finally made it and I was so proud of myself.

For ourselves for Christmas we got new hiking boots/shoes, calendars, and I got a new travel toiletries bag, while Zac got an OSU sweatshirt. We don't really get each other suprises for Christmas, but we're trying to set an example for the kids that all the presents aren't just for them.

And, on Christmas day, Zac also finally finished and set up the second fish tank in the dining room. This is the tank we had at our old house, but Zac built the cabinet from scratch. It looks great!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve morning, after breakfast, we let the kids open their presents from the Shogren grandparents, to spread out the Christmas fun. They each got clothes, an activity, and a drone. For some reason the drones aren't pictured, but they loved them and flew them around all day (between bouts of being charged.)

For Christmas Eve, we got Chinese take-out and had an early supper, then watched A Christmas Story.

That evening, after bedtime snack, the kids scurried around making final preparations for Santa's arrival.

I forget exactly what Alice said, but in the day or two leading up to Christmas, Alice was dropping some pretty big hints about thinking that Zac and I were the ones really providing the presents. I just gave really vague answers like, "What do you think?" whenever she asked a direct question.  But what was funny was she seemed to have  Schrodinger's Cat relationship with Santa: he was simultaneously real and and not real. While she worked diligently on a card to accompany Rudolph's carrot, and after pouring a glass of milk for Santa, she would look at me and say something like, "I think it's just you and dad."

Well, at any rate, once the kids were all tucked away in bed, Santa did come!