Up on the House Top

Christmas is a time of baking, eating sweets and giving good cheer to those you love and live with. For simplicity's sake, we made chocolate-dipped pretzels to give to friends and neighbors, and I enlisted the kids to help me. These pretzels also happen to be one of my favorite holiday treats. Yum!

Time off from school and work also means time for more elaborate and delicious breakfasts. Hadley is always a willing volunteer to help in the kitchen!

HEB had a good sale going on their gingerbread house kits the week before Christmas, so we squeezed that in one afternoon. I did most of the icing work, but the kids handled the design aesthetic and candy placement.

Still need more to get in the Christmas mood? How about children singing Christmas carols? Their school had a sing-a-long that they were practicing for, and Hadley realized that she did not know most of the traditional carols for some reason. We tried to help her by singing them at home, but I usually ended up just laughing when she made up words and tunes. Garth and Kat, anyone? So I decided to document instead. Enjoy!

Finally Christmas Eve was upon us. Uncle Michael brought Granna and Grandad to stay with us for the holiday. There were cards to be played, light sabers to be wielded, and scavenger hunts to be done. Hadley came up with the scavenger hunt all on her own!

Owen read this magic trick in a book and decided to try it out. It's making a penny disappear and reappear; the assistant was new.

One last picture with empty stockings. Hadley also decided, at the last minute, that the cats needed stockings, so she made paper pockets for them. I'm sure Santa appreciated the last minute add-ons...

Despite our neighborhood's affinity for Christmas Eve fireworks, the kids went to sleep and woke up to filled stockings and bean bag chairs from Santa!

Lots of gifts to be warm and cozy this year. Though I have to say that the image of Owen with sleepy hair and a robe gave me some flash-forwards to imagine him as a twenty-something still living in our house. Ha! Hopefully not a vision of the future.

It was so nice to have grandparents here with us to celebrate!

Later that evening, we celebrated with the other side of the family at D&J's and called Oma and Papa and Loni and Lampe. Merry Christmas to all!

Lastly, we had been easing the kids slowly through the original Star Wars movie trilogy. Owen finally enjoys movies! And they loved the Star Wars movies! So, we caught them up to the latest trilogy (movies with Rey) and decided to see the finale as a family in the theater. Wow! So cool to share one of these epic movies as a first for your kids in the real theater. They loved it! Now the question is, are the first three (JarJar Binks?) worth rewatching with them to complete the saga?

Double Digits!

Hard to believe it, but Owen reached double digits this year! He opted for a small party at a 'tactical' laser tag place. This is not the laser tag of the '80's; there are teams, strategic missions, and sophisticated equipment. Screens in the lobby let me track their statistics and even see them in the play arena. Fancy!

After the missions were completed, we came back to the house for pizza and cake where little sis joined the party. Owen's cake choice was still cookies'n'cream ice cream cake, which was a hit with everyone.

It was such a nice day and the boys got along so well that they took it outside for some football. They played well past when I thought the party would end, but they didn't want to leave! I'm glad they had so much fun!

His actual birthday was the next day, so we let him pick whether to open his gifts on his party day or his birthday. He chose to do some on each day. It's not the iPhone 11 that he was hoping for (don't get me started on that!), but I think we did pretty good.

His favorite food is sushi (really California rolls), so we met cousins at a sushi place that has the food come by the table on conveyor belts. You pay by the color of the plates in your stack at the end. What a concept!

It's hard to believe that his time under our roof is more than halfway over! He has such a tender heart and a passion for vehicles, weapons, Star Wars, military history, and science. While I wouldn't say that we are exactly excited for the teen years, we are excited to see what this boy will do with his future! It's been an amazing decade with you, bud. We love you so much!

December-ists

We wasted no time in getting the Christmas decor up after Thanksgiving. Well, I should say that we have a house rule to give Thanksgiving its due and not rush through it, but it is nice to get to it while the kids are out of school!

The kids actually have enough ornaments to warrant their own trees. They have mini trees in their rooms and enjoyed decorating them all by themselves.

Unfortunately, we seem to have lost our tote of outdoor Christmas lights sometime in the move. We also sold several bigger decorations before the move last year, so we had to start over from scratch. It will do for now! I'm sure the kids will have suggestions for me for next year.

A special part of the Christmas season is the music, and one of the best classical pieces is Handel's Messiah. Our church puts on a "sing-along" to Messiah, complete with an orchestra, full choral sections and beautiful solos for each part, and thick musical scores to flip through. Don't let the second picture fool you though. The kids were bored by about 10 minutes in, but Hadley had some luck following along with the score, which kept her interest going longer than her brother's. I'll make music aficionados out of them yet!

And nothing says winter like the classic December family bike ride. The weather has been really nice, so we took advantage one weekend afternoon and found some back-way bike paths through various neighborhoods and enjoyed their parks too.

A neighbor's church had its annual "Winterfest," where they truck in some snow and pretend that it's not 65 degrees. This particular evening was actually a little brisk (~55F), but the kids went on the inflatable obstacle course so many times that they eventually ditched their jackets. It was still chilly for the stationary observer (me).

After our free hot dogs, we checked out the dessert options. Owen went for Oreos and milk, while Hadley opted for smores.

And I finally convinced them to actually go to the snow part of the event. (They were not impressed with this snow based on their childhoods in Idaho, and it made them a little nostalgic.) The line wasn't very long though, so we waited and the kids even got to race each other on sleds. Hadley won! I can attest to her lane being pretty fast myself, but there is no photographic evidence of my sled run!

When she's not racing her brother, she's working hard at the gym learning moves on the beam, bars, and floor. It's fun to watch her master new skills!

Lastly, I volunteered to read some of Green Kids Club's books (my employer) to Hadley's class. The books introduce kids to conservation concepts like poaching, wildfires, and pollution, and the kids seemed to follow the stories pretty well. It was fun to spend time in Hadley's classroom. My boss even donated several books to their school library! If only the USPS hadn't lost all of the ones she sent to give to the kids...

Family Picture Time

It was time to get our family pictures updated. We did a mini-session with a photographer at a local park and got a few decent ones.

I love these candid photos that she got of Hadley with genuine smiles!

Because we all know that the photo sessions are really about getting cute pictures of the kids, after all. That's what spurs us to get family pictures every few years - they keep changing and growing bigger. Together...

And individuals... Dancing and sitting.

And one awkward prom pose, 17 years in!

That's all folks! See you in another couple of years.