Last Christmas we were on a cruise ship sailing through the Drake Passage. What a difference a year makes. While 2020 has thrown us for a loop, Christmas is still an important time of year for the girls, so we tried to make it as special as possible.
Of course, parents need to be taken care of too. One of the lines that has come up a lot this year (even though we haven't been on many airplanes) is put on your own mask before attempting to help others. To that end, I gave Jeff his Christmas present on December 23. Cheestique, a shop in Shirlngton selling all kinds of delicious things, was doing an online tasting of their 2020 best sellers. I picked up the food and wine and dropped the girls off at my parents' while Jeff got us all set up.
It was our first ever online tasting, and I've got to say, I loved it. The presenter and the food were great, and the other participants kept up a fun commentary in the chat. It was the perfect, low pressure, completely delicious experience.
It was also a great start to closing out the year, since they interspersed the tasting with retrospective photos of the year that started out normally and then went completely sideways.
The next day I picked the girls up to begin feasting of their own. The day before we had gotten a special Honeybaked Co. ham and sides. I decided to prep the meal for lunch, since everyone's other favorite ham based meal is split pea soup, which I figured I could make for dinner. The girls were happy to go along with this plan.
It helped that they had gotten a snowman full of goodies as an early Christmas present from the Goerss grandparents.
I worked on the soup in between watching Christmas movies. I convinced my family to watch at least part of the Baryshnikov Nutcracker. Elena has a nutcracker she lifted from my parents' house, so she was into it.
When the soup was ready, the girls begged for dinner in front of the TV, so Jeff and I caved. We put on the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas which pairs wonderfully with split pea soup ;-)
Of course I caught poor Viv mid bite in the picture, so I had to take another one.
We reminded the girls that Santa wouldn't come if they didn't go to sleep. Elena dropped right off, but Vivian had a really hard time getting to sleep. Finally though, she got some sleep and the next morning they discovered that Santa had in fact left them presents. Elena was especially excited about the narwhal she could see poking out of her stocking.
The girls let us sleep until seven, and then it was time to get started, stockings first.
Elena could finally hug her narwhal, and Vivian found a special treat as well, a new to her phone to replace her broken one.
Jeff was happy with his stocking too. He got a cool new Mandalorian shirt with his favorite saying on it, "This is the way."
One of our 2020 activities has been a weekly Dungeons and Dragons session with some friends, so for Christmas I got my very own dice set, all purple of course.
My socks have also been developing a lot of holes lately, so my stocking was full of new socks, including this great pair.
Next, we moved over to the tree. We asked Santa to keep it simple this year, since I'm trying really hard to pare down all our belongings before our next move. The girls got a bunch of "magic painting" books to have a fun break from all the screentime of late.
There were also lots of regular books for our daily reading time, including Elena's new favorite series about narwhal and jelly and Vivian's favorite topic, Disney.
Then there were the long, mystery packages. What could they be?
Lightsabers! It's a full on Star Wars Christmas!
One of the best parts about Christmas is guessing what could be in the big box.
I know Jeff was secretly hoping it was a new gaming system, but a crockpot with a lid that seals is a must for our chili champion.
Plus, who needs virtual games, when you can play real-life lightsabers with your kids?
Pixie, our elf, hopefully enjoyed the show and reported back to Santa that the lightsabers were a success.
Once Elena doubled up her lightsaber though, I did have to send them outside.
Eventually they wore themselves out enough for some painting and even a little rest.
But then it was on to the next present opening event, this time at Safta and Grandpa's.
The girls got lots more books and toys and candy, plus some more breakfast. Then, we came back home to spend the afternoon enjoying our fun new things.
Eventually, it was time to change out of pajamas and head over to Safta and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner.
Viv and I got matching red sweaters, and she still thinks it's great for us to match, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
My dad took a nice family picture for us too.
Then he went to carve the roast beast!
The day after Christmas was pretty great too. We had lots of toys to play with, and we took the girls to the tennis court for safer lightsaber play.
Well, safer for the furniture . . .
While Elena was lying "dead" she noticed cool cloud shapes, so Vivian joined her.
We also got a Christmas continuation when a box of presents from the Goerss grandparents showed up after Christmas. The USPS was definitely having a hard time meeting the shipping demand, but we made the most of it.
Elena was thrilled to get her very own Baby Yoda (aka Grogu).
And both girls were thrilled to have their own official bingo set. It is definitely a bingo holiday season this year.
They immediately moved aside their art projects, put Grogu in a place of honor and started up a round of bingo.
That afternoon they also got another very special present. Our D&D DM had set up a special quest just for the girls. They were dragon riders, and they got to use my new dice.
My favorite part was their note taking. It started out with Vivian just writing down people's names, but then Elena, our artist, decided she needed to add visuals. The end product was fantastic.
We've really been enjoying our winter break. It's so nice to have time at home without worrying about online school. We've kept busy with art and reading. Vivian used one of her Amazon gift cards to get an even more specific book on Disney's golden age of animation and Grogu has become a permanent fixture at Elena's side.
We've even had some sunny days for a walk outside. We fashioned a sling for Grogu like the one the Mandalorian has on the show, except we made ours from my Colombian purse.
For New Year's we paired champagne with deliciousness.
We also watched Groundhog Day as a family. The movie has stood the test of time well, and it felt like the perfect send off to 2020. We raise a cautiously optimistic glass to 2021. May it be a good a year.
On January 1st though, Elena was very upset. We had had a lovely lunch at my parents', but she said there had been no special hats and no special cake. Well, I couldn't let her start the new year off in tears, so I tried to think of what we had around the house that could help with a celebration. As always, construction paper, markers, and tape provided a solution. I helped Elena a bit with the basic head gear set up, and she added her artistic flair.
It was such a success that she decided to make one for everyone in the family.
While she was working on those, I was working on a new year's "cake". I had brownie mix in the pantry and M&Ms from Christmas. Put them together, and you have a giant brownie that says 2021 on it. It was a hit.
We capped off the celebrations by watching the premiere of Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical on Vivian's computer. She has been a huge fan of this crowdsourced project since it started, so this was a nice way for her to start the new year by focusing on good things that came out of 2020.
As the night wound down and Elena read her narwhal book while wearing her homemade crown, I let 2021 know that we had a lot riding on it, and I'm hoping it doesn't let us down.
