December is the month the kids have been waiting for! It wasn't quite the same as past Decembers and we missed out on several traditions, but we had a great month filled with many of our traditions!
Starting out with dinner by Xmas lights only.
One day's loot:
This year we had 3 advent calendars! Landon would open the activity calendar in the morning, Brooklyn would open the chocolate calendar after dinner (after we all would guess what shape it would be) and Daniel or I would open the Disney storybook calendar and read to them before bedtime. I think the triple advent calendar will be our new tradition!
snowball fights.
Usually we attend Santa's Electric Parade in Old Town, but this year due to COVID-19 the City of Temecula sent Santa on a parade throughout the city's neighborhoods for a couple of weeks so that we could all see Santa. We joined the cousins at their house to decorate cookies and watch "The Grinch" in the front yard with hot cocoa while waiting for the big guy to drive by.
We found a rolled ice cream shop in town then went home to watch "Home Alone".
After the movie, the kids ran upstairs and were quiet for a while before inviting us up. When we got upstairs it was dark and they had traps, snowballs, etc waiting for Daniel and me. We "Home Alone'd" Daniel the next day as well.
Cozying up at school:
Dress Like a Candy Cane Day at school:
We wrapped gifts, made Christmas card drawings for friends, picked out gifts to donate and made a tie blanket to donate. When I was wrapping gifts on my own in the office with the door closed, Brooklyn slid a note under the door saying, "Can I come in or you come out?" and would slide her iPad under the door when she needed an assignment checked.
I made ornaments out of one of Uncle Matt Matt's old shirts for some of his loved ones.
We made "Rudolph pretzels" as Brooklyn named them.
Landon and Brooklyn were both very excited to order and wrap each other's gifts!
The kids and I took our COVID tests, quarantined until we got our results and drove to Grammie's house a week before Christmas Eve. The kids had a few days of fun holiday-themed school assignments and activities there to kick off the week at Grammie's. They were VERY excited to have their own special school desks. They also loved their holiday assignments. Brooklyn created a gingerbread baby to put in her foam gingerbread house, and Landon wants to do math all the time if it's Christmas-themed.
Grammie supplied Christmassy painting materials!
We walked down the street a couple of times to check out the lights across Jeronimo. One night we grabbed In N Out and drove around to the top 10 houses of lights in Mission Viejo.
Brooklyn found a new use for Papa's leg pillow...over and over and over!
The kids Zoom chatted with Santa! They got to spend almost a half an hour talking to Santa, showing him Landon's booboo, Brooklyn's gingerbread house she made for school and the snowflakes the elves left for the kids as well as asking as many questions as they wanted. Mrs. Claus later informed me that one of Santa's favorite questions he got this year was Brooklyn's "How do you not get dirty when you go down the chumneys?" They also asked, "Does anyone fly next to Rudolph?" and "Can you see us when we're not on the computer with you?"
We had a nice nature walk down Oso Creek Trail one day.
Christmas Eve dinner was delicious!
We headed home after dessert to sprinkle reindeer food for them to find our house and put out the cookies, milk and carrots before heading to bed.
Christmas morning was wonderfully relaxing. We slept in a bit, opened Santa presents, gifts to each other, had a nice breakfast on the patio, video chatted with Grammie & Papa and played outside with new toys and on the trampoline before heading over to exchange gifts with the cousins.
Alpha, the beta fish:
They loved their gifts to each other (clip on earrings and a Lego set that works with an app on Daddy's phone to play a video game with said Lego set)!
Grandma D handmade quilts for each of the kids with our favorite baby/toddler/preschool clothes/blankets/etc. for each of them. They are perfect, and we hope to use them for years and years and years to come!!
Brooklyn wanted to bring her new baby blue dolphin (as requested from Santa) in its mommy's "pouch" in her new bike basket (that she was proud to put on her bike all by herself) to show Zoe.
On New Year's Eve the Kelepouris' all came over. The kids (and Daniel) played in the hot tub before we played some games (Throw, Throw Burrito, UpsideDown Challenge, etc.), ate a bunch of apps, watched the midnight countdown (9pm our time), popped poppers and had a chocolate fountain.
Crazy Hair Day:
More decorating!
Brooklyn kept changing her tree topper - star, angel (made by her Great Grandma Foster), ornament, stuffed animal, etc.)
This year we started a tradition of sleeping under (next to) the Christmas tree. One night Brooklyn and I read stories by the fire, played with stuffed animals and slept there and the next Landon and I read, watched a Christmas show and slept by the tree. The last night we watched Home Alone, and Daniel slept by the tree with both kids.
The kids loved their Christmassy breakfast of waffle trees (some with flocking) with blueberry ornaments, bacon trunks and scrambled egg stars as well as Santa hat cinnamon rolls and strawberry & (melting) whipped cream Santas.
The kids made a snow-family with Fluff.
Landon's card for his teacher:
Usually we would have attended Abbott's family holiday party, but, of course, they couldn't hold that this year due to COVID-19. Instead of the party, they sent home a whole bunch of fun things for the kids to do, including chocolate treat making (with instruction via Zoom), gingerbread house making, canvas painting (over Zoom), Kiwi Creates for each and they had story telling over Zoom (where the kids ate popcorn and sipped hot chocolate in their PJs) two nights.
Kids being silly with each other:
Auntie Gail and Uncle Fred came to Grammie's house for a socially distanced Christmas celebration.
It goes without saying that we enjoyed "Grammie's wawas!"
This kid learned her lesson about hot stoves first hand (well, first finger) while at Grammie's.
Mongolian BBQ and Handel's!
Landon and co. played quite a few games of Catan Jr. while we were there.
Grammie snuggles & books:
And Tyson snuggles!
We couldn't skip the tradition of baking and decorating Christmas cookies! Brooklyn didn't care much for the baking part but loved decorating them (even some with rainbows!). Landon really liked choosing and fitting the cookie cutters just right as well as decorating (especially the cookie/frosting sandwiches he made!).
Grammie took over reading most of the advent calendar stories (and massaging the kids' backs at bedtime) while we were visiting.
The kids got to open their gifts from Grammie and Papa over the course of a few days rather than all in one night so they could enjoy playing with/coloring/reading each right after opening.
December 25, 2020: The first day all 5 of them looked at the camera and smiled as soon as we asked them to.
The kids played with their cousins while Daniel grocery shopped and I starting making rolls, then we changed and headed back over to Peter and Amber's for Christmas dinner, more gifts (from Pappou & Babcia and Thea Dina & Tony), a couple games of Left, Right, Center & Exploding Kittens and dessert.
The next day we walked to the park with the cousins, snowballs in hand. The plan was to have a big snowball fight, running around in the grass doing a few burpees when hit, but it didn't last long before the kids dropped off one at a time. So the adults & Jacob (and Landon halfway through) did another workout. Later that day Daniel took the kids to Pappou and Babcia's house to watch the 49er game and some Polish cartoons. They learned how to say "mushroom" in Polish (and a few other words, but that's the only one that stuck).
We spent the weekend snuggling with the new quilts while watching movies, reading in front of the fire and completing Lego set after Lego set. One day Landon asked, "When I'm done eating, can we play the 'cuddle with Mommy on the couch' game?" (I knew it was probably 50/50 him wanting to snuggle and wanting to watch football, but I gladly accepted! Side note: He remembers random football stas from months ago.)
This month the kids have jumped on the trampoline more than ever, a few times a day. They've really enjoyed it!! They are both close to landing front flips. We have played "Super Smash Bros" on the trampoline, where the kids act as the characters from the video game and I throw the foam balls at them - Landon made up a whole bunch of rules to go along with the game, but they only really made sense to him.
The kids were adamant that they wanted to run/ride to their cousins' house without an adult, so I allowed them to be free-range kids (while I stayed on the phone with Amber until they got there).
Looking forward to 2021!!!
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