Our Next Adventure...: Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the hiatus from the blog! Here is our update from December!

December started with the kids wanting the house to feel more Christmas-y. So they took the matter into their own hands and made garlands out of red, green, and white construction paper. Lots of it, so much so that they were able to string it along the entire banister.

And then December 1 came along and with it, their Advent calendars.

Gabe and Eliana are chocolate aficionados and got a Lindt chocolate calendar. Xiao Yu got one from Trader Joes and Karina didn't get one. She doesn't like chocolate, so instead we got her gummy candy and each day she received one or two candies in a ziplock bag.

They also all got a Harry Potter advent calendar to share.

It has various trinkets and things depicting a scene or describing an object from the Harry Potter universe in more detail.

On the Columbia River here, every Christmas there is something called the Christmas Ships. A bunch of sailboats get decorated with Christmas lights and they slowly float down the Columbia in a certain route, and people come out and watch.

We've never done this before, but decided to go this year with another family. The kids seemed to enjoy it even though it was very chilly outside.

We also visited the Grotto in Portland, like we do many years. It's a Catholic sanctuary that gets super decorated every year.

We watched the puppet show as we also do every year.

The real reason we came was to watch a choir performance in the chapel.

One of the high schoolers who attends our church was performing and we wanted to hear his choir sing. They were really good!

Here are the kids by the Christmas tree.

A couple of weekends into December, it came time to bring home a Christmas tree and decorate the house in earnest. The problem was...there was a tree shortage and we really felt it.

The local tree farms were short so we headed out to find a tree lot. However, the lots that can usually be found around town were not there this year!

So we headed off to the big box home improvement stores. They, however had very slim pickings.

And the last place we thought to go to was our local Walmart. Luckily they had trees still so we brought home a Walmart Christmas tree.

Karina was the only one who wanted to come along and help pick it out this year. It sure did streamline the process!

We finally got it home and it was too small for our tree stand so Elvin had to screw in additional pieces of wood to the trunk to make it large enough!

Then came the decorating.

Each kid got their ornaments out and hung them.

And the star topper went on last!

And this year, Mommy, I mean Santa, was really organized and had all the presents delivered and wrapped way ahead of time. The kids wanted the presents downstairs under the tree and so down they came from their hiding place upstairs.

And here it is in all its glory!

And the rest of the living room got decorated as well.

Up went the stockings...

And voila!

There was a certain amount of Christmas baking going on. Eliana made rice krispy treats.

Gabe and Mommy made spritz cookies.

Leading up to Christmas, we were planning on going to Mt. Hood to take the kids sledding. But, the snow came to us. Eliana was so happy she went out barefoot that evening!

There wasn't a huge amount of snow.

But enough to play with!

Snowballs also went flying.

And enough to collect and eat with raspberry Torani syrup.

A couple days later, we drove up to Mt Hood with another family. It was beautiful because there was so much fresh snow.

The snow was so deep and fluffy, it actually made it a bit hard to sled because it slowed us down so much.

It also made climbing back up the hill more tiring!

The kids decided to make a huge snow ball and then roll it up the hill to let it go down. They had a hard time doing it and Elvin had to help out.

And finally, Christmas Eve arrived! That's when Gabe got the biggest chocolate in his calendar.

The kids all got some extra gifts on Christmas Eve. Xiao Yu is holding a Wooly Willy toy that has iron shavings that you decorate over the drawing's face using a magnetic stylus.

The kids also got this stuff made up of little styrofoam balls that stick to each other and are moldable like play-doh. Here, Elvin made a Yoda.

Karina made a coronavirus.

Eliana tried out Xiao's Wooly Willy.

Karina got a one-piece pajama suit. It's very soft and fuzzy.

And a tiny bit too large!

Eliana got a night light that looks like a miniature moon, craters and all.

The kids also got a balance board to play on. It's a board with a protrusion on the bottom and you have to balance on it. It's pretty hard!

And Lucky, of course, was not to be left out! Karina bought him a bag of raw beef bones from the pet store using her own money.

He's never seen anything like that, and also isn't a huge eater. So he didn't really know what to do with it!

Only when Karina held it up to him and fed him like a baby, did he start licking it. He's not a normal dog!

Before heading off to church for a Christmas Eve service, we drove around looking at houses that were super decorated with lights.

Some of the kids (and Elvin) especially liked this Star Wars one.

Church service was good and had the traditional candle lighting thing at the end.

Later on that night, we all got ready for bed, until Gabe remembered one thing...Cookies for Santa!

Crisis averted! He left out a glass of water, instead of milk, or else Lucky will drink all of it. (Lucky loves milk.)

And Santa did visit that night, and filled all the stockings with so many goodies and toys and books they didn't even fit!

And too early the next mornings the kids kept coming into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom to see if they could start opening their stockings!

And then finally it was time! Gabe said that out of all the presents he got on Christmas Day, this was one of his favorites...a little stuffed animal octopus that you can turn inside out, one side happy face, one side mad face.

Karina got pens, candy, stickers, and also a little book about Harry Potter.

She also got cans of Coke, glow sticks and metallic butterfly stickers.

And lastly, a can of shaving cream, which Karina loves to mix with food dye and mash around with her fingers.

Eliana got chocolate covered pretzels, Belgian chocolate, and also a stuffed animal octopus thing. She was not quite as big a fan of it as Gabe.

She also got a pewter miniature Hogwarts.

Here is Eliana's loot...

We always have a special Christmas breakfast and Gabe decided to use his waffle iron that he got for Easter last year.

He made the batter and is pouring it in.

Perfect!

Just douse it with a 1/2 cup of syrup and voila, a yummy breakfast!

Now it was time to open their 'real' presents. The three younger kids all got new camping chairs that were adult sized (as opposed to their current chairs that were little kid sized.) To make them more special, Emily got glow-in-the-dark decals and customized each chair with the kids' names.

Mommy also got presents. One was a multi-colored headband that was knitted by Karina. She also got trinkets made by Xiao Yu.

Xiao got a huge box of blank greeting cards. He is always making and drawing cards to people and this was right up his alley.

Xiao also got a robot, which he's been asking for since his last one from last Christmas broke.

Gabe got a map of the US with little slots where you stick the quarters for that state. He was obsessed with this for a few weeks.

Gabe also got a t-shirt with a periodic table on it. He likes studying the periodic table and memorizing atomic weights. And this shirt says, "I wear this shirt periodically" which he finds very funny.

Karina knitted a blanket for Gabe. He likes that sort of thing!

This is another type of balance board the kids got. This one is more like a surfboard.

And the three older kids all got tickets to the musical Hamilton which is coming to Portland in April. They all have memorized the lyrics to the musical to some degree.

Keller Auditorium here we come!

Eliana also got a big book that has all sorts of background info on Hamilton.

She also got a fancy nail and manicure set. It has also sorts of accoutrements.

And she immediately painted her nails.

Karina got several cookbooks. Not for people though, but for doggies. She also got doggie shaped tongs, oven mitts, and cookie cutters.

Using stickers, she decorated her room.

She then changed her mind on the stickers and used the butterfly ones instead.

Karina also started baking...doggie treats. Here she is chopping up chicken meat.

And that eventually got incorporated into these little dog bone shaped cookies. Lucky liked them, which is saying something because he is the pickiest dog we know.

The night, we had Christmas dinner and Grandpa was coming over. Since his birthday falls on Christmas Day, the kids set out to bake a cake. In Mommy's family, a birthday cake is always angel food cake with 7-minute icing.