A Different Christmas

It is officially Christmas break and we have made some changes about iPad time.  We've been too lax about it and have now restricted the number of hours Evie can spend doing each type of thing on her ipad so that means she is having to find other amusements.  Fortunately, I took both this week and next week off, so I'm available to help guide her toward book reading, puzzle solving, craft making, and other non-screen activities.  We also did some specifically Christmas activities this week like going light hunting.

Enjoying the light display set to music

Aimee posted about she missed Christmas tamales in Dallas so that made me want to try to find some tamales here.  I know that is a tradition in California too.  So, after we went Christmas light hunting, we went tamale hunting.  I believe this is Evie's first tamale, complete with Mexican Coke which we all agree is superior to the high fructose corn syrup stuff.

Another day this week, we carried on a tradition of ornament making that my mom started with me.  I have such great memories of making ornaments each year with my mom, as gifts for my aunts and uncles.  Evie and I have also been making ornaments together for a few years.  This one was a wreath made of jingle bells.

Edison needed snuggles afterward

Another Christmas tradition is for us to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  I have always read this to her, but this year, we took turns reading chapters out loud to each other.

Christmas Eve, yet another tradition was completed: the annual Christmas cookie making.  Again, this is something that my mom did with my brother and me and I have continued this with Evie.  She did a really good job of rolling the dough and cutting.  She wasn't as into the decorating, at least not independently.  But once I put a base color on, she was happy to add sprinkles and fine details.

Christmas Eve night, usually there's a big crowd of our family at church for Christmas Eve service with the kids (Evie, Will, and Addie) reading the Advent wreath reading, followed by a meal at my parents' house, and then another late Christmas Eve service for me, Grannadaddy, Daddy, and Uncle Ryan, at St. Mary's Cathedral.  But, this year, of course, almost none of that happened.  Evie and I went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and did the Advent reading (which you can see here at minute 9:30) and then came home.  No family pictures, no family meal, no rush to get her in pjs so we could get to the Cathedral on time.  It was certainly less stressful, but not as pleasant.  We did log on to Zoom and watch some of the King's College Lessons and Carols service with Granna, Grannadaddy, Ryan, Aimee, Addie, and Will, but it wasn't the same.

Christmas Eve service Grace Presbyterian

I still sang Silent Night in German, thinking of Grandaddy Mouse who, I believe, started that tradition (him being of German descent and also stationed in Germany during WWII), and my cousin Olivia who, like me, took German in high school.  She and I would sing together and compare our accents - she learned from a Southern German and I learned from a Northern German.  I missed both of them at my side...  

Christmas morning, Evie woke up about 6:00 but she decided to stay in her room until 7:00 to let us sleep in.  We opened presents and Evie's face and attitude was a delight.  It's really all about having kids around during Christmas.

We spent the day slowly opening presents.  Evie would open one and spend some time enjoying it before we opened another, rather than the usual rush of opening in order to get on to the next house.  Our typical Christmas schedule is starting with presents at our house, then going to Granna and Grannadaddy's for breakfast and presents with G, G, R, A, A, W (which we did via Zoom at 10 am this year), then my dad's side of the family for lunch and more presents, and ending with dinner and more presents with my mom's side of the family (which we did via Zoom at 5:30 pm).  This year, Ryan and family did not come in town due to COVID, so, as I said, we did our presents with them and Granna and Grannadaddy at 10 am, and then hung around with more slow present opening until our next gathering at 5:30.  Then today, Granna and Grannadaddy, Kathy and Rickie came over for lunch and present opening, and I was glad we did it the day after Christmas.  For one, it was much nicer weather today and would have been extremely cold and windy on Christmas Day to eat outdoors.  And for two, it gave us a more leisurely Christmas Day and I didn't worry about getting through everything or getting biscuits baked in time.

I am really frustrated that I apparently deleted most of my pictures and video from Christmas Day and today before they got backed up!  I'm glad I screen captured some pictures from a video of Evie opening her gift from Santa, because that video is gone now.  Ugh.