a while ago: Christmas Eve

 After church, I split up the presents and the kids realized they were split even/odd.  They then had to do a small scavenger hunt to figure out that Isaac had evens and Joshua had odds.

The pictures are really in order, but it still works.

I received Minecraft as a gift so that I can play with the rest of the family.  Joshua made me a cute Minecraft bee.

The Ruiner babies showed up.  Along with some Ruiner Toddlers: bigger, but still only one eye.

Ben got several card sleeves with personalized artwork.  One was both to Dad and from Dad, because it had a picture of his Lego castle on it.  Isaac made some abstract art.

Joshua packed his box, a Lego wizard, in several other boxes with messages on them, such as "No returns" and "I am a box."

The cats didn't get anything this year, so we let them play with the tissue paper.  They probably enjoyed it more than any other gift.

Thursday: Space Base

Today had ups and downs.

Isaac and I played Space Base.  I won, but Isaac put up a good fight at the very end.

I read on the couch with Joshua.  I was excited that 1) he decided to read for fun and 2) I got to read next to him.

Joshua volunteered to play Space Base later in the afternoon.  Isaac and I were very excited about this, as our game preferences don't always align.  I won again, but Isaac had an awesome board with a bunch of left/right arrows.  Joshua was slightly playing his own game, but I was happy he was participating.

The boys were wrestling and bonked heads really hard.  They were both very sad/mad about it afterwards.

Isaac finished his cat from library clay.  The librarian made a huge deal about it and commented about so many of the little details.

Rock climbing went well.  I tossed a sock ball with Joshua and Isaac had team.  Isaac had a good time.

I brought Joshua to piano lessons, only to realize that there were no lessons this week.  Oops.  It meant I was a bit late to karate, but that wasn't a huge deal.  The karate schedule had also changed without me realizing it, but for the most part that just means it ends after forty-five minutes instead of sixty.  This will probably make things work out a little bit better overall.

Wednesday: fails?

Well, today we won some and we lost some.

Dad came over to help with our circuit breaker.  The owners before us did the basement improperly and while we've been fine we should be safer.

Fail: the first trip to Lowes I got the wrong breakers.
Win: the second trip I got the correct breakers and we were done within the time limit.

After snack time we were going to go rock climbing, but it was a fail: the gear was in Ben's car, and he went back to work today.

So we did some other errands.  We failed at Staples, but I was at least able to get a better feel for what I was looking for.

We won at the library!  Our favorite librarian was there, Joshua found a bunch of books he wanted to read, and Isaac got an interesting take-home art project.

We also won at the UPS store, but there isn't anything interesting to say about that.

Both boys were a little bored today, but both of them managed to find something to do so that was a win too.

Tuesday: home

Ben decided to take another day off of work today.  I thought it was a lovely choice.  We were able to finish Isaac's new game, work on some Lego sets, and both boys started a new video game.  It was relaxing.

Around 10:30, while raiding in WoW, we heard a door close upstairs and footsteps start to come down the stairs.  Joshua woke up enough to come find me, climb in my lap, and fall right back asleep.  Now, I absolutely love the cuddles.  At the same time, I feel like he could have just turned over in his own bed.  He's been doing this a bit more often for some reason, but it hasn't been a problem so I'm just enjoying it.

Saturday: Christmas 2

 Dad and Pat brought breakfast over in the morning.  While that didn't really start our day, it was a delicious part of the day.  We slowly got ready and went to walk downtown.  Joshua was not excited about going because he was having so much fun playing with his cousins, but none of them had a choice.  

We enjoyed a few stores, and then decided to get some pictures in some big wooden shoes.  But.  But.  The children were having a hard time deciding who should stand where and in the process almost knocked over several delft pieces.  The kids are all smiles, but the adults' hearts were all racing.

We walked down to Cakabakary to get a birthday treat for the 12 year old.

After lunch we opened presents!  There were lovely and thoughtful gifts all around.  Dad and Pat got the largest presents, which seemed appropriate but abnormal.

Pizza for dinner and then a small celebration for Isaac.  (His main celebration is in June.)

Friday: arrival

We spent the morning cleaning.  While I did spend most of the morning getting ready, I also feel like it wasn't as stressful as normal.  The rest of the family helped out with a lot of the chores.  Joshua cleaned a bathroom for the first time and did a great job.  I had also given the kids a chore list, like normal, but then their last chore was to help mom for 400 minutes.  They both wondered why the number 400 and I told them it was easier to need them for less time to give them a "present" than need them for longer and have them "complain".  Honestly, it worked well because Joshua was very willing to help out with some of the little tasks that popped up near the end.

Aunt C came over for the afternoon.  Horizon followed her around for a while because she is his favorite person.

We mostly just hung out for the rest of the day.  The kids mostly did their own thing.  Joshua had made a puzzle this summer for just this occasion and it was put together.

We played a game of Can't Stop and Ben stole the win from Isaac so I was able to win!

We watched a movie after the younger kids went to bed and surprisingly no one fell asleep!  Liz and I were close, but the movie was interesting enough that we stayed awake.

Thursday: they're almost here!

They're almost here!  There is excitement in the house as we wait for our guests.  I've also been making the family help with more of the chores than normal because...they can.  I almost feel mean, but they need to know how to do these life skills, including bringing things from the banister to the basement, so I don't actually feel mean.  

I had a nice day.  It felt productive but I was also able to work on my Lego set and finish up a game and take a nap.  Isaac finished a route at rock climbing that he's been working on for a long time and therefore said that practice was "amazing" today.  Joshua probably had a bit of a boring day, but we did make some items from one of his Christmas gifts and he entertained himself well.

The video is a bit quiet.  Joshua has been playing with this gift a lot more than I expected.