The children of district 60 get more than two weeks off of school! How strange and yet wonderful to be finished with work for the year on the 16 of December.
Santa at the shopping mall charges minimum 22 dollars for pictures. I'm gonna go with the hell naw option on that one. But Santa at the public library? This is more my style.
He was a bit of an awkward fella, but Miles seemed to accept him ok. And Adele got closer to him than she has ever willingly gotten. So maybe Awkward Santa is Best Santa.
He has such a serious and confidential discussion with Santa, deciphering Adele's letter for her and relating his own wishes. With his hair all mashed from the bike ride over. Seven is marvelous.
I also got to host a playdate last week. Adele's adored preschool friend Sasha and her family came, as did the family of Miles' schoolmate, Noah. Another neighborhood friend showed up with Noah and we hosted seven kids! There was cookie decorating, Grinch watching, hot chocolate drinking and lots of laughter. And the house wasn't too trashed afterward, since both moms stayed and helped.
Adele's new bff gave her a best friends necklace for Christmas! I love her mom, who is an ER doctor and dog lover and swell person. Thank God for new friends.
Christmas Eve was exhausting!! At least, it was for me. I was up early baking gingerbread cookies and preparing the Christmas dessert, cleaning the house and wrapping what wasn't already wrapped. We attended a very sweet family service at our church at 4.
After which, we posed for pictures, had dinner, wrote Santa's letters, set out cookies, checked Santa's progress on NORAD and tucked the kids in.
Then at 8:30, I was off to my second round, for two hours of singing in choir.
It was beautiful, but it just took everything out of me. We sang as if the universe was hanging in the balance. When I came home, I had just enough energy to sink into bed and check Santa's position one more time:
He was on his way!
Christmas morning was a little rough, as the kids thought 5:45 was a great time to get up. We got them to go play while we dozed until 7:30. When we got up, Adele had gotten into her stocking, and they had worked together to arrange the gifts into oddly shaped and tall sculptures in the living room. We had to fight to get that sense of humor started.
Miles wanted badly to go to church, so for the third time in 24 hours I went to church. And you know? I'm so glad we did. It was so jolly to hear the organ and sing and shake hands with everyone on Christmas Day.
And after a late morning snack and some more caffeine, we opened gifts! The kids did very well.
Some big hits included Adele's tea set, roller skates for both kids, a construction kit for building forts, and these noisy "little live pets." The adults are really being impressively tolerant of the small mechanical frog and mouse scampering around the house.
Koopa did pretty well on his first Christmas, too. He got a stuffed squirrel and several bones.
I take him on off-leash evening romps at the elementary school playground now, which gets my blood going and allows him more intense exercise. He is such a joy and a force for good in our family.
Father Scott, who baptized Adele years ago, sent the kids these 3d Christmas lights glasses. I'm inspired. Next year, I'm going to try to write Real Christmas Cards.
But for a first Christmas in Pueblo, while I'm still underemployed? Christmas 2016 exceeded expectations. And now it's St. Stephen's Day and 11am and I'm still in my pajamas, sitting on the couch, while the kids happily play with their new toys. I've got my latest Bernard Cornwall Saxon novel next to me. I could get used to this.
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