Pajama Day

Our tradition is to wear pajamas all-day at home on the day after Christmas, and play with all the gifts. Bridget got a late start, waking up at 11 am (while Jillian elected to join the big girls for after-Christmas shopping).

Christmas Aftenoon in Castle Rock

We joined the aunts, uncles and cousins at Grannie & Papa's for lunch and gift exchange. As per tradition, the kids handed out gifts.

They also enjoyed giving their own gifts (either hand-made or bought with their own money).

After playing for a while, we headed to Aunt Robin & Uncle Dan's for puzzles and homemade pizza.

Breakfast at Grandma Cindy's

We managed to have some room for all the delicious breakfast foods at Cindy & Hal's. Afterwards, the kids received quite the collection of gifts.

Hal had set up a forest of Christmas inflatables in the backyard for our viewing pleasure.

Christmas Morning

It didn't take much to wake the kids at 7 am ... they were ready. Being older, they're pretty good at taking turns and their time opening. Lots of stuff from their lists were fulfilled ...

Bridget tried out her big gift ... a pink cruiser bike.

Prepping for Christmas Day

As soon as we got home, the kids got onto Google's Santa Tracker to see where Santa was (Montgomery, Alabama).

They put out the milk, cookies and carrot for Santa and his reindeer.

We ended the night with the traditional reading of "The Night Before Christmas".

White Elephant

It was a scaled-down Christmas Eve party in Castle Rock, highlighted by a white elephant gift exchange with a $5 limit. The kids got to join in the fun this year (though poor Jillian ended up picking her own gift ... oh well).

Afterwards, they received their traditiona Christmas jammies from Grannie & Papa.

Progressive Christmas Dinner

We had quite the Christmas feast this year. Mommy made the treats and rolls, then we travelled to Auntie Greta's, Papa Ken & Bev's, and Uncle Davey & Auntie Charolette's, delivering and then picking up even more food. Back home, we ate way too much!

Here's a pic of us delivering food to Papa Ken and Bev.

Good Memories

Tor received a present from Auntie Greta that brought back fond memories for Daddy (he got the same thing for Christmas at about Tor's age). It was an electronic football game, where players vibrate around the field, usually chaotically -- but it's still so much fun. Tor takes it seriously, though.

Christmas Eve Morning

One of our kid traditions takes place on the morning of Christmas Eve:  they gather around their small "kid tree" and open the presents that they gave to each other. It's fun to watch because they are very thoughtful about what they give.

Rendezvouz with Andy & Karlie

With travel and gatherings still limited, we opted to meet Auntie Sheryl and cousins Andy & Karlie halfway at Hawk's Prarie for a gift exchange. The kids were happy to finally see each other.

Light Show

We drove through Old West Side, checking out some nicely decorated houses, before heading to Kelso to see the light show on the hill by the AM/PM. We parked and tuned to 96.5 FM ... and the kids were spellbound with the synchronization.

Santa Escape Room

Neighbor Sarah set up an "escape room" for the kids that was Christmas-themed. It was a wild and sometimes-confusing time, and they did pretty good figuring things out (with some hints from the adults). Jillian was in charge of the padlocks, being the only kid knowing how to unlock them.

Brock & Kaleigh Visit

When we heard that Brock & Kaleigh were in town, we headed right up to see them. First, we watched Brock play his JAL game, then headed back to CR to open presents. One of the neatest gifts that all the kids got was a wedding picture.

Afterwards, the girls sat and chatted with Kaleigh and Ericka around a jigsaw puzzle, while Tor spent most of his time catching a football from Brock.

Covid Rein-dear

Every year I make an ornament for our tree with the kids in different situations. This year it was appropriate to do a Covid mask shot but add Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer noses for Christmas. 

 

Elf Movie

It was iffy, but we managed to put together an Elf movie viewing. Tierney and Cale & Ericka (and puppy George) joined the kids at Grannie and Papa's house to recite all of the classic lines.

Bridget's 4th grade Photo

We were happy to finally see Bridget flash a big, toothy smile for her fourth grade school picture.

Lots of Projects

Friday and Saturday were filled with Christmas and other projects.They even spend time outside running around to exercise Bo and Bella for Aunt Julie, even though it was freezing out. Here Bridget is making some ornaments for her cousins. They're little replicas of the cousins.

They each made their gingerbread house. Bridget's was pretty traditional but Tor and Jillian made dog houses that were decorated with bones. They all turned out very cute.

Jillian picked out a really difficult pattern for a dog this time. She worked a lot on it and was very happy the way it turned out, but she said she wasn't going to make another one from that pattern. Next is a dog bed for her new pet.

Here is the newest doggy! Later that night Aunt Julie invited them all up to make Christmas cookies, that were delicious, and watch a Christmas program.

 

Papa working with Tor

Papa decided that since I was working with Jillian and Bridget on the sewing machine, he would get Tor started on some projects he would like. He took right to learning the basics. Here is the scroll saw.

Next he got a lesson on the chop saw.

The band saw is used a lot and he listened very carefully. Notice he always has on his safety glasses when working.

Papa tried to show him the small chain saw but he wasn't strong enough yet to get it started.

You know what a joker Papa is so really these were all staged and Papa's idea. Enjoy!
 

Tree Star Honors

It was Jillian's turn to place the star on the tree this year. We keep track of turns by referring to this blog every year.

Ornamental Tree

The kids did a very nice job of hanging the ornaments securely and spaced out. There was only one oopsie (break) this year, followed by tears, but we got through it. The kids are finding that the most enjoyable part is seeing and remembering their old ornaments.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a movie by the fire, with our newly decorated tree.

Busy Christmas

Last week they saw George for the first time at Cale and Erika's home. George loves to play so Cale brought George to play here for awhile. He's big but just a young puppy that has a lot of energy.

We all went o Miller's Tree farm. Got the kids to pose on the traditional rock.

Rick found the perfect tree and I got the family tree photo.

Friday night we watched the movie, Santa Paws Two. Anytime the dogs in the movie would sing, Tor raced up to the Nutcracker and moved his mouth and danced to the song. Soon Bridget joined him with another nutcracker. They cracked us up. After the tree trip we returned home to watch the Huskies try to come back from a horrible first half and they did but fell a little short.

They also made their centerpieces but I didn't get a picture. They were joined by Tierney and Jillian made one for Aunt Julie according to Julie's choice. They turned out very nice.

(Here's a picture of the kids' centerpieces - taken by Dad):