The Christmas Week
Since last week was finals, Mike hasn't had to teach all week. This means that on Monday and Tuesday, Mike got work done at 11 and had the rest of the day off. He took the week between Christmas and New Year's off because work told him to use up his vacation days.
We normally do the Twelve Days of Christmas from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night on January 5th, but this year Rea and Sara are invited to go to Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa from January 1st to January 5th. So we started the Twelve Days of Christmas early and we'll do our Twelfth Night celebration tomorrow. The activities that we did this week were:
Sunday - Read Christmas books around the fire
Sunday - Made and drank egg nog
Monday - Making ginger bread houses at the library
Monday - Visited Temple Square to see the lights
Tuesday - Put on the Nativity play
Wednesday - Opened presents
Friday - Played with Grandma and GrandpaSaturday - Watch Christmas movies
Since Mike had all this time off and he likes having a project, we are doing a round of Organized Simplicity on the house. It is always great to get it done; however, it is rather exhausting. Trying to do both Organized Simplicity and the Twelve Days of Christmas has been challenging. But using the new steamer that we got makes it so much faster to do the deep cleaning part. We've been amazed. The kids' room only took half a day, while the kitchen and front room took about eight hours each, and the parents' room took over ten. We still have to do the third bedroom and the outdoor shed, but we are very pleased with the progress we've made. We're also glad to take a day off for Sunday.
On Wednesday, of course, we didn't do any Organized Simplicity and just celebrated Christmas. The kids opened their presents until lunch time, and then played with their presents for the rest of the day. Alison considers that a successful Christmas, especially since each person only gets three gifts from Mom and Dad, as well as toys exchanged between siblings. (Gold gift - something they really like. Frankincense gift - something to help you develop Christlike attributes, like creativity or physical strength. Myrrh gift - something to help you learn and grow and overcome in the next year. This year we all chose a challenge to work through and got a goal-setting workbook and then rewards to get when we achieve our goals.)
Rea's gold gift was a horse for her 18 inch doll to ride. Her frankincense gifts were a jump rope and a mother-daughter journal that we can write notes to each other in. Her myrrh gifts were the book "What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck" and paint markers to use to make stone food for a mud kitchen (her big prize when she achieves all her goals). She gave everyone books and homemade presents.
Sara's gold gift was an American Girl doll found for her by Aunt Patty and a riding outfit for her. Her frankincense gifts were hair clips and a Tinker Crate (a subscription box that Rea normally gets that includes robotic parts to build something cool - Sara made an electric spin art machine). Her myrrh gifts were the book "What to Do When Fear Interferes" and a set of Disney Fairy figurines to play with her friends with at the park.
Timmy's gold gifts were a Ninjago Brickmaster book/bricks set and an additional Ninjago set with a dragon. His frankincense gifts were a rubber mallet (very useful for opening Christmas nuts) and a Kiwi Crate (a subscription box that Sara normally gets that has a science-themed thing to build - Timmy built an arcade game with a claw to grab things). His myrrh gifts were What to Do When Your Temper Flares and a snap circuits brics set that lets him build LEGO buildings and attach lights and light them up with batteries and on/off switches.
Gideon's gold gift was Pokemon cards (to go with Timmy's from Timmy's birthday). His frankincense gifts were markers and a Kiwi Crate (he made a kaleidoscope - well, Mommy made it and he decorated the plates to give the patterns). His myrrh gifts were the book Gregory the Terrible Eater, the recipe book Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes, and a whisk, stirring spoon, scraper spatula, measuring cups, and measuring spoons.
As you may have noticed, Alison loves the "What to Do When..." series, which teaches the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on a kid's level. They are very fun and very helpful. All the books recommend setting goals and picking rewards as you achieve them. Timmy has already tied six knots in his string to represent times that he got angry but didn't let his anger turn on his dinosaur brain and start to fight. Gideon has tried five new foods (unfortunately, there's not a picky eater What to Do When book). Sara and Rea are reading their books and making their lists of goals to work on. Alison is really happy about how the myrrh gifts turned out this year.
Mike got a book, ear plugs, a cutting bed for his rotary cutter, mini dice for making card games, and a new Studio Ghibli movie (The Secret of Arrietty). Alison got her current favorite book, The Brave Learner, for a gold gift, and a resistance band for her MommaStrong exercise program (which she loves!) for a frankincense gift. For her myrrh goal, she's going to work on keeping the house tidied up. She got an Echo and every month that she meets her tidy house goal, she gets to buy a soundtrack that Alexa can play whenever she wants. She's excited!
Stockings at our house are only edibles and new toothbrushes. The kids all got electric toothbrushes this year, which were huge hits. They are brushing their teeth five times a day right now. They also get very creative to get food we don't normally buy. This year we had sugar cereal, Coke, store-bought bread, peanut butter, and jelly for PBJs, and ham, as well as candy, fruit, and mixed nuts. We had our traditional roast on Christmas Eve and eggrolls on Christmas Day. Again, we didn't manage to make a Baby Jesus birthday cake, but oh well. Christmas was great without it.
On Sunday night we made gingerbread cookies and decorated them, and then watched some more Christmas movies
Overall, it has been a busy, great Christmas week. We hope yours was as well!
We normally do the Twelve Days of Christmas from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night on January 5th, but this year Rea and Sara are invited to go to Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa from January 1st to January 5th. So we started the Twelve Days of Christmas early and we'll do our Twelfth Night celebration tomorrow. The activities that we did this week were:
Sunday - Read Christmas books around the fire
Sunday - Made and drank egg nog
Monday - Making ginger bread houses at the library
Monday - Visited Temple Square to see the lights
Tuesday - Put on the Nativity play
Wednesday - Opened presents
Friday - Played with Grandma and GrandpaSaturday - Watch Christmas movies
Since Mike had all this time off and he likes having a project, we are doing a round of Organized Simplicity on the house. It is always great to get it done; however, it is rather exhausting. Trying to do both Organized Simplicity and the Twelve Days of Christmas has been challenging. But using the new steamer that we got makes it so much faster to do the deep cleaning part. We've been amazed. The kids' room only took half a day, while the kitchen and front room took about eight hours each, and the parents' room took over ten. We still have to do the third bedroom and the outdoor shed, but we are very pleased with the progress we've made. We're also glad to take a day off for Sunday.
On Wednesday, of course, we didn't do any Organized Simplicity and just celebrated Christmas. The kids opened their presents until lunch time, and then played with their presents for the rest of the day. Alison considers that a successful Christmas, especially since each person only gets three gifts from Mom and Dad, as well as toys exchanged between siblings. (Gold gift - something they really like. Frankincense gift - something to help you develop Christlike attributes, like creativity or physical strength. Myrrh gift - something to help you learn and grow and overcome in the next year. This year we all chose a challenge to work through and got a goal-setting workbook and then rewards to get when we achieve our goals.)
Rea's gold gift was a horse for her 18 inch doll to ride. Her frankincense gifts were a jump rope and a mother-daughter journal that we can write notes to each other in. Her myrrh gifts were the book "What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck" and paint markers to use to make stone food for a mud kitchen (her big prize when she achieves all her goals). She gave everyone books and homemade presents.
Sara's gold gift was an American Girl doll found for her by Aunt Patty and a riding outfit for her. Her frankincense gifts were hair clips and a Tinker Crate (a subscription box that Rea normally gets that includes robotic parts to build something cool - Sara made an electric spin art machine). Her myrrh gifts were the book "What to Do When Fear Interferes" and a set of Disney Fairy figurines to play with her friends with at the park.
Timmy's gold gifts were a Ninjago Brickmaster book/bricks set and an additional Ninjago set with a dragon. His frankincense gifts were a rubber mallet (very useful for opening Christmas nuts) and a Kiwi Crate (a subscription box that Sara normally gets that has a science-themed thing to build - Timmy built an arcade game with a claw to grab things). His myrrh gifts were What to Do When Your Temper Flares and a snap circuits brics set that lets him build LEGO buildings and attach lights and light them up with batteries and on/off switches.
Gideon's gold gift was Pokemon cards (to go with Timmy's from Timmy's birthday). His frankincense gifts were markers and a Kiwi Crate (he made a kaleidoscope - well, Mommy made it and he decorated the plates to give the patterns). His myrrh gifts were the book Gregory the Terrible Eater, the recipe book Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes, and a whisk, stirring spoon, scraper spatula, measuring cups, and measuring spoons.
As you may have noticed, Alison loves the "What to Do When..." series, which teaches the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on a kid's level. They are very fun and very helpful. All the books recommend setting goals and picking rewards as you achieve them. Timmy has already tied six knots in his string to represent times that he got angry but didn't let his anger turn on his dinosaur brain and start to fight. Gideon has tried five new foods (unfortunately, there's not a picky eater What to Do When book). Sara and Rea are reading their books and making their lists of goals to work on. Alison is really happy about how the myrrh gifts turned out this year.
Mike got a book, ear plugs, a cutting bed for his rotary cutter, mini dice for making card games, and a new Studio Ghibli movie (The Secret of Arrietty). Alison got her current favorite book, The Brave Learner, for a gold gift, and a resistance band for her MommaStrong exercise program (which she loves!) for a frankincense gift. For her myrrh goal, she's going to work on keeping the house tidied up. She got an Echo and every month that she meets her tidy house goal, she gets to buy a soundtrack that Alexa can play whenever she wants. She's excited!
Stockings at our house are only edibles and new toothbrushes. The kids all got electric toothbrushes this year, which were huge hits. They are brushing their teeth five times a day right now. They also get very creative to get food we don't normally buy. This year we had sugar cereal, Coke, store-bought bread, peanut butter, and jelly for PBJs, and ham, as well as candy, fruit, and mixed nuts. We had our traditional roast on Christmas Eve and eggrolls on Christmas Day. Again, we didn't manage to make a Baby Jesus birthday cake, but oh well. Christmas was great without it.
On Sunday night we made gingerbread cookies and decorated them, and then watched some more Christmas movies
Overall, it has been a busy, great Christmas week. We hope yours was as well!
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