Christmas, Holiday Activities, and NYE wrap-up

Well, 2019 is officially here and we are back to real life.... real busy life... real busy, chaotic-at-times life!

Leading up to Christmas was (needless to say), also busy, but in a different way. The pace was less frenetic and rushed than it is when real life is in place. We got to sleep in (most days) and set a schedule that fit our hopes and dreams... ok, enough waxing poetic!

Per our typical "gearing up for Christmas" activities, we decorated a gingerbread house, baked more cookies and treats and a small country could eat in a month, wrapped presents, made treats for the kids' classroom parties (see oranges below), and listened to so many Christmas carols that they played on a loop in our dreams!

Right before they started Christmas break, the kids participated in their school's annual Advent/Christmas concert. They did a great job and sang their little hearts out. Conor had the added bonus of playing the xylophone during his class' performance and proved to be quite the xylophone player ... xylyphoner? xylophonist??  Annika even wound up with a surprise solo performance during the band's portion due to the other flutist being sick that night. It is one thing to get up in front of the entire school and parents with your class to sing a song, but it is a whole other thing to get up in front of that huge group and play something by yourself. Huge props to her for that! (Side note: It didn't even phase her ... she has nerves of steel!)

On Christmas Eve, the kids (once again) found themselves in front of a very large crowd. Conor portrayed Caesar Augustus in the parish's nativity play and Annika was an altar server for Christmas Eve mass. The church was packed to the gills, but (once again, again) the kids were amazingly composed and did a great job at their respective tasks.. 

After church, we came home to a lovely dinner that Eric made (thanks, hon!!) and had ready for us as we walked through the door. Our family tradition for Christmas Eve dinner is to have breakfast for dinner? Why? Because it is easy and there's very little clean up!! Duh!

We made sure to put out cookies and milk for Santa, read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" together (another family tradition), and made our way to bed ... very much excited for the next morning to arrive. 

Needless to say, Christmas morning was a bit chaotic, but in a good way. The kids were brimming with excitement, and Eric and I weren't far behind. We were all spoiled by the generosity of others and are deeply touched by the thought put into our gifts. Around noon, Eric's folks came down from Whidbey and joined us for Christmas, Phase 2, which included more presents, playing dice and card games, and a lovely family dinner.

Conor was VERY excited about Santa bringing him signed copies of one of his favorite book series.

Pokemon shirt for the win

Eric amongst the Christmas chaos

Annika was thrilled to receive another book in one of her favorite series, too!

Eric opening a present from Santa

Yup! She's excited!

Pretty sure the hit of the day was the Nintendo Switch we gave to them as a combo gift

Annika opening her gifts from Bestemore and Bestefar

On New Year's Eve day, the kids and I headed to Snoqualmie for our annual day o' tubing. Unfortunately, Eric got hit with a stomach bug and wasn't able to join us. We missed him greatly and wished he could have been there to enjoy the snow with us! The sky was blue, the snow was perfect, and the temp was cold without being frigid. Aside from Eric not being there, it was an ideal day on the mountain. (Although, I'm pretty sure the kids considered calling CPS when I suggested we hoof it up the hill instead of taking the magic carpet every time!)

Last year, Annika was the only one of us to stay up until midnight and rang in the new year with her stuffed animals all wearing homemade party hats. The idea of her having to do that again this year basically guilted us into powering through until midnight and staying up with her. Conor opted to go to bed around 9 with the request that we wake him up 15 minutes before midnight. Clad in our jammies and party hats, we rung in the new year together at home and watched the Space Needle fireworks display on TV. By 12:01, we were all heading to bed longing for sleep. 

Eric had to go back to work on Jan 2, so the kids and I had a few days to fill on our own. We made a trip down to Tacoma to visit our dear Fr. Fred and swing by Johnson's Candy ... because we apparently didn't have enough sweets from Christmas! We had a marvelous time chatting with Fred, who very kindly fed us a lunch of waffles and peanut butter! We also made a trip up to Whidbey to spend the day with Eric's parents. The kids played outside between rain squalls while Eric's mom and I sewed fabric card holders. Eric's dad even made me an AMAZING growler holder.

Of course,we had to put them to use after making them!

Seriously!! How cool is this thing????

On the day between our out-of-city trips, the kids and I hunkered down at home and caught our collective breath. To ensure their brains didn't melt too much over the break, I challenged them with a few STEM projects and they had a blast! First, I handed them marshmallows, spaghetti, 3 feet of yarn, and 3 feet of tape and then challenged them to make marshmallow structures with the provided supplies. Then, they were challenged to create structures (using supplies of their choosing) that would protect a dropped egg. Impressively, both kids' eggs survived the drop... of course, Annika made a "champion" sash for her egg and now we aren't allowed to eat it! :D

Our final holiday celebration was going to the holiday lights display at Woodland Park Zoo. Each year, there are more things to see, and we often find ourselves playing "I spy" with the new additions. The lights were lovely (no surprise) but the big hit for us was the shadow wall that we discovered this year. Basically, there was a wall that was painted with glow in the dark paint that we stood against (facing the wall) and then a staff member would flash a REALLY bright light toward us. When we moved away from the wall,we could see our silhouettes left (temporarily) behind. So stinking neat!

From our family to yours, we hope you have a peaceful and fun-filled 2019!!

December 2017 Wrap-up

Before January 2018 gets too far under way, I want to jot down some of the fun things that we did in December. It was one heck of a full month, but full of so many fun things!

2017 Olson Family Christmas Card

We have a non-negotiable holiday rule in our home: NO Christmas decorations until December. So, the first weekend in December is typically when the tree appears and we decorate the house with Christmas merriment galore. This was our first year having an artificial tree (thanks for the hand-me-down, Suzanne and Randy!), something I've been advocating for over the years. (Eric resisted because he would miss the smell, which I totally understand. I just was done spending the money on real trees that needed constant watering and still dropped their needles all over.) We compromised by hanging some tree scent sticks from the artificial tree... it worked ok for this year, but I think next year we'll just hang a wreath or swag somewhere in the house for the smell.

It's always a kick to decorate the tree with the kids because the activity is so much more than simply taking ornaments and putting them on branches. With each ornament, we would talk about why it was special, who it belongs to, or when we got it. Decorating the tree turns into a family history lesson, in some ways. We listen to Christmas music and dive into the past ... all together.

On Christmas concert December 14th, the kids' school had its annual Christmas concert. Conor's second grade class sang "Rise Up Shepherds And Follow". Annika's fourth grade class sang "Up On the Rooftop ". In addition to being an audience member, I was asked to take photos of the concert, so was us and down a lot throughout the evening. I'm pretty sure that Eric was convinced he was sitting next to a jack-in-the-box with how much I was popping up! Ha!

Back in November, I was at Central Market and noticed a flyer for their gingerbread house decorating event. Simply put, you buy a gingerbread house kit and decorate it at their butcher paper-covered tables using their frosting/icing and candy. In the end, you take home a fun house and the wonderful Central Market folks clean up the mess. Win, if you ask me!! The kids had a marvelous time creating their gingerbread masterpieces... and sneaking nibbles and bites of their candy decorations along the way.

This year, we had about a minute between the end of Advent and Christmas Eve. Annika was THE altar server at 10:30 mass on Chistmas Eve morning (aka the 4th Sunday of Advent) and that night, Conor was one of the wise men in the church's nativity play. Prior to mass, Annika was nervous about being the solo server; after mass, she turned to me and said, "I'm glad I did it alone because it made me realize I remember and know more than I thought I did." Way to go, Annika! She was mostly excited, however, that not only did she get to ring the bells during mass but also got to sit on the cushioned altar server chair. Bonus!

Conor decided that he wanted to participate in the annual nativity play at Christmas Eve mass. If I'm being really honest, I did try to convince him otherwise so we had fewer time commitments on the calendar and so we could go to a slightly earlier Christmas Eve mass at another nearby church, but he was determined to participate. Ok... fine. As it turns out, he had a marvelous time and it was pure joy to watch him with his school buddies reenact the nativity. I even helped out a bit by making the crowns for the three wise men (ok ,wise persons... Fiona probably doesn't want to be called a man). Conor had an extra prop  -- the camel stuffed animal that my brother gave to him when he still lived in Bahrain. Seriously!! Our little wise man had a camel from the Middle East for a play that was supposed to take place in .... oh yea .. the Middle East! How cool is that? Almost immediately after completing the performance and sitting next to me in the pew, Conor turned to me and asked if he could do the play again next year. Oh, my little star of the stage!! The second graders who were in the play also got to bring up the gifts during mass... bonus!! Conor (and his camel) did a very nice job carrying the basket up to the altar.

As Conor and I headed out to Christmas Eve mass, we noticed that it was starting to snow. Hello, Christmas miracle!!!! Eric suggested that we take his SUV instead of the van to church and I am so glad we did!! By the time we drove home, the roads were covered and slick. (Thanks for the loaner, hon!!)

Just before bedtime, we got to our completing our Christmas Even traditions: set out milk and cookies for Santa and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Problem: I used up our carrots when prepping Christmas dinner's veggies. We had no carrots for the reindeer. Fortunately, we (and hopefully the reindeer) were open to a slight variation on the snack .... this year, they got cherry tomatoes! One really neat aspect of our ongoing tradition was this was the first year all four of us helped read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was an unexpected gift and so cherished.

On Christmas morning, we woke up to about 3 inches of snow and it was still (lightly) falling! A white Christmas in Seattle?? Holy moly!! Talk about the best Christmas present EVER!!! (Although, remember that whole "no carrots left for the reindeer? Well, that also meant no carrot noses for the kids' Christmas snowmen. Obviously, I need to keep more carrots on hand!)

Unfortunately, the snow kept Eric's parents from making it to our house first thing in the morning. (They couldn't get up their driveway because it was too slick.) So, we adapted a bit and the four of us opened presents on our own. (It felt so weird!) We opened our stockings first and then moved on to the gifts under the tree.

In preparation for Christmas, I sewed a number of reusable fabric gift bags and we used them to wrap our gifts.... talk about a smart choice. The clean up was a breeze and the amount of recyclables plummeted compared to years past.

After a few quite hours at home (filled with enjoying our gifts, catching our breath, eating our family's traditional Christmas Breakfast casserole, and playing in the snow), we geared up for some amount of unknown guests for dinner. Eric's folks arrived a little bit after 1 and Eric's best friend (Dave) arrive a little after 2. Because of the snow and the fact we did a pre-Christmas celebration 2 days before, the Nelson contingency opted to hunker down at home ... and we didn't blame them one bit!!

While our Christmas turned out to be a "let's play things by ear" day, we loved the treat of having snow on the ground!

The Wednesday after Christmas was our designated night to to to the holiday lights display at Woodland Park Zoo. We've gone every year for I don't even know how long and usually have our friends Dave and Anne join us. Unfortunately, Eric's nasty cold (which turned into a sinus infection by January) kept him him and feeling miserable. So, the kids and I met Dave and Anne at Zeek's Pizza (our pre-lights dining spot due to its proximity to the zoo), had dinner, and then walked over to take in the pretty lights. It is fun to look for the new additions each year. This year, we found a Yoda in lights! The kids had so much fun running around and having fun together. (Dave and I greatly felt Eric's absence because that meant we were outnumbered 2 to 3... we had to play zone defense.... no man-to-man for us!) We wrapped up the evening with about a half hour of a "snowball" fight in the Zoomazium. The kids probably couldn't have asked for a better way to wrap up the evening! (The adults were just glad it didn't rain and we left with the same number of kids we arrived with!)

The morning after our zoo lights excursion, the kids and I layered up and headed up to Snoqualmie for our annual tubing fun. Again, Eric was feeling so cruddy that he opted to stay home bundled up in his PJs and sipping on Theraflu. (Boy, does he know how to enjoy the Christmas holidays or what????)

As we drove up to the pass, I started feeling nervous about the conditions at the tubing area because we were seeing nothing but down pouring rain. Even 2-3 miles before the freeway exit to the ski and tubing areas, it was still raining. Amazingly, the slight elevation shift at the tubing area meant snow for us while we tubed and tubed and tubed for 2 hours. This year, the tubing area had speakers up that play fun music from the 80s and 90s. It was a neat bonus, for sure!

Before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve and we were saying goodbye to 2017. Of course, Eric and I had NO plans to stay up until midnight (much to Annika's chagrin ... we are SUCH party poopers!) Conor was sacked out by 9. Eric and I were in bed and asleep before 10 (as nature intended!) What about our little night owl, you ask? She opted to stay up until midnight, have a party with her stuffed animals, made party hats for said stuffies and her family members, did the countdown, and even made confetti to toss in the air at the stroke of midnight. I awoke a few minutes after midnight knowing someone was standing over me. Even though we were blissfully ignorant of the new year having arrived, Annika felt the need to include us in her celebration, so she put our party hats (that she kindly made while waiting for midnight) on our heads. Was I startled? Yup!! Was her sentiment sweet? Yup!! Was I glad to be awake? Nope! Oh well...

So,that's how our December and year wrapped up. So much fun! A few annoying germs. Celebrations galore. And snow. Aside from the germs, we've decided to call it a win. Happy new year to our loved ones far and near!!