Ethan's Last Christmas at Home (But Not Really)

(First ever sibling gift exchange.)

Hahahahahaha.  Okay, so I realize the title of this post isn't nearly as funny to anyone else, but it really tickles my fancy.  Mostly because Ethan has been going around all vacation long making a point of reminding us that this is his last Christmas at home.  To which I have repeatedly pointed out that that's not true -- he'll be coming home from college for Christmas break next year.  He says it's not the same, though, so...I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.  Haha.

Honestly, there's just so much to cover from the past few weeks that I was thinking it would be best if I did several posts to break it up.  But then reality hit me and I recognized that if I didn't just get it all done tonight, I'd probably never do it.  So here we go.  My apologies ahead of time for what I'm assuming will be a long post that no one other than my children will really be interested in.   {Edited to update: it is an EXTREMELY long post with an absolute photo dump of pictures.  Consider yourselves warned.}

Moms are the Best -- 

In the week leading up to Christmas, my mom drove up for a visit.  It was so fun having her here and we all loved it.  Mostly because she's not a regular grandma -- she's a cool grandma.  Hahahaha.  But seriously, though, she's kind of a hoot and the kids love seeing whatever it is she comes up with next.  This trip included lots of card games (UNO probably most of all); driving around to see Christmas lights; a trip to Barnes & Noble, where my mom so kindly indulged my children and let them pick out a present; and a delicious early Christmas dinner of ham and funeral potatoes that my mom treated us with the night before she left.  I wish she could have stayed even longer, but the beauty of her being retired now is that she can come and visit whenever!  

Gingerbread Houses -- part 1 and part 2

While my mom was still here, the kids made some gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and royal icing for one of our "Christmas break activities."  For the record -- gingerbread houses are a hassle any which way you make them.  But I've decided for future reference that I much prefer the hassle of making actual gingerbread and then hand-cutting a 2-D house front to decorate (like we've done in the past) than the absolute hassle of constructing 3-D houses out of graham crackers that break every other second.  And that's even with using a quicker way to "glue" them together by using burnt sugar instead of royal icing!

Nevertheless, once I started the ball rolling, I had no choice but to follow it through.  I think the kids had enough fun decorating the houses, but next year I'll have a lot more fun if I make the gingerbread myself.  Hahaha.  

(The burnt sugar.  It was kind of a pain to work with.)

Sophie's "house."

Jane's cute little cottage.

Grace's skyscraper.

My house.

Isaac and Granny's creation.

Ethan's "stable."

For part 2 of our gingerbread house adventure, I pulled out the store bought kits that I had found a few weeks back.  Our Christmas Eve tradition has always included putting one of these sets together.  In the beginning, it was mostly just to give them something to do so that they weren't super antsy and bouncing off the walls with the excitement and anticipation of Christmas morning.  In the last few years, though, it's mostly been just for the sake of the tradition.  Mostly because in the last few years, I've started making the 2-D gingerbread house fronts that I think are WAY more fun to decorate and a lot tastier as well.  This year's kits were probably a complete waste of time and resources.  Doh!  Hahaha.  I think the houses they had made just a few days earlier had used up any real interest in making some more.  Oh well!  You live and you learn, right??

(This is as decorated as it got.)

(And Sophie's creativity led her to make a slightly more macabre gingerbread scene.)

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve we started a NEW tradition.  Or at least I think that's what Grace is hoping for.  Hahaha. Several weeks ago, Grace started trying to convince all of the kids that they should give EACH OTHER presents this year.  And she succeeded.  For the most part.  I was initially a little aggravated with the idea -- thinking this was going to end up costing a fortune since none of the younger kids have any money of their own to buy presents -- but in the end it was really kind of awesome!  Aside from a few store bought things here and there by Grace and Sophie, most of the presents were homemade/creative type gifts that were very thoughtful, entertaining, and sweet.  I mean, was it kind of ridiculous looking to have about 50 presents under the tree?? Yes.  Yes it was.  But I'd let them do it all over again in a heart beat.  :)

This is apparently an inside joke? Ethan has morphed "Hey Tony" -- a quote from The Incredibles -- to "Hey Sony."  Sophie thought this picture spread would be hilarious.  But you probably have to be familiar with this obscure clip from the movie to fully appreciate it.

Alex got really creative with his gifted artwork.  As you can see, he has labeled Scott's piece as "Abstract."  Hahahahaha.

Grace created this mega-creepy, franken-creature of a present for Jane.  It's even creepier in person.  Hahahahaha.

Grace wins the most thoughtful gift award -- she bought me this electric foot warmer because I'm always complaining that my feet are freezing.

She got Scott a bucket of chips for his gift.  Hahaha.

Grace and Sophie discovered some way to make "screen printed" (for lack of a better word) items using a regular picture printed from our computer along with some saran wrap and an iron.  I'm not really sure how it all works, but it does.  It's pretty clever -- not gonna lie!  Sophie made this "Chicken Girls" get-up for Jane using an old sweatshirt she found lying around the house.

Alex gifted Ethan a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows drawing.

Another inside joke?  Sophie made this for Alex because "it looks just like him" and he always says sorry in a British-ish accent.  Hahahaha.

Grace regifted a Barbie with a prosthetic leg to Jane.  She was pretty excited about it.

Isaac gave Ethan this book that I had bought as an option for Ethan's Jolabokaflod gift.  I thought it was kind of hilarious for a 5 year old to give his big brother a "what color is your parachute? for teens" book.  Hahahahahaha.

Grace made this "Freaks and Geeks" shirt for Sophie.

And Sophie drew a bunch of cartoonish like representations of all the characters from Freaks and Geeks.

Sophie bought Isaac his very own mini-brush because he's obsessed lately with "smoothing" his hair.  Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Jolabokaflod

This was our third annual celebration of the Scandinavian "Jolabokoflod" tradition, and I'm still lovin' it!  Exchanging books on Christmas Eve and then spending the rest of the night reading and eating chocolate?  Yes please!  Hahahaha.  Of course, I'm the one that makes out with the lion's share of books, since everyone picks one out for ME while I'm the only one who picks out a book for each of them --  but I think everyone's totally okay with that.  :)

(My haul. 😍)

("What We'll Build" and a giant Crossword puzzle book)

("Quidditch Through the Ages" and "What Makes a Champion?" -- a compilation of responses from Alex's 4th grade class.)

("A Long Walk to Water" and "Stuff You Should Know")

("Spilling Ink" and "Black Beauty")

("To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Illustrated Compendium of Ugly English Words")

("Careers" and "A Promised Land")

("Endure" and "The Big Short" and "The Smartest Guys in the Room" -- Scott got me two books because he's awesome like that)

And while we're speaking of books -- my book is finally published!

The Extraordinary Life of Alfred Lee Hansen (my dad).

I was excited they arrived in time for me to mail them out as Christmas presents to my siblings and my dad's siblings.

And speaking of presents -- check out my sweet gift-wrapping station I set up in Scott's closet "office."  Hahaha.

(Fun fact -- I absolutely LOVE wrapping presents.)

I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In (on Christmas Day in the morning)

After finishing up our family Christmas pageant (the script for which I wrote 10 years ago now) and our Jolabokaflod exchange, it was pretty easy to convince everyone to head on up to bed so that Santa could come.  Christmas morning dawned bright and early, and after the obligatory group shot on the stairs, the kids darted downstairs to discover what was under the tree.  This year I wanted to make things more "fun" -- because labeled presents are just so boring -- so I made a little treasure hunt card for each of them, listing the wrapping paper/ribbon combo for each of their 3 gifts and let them get to work finding them!  Hahahahahaha.  I actually think this was one idea that was actually more fun than flop, so I just might be doing it again in the future.  :)

(Since Isaac can't read yet, I taped paper and ribbon samples for his clues.)

It amazes me year after year how patiently the kids sit and wait their turn to open up their presents -- especially since there are 6 kids and they only open one at a time.  It helps to draw out the suspense and the excitement a little longer, though, and I think they actually kind of like that.  Haha.  "Santa" knocked it out of the ballpark yet again this year, and each kid was pretty ecstatic about all 3 of their gifts.  (What can I say?  I'm REALLY good at picking out presents.  Hahaha.)  The rest of the day was spent in a haze of lazing around and dabbling with all the new things to play with, along with more screen time than I care to admit.  Hahaha.  

(I had to create a Coronavirus ball for this year's ornament.  Obviously.)

(Fun fact -- Alex's latest obsession is Harry Potter.  And I do mean OBSESSION.)

(This poster has the entire Book of Mormon printed on it.)

I found these really cool Hogwarts House puzzles for a family gift.

The End

It was a successful Christmas on all fronts, and we went to bed happy and exhausted at the end of the day!  In closing, I want to wish everyone a belated "Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight."  :)

(And a congratulations if you made it all the way through the post.)