Leonard's gift from Santa got delayed in transit, luckily his brother, Steve, sent him a gift so he had something to open Christmas morning.
Poor Len got another Christmas gift he did not want. That night his whole body started hurting extremely badly. The next morning we took him to get tested for covid again. While he was there, he showed the doctor a rash on his arm that had been there for about a week. She told him it looked like Shingles. His covid test came back negative, so we are sure that Shingles was the source of his pain. Thank goodness there's a vaccine for Shingles!
I got a new rainbow of nail polish.
Kaleb got supplies to start watercolor painting.
Noé got 6 pairs of Etéreo earrings to spice up her outfits once she gets to Hawaii.
Gavin squealed with delight when he opened his gift.
We're all in love with Baby Yoda, I mean Grogu and were fighting over holding him just like a real baby. Even Macy holds him and kisses him.
Teague was equally ecstatic to finally get more Shopkins! He had over 100 when we were in India, that didn't make it back to Canada. We were worried about Macy choking on them, but he convinced Santa that he'd only play with them in his room so Macy would be safe.
His new collection of 30 is from the Real Littles line and oh my goodness, they are so cute! He's holding the Breyer's Neapolitan ice cream that comes with a replica container and ice cream scoop that fits inside. My favorites are his Marie Callender's peanut butter and key lime pies! Oh, how I miss Marie Callender's!
Hiram will take his love of playing Mario Kart to the RC world!
It's a little harder than the video game, but he's enjoying them.
Ali couldn't wait to smash into her Secret Crush box and find her dolls.
The big doll has secret compartments that were filled with "candies" holding the pieces to build the little doll. They're super sweet!
Macy was just as excited for her "box" of new Frozen toys...
...as she was for the dolls themselves.
It took me lots of tries, but I finally got her sweet smile captured.
Growing up we had ham for Easter, turkey for Thanksgiving, and both for Christmas. Leonard and I thought we should do that again this year. The only problem is, we only have one oven and we weren't gathering with extended family or friends that could help cook everything, whoops I forgot about that part from my childhood. We decided to cook half of our feast on Christmas (ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, and sparkling cider), then on Boxing Day we cooked the other half (turkey, cranberries, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, plus leftovers).
Since, covid prevented us from having Rita over for dinner on Christmas, we took a hot plate over to her. I sure hope next Christmas we can gather with others!
We may not be able to get Marie Callender's pies here, but Perkins pies are also really good. We had chocolate French Silk on Christmas Day. Of course, since we had another feast on Boxing Day we had a pumpkin pie from Costco with it.
The day also included singing more Christmas carols, watching A Christmas Story, and having a Zoom meeting with all 27 members of the Reil family. On Boxing Day we Zoomed with all 24 members of the Lee family, and on the 3rd day of Christmas we Zoomed with 22 members of the Pittl family. The week before Christmas we also had a ward social via Zoom that was fantastic!
Back on November 23rd a woman from Kenya reached out to me saying that she heard I was hoping to adopt a little girl. I told her I was and that we were trying to learn all the legal processes. I don't want to be scammed, but I also fear human trafficking. She then told me she had 2 daughters she was ready to adopt out as she couldn't afford their schooling. This absolutely broke my heart. I would love to adopt a child that doesn't have a family, but I would never want to take a child from a loving mother. We set out to find organizations to help her, but the Kenyan government is corrupt (like many others) and much of the aid goes to well-to-do families instead of those that are really struggling.
We talked to our kids about only getting a gift from Santa this year, and not any from mom and dad as we wanted to help this family. Each of our kids immediately responded that they would rather have us help them than give them another gift. (I love my kids' hearts so much!) After a few challenges to get the school's contact and bank info, we were finally able to wire money to pay for Celine to go back to school for the next term. (Melanie is not in school yet.) I wish we could pay for both of them to go to school until they graduate, but our family of 9 is on a single income and that is beyond our means.
I had a much happier Christmas helping this little girl get to go back to school, than buying a Nintendo Switch for my own kids. However, my kiddos did get gifts from mom and dad still. They got another used Wii to play all of their old games on, a Google home, and new sleds. They were also spoiled by their grandparents. Gramma and Grampa Blue-eyes asked the kids what they would like for Christmas and when they said they wanted some of their baking, they sent us 30 pounds of delicious goodies. Grandma and Grandpa Green-eyes sent us money to go to Calypso next summer. We can't wait!
I am so grateful for the generosity of others who have blessed my family. I hope I can always strive to be generous to others as well.
