Christmas with the Crew

For a couple of our kids, Christmas arrived early! Graysen monitors the Nike website like they are paying him to Just Do It (they are not :) He'd been watching for Flyease Go (goes?) in his size for weeks, maybe months. Suddenly . . . they were available! He said, "Do you think Grandma Judi would get them for me for Christmas?" I told him he could text her. Grandma replied that it was above her budget, but if he sent her the difference, she'd look into it. Although I heard more about this gift getting from Grandma, he did not. 

A few days later (in early November) a delivery truck dropped off a suspiciously shoe-sized box. He asked if Grandma Judi had actually gotten him the shoes. I said, "The box isn't for me, so I can't open it. I'll just put it in my room." Well, in my room I wrapped "it" in Christmas paper. When I walked out, I said, "Google, play Christmas music." 

"It's too soon, Mom!" complained Graysen.

 

"Is it, though?" I asked and handed him the gift. 

He was over-the-moon delighted, "No way! NO WAY!!" He's worn them sooooo much since then, ha! Great gift from Grandma :) Oh and Gabby's Christmas was covered during her fabulous trip to Cali, so she too got to enjoy her holiday cheer ahead of the calendar :)

And now, Christmas morning! We squeezed everyone into an "in front of the tree" picture. We got the cinnamon rolls we'd set out the night before baking in the oven, while the kids dug into their Christmas stockings. It's amazing how much stuff fits in the stockings! Buck put nearly all of my gifts in mine (which is of an unusually large size :)

After breakfast, the wrapping paper flew as the Crew discovered the treasures waiting for them under the tree. Every year I think, "Man, this is going to be a slim Christmas," and every year, I'm amazed at what God provides. Like matching pants (they didn't get much apparel this year, but it was funny when all the pants were held high in the air :) Twenty-two revolvers plus leather holsters, Buck's hard work to find these very popular items paid off in the boys' total shock and excitement! Graysen got a helmet for his minibike pursuits (shed mice chewed the last one), Gabby got a darling print of Spax from Graysen plus other apartment and kitten accoutrements. Brennen got wooden guitar picks and promptly ordered a Broncos jersey with his gift card from Grandma J. Caelan and Noah got gift cards, too--Caelan also got succulent care items and Noah got watch care items. Buck and I bought Caelan a second stage of life sewing box, as hers from childhood was falling apart (possibly used as a step ladder at some point? :) We filled it with new all the sewing things, so that her projects from here forward begin with the bits and bobbles she needs. From the kids Buck received some small tools, a date night gift certificate, the deadliest knife on the planet, and a weekend treehouse getaway promise from me. It was a good round of gifting!

For the past few weeks, Caelan spent hours and hours turning all the text messages she and Noah have exchanged since they first started "talking" into a book. Okay, not all of them--she ran out of time and only did about half :) But Noah was so happy! He had a phone issue and lost most of the messages several months ago. Since Caelan has been recovering from wisdom tooth surgery, he's been reading their messages out loud to her like a storybook. It's been pretty cute. The second pic is of them admiring the personalized Christmas stockings and tree skirt Buck and I gave them; seeing their future shared last name on a gift was a sweet moment.

We finished opening gifts before Christmas started at Gabby and Chase's church. Gabby knew Chase was playing cello, so she drove over to surprise him. She sent us the link and we watched online--the red arrow points to teeny, tiny Chase in the corner :) His part sounded great, though!

While Spax awaited Gabby's return, he chased his new catnip mousies around the house. I think if a real mouse came his way, it would be in big trouble!

The afternoon was relaxing--Caelan and Noah played Stratego; I can't remember who won, but they were very closely matched :) When Gabby returned from church, she helped me make a Christmas peppermint pie and she built her shelf lamp, very cool! She made me the dear little Nativity scene pictured below (which she said almost caused a neighbor ruckus with her hammering!) Buck gave me several very thoughtful gifts. One is the lovebox pictured below. He spent part of his afternoon figuring out the app on his phone. He can send me a message from wherever he is, and the red heart on the front will start spinning. It continues spinning until I open the top and see the message. He can tell when I've received the message from his phone. Super sweet! He also got me a bracelet that has a tiny picture of us imprinted on a clear bead. If I hold it up to light or zoom in on it with my phone, I can see us :) Caelan gave me a return address stamp, which I've wanted for a long time! And the boys gave me puzzles!! (Buck says it might be time to sell off some of our older puzzles, lol, we have SO many puzzles! They are like books, but in little pieces . . . maybe we need puzzle shelves!)

The instructions on one of my gifts had some creative information from the makers in China. They even made a new contraction--or'll :) I thought the age range for electronics usage was funny, too.

Let's see, so Buck and Graysen watched football while the prime rib was slowly cooking. I was super hesitant to spend so much on a piece of meat, but we had a lot of mouths to feed AND we didn't need much for groceries, since no one had much of an appetite while we were sick the previous week. So, it amazingly fit within the grocery budget! Buck bought some side dishes, too, to make Christmas dinner very easy to prepare. He even set everything up, so it looked pretty while we filled our plates!

After our late afternoon dinner . . . hmmm, I really need to write these posts in closer proximity to the events . . . maybe it's good that I can't remember all the things; that means the day was blissfully uneventful and just plain pleasant :) We did take a run at the new board game the kids opened. It's a housing development game where you get points for building nice neighborhoods with pools and parks. Everyone has their own paper, like in Clue, and keeps track of their own points. Everyone takes their turn at the same time, so there's a lot of trust in this game. Honestly, I don't even know if we played it correctly, but it was fun to try!

I am super thankful that we had all the "kids" home for Christmas. Noah's mom was sweet to share him with us :) God gave us this family and it is going to continue to grow, sometimes that comes with a little heartache, but it's what we raised them to do--we can't keep them home forever. However, just like when Caelan was little, and I connected with Mary "treasuring up all these things in her heart" that's my plan for future gatherings like this one. Treasures in my heart, fleeting in my brain, and hopefully well-recorded on the blog 💖