Christmas Day

Last night as I said goodnight to the kids I reminded them of our Christmas rules which are: No going downstairs after you get in bed Christmas Eve, Wait upstairs until everyone is awake and together before going down to see presents, Mom goes downstairs first to video tape the kids coming down on Christmas morning.

Christmas morning Sterling and I got up at 6:30am. We usually get up at that time, before the kids, on Christmas morning each year. We are just as excited as the children.

The kids loved Christmas morning! It was full of joy and family time.
They ate stocking candy for breakfast. Grandma Roundy had sent some Kinder eggs and other chocolate that Santa Clause put in the stockings. And homemade fudge for Sterling. He shared with the family but mostly it was for him.

 The kiddos opened "cousin gifts" (from cousins) during video calls to the cousins who sent us the gifts.

In the end Tiberias had the most gifts. We tried to have a small Christmas but ended up giving Tiberias more gifts than planned. He just loves so many different things now. Usually our kids are simple. But Tiberias is now into Legoes, Koopalings, blue things, Spiderman and High School Musical.

Athena received less than Tiberias but...her birthday is in a few weeks and I've already spent money on it. She is going to have a Phineas and Ferb themed party at the Playroom. Luckily the Playroom is free and really close to our house.
I will decorate it a little and the kids will play with the toys there as the party games. We will have ice cream sundaes instead of cake ( a LOT less work for me and it's her birthday wish). And we will open gifts there too.
I bought her a kitty themed dress that she will receive and wear to her party.

Luke received the least gifts for Christmas. He found $20 in his stocking. And in a few months he should reach his goal of saving $200. Then Sterling and I are going to pitch in the rest of the money to get Luke his dream console...the Nintendo Switch (as well as some games and controllers). We will probably spend about $300 more than Luke's contribution! So, he gets a small Christmas.

Grandma Roundy sent $100 for our family gift as she does every year. Usually we do some fun family activities and maybe buy a family game. But this year, with our kids practicing saving money, we decided to divide up the money equally. Luke received $20 from Grandma as well as the $20 he found in his stocking.
Note, Luke only earns $2 a week as allowance. $3 if he does any yard work that week. There are extra chores he may do to earn extra money. So, it has taken Luke a while to earn the $165 has is up to today. But being so close I think he will work on earning extra money the next few months.

 Tiberias received a Lego set from his cousin Spencer. A slinky. A Lego set from Santa. A punching bear to share with his siblings and friends. Spiderman PJs and a Spiderman tv show. A Spiderman button/badge/pin (whatever you want to call it) which Luke made for him in Maker's Club after school. As well as Spiderman medal/necklace Luke made for him in Maker's Club using a metal Spiderman computer decor and string.
Tiberias received an entire collection of Koopalings so he can play pretend with them with his friends and by himself. Maybe even make some videos about them like he saw on Youtube.

 Luke and Ty received a Snoopy snow cone maker from Athena. Then she opened a gift from her friend Luke (whom she wants as her boyfriend but I wont allow it) and found she was given a snow cone maker of her own. Now we have two!
I ordered some different syrup flavors for the snow cones.
After opening the snow cones maker gifts and finding out how hard it is to actually make a small amount of snow cone from it...Sterling pointed out to me that my Vitamix will easily make plenty of snow cone ice.  The Snoopy ones are cute! But are they worth the hassle?

Luke also received a Mario Amiibo, a Minecraft Wii game, a slinky, a Statue of Liberty Lego character, more Amiibos and a Mickey Mouse that walks.

 Athena asked Santa for a giant caterpillar she could ride on. She had her wish granted...multiple wishes actually. She also asked for a Crate Creature which she has wanted all year and a Ryan's Toy Review train conductor costume (which I bought on extreme clearance after Halloween).
Her conductor costume comes with a train sound button.
In her stocking she received two little Pet Shop toys and a Japanese woman Lego character.
Her brothers bought her a mini grey cat plushie and a ball that changes color when you toss it in the air.
She got a Mickey Mouse that walks...from Stewart and Hannah.
She received Secret Life of Pets jps. And Anya gave her a leopard pillow pet.

 Mom and Dad gifts:

I feel spoiled this Christmas. I decorated my bedroom medieval castle themed. I bought two beautiful nightgowns to sleep in, making me feel like a princess. And I bought two matching leather purses that are not only gorgeous but very useful. My previous purse was a small owl that couldn't zip up when I put my phone inside. I needed an upgrade!
And last but not least my pearls. Sterling bought me some real pearls because he wanted to show his love. He had me pick them out to be sure I thought they were beautiful. And they are!!

The kids received a shared gift from Santa. To all three of them...a tree swing for our yard! We have such a great tree for it! Now the kids can have more fun with friends close to our home instead of going all the way to the park.

Athena was driving her caterpillar around as if it was her train. It was cute.

Stewart and Hannah bought us these Disney robots that walk. So fun!

Things that didn't arrive in time for Christmas day : Tiberias' blue hair dye he has wished for these last 5 months, Luke's two pairs of pjs, a slinky for Athena she did ask for.

For lunch we ate our Thanksgiving meal. Sterling missed out on turkey and we didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year. So we planned it for Christmas day.
Sterling made a big turkey, creamy garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, freezer bread rolls and corn. Mmmmm.
For dinner that evening we ate homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream (which is easy and fast in our Vitamix blender).

We let the kids play with their friends after lunch. It was a calm and happy Christmas day.
We video chatted with some of Sterling's family. And we watched the nativity videos Simone made on Marco Polo at Grandma Roundy's house with many of Ster's siblings and their spouses and children. Grandpa Roundy reading the story from the scriptures as he does each year. And certain members dressing and playing the roles for the story.

And my family Marco Polod a lot too. David and his family are vacationing in Colorado to spend Christmas in the snow and on the slopes. Hot Spring swimming and learning to skii. With all of their children together! Sadly, Tereasa hurt her knee and can't skii any more.

Corinna's family opened their gifts on Christmas Eve night so they can drive up to spend Christmas day in the snow. They are going to spend two nights and one day in the mountains to play in the snow and enjoy a real Christmas.

Christmas Eve

The Sunday before Christmas I baked beautiful holiday themed cookies of different kinds. I delivered three plates on Monday. One to the Kartchners who were happily decorating gingerbread houses.
One to the Skateblunds who were not home so I left it on the doorstep. Sister Skabelund had brought me cookies when I was sick in bed a little bit ago.
And third to the Andersons who live down the street and are pretty new to the ward. Their kids were so happy to see my kids and I there to wish them a merry Christmas and leave treats.

Christmas Eve's eve Sterling and I let friends sleep over. Brandon and Lumen stayed at our house for a sleepover. Brandon slept in Ty's bed and Lumen slept on Athena's bedroom floor. Typically we would make our child take the floor and give the bed to the friend...but Athena's bed it so high up. Taller than a normal bunk bed. I didn't want to worry about Lumen falling off the ladder if she had to use the restroom in the middle of the night.

We let the kids play with friends until 10am. Then it was time to tidy up and get ready for brunch.
Athena fell off a chair and made a big bump on her forehead. It really hurt! I told her that she needed to be more careful because I was not ready to take her to the hospital on Christmas Eve!

For Christmas Eve brunch we had two families join us; The Parks from our ward and the Anderla's from next door.
I made homemade cinnamon rolls. Sterling made turkey bacon and eggs. I also provided min doughnuts at Tiberias' request.
The Anderla's brought homemade cakes: a raspberry streussel that was amazing and a coffee cake.
The Parks brought homemade eggnog. Aaron Parks' specialty. It was the first time Ster or I had tried homemade eggnog! It was good!

We only had room at our table for the adults. So I spread out  table cloth on the livingroom floor to act as a picnic blanket. We left the food in the kitchen and dished up buffet style. It was awesome!

We had a great time hanging out and eating delicious foods with friends!

After that I cleaned up a bit then sent the kids outside to play. Sterling and I rested in bed before taking the kids to play tennis. I let Luke stay home because he was getting sick again. But we took Brandon and Lumen with us.
Sterling and I played against each other. Brandon and Lumen and Ty played each other. And Athena listened to music on my phone while plying with toys she had brought.

It was a little colder than I had hoped outside. And Sterling was stiff from all the walking and running he's been doing lately. He couldn't run to catch the tennis ball very much.

Then we had our nativity to act out. I had this idea of encouraging all the Roundy's to make nativity videos to share...even if they combined families who live near each other. I thought it could be fun and connect us as a family.
So I pulled out all my scripture time outfits I made one year. And we dressed up. We made a video and it was great! We had fun. We were ready to be done. Sadly, the sound did not work!! It was a great video with no sound!
As we were getting ready to redo the video Athena fell again! She hit her forehead again and hurt her arm! I was mad! lol. I told her to be more careful! She usually does daredevil stuff and doesn't get hurt.

She was sad and hurting when we recorded the second video and I kept saying "angels" when I meant to say "shepherds". But that's the one we and to use.

Right after that we let the kids open Christmas Eve pajamas...from Grandma Roundy. I made celery soup. A healthy and light dinner after such a lunch!

The Kartchner family dropped by to play us a song with bells! It was so great! Sadly, all of my family was upstairs and they didn't come down! I enjoyed it though. The Kartchners are awesome!

Bad Luck December and Boys' Quilts

Monday...a few days after returning to Yokota, I fell ill. I caught some nasty germs that made me practically bedridden and voiceless for the whole week.
I would have been bedridden if it were allowed but...I am the only parent here currently to get the kids to school and get them home again, do the shopping and pick up the packages from the post office.

It was miserable. Utter weakness, headaches, a deep chest cough and a sore throat.

Friday I started to feel a little better. Atleast enough to do a shift at the Food Pantry, help decorate the Relief Society room a little for the ward party and take my kids and their friends Brandon and Lumin to the school for the Winter Extravaganza party. They had a great time.

Saturday I should have stayed in bed. But I had responsibilities at the church. It was our ward Christmas party combined with a Japanese ward. And I was in charge of leading the activity day boys in the craft room. The boys, as a service project, were heading up the craft tables in the primary room during the party. I had bought and prepped all the Christmas crafts ahead of time.

Sadly, only four families of activity day boys showed up at the party. A lot of the ward members apparently couldn't make it to the party.

There was the craft room, selfies with Santa and a breakfast at this party. I had been asked previously to be the official photographer but...with Sterling being gone and knowing I would need to watch my children during the party I had to turn them down. So they decided they would let people take their own pictures using their phones. I was truly grateful I wasn't the photographer because I ended up being super sick. And because I had to head up my activity day boys.

Wood ornament coloring:

 Reindeer Christmas cards:

 Gingerbread kid decorating:

 Candy Santa's sleigh craft:

 Create your own Christmas cards:

 Lachoneus manning the hot glue gun while eating a candy cane:

 I am excited that my hair has grown out enough to put it in tiny ponytails:

I wanted to take my kids to another fun Christmas event happening on base later that day but...I was sick in bed the rest of the day.

Sunday I made myself go to church so I could teach my primary class. When we arrived at the church I was reminded something I had not thought about since the last Sunday (due to being sick)...the choir was performing all 3 of our Christmas songs today!!! I had not been able to practice or even think about the songs! And they were pretty difficult songs!
But, I did my best. My voice was coming back to me but it wasn't normal or loud yet. I just stood on the end, as far away from the microphone as I could.

After church I went back to bed. Later that afternoon (after 6 days of being miserably sick) I finally started to feel better. I started to have some normal energy and the gross taste in my mouth finally started to disappear. The taste I desperately tried getting rid of all week by scrubbing with toothpaste, rinsing with mouthwash, shewing gum and eating strong tasting foods. None of which actually helped.

December has not been my month so far! And it's half over.


While Sterling is gone I had hoped to fully enjoy all the "me" time I was going to get. I had intended to get some extra cleaning done around the house. And I had expected to enjoy it all so much that I start to truly miss having Sterling around.
Instead I ended up spending two of those weeks with Sterling, though one week was miserable. And another week terribly ill and allowing my house to fall into such a mess!
The "me" time has been me in bed feeling terrible and not missing Sterling at all...because when I am sick I want him to leave me alone. (haha)

I have ignored my kids quite a bit this week as I have laid in bed unable to take care of them. And now that I am starting to get better Sterling will be home soon. 4 more days!
By the time I recover my health and recover the house Sterling will be home! It was a wasted month. But oh well. Sometimes life goes like that.

Tomorrow morning Athena's kindergarten class sing their first Christmas performance at the school. Athena is excited to have me there and I am excited to see it. I had to cancel my dental appointment so I can attend! Of course, with my luck lately, after waiting a month to get my teeth cleaned I find the school has set Athena's performance to the same day and exact same time as my dental appointment.

Despite being sick, in the time I felt like I had enough energy to do so, I worked on my boys' quilts a little bit. I finished them even!
I wanted to keep it a secret , the fact that they were done, and give them to the boys on Christmas eve. But, Luke was too excited. He kept asking me about the progress. So, I gave in and gave the quilts to the boys tonight.