Christmas

 

Athena seems to believe in Santa again. It's no wonder though...we all talk about him as if he were real.
Athena decorated cookies for him and when she met him at the post office he told her his favorite cookie is chocolate chip. So, we had to have some (although they actually are chocolate M&M cookies) and carrots for the reindeer. Athena added a special touch with a peppermint candycane on the cup of milk.
She also sprinkled the reindeer attractor on the front lawn. It was oats and glitter that were put together at school. She was told to sprinkle it on her lawn christmas eve so the lights would reflect off the glitter and make sure Santa doesn't miss our house. I am sure if she were to hear someone say "Santa isn't real" he would think "Oh yeah ! I knew that." But caught up in the magic of the season she seems to have forgotten. And that's just fine. ;)

 Christmas Eve I made german pancakes while Athena and Sterling went to the base bakery to purchase donuts. When they came home we had our traditional breakfast feast. German pancakes, fresh strawberries, donuts and homemade cinnamon rolls! Sugar overload.

 

At 11am we did a video conference with the Roundys for a talent show. Each family took turns displaying talents. At my family's turn we shared a video we recorded the day prior...or us dressed in red and green colors singing Away In A Manger. 

In the talent show Athena then showed off a craft she had made that was a toy milkshake : colorful with a tiny straw sticking out and even two cute kitten toothpick decorations atop.
Tiberias showed off one of his Lego character creations. He named it Tom Roundy and it has powers.
Lachoneus showed off one of his perler bead Mario character amibos he creates.

When it was Austin and Abi's turn they sang (Austin played guitar) a beautiful rendition of Away in A Manger. It was gorgeous. They also introduced us to their new pup who then announced to us some exciting news. Abi held up a sign from their new pup and Jon volunteered to read it for us. It revealed that Abi is 12 weeks pregnant! Super exciting.

Jon and Emily's children are so creative. When it was their turn they showed us a stop motion Short they created with Legos. All their children performed piano pieces as well.

 

A little later on Christmas Eve Sterling and I revealed a surprise to our children. We opened the back the van and told them there was their surprise. An early Christmas gift. It didn't take long for them to see that the boxes were a trampoline!
Sterling and I set it up and it is big. It is nice! It seemed like the whole neighborhood was excited! Ethan,Brandon, Lumen, Kailen and Ethan Strickland from a few streets over were all in our yard waiting.

They took turns playing on it. What a wonderful surprise! 

We watched a Mandalorian episode together and then the kids opened their pajamas from grandparents Roundy.

At 6:30 a family from the ward came over for some festive fun. The Jenkins joined us this Christmas Eve. First we dressed up and acted out the nativity story. Tiffany read the scriptures as the actors played their parts. Athena was a sheep (of course, she was an animal!), Luke a wiseman and Ty a shepherd.

 

Then we went outside where Ster was starting a fire in the pit. The kids played on the trampoline and in the yard until the fire was ready for roasting marshmallows.
We talked and enjoyed the fire at night. We enjoyed smores as well. At 8pm the friends left.

The kids showered off the fire smell and put on their new Christmas pjs. We took a Christmas family pj picture in front of the tree and sent the kids to bed.

Christmas morning
It was almost 7am when Mom woke up and got out of bed. To my surprise everyone else was still in bed! We all got up and went downstairs. 

Everyone received a gift they wanted most of all! What a blessed Christmas we are having!
Luke received Mario Kart Live and Sterling received it's partner Luigi Mario Kart Live! Which is incredible. It is so fun to play the Switch while the toys actually race around your home. A camera on the toy puts your home into the game and adds game features that are not actually on your floor in real life. This is a game the whole family loves.

Tiberias received a Rip Stick. This is like a skateboard but SO much more difficult to master or even simply use in any way! It only has one wheel on each end...so balance is the key. Ster was skeptical about purchasing this item because it is so difficult. But Tiberias claims he has used this before a few times and has the beginners grasp. Luckily, he was right. Christmas morning he was impressing me with his beginners skills. I tried it and I can't do it!

Athena received the Hamster house with three hamster pets and a car! She loooves it. She loves everything she received though! Her books! Her Dr. cart with tools. And her gifts from Lumen.

Tiberias was super excited to receive $20 among his gifts. That brought his savings up to $76. A new record for him. Both my boys have become so good at saving their money!

Our family gifts are an M&M machine and a Skeeball game. Super fun!

Dad surprised mom again with a gift: the stainglass Disney puzzle she has wanted almost all year! It was hard to find because so many people were doing puzzles this year...during this pandemic. It was too pricey online and the stores locally with the best prices on puzzles were remaining out of stock.
We did not realize, however, that this puzzle is made of plastic and is made so light can shine through it. Which means they also sell frames that light up these puzzles. So, we will have to spend more money to get one of those. 

He also gave me a special beauty mirror so I can see my face better and wherever I want. Meaning, I don't have to take up the bathroom space to get ready ever again. When we both need the small bathroom we share I can do my stuff in another room. haha
And lastly for Christmas I get a professional standing mixer that will come later in the mail. I am spoiled this year.

Sterling got himself some gifts as well (because he is best person to choose gifts to get for him):

An electronics work center. That includes a rubber mat that has organization built in.  A soldering iron, a oscilloscope, a 1980s stereo microscope.

One gift for the family that has not yet arrived is from my brother Isaiah. A toy claw machine. The kids have wanted one and when we saw a used and broken one at the Airman's Attic it made Mom want a family claw machine as well.  So thank you Isaiah. It will be fun for the kids to get another gift when it does arrive.

It was probably 9am when Brandon and Lumen came over to show off their presents. We let them come into the house and they joined our fun. 

It is fun to stay connected with family through Marco Polo. I enjoyed watching Marco Polos of different Christmas time activities and the groups that were able to join together for Christmas. I also enjoyed the Facebook photos of friends and family dressing up, matching pjs, fun activities, in front of Christmas trees, etc.

Ashikaga Flower Park

 Friday as the children ended the school day they began their Winter Break. They were all excited for the break from school. Staying up a little late every night, sleeping in a little bit every morning. Playing with friends all day. Very little school work and holidays to celebrate.

Sunday the Christmas festivities began. Athena helped me make some holiday treats to give away. The children helped me hide some holiday themed rocks for rock hunters to find. Rock hunting almost died off a while but a few people still do it. It died off because too many people were keeping the great rocks and not replacing them. The only rocks still in circulation seemed to be the scribbled ones made by toddlers. And I am too busy to spend all of my time replenishing the nicely painted rocks.

 But a new member to the base discovered the Rock Hunting and was excited about it so I decided to make time for a holiday tribute.

 

In the evening we bundled up and walked some plates of goodies around to give to friends. We enjoyed seeing the festive lights on people's houses and in their yards as we walked. 

Before bed we watched some home movies from when Athena was a baby. So many things mommy had forgotten...like how Athena learned how to climb out of her high chair and would sit on the tray and refuse to sit in the seat itself. How she could climb onto and into everything even if you wondered how it was possible. How she would climb up onto the fireplace and into the rabbit cage if we had the rabbits out of it for any reason.
We discovered that Tiberias was so cute even when he was mad and difficult back then. I had recorded it on video to show him his actions because he saw things differently than they actually were and he did not believe his parents. So I would record it to play back for him.. He hated that though. And now that we watch it...it's so funny and cute. But back then it was frustrating.
Watching all of these home videos made the kids excited to have new home videos recorded of themselves.

I made a calendar schedule for the week of Christmas so spread out the fun and make sure the children at our house watch Christmas movies I want them to experience. Sunday the movie was The Nutcracker (the newer one).

Monday the kids played outside with friends all day. The day prior they had pretty much done the same thing. But Monday evening Sterling and I had a trip planned. A treat for the family.

I had seen amazing photos from a member of my PTO board where she had taken her family to an amazing lights park. It was the closest good light up park to us but it was almost 2 hours away. Winter Illumination at Ashikaga Flower Park.

I packed gloves, hats, coats, waters and snacks. We watched Frozen 2 on the drive up there. We stopped at McDonald's ten minutes out from our destination. We had tried McDonald's in Japan before. The food at that location was very Japanese. The patties were spongey and bazar with sauce that I didn't recognize. The fries and nuggets were "normal" though. Overall I did not like the food experience.

Athena has wished to go to McDonald's ever since and I always say "no." But, we gave it another try. The kids loooved being able to experience McDonald's again. And there wasn't even a play place...but they didn't care. They didn't even seem to notice.
The food we ordered was American! The patties were normal hamburger patties! I was so happy.
Ster ordered a small salad in his meal and it came with a Japanese tasting dressing. And we tried to ask for ketchup but received a different sauce in a red container. haha

We then went to the park, found a parking place near the front entrance even though it was a busy place. Yay! We bought our tickets and walked inside. Wear your mask and sanitize your hands.

The park was pretty big. It was gorgeous! There was a hill covered in lights and down below, where we were, flower gardens made of lights. Trees and structures, paths and benches, castles, walls, gazebos, boat, train and carriage. So many things decorated in lights! We felt blessed not to have to wait in long lines until...the castle. Athena wanted so much to go up onto the castle and have her picture taken. But there was a line. A half an hour wait. I tried to convince her she didn't want to stand and wait half an hour but she really wanted to. I convinced Sterling to deal with it and the boys had no choice. 

 

 The castle was beautiful and white. When we finally got to the castle it turned out Athena was too short. Sterling was down below to take our picture but he couldn't see Athena. I lifted her up but it was not easy. She's almost 7! We did our best. And when we went down from the castle it was easy to get a great shot of us in front of the castle, which looked much better than up on the castle. But Athena, didn't care. She wanted to the experience and the photo from up there. She doesn't know yet what it looks like:

 

 

Under the castle was a room of flowery walls and mirrors. It was a fun little room.

 

Sterling used a real camera to get all of our amazing photos. I used my phone and got poor quality videos. It was cold but we had fun anyway. We loved the light reflections in the water. Athena absolutely loved getting on her hands and knees to search for little fish in the water. And they were there.

 

When we left the park we were ready to warm up in the car and watch a movie. We had an amazing family time and nothing had gone wrong.
We watched most of the movie Home Alone after we made a quick stop for snacks at a corner 7eleven.
It was almost 10pm when we arrived home. We all slept well that night.

Tuesday at 1pm Santa Clause came through our neighborhood on a firetruck! And riding behind the truck was a PTO Christmas car tossing out toys and treats for the children. Who was in the front seat ? Tiffany.
Being PTO President here is how this event came about: A parent asked on Facebook if we could put together a Santa and Firetruck event. Because of social distancing and germ prevention we could not do a photo opp event in one location and have a huge group gather. I assigned one of my PTO board members to this task. She got the fire department (military) on board and they were happy to do it. Then we decided to use the leftover oriental trading co toys that we sold in our online holiday shop fundraiser, and some candies, to make this event more fun. We made festive signs to hang on the little car we drove in. Jessica, who was in charge of this event, drove her car with a Christmas tree atop. She blared festive music and brought her two oldest children to toss the candy. All in the car wore masks and the children tossing the candy wore gloves.

Santa stood on the firetruck and one of the firefighter's daughter (age 5) sat in the truck waving at everyone as well. It was super cute.
The children in our neighborhood had a great time. They loved seeing the firetruck then Santa on the firetruck (whom was played by my vice president's husband who was so happy to be Santa).
Then after they couldn't see Santa any longer they would notice our car and we would throw prizes to them and wave. That was a lot of fun.

 

Later that afternoon our family had Christmas games. We played bounce the mini tree bulbs on the table to try and land them in a big bowl game. That was a practicing and learning game. We played until everyone successfully made it into the bowl (without bouncing back out).

We played the suran wrap ball game. Where I wrapped prizes and treats inside a suran wrap ball I made. One person who unwrap the ball trying to get the prizes while the next in line rolls the dice trying to get a seven. As soon as a seven was rolled the person with the ball had to stop unwrapping and pass it on. We all played until the ball was unraveled then we traded prizes with each other.

 

After dinner the children watched Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Christmas. We don't own it but it is on Disney Plus!
As we finished the movie we did some Christmas crafts. I pulled out leftovers crafts from last year (paper gingerbread people, Christmas cards and Christmas trees). As well as some plastic fish bowls and stones, jewels an foam dough for making fish.

Wednesday Sterling went to the BX and the post office in the morning. When he came home he had a surprise. He told me his secret. "I need your car and you need to go with me to the BX. I bought something large!" It was a trampoline!

This is huge! Why? #1 Ster has always been against trampolines. He thinks they are not safe.
#2 when we gets trampolines in stock at the store on base they sell out within 2 hours and they don't restock for maybe 6 months. So, you have to be in the right place at the right time to be able to get one here. They don't seem to sell them off base here in Japan.
I had given up on us getting one here because of the previous stated reasons.
But, Sterling wanted to spoil his family and he was there at the right place at the right time! I was so excited! Since it is Christmas Eve EVE we decided to wait one day before telling the kids and setting it up. It's suppose to be a nice warm day tomorrow so we can set up the trampoline.
The kids are going to flip out! They only have one friend with a trampoline that allows our kids to play with them on it...and that trampoline is no longer safe. It has no net and it breaking. It's so old and warn! Now, we will have a brand new trampoline! I can't believe it!!

For festivities on Christmas Eve EVE we played UNO as a family. We had Christmas storytime.The kids watched Home Alone 2 for the first time ever.