Year 4, December 25th, 2019: Christmas Day and the Son is Shining

It was a rough night. I didn't finish wrapping until 2am. And then I cried. And then I prayed. And then I went to bed. The End

His Mercies are NEW every morning. God heard my prayers. We had the calmest Christmas morning on the planet. I told the kids that we would say thank you to someone else for something they did or compliment them on something before we opened each and every gift. Even Abishai was quick to remember it. He played Santa today because he had picked out the wrapping paper for each person, so he knew what to look for for the most part. That helped a lot. And I think I use one width of each paper once. I'm very frugal with paper, the gifts weren't that big, and no, I didn't use that many gift bags. I was pretty happy about that. We reuse bows and bags, so we've had several of them for 10 or more years.  We sang Happy Birthday, Jesus, and read the "The Best/Worst Christmas Ever" book I read to Abishai last night because a) he reread it to himself this morning out of all the books (yes, he said a lot of the words!) and b) we sometimes tune out when we hear things like the Christmas story over and over and over. We opened a box with Baby Jesus inside and we put our adult Jesus on our Jesse tree indicating why he came and why we celebrate his birthday.

All the kids seemed happy with their gifts. Justin was probably slightly disappointed because he didn't get any Legos from us, but NOLA waits for us. Abishai is happily playing with his new toys not caring that they were used or missing a couple of things. Keturah has already built her Lego sets. Benaiah is playing on his computer and will go see Ava (or she'll sneak over here) at some point today. I put everything away, including all the gift bags and bows we used, and all the cardboard is ready for recycling when we get back. There won't be any room for it in the bins today or tomorrow. Jared is finishing up Gary's gift, and then he and Justin will finish wrapping it and Aaron's gift. I took way less pics and vids so I can get them posted here ASAP before we leave tomorrow. Laundry is ready to fold. Benaiah's work clothes are folded and ready for when he gets back. Time for a little lunch and to FaceTime Auggie, Stef, and John. Then I'll go pack for our trip. And maybe a nap? Definitely Episode 7 of Star Wars. I think we'll have time.

I think I'll list what everyone got under the pictures I did take. Keturah got a few extras because I had bought too much and I couldn't decide on which ones to give her. Oh well. The same happened for her stocking. Jared didn't get me anything, but that's ok, maybe, not really, but you know what I mean.  Here are some pictures and videos from this morning. Here's the link to today's videos:

J6 Christmas 2019

I'm super frugal on paper, so, when Abishai picked these out for Justin and Keturah, I'm betting that they are originally from when Episode 7 came out and the first Frozen movie. I was surprised that I still had the Frozen one.

Finally done! It wasn't that hard except I was trying to upload videos to the blog before I got kicked off for the night. It was a good thing I had taken the time to organize myself the night before. I ended up NOT wrapping the presents for the stockings to save on time and clean up.  Most of us got 3 gifts, but Abishai ended up with 4 because of doing his big gift in sections and Keturah got 5 because of a similar situation, plus I overbought and couldn't figure out which one NOT to give to her.

Ooo, Santa's been here and he went through the chimney! Check out the ash on the fireplace!

Handwriten note from Santa on a lovely scrap of paper.

Ah yes, what is it? Jesus of course!

Santa left a mess! We didn't have a fire like we did last year because it's way too warm outside. In fact, we nearly hit a record! It was 61 degrees F and the record is 64! Yikes! But did we spend any time outside? Nope, because we are lazy and had other things to do I guess.

I also had to clean up the room from all the wrapping and such. Phew!

Stockings are hung back up. I had so many little things that were too big or would get stuck on the strings (they are knitted) that I resorted to gift bags a couple of times. It would be easier to get new ones but these were Great Grandma Johnson's and they are the only stockings we've ever used....I was just being pretty impatient. I also forgot fruit. Oh well, we got up and going pretty fast the next day. And Socks didn't really improve my speed.

It's a good thing he's not fascinated by special treats hanging practically above his nose!

2:40 am. That's when I went to bed after a cool down and pouring out my heart to God about this rough month. I'm exhausted. I planned ok, but didn't execute or think things through enough. And it has to do with more than it being Benaiah's last official year at home.

It was Christmas 2 hrs and 40 minutes ago!

Ah, I had to backtrack a bit to find New Orleans, but Santa did deliver gifts there, too!

Keturah sharing her loot. I wish I had had more brain space to have the kids gather all their stuff in one place and take a picture. I'll try to remember that for next year. Anyway, Keturah got a special ramen noodle microwave cooker, a pink flamingo tape dispenser (so she quits stealing mine), some stickers, a paint by number coloring book, and the usual pile of candy.

We gave Abishai the Space Cats calendar which has pictures of cats in space with food partly because he liked counting on the advent calendars and partly because of he and Justin's "pickle chin" inside joke.  He also got candy and some of his Super Hero friends guys. He was super excited about them! Oh, and everyone got a multi colored pen in their stocking. I put one in Benaiah's stocking for Ava.

Justin got a Fortnite mini Nerf gun and "Peely" the Banana from Fortnite in his stocking with the candy and pen and CIY sticker (that goes with his shirt that I rebought when their original shirts got stained because of the pencil accident). He said "Peely" is his favorite thing he got for Christmas! Ok then, buddy! He also saw that they sewed part of the left leg on backwards. Whoops!

Abishai showed Daddy everything in his stocking and the dumped out Daddy's. Daddy got a little sand garden for his office (that I'm sure the kids will play with). It's like the one that was at Keturah's counselor's office.  Daddy got candy just so his stocking wouldn't feel so empty, but he redistributed to the rest of us of course.  I got a hairbrush and extra special candy. Since there are no other pictures of Jared, I got him a regular bucket for the ashes from the fireplace so it looks nicer on the fireplace than an orange Home Depot bucket. He also got a $50 gift card to Lowe's because he's going to spend that much there on any given trip anyway. And his last gift was a plastic thing called an onion keeper and one for garlic as well because we keep using way too many plastic baggies when you use only parts of them, and their smell gets stuck in the plastic tupperware and I don't want glass rolling around in the veggie drawer.

"Miah! Wake up! It's Christmas!" It's hard to sleep in on Christmas (especially after a busy day at work) but you have to get up early when you have little people in the house!

Let's go! Abishai couldn't contain his excitement! Benaiah got car fresheners and breathe fresheners for him and Ava as well as an incense burner, a mini sewing kit, a CIY sticker, and candy.

Santa really went up there?

Benaiah made it very difficult to get him out of the bed. This is why we can't have nice things.

It's amazing how much bigger Benaiah is than Jared.

Socks was like, "Leave my boy alone!"

The breakfast of champions when you are 17.

Abishai was the only one who tried a cupcake for Jesus and he only took a bite. I can't eat gluten, Jared doesn't eat sugar, Keturah gets sick on sugar, Benaiah doesn't eat breakfast and Justin was waiting for the leftovers, plus he had some cereal for breakfast. Abishai very excitedly want to wear the party hat because I think he saw other kids have it on last night at church.

Reading not the Christmas story from Luke 2 but from a little book about The Worst/Best Christmas Ever. Cutest little Christian Christmas book ever!

Now I regret not taking more pictures because I didn't get a single one of Justin. We went slow enough, I was just trying to be a good girl and take less! Anyway, Abishai was the gift giver because he knew which ones had the right wrapping paper on them for whom. And he was super excited about all his new guys! In fact, he played with them all day long! He would go eat, and then go right back to playing. He would go potty, and then right back. He even played with them during the Star Wars movie this evening and didn't ask for screen time! Cutie!

I bought this gift card trick box for Benaiah and he had it open in 30 seconds. Sigh. Oh well. I told him to put something else in it and give it to Ava and see if she could figure it out. Otherwise, I do want it back for future years. He got $50 for computer parts, $20 for gas, CIY shirt and Rubix cube race game that he said he's known about or played before.

Keturah got two Lego sets, one horse one and one with hamsters, a stamping pad and stamps, a new blue PS4 controller that she had spotted when she, Justin, Benaiah and I had made the Old Navy trip a while back, and a smaller horse set that wasn't Lego that was a horse washing station with a real rubber mat, grooming kit, bridle, saddle, and halter.

Let's go! Abishai also received 3 PJ Masks plushies, Owlet, Catboy, and Gecko, his big Batcave, and the Hotwheel police set he had picked out months ago. He's bringing some of everything to NOLA with us.

So many new friends to play with!

Rubiks game for Benaiah. Benaiah complimented Justin for having friends and becoming more social. I complimented Jared on bringing in the money for the family. Benaiah also complimented Keturah on her creative art skills. Justin complimented Benaiah on his work ethic.  And we all agreed that we love Abishai's enthusiasm for life.

Old doggy right in the middle.

Abishai's police station with some quick escape buttons!

Interesting blur in this one. Keturah was still sick and very subdued. But when she said her thankful words to someone, it was to me for doing all the things. Cool.

Socks got to open a little box of treats and of course Abishai had to give him one.

A big boy and his dog. Can you imagine how Benaiah was smaller than Socks at one point?

Give me attention! Oh, I gifted myself my Michael W. Smith tickets, my purse and Old Navy clothes, and the box my Monat shampoo and conditioner came in last week.

Abishai with his new toys. This batcave I guess is set in a style like the old TV show or something.  He played with it for hours and hours today, right up until bedtime!

That's a 14 yr old's long skinny foot. I've never seen such a skinny foot before! I think he's close to a 10 now.

Benaiah tricked Abishai to come over to him by saying that Ava was on Snapchat video. Benaiah, don't lie! But they had a great time wrestling. Check out Abishai's trip on the table!

Benaiah helped Keturah set up her new PS4 controller. That means we now have 4 controllers for our PS4 (and Benaiah has one for his) and their can be a 4 player Minecraft build! Cool!

We facetimed with Auntie Stefanie and Auggie today! They showed us all the cool Legos that Auggie got for Christmas. A special elf put them together in the days preceding Christmas because Auggie and Stef aren't very fast at it yet. They got some of the Nexo Knights sets.

Auntie Stef has this cool BB8 outfit she showed us, too!

I'll have to hit the "publish" button after this is gifted, but this was Jared's project. They are supposed to go on a pole to be a coat rack but Jared modified the project. He can still put them on a pole facing the right directions but they are too big and too many for coast. Or Gary can hang them on the wall. These are all special places to Gary, where his family lives or lived, where he has done mission work, past or present. Jared wood burned them by hand and then painted in the wood burned areas. He also did all the research.

Check this out! This is a drawing our niece Rosie did! She's only 7! She made it while waiting up to scare Santa , lol. Way to go, Rosie! She's very smart, too. Proud of her!

Can you drive 7.6 billion gifts in one night?! I don't think so!

Still playing strong!

Justin's main gifts were the original Fortnite Monopoly, the replacement CIY shirt, and a real robot building kit (it makes many different kinds, so you can it apart and rebuild it, but it's not a little kid toy either). The robot's face on the package reminds me of #9 from Short Circuit. We loved that trilogy growing up and I should show those to the kids sometime! They do swear a bit in those movies there, nothing like some movies do today though.  We're bringing the Monopoly with us to NOLA and will figure it out better there. We didn't have enough time today.

Yup, even Keturah took a turn with the Batcave.

When Abishai pulled Benaiah's hair, Benaiah sounded like the guy on the Polar Express movie with the beard that the other guy pulled so that the reindeer would move off the tacks.  Benaiah is LOUDER though!

Big and little.

Why can't I play? Because it's brand new and you need your weekly bath.

This one was plain coffee but good. Abishai kept asking me to use it every day but I told him not until Christmas. Well, today is Christmas!

Acting out  scene in the BB gun movie, aka A Christmas Story, where they go out for Chinese on Christmas because the turkey was eaten by the dogs. Can't wait to see our Johnson crew!

Nearly finished with our Star Wars marathon. Episode 7. Time for some BB8, Po, Finn, Rey, and Kylo Ren.

Got some work done, too, sort of.  I didn't want to miss a lot of the movie since I've only seen it a couple of times. but it helped for the rest of the evening.

Still very sick, but she got through it.

Not funny, but ok.

Still playing, still watching. Oh my word though, Abishai started balling when Han Solo is killed by Kylo Ren. He was sobbing! I remember being pretty taken aback at the movie theater when I saw it the first time, too. And now that we've been through 7 of the movies, there's actually a lot of deaths of older characters, especially the mentors.  I guess they all die at some point, but goodness. Thankfully, the scene quickly changes to some awesome x-wing fights so Abishai started making noises and laughing about all the pew pews. We finished the movie really, really late, so it's going to be a struggle to get everyone off to bed and then up again in the morning, earlier than they usually do.

The day was full and yes, I had to keep moving or everything wouldn't have gotten done. But I think we packed enough that the morning should be fairly easy. I still have a few things left to do tonight as I wrap this up. It was the calmest Christmas we've had in a long time. No major fights. Each when to their own corners of the house after opening gifts. We did sit down together for a meal of leftovers. We finished up the fresh veggies and decided on what could be frozen or what should be tossed or what should we take with us. Benaiah should have some easy meals in the next couple of weeks and not much went to waste. Now for one more small load of laundry tonight and dishwasher load in the morning. Benaiah even got to hang out with Ava's father's side of the family this evening and had a great time witnessing a drunk grandma who told him that he was cute and nice and Ava should keep him. Hilarious! He came home in a much better mood than when he left. He hadn't planned on going out but it was the only way to see Ava today. Don't worry, he got enough sleep because this was after his 3 hr nap this afternoon! I got to doze for a little bit, but then I got chilled so I had to have Abishai come snuggle me on the couch. It's my turn to be sick. It will be a fun car ride tomorrow. At least it won't as cold as last time! It will actually be about 60 degrees warmer than the last time we went to NOLA! Crazy! Maybe that's why we are so sick because the germs won't die! Lol.

 All in all, it was the best Christmas we've had in a while. Not yesterday. Yesterday was frustrating. Today was a lot better. See, crying about it does make you feel better because you don't feel like you have to keep it in anymore. It ran it's course. Maybe, probably not all the way, but it definitely helped. I'm hoping we can all sleep well in the van tomorrow. Lots of moving pieces, but it will work. Jared's back is much, much better, too, so that helps. I just need sleep and to do nothing much. Car rides are perfect for that. Christmas and vacations are exhausting.  I need a vacation from vacation!

The End