Year 5, December 25th, 2020: It's A Go!

Well, that little swab test came up negative for the Covid-19 disease. It doesn't mean I don't have the virus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes it. I kind of wanted the test to come up positive so I didn't have to pack and leave. But, I got over that quickly. We get to go see the cousins! And Aunt and Uncle! And Grandma and Grandpa! We get to leave our state for the first time in a year! Ain't that crazy?! But true! I mean, I guess we really don't go very far in a normal year, but to be forced to stay home is way different than knowing you have the freedom to travel. So, yeah! It's go time! I got the text at 6am! That's less than 48 hrs, which is incredible! Way to go, Docs, for working on a holiday!

Back to packing up to leave tomorrow. Sigh. I told everyone that I wouldn't pack a lot of food but my art projects are food related, whoops. Jared is borrowing a tray (I don't think we'll need it) and taking out a seat in the van. We should have plenty of room. And now that I've pushed through that packing stuff, I'm much more ready to go. Just always have to take a deep breath and think what is next in that moment. The rest will come together as it does. And if I forget something, there's a Wal-Mart nearby. It's only 4 pm, but I'm going to see how much I can get done here. Dinner is easy: precooked duck, instant mashed potatoes and some time of veggies. Jared and the kids went to the grandparents house for lunch. I wasn't mentally prepared to leave the house today AND it was 12 degrees F today! Brrrr......but there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, woot! woot! I hadn't showered yet, I wanted to put the gifts away, and just chill, and not worry about having a conversation, rather light or intense. I wasn't expecting a negative result either. But our previous quarantine is now over so we are free to move about again. I still have a runny nose as well.

 Jared and I had a nice evening sitting in front of a fire while setting out the gifts. I did the stockings, of course. Then we wrapped Keturah's last big present. And it was the earliest bedtime we've ever had on Christmas! So we got much more sleep than we usually do. We gave Keturah and Abishai some melatonin so they would sleep in more and Abishai was awake around 6am. Keturah said she would wake up and go back to sleep. Surprisingly, Justin didn't sleep well. So, they are all allowed to get into their stockings without else. It gives them something to do. But, I wanted to make sure Abishai didn't get into the gifts that he insisted we hide for him, so I got up when I heard his pitter patter feet. I asked Keturah and Abishai if I could join them and they said yes. It was a good thing, too, because I was able to help Abishai with his Lego Nexo Knight set. Jared got up around 7 and Justin was closer to 8. We then had to wait for Benaiah to arrive a little bit after 9. Abishai's anticipation and excitement and frustration was mounting with each passing moment! His excitement was even more than I had anticipated and was so fun to watch! Check it all out on the video playlist! I ended up taking longer videos, so I know they won't load here. 

We had a great morning, no fighting, lots of patience, and everyone was supremely happy. That's what I love to see! Keturah was "Santa" and gave out gifts. We opened gifts from Aunt Stefanie and Benaiah, too. It's been a calm, normal day around here. We loved watching Abishai open up his 60 new Hot Wheels cars!!!!! And the older boys loved their Legos and Keturah loved her closet! Abishai's biggest gift, his new tablet, was a marvelous hit of course. I'm loving it! I know he's safe and downloading appropriate content. I can lock it out remotely. And then we all can use it to access the internet when we need to.  It's glorious!

But I'm tired. I'm still fighting a virus of some sort. And I can't get my stomach back in order. So, here I go, loading up photos from my phone and the DSLR and then getting all of those on the internet and on here. I will be "blogging" by typing out these main passages daily and manually adding photos to my computer. And then do the CD thing. So, who knows! I kept this post short because it's our Christmas at home and then we'll do Christmas with the rest of the Johnsons on Sunday. Until then!

J6 Christmas 2020 Playlist 

I didn't watch Santa as much this year, but, we got a couple of screenshots! Greenland!

Checked on the kids on my first round through about 9:30pm last night. That's not a filter, that's the rope lights on the green setting!

I thought she was going to help me hide gifts, but I'm glad she's asleep because then she can't guess her own!

Santa's been here! Aka, Justin drank the eggnog and the cookies and carrots got quickly dumped into the saran wrap and into the fridge.

Santa used fancy cursive to write back to Abishai and the family.

Tada! It doesn't feel like a lot because I did combine the gifts, and each gift was more expensive this year. I can't remember when was the last time I wrapped such a big box!

We had a fire last night and today! Yeah for a REAL fireplace!

Baby Jesus all ready to go!

Keturah and Socks' stockings. The stockings are a mishmash and came from Great Grandma and Grandma Johnson's.

The boys' stockings, all three of them. Abishai got an upgrade on his stocking thanks to Mrs. Ellen! He just had his smaller baby's 1st Christmas one. Sweet!

Mommy's and Daddy's stockings. Our wrapped gifts fit inside the stockings. Keturah did wake up right before I put these out. I had to wait a few minutes and be extra quiet. I also had to make sure her door was completely closed.

This will be the kids' breakfast. Gingerbread men without all the work! And cinnamon eggnog!

And we're done! This is the earliest we have ever been done with setting up Christmas morning! Now we can relax by the warm fire, read our book together, and go to bed early, wink, wink.

Santa's almost here!

There's the puppy, all snug in Justin's bed.

I went to check out what all the thumping was and found this little elf awake! He looks like he's posing for a newborn pic or something, right? It was actually Justin who was thumping so much. He couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep!

Or maybe the thumping was Santa because he had been here and had already gone through Illinois!

Time to sleep you two!

Thank goodness for melatonin! These two slept until 6am! Keturah said she woke up several times. Abishai got up first, and I actually heard him, so I stayed with these two to catch the action AND to make sure Abishai didn't open up anything. Well, he he didn't open things up, but within 10 minutes after going through his stocking, he had the rest of the lights on and all his presents gathered up!

Big gifts in their stockings this year.

Breyer horses, the NAME in horse collections!

Socks is like, "Guys, it's only 6am. Justin kept me awake last night. I need two more hours!"

We may live to forget giving little guy this much sugar. He got some Lego books with Lego in them.

His first Nexo Knight guy! They are knights with mech suits! The gun will shoot the tiny pieces with the turn of a wheel and a flick from another piece!  I had to put it together for him.

Good morning, Daddy! I didn't get my Christmas morning snuggle from Jared, but we had lots of cuddle time last night.

Woah! This one is huge, Mommy! You have to watch all the videos I took of him bouncing around gathering up all his gifts. You'll understand why so many a bit later.

And before I knew it, he was over at the tree and had his presents pulled out! Wait a minute, kid! That's not how it works! No one else is up yet!

His mound o' presents!

Socks' one and only gift. He doesn't need toys anymore, and he just got a new leash. Keturah was happy to be the one to write his name on it and give him his first piece of it.

Diving right in!

It's not even light outside yet! But it did get wicked cold and it snowed a bit last night! Perfect weather for a fire and for Christmas!

Christmas bacon!

The sun is up! And it did come out a lot today!

First hot chocolate bomb from a friend. I didn't warm up the milk enough. And it was my almond milk and I think it had gone bad. I couldn't finish it. That's ok, there's 8 more to go!

Wait a minute, that's not the dog's seat! That's Benaiah's seat!

Trying to wait patiently....."Is 'Miah here yet? When's 'Miah going to get here? 45 more minutes?! Ugh!"

Bacon

Jared's kind of breakfast he made for himself. Toast, fried egg, and bacon.

Cheese!

The dog got a round of armor plating.

There he is! 'Miah! Opening his stocking! Kind of weird not having him here to wake him up, but that's how it goes. He will be required to come home on Christmas morning every year until he gets married and then he and his wife can decide how they want to handle Christmas. Abishai will probably still be young, so I'm suspecting that we'll do the three kids and then Benaiah and whomever.

A knot tying game, macarons, drumsticks, candy.

Gifts from 'Miah! 6 of them!

What do they spell out? Vroom!!

Cars! I wonder how many he will get today?!

Auntie Stefanie got him the new Paw Patrol twins, Tuck and Ella! He immediately dug out the Paw Patrol control tower for them. He's not into Paw Patrol as much, but it's nice to keep up on the new stuff. They have buttons that make a badge on their fronts light up.

So, what car set is this one?! Oh, it's just the set he picked out months ago! Rocket League!

She got what she wanted! This awesome closet for her American girl dolls!

My boys! Oh my boys! They look SO different. They act SO different. Except that they are all nerds or geeks. I know it's a generational thing, but they actually do get into the video games and characters, love Legos, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, etc. We are a family of geeks and nerds. And that's ok!

Woah! What?! All those packages were cars, too?! For a grand total of almost 60 cars so far! 3 from Mrs. Ellen, 8 from his advent calendar, 31 from Dad, 10 from Mom, 6 from Benaiah!

What kind of positioning is this, Justin? Long legs and flap feet we call him.

58 cars so far this year! I say so far because we still have cousins and grandparents to get gifts from!

Nothing but Hot Wheels brand is allowed in the Ultimate Garage by Hot Wheels. But first you need to put down your new tablet!

Jared caught this morning's snowfall, too. We think alike!

Today's tweets.

Not sure if singing is the correct term, but I think he got the idea from his Sand County Almanac book.

Well, folks, it's offical. I don't have a Covid-19 infection/disease. I could still have the virus, SARS-CoV-2, though. The disease part, I guess, is when it really infects your lungs and causes a ton more havoc. But why did Benaiah and I have very similar symptoms but he tested positive and I didn't? Because there a false positives and false negatives out there! He took a very rapid test and I took the longest 2 day one. His tested his blood and mine was the nose swab. So, who knows. I'm still not 100% feeling well. But I'm much better, so away we go to Tennessee!

Oh no! Three families in our township were displaced by fire this morning. No injuries, praise the Lord. How awful!

It certainly was cold!

I got a pic of us in our new Christmas jammies! We have never done the whole "everybody gets new Christmas pjs" every year thing, but I was in the mood and found some cute ones for the three of us.

Keturah looks weird, but you can see her shirt better here. Maybe I had it on the wide angle lens so she's out of frame a bit.

Cutie!

So, it's 150 calories for the whole can, eh?! I wonder why?

Oh, because it's only 1/3 of the way full of actual meat and veggies. The rest was broth! So I got maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of actual food in the whole can. Sigh.

Some of the aftermath.He's not quite the collector who will keep all the packaging yet. I did snatch the Overwatch ones away from him because they were very expensive.

The start of Aaron's present. It's encased in cement this year.

One of Abishai's gifts was this Baby Yoda/Grogu blanket and pillow I found at Aldi's. It's so adorable! The Child is trying to get a metal ball that is just sitting there on the dashboard of the Razor Crest (that's the gimmie gimmie part) and then the curious part is him playing with buttons in the first couple of episodes. So adorable!

This guy was so enamored by his new tablet today! 3hrs! I can set all kinds of limits though. Like I can set it to where he has to do 30 minutes of educational apps before he plays his other games. That includes reading books or watching educational videos. He downloaded a ton of games on his own though! And the best part is that I've already set the requirements to only show him games in his age range! Super safe! There will be some questionable content from a Biblical worldview I'm sure. I'm fully expecting evolution to show up, as well as "two moms" or "two dads" or revisionist history. He had a blast with it today!

This is Socks from 7 years ago! See how much his coloration has changed! Obviously our rug and chair and my fat belly hasn't changed much.

This is the start of the very few DSLR pics I took. Normally I take a lot more but I was trying nto to and I was taking a ton of video and photos on my phone as well.  Opening up some.....

....some....

....hangars for doll clothes! Hm!?.......

Presents!

I didn't take photos of every opening and every gift. But it was a good year. Each kid got Legos. And other things on their lists.

More Overwatch Lego!

Benaiah found this book about airplane anatomy for Dad. And he gave us all Amazon gift cards.

Abishai also got the sleeping mask he asked for and some slippers to go with his new pillow and blanket. Where he actually wear the mask to bed? Nope. But he can run around and pretend to be Pikachu! And, I found out, it has a slit in the middle in the back, perfect for ice or gel pack! I might have to borrow it the next time I have issues with my eyes!

Lots of Friends Lego!

More cars!

Here comes the big one!

Squeals of delight, from me! I would have died if I had gotten something like this! I'm living through my daughter, I know, but hey, she'll grow out of this phase eventually, unless she's just like me and she'll keep collecting them!

Abishai's big gift of an Amazon Fire tablet! Reasonably priced. Tons of free downloads on a subscription service. Awesome replacement guarantee. Awesome cover. And way, way, way easy plug and play!

This is why I took it out the other night and made sure it was already logged into my account and into wifi. Away he goes!

This thing is huge! And gorgeous!!!!

Lego building has commenced after a few hours playing Fortnite with Bryce. Pretty easy build.

And it's done!

Time to add it to the collection! That Lego table is already filling up fast! He needs to put his bigger models back on the shelves I gave him. The table should be more his own mock ups. These sets take up way too much real estate.

 

And that's a wrap! I'll do the rest of the weekend in the next blog post since it will contain Christmas with the Johnson family. And then some vacation time on the following post(s). Woot! Woot! I'm done early because I started this afternoon!

Merry Christmas! It was a great year at home! No fighting with Benaiah. Everyone got what they wanted. A few surprises. Wrapped it all up days in advance. Went to bed early on Christmas Eve. Didn't leave the house in 10 days except for a Covid-19 test. I call that winning! We had a precooked roast duck for dinner, with mashed potatoes, and veggies. Simple. And the kids didn't pig out today. They were too busy with everything else. We've trained them well I suppose. But now I have to drag all of it to Tennessee so so we can share! See later!

The End