Jay and Julie: The Girls' First Christmas at Home!

While I titled it as the girls' Christmas, I want to start out by saying that 5 years old is a great great time to celebrate Christmas. Theo was so excited for it all.

Jay, Wendy, Theo, Miri
All dressed up, including the super cute sock/shoe things the girls wore. Thanks, Gabi!

We were so grateful for everyone helping to make Christmas so nice for us. We love our families so much and are sad that we couldn't have giant parties (or any parties) or go to Utah to visit family there.

Unwrapping Gifts

Theo would unwrap a gift and then go play with it for awhile before unwrapping another. We still had gifts under the tree the next morning. In fact, I sent a video to Gabi of the girls appreciating the elephant that sang, "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" and it was another day before we found a second elephant that also danced and sang. They love them as well as the toy dog that happily barks when you pet it and it wags its tail. She also got them a unicorn that plays lullabies and projects stars on the ceiling. They like that one so much too.

My mom made Theo a toy stuffed animal snake that he ran around with and really liked.

He also got a game called Tapple from my parents. You take turns naming things from a category and have to push down the letter the thing starts with. Right after the topic "fruit," Theo was told to name an animal. He shouted, "Banana!!!" and pushed down the letter "h."

We all laughed a lot. He later said that he had meant to yell "hippo," but was thinking about the last topic.

Seeing People at the Door

People we visited with through the door, which Jay hung plastic sheeting from and taped it really well:

Lisa and Kaiaina

My parents

Grandma (Great Grandma to my kids)

Steve's family

Video Call with Jay's Family

We also had a Zoom video call with Jay's side of the family on Christmas. His sister, Natalie, arranged for it while we opened the Yum boxes she sent everyone. They have snacks and treats from around the world. I believe the egg flavored popcorn was from Korea. I was the only one who liked it, so more for me. It helped that I was very hungry. Theo said his favorite were the chewy candies that tasted like gum. They were actually margarita flavored. Ha ha. My favorite was the chocolate truffles, which were no longer round like we saw the ones in UT were. It may be December, but they still melted in Tucson. They were still excellent. And it was great to see everyone.

Video Call with My Extended Family

On Boxing day (and not Christmas Eve) we had a short Zoom party with my extended family. I wanted to show off the girls, but they were losing their minds and needed a nap, so I put them to sleep. We enjoyed pretty performances and played some games. Clara did gymnastics for us and Stacy taught us how to draw a snowman, I think. Theo and I watched while we put together a giant space puzzle that Great Grandma gave to him. It was good to see everyone. We miss the normal Christmas Eve party, but we of course wanted to keep everyone safe, especially wheezy Wendy.

I Need to Know What Happens in the Next Book!

Weeks before Christmas we had been reading a novel on my phone called, Minecraft: The Island. Theo really was enjoying it, despite it being pretty advanced reading. It didn't have any pictures, but I was reading it aloud. Near the end I realized that the plot was not tying up. It must be the first book in a series. I looked it up and the next book was not coming out until March 2.

This is the first time Theo has had to wait with agony for the next novel in a series. He kept asking me, "How many days until March second?" I kept thinking that he would ask how many days until Christmas, but nope, it was the next novel that he wanted.

My in-laws got me a label maker and Theo came in from the other room and announced that he figured out how to work it and had to give me something. He's pretty sweet.

Right before Daddy realized Miri was going to grab his face.

Jay, Miri, Wendy

Wendy, Miri, Theo, Julie

Miri, Julie, Theo

Miri likes snuggling with Mommy

Wendy reading to herself

Christmas tree cake

They did this themselves. I heard them giggling and giggling and they were rocking back and forth.

They have matching llama onesies and they are so cute. Thanks, Mom and Dad for those

Tache sent tortilla blankets that are so fun and soft. Theo believes they all belong to him

Wendy using a blanket as wings or a cape or something

Miri with the tongue pose

Wendy emptied out the toy basket so she could sit in it like a kitty

Theo used Duplo and Play Doh to make Numberblocks.
I like how Numberblock 1 is made from 2 bricks so that he looks more square like Numberblocks are supposed to look. He's very creative and likes things to look just so.

Wendy, Theo, Miri

Miri is great at posing

Tortilla time. I think that's Miri and then Wendy is under the blanket

Wendy is in the foreground opening presents but Miri is behind helping too

Theo and Jay like a show called Gravity Falls and one day I found Theo trying to search something on YouTube.
He had written "How to make the jo" and youtube was trying to fill in "joker on GTA"
I asked him what he was doing and he finally told me that he wanted to find out how to make the journals from Gravity Falls, but was having trouble spelling "journal."
I helped him spell, and then Jay helped him make a really cool journal that weekend.
Did I mention that Jay has taken up book binding and it's so cool? And it's useful when your kid wants to make books.

This is the cover of the journal.
Santa brought Theo invisible ink and a black light so he could write secret messages in the journal. Santa left it on his bed and Theo woke up, saw it, and spent 40 minutes looking through the pages for the secret message, even before coming out of his room to do any other presents. Theo is focused, like Uncle Andy.

A Roman Numerals Board!
Early December, Theo asked me what "Sunday part II" meant in a book he was reading, so I explained what Roman numerals were and grabbed a white board marker and wrote I through X for him.
He was hooked. By the end of that day he had gotten a chair to stand on so he could write Roman numerals all over all of our sliding glass doors. He watched YouTube videos explaining them.
He explained after watching one that V represents 5 because it's the top half of the X, which means 10 and half of 10 is 5.
He tells me he wants to count all the way to 1,000 in Roman numerals (which is written M, if you're wondering. I had to look this up to help him).
I thought Tache would appreciate hearing about Theo's new obsession, and Tache was and bought him this board for Christmas.

We bought the girls some harness leashes for Christmas. Our walks with them outside haven't gone as well as planned, but we hope they get better. They walk so well in doors, we thought they'd do well outside, but they are more interested in trying to eat rocks all the time instead.