the squibix family blog

I don't claim to know much, or anything, about celebrating Three Kings Day. But in looking up the date of Twelfth Night (because I can't count, apparently) I saw a picture of the type of King Cake they make in New Orleans and it certainly got my attention! There's supposed to be a little plastic baby inside, but since we don't have any of those I used a Pichu figurine instead (Pichu is a baby Pokemon, for those of you not in the know). But sadly, nobody got it in their piece this evening! Does it still count when you find the baby in the leftovers?

Besides the cake, we also celebrated the end of the Christmas season by taking down our tree. We didn't quite get it out the door by sundown, but it was pretty close, and any witches would have had a hard time getting settled as we bustled around putting away ornaments. Over the last couple weeks the rate of needle dropping really settled down, though moving the tree out of the house knocked off about half of the remaining needles. Luckily Elijah was doing strong work on sweeping patrol.

What's next, now that Christmas is over? Who knows. Besides a lot of leftover cake!

We got started early: the kids were up before five, and I think I joined them downstairs not long after 5:30. But Leah had some things to do so it wasn't until 7:00 that we got to open the stocking presents. Then we ate the Christmas grapefruits and some cereal to tide us over until brunch and walked the dogs, and only then were we ready to open all of the beautiful presents under our tree.

When that was done and cleaned up we headed to my parents' house for a brunch spread with all the usual delicacies. Then we opened the presents, which lasted just the right amount of time. Grandma and Grandpa probably got the most presents, actually, which is totally appropriate given the lovely hospitality they were showing us. There was never a moment when we needed to stop eating! Of course, that's not really Leah's thing, so she left after we a little bit of post-lunch caroling.

We did get outside for an hour or so, to take in a little fresh air and exercise to balance out all the eating and sitting, then it was back to sitting around the fire and talking and building Legos. And supper, of course! Then home to bed. All in all, a pretty good day!

Like with the tree it's a little sad to see them go—such lovely decorations, and mine was my best in years—but now we have some shelf space back. Plus people sitting in that spot are no longer tormented by the smell of delicious candy and gingerbread, which is fine. And now we get to enjoy it in a more direct fashion. Our dessert plans for the next week or so are set!

It's good they got an early night, because they woke up just a little past three in the morning raring to go. They didn't exactly get up at that hour, but there was definitely some excited whispering then, and again a little after four; then after five when Elijah woke up too it was a full-blown party in their room. After a bit of a later night wrapping the last few things and cleaning up I was a little grumpy at the morning's disrupted sleep and stayed in bed until close to six, but the crew downstairs was very patient and gracious as they waited out my mood. We did stocking presents before sunrise—lots of Rubiks Cubes and citrus fruits—and then had breakfast, giving the sun time to rise before we turned to the pile of presents under the tree.

Which while less numerous were no less well-received! We've been working on quilting in our school time so there were some quilted ornaments and accessories, and Harvey made an amazing sock-monkey octopus—socktopus!—for Elijah. Everybody who lost their water-bottle in 2021—Harvey, Elijah, and me—got a new one. The boys got new mittens and Zion got a snowsuit. I felt mature enough to buy Leah a piece of Art, but still cheap enough to frame it myself. And of course there were some lego sets, the making of which commenced immediately.

But only the little ones, because there wasn't time for anything big before we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's. The drive was slightly treacherous in the freezing rain, but no more than our front steps; once we'd made it down them the hardest part of the journey was over. Legos came with us for later building, and they were joined by more once we started to open Grandma's presents. But before that we had to have our favorite meal of the year, Christmas brunch! I was sad for there to be no smoked salmon—not enough salmon eaters without cousins, now that Harvey is a vegetarian—but with eggs, bagels, donuts, ham, potatoes, and fruit, I barely missed it.

The second round of presents—third?—passed by pleasantly and calmly, then the rest of the day relaxed into a haze of enjoying the fire, the food, and new toys. The boys built some lego sets and played the new game Harvey got for the Switch, then I roused myself enough to play a couple rounds of the new board game I got him. At some point we did some singing together and, in a big moment, all three boys took a solo verse on "We Three Kings". I'm glad, because it means I don't need to ever do it again. They always make fun of my falsetto anyways. Somewhere around mid-afternoon we had dinner and there were thoughts of making it all the way to another meal at suppertime, but we didn't really get there. The early wake-up started to tell and by 7:00 we were ready for our beds.

Of course, first we needed to navigate the icy streets and our icy stairs again, and then read a chapter of the book we set aside for Dickens. And brush our teeth well after a day of uncountable desserts! Yes, I think that, even toned down, Christmas can count itself celebrated.

The gingerbread houses were a little more challenging. I had a work meeting this morning, so I made the dough and started cutting and baking pieces; but then I took off until lunchtime, leaving Leah and the boys to finish up the baking part. Leah lifted many fingers cleaning up and getting ready for our friends to join us for the construction. Then there was also the trouble of eating too much candy during the decorating phase: Harvey, Zion, and I felt distinctly woozy with sugar overload. Self-control is hard, man!

But now we don't need self-control, because for the next month the houses are decoration rather than food, and nobody would even think of nibbling (except the dogs; we have to pick display locations with them in mind). They came out pretty good! Yes, it's starting to look distinctly seasonal around here. Now all we need to do is start thinking about some presents!

It was a delightful outing with our friends at the end of our school day together, and once again I have to say how much I appreciate living right around the corner from Chip-In Farm. So much so that I didn't even mind (too much) paying an inflated Covid shortage price for this year's tree, 30% over last year's. Where else does the owner call you by name and offer to get the tree on your car? I felt bad that it took him longer to tie it on that it was going to take us to drive home, but he said he didn't mind.

Besides the tree, we looked in at the animals, admired the new pony (who the littlest member of our group got to ride for a moment!), and enjoyed the general farminess. The kids got treats (the candy-cane fudge is only available in December!). We sat at the picnic table and loved life. And now we have a tree, and the news about shortages need bother us no more! (Although, now that I look back in the archives December 6 is only a couple days later than our average tree purchase date...)