Merry Christmas!

After our COVID Thanksgiving, we headed into December recovered from COVID and ready to celebrate Christmas!

Getting the Christmas tree put up - Trevor got the top straightened out with a boost from Daddy.

Hanging the ornaments.

Finished and laden with fun and special ornaments!

Sarah helped me baked the sugar cookies.

Frosting going on, so the kids can go overboard with the sprinkles!

Licking the extra frosting from the bowls at the end might be their favorite part.

Think we made enough?

OK, the Christmas cookies are made. Now it is Christmas time!

Gingerbread cookies came next. These are Daddy's specialty, and he works with the kids on cutting out cute cookie shapes and icing them in fun ways!  Check out the pirates (w/ peg legs!), dinosaurs (pirate dinosaurs), Grumpy Bear's tummy symbol, ninjas, and other fun!

In honor of his stuffed friend Wiggles the Rat, Trevor started writing his own newspaper about the rat world, called "The Daily Rat".  It is quite creative, entertaining, and with fun illustrations and even advertisements!

Trevor has been really into drawing lately!  He likes to draw pirate ships and sharks and puts a lot of detail into his drawings!  I recently picked up some fun drawing books at the library for him and he has been drawing like crazy!

A Christmas gift came early for me!  I got my first COVID vaccine on December 23rd!

We maintained our Christmas Eve tradition of having Cheesecake Factory for dinner after Christmas Eve Mass.  This time, we did it pandemic style, with takeout!

Time to leave cookies for Santa and get to bed!

Christmas morning!

Austin's reaction to getting the card game "Butts in Space" in his stocking!

After unloading our stockings, we had french toast made by Daddy, got dressed and then opened gifts!

Nanny and Grandpa's reaction to their Christmas gift....I think they like it!

Austin asked for some books for Christmas and ended up getting a treasury of classic literature. Here are a few of his awesome new books!

Trevor was happily surprised with an art kit to use for all his drawings!

He is agape in this photo, though hard to see since he is looking down at his new treasure.

Combining his 2 recent interests (rodents and detectives), he was excited to receive the "Great Mouse Detective" book series.

Cribbage!

Trevor loves his rat racers, and he named them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, and Mo.

Sarah loves sloths!  She got a new bedding set including a new quilt, pillow sham, throw pillow, and reading pillow. 

Austin got the game "Pandemic".  Seemed appropriate for this year!

This awesome gift from Auntie Trish was a huge hit!

We didn't have our cousins to help us this year, but we still did a gingerbread house.

I taught Austin how to play Cribbage, a game I enjoyed playing with the Caseys as a kid.

The boys especially loved the Turing Tumble from Auntie Trish (and you can see the completed Lego pirate ship from Grandma and PopPop in the background). 

Trevor also got new bedding - a shark quilt, new sheets (pirate sheets and shark sheets), and new pillow cases.  He thinks it is funny when Mommy lays on his bed and the shark eats my head!

Working on Trevor's Detective Science Kit, with Trevor in his Sherlock Holmes costume and Sarah in her new sloth jammies!  Gotta love Christmas break!

This is Trevor's detective lab set up - microscope and slides, quill pen, detective invisible ink pen, top secret notebook, magnifying glass, art kit (and Lego pirate ship nearby, of course).

We headed into January hoping that by this time next year, things will look a little different in our world!

I got my 2nd dose of my COVID vaccination!  Thanks science!

Austin got his braces put on, and chose blue and gold rubber bands.

In January, the kids got to go back to their sports again too! They had been on hold for all of December and got to go back to practices early in January and start playing games again mid-January. Sarah got to get back in the dance studio after being on Zoom for a while. 

Next up is Sarah's birthday!