Countdown to Christimas Fun

 I like to try and take the last few days before Christmas to just do fun things around here. It rarely works out that way, but I do try. 

We started by making some dinner to go bags. Everyone grabbed a bag and we drove around looking at Christmas lights. Everyone may be smiling in the photo but truth be told.... Will was mad we weren't 'eating out' (his favorite past time) and Amy being a semi-moody teenager, wasn't thrilled about it either. But Lee, Tyler and myself enjoyed the trip.

 

 

The next day we had a Soda taste test. They had to drink it and guess the flavor. Making them taste things I know are going to be gross is one of my favorite things to do. I'm evil like that. There were a few doozies.

The flavors I made them try were: Cream Soda, Bacon (which they all got right away even though it was disgusting), Birthday Cake, Dirt, Root Beer, Cotton Candy, Cinnamon Red Hots and Green Apple.) They were able to guess most of them. I think Lee had the most right.... his answers were hilarious though. Unfortunately I probably can't post them. 

At this point, the kids had half a week of school left. But then they shut it down and went to distance learning for the last 3 days. That worked for the most part, but was stressful in other ways. One child in particular wasn't really "on board" with this whole process. But that's ok, we got through it. The "use pots and pans to make your own music" assignment from the music teacher was a particular favorite. (insert eye roll.)

On the 2nd day of at-home school, Tyler got sick. A few days later it was Amy, and then myself. We are still struggling through that. It's not COVID, but just a really bad cold. We are ready for it to be over. 

In the meantime, a friend send the cutest package. She's so creative. I took pictures so I could remember. This one was Chinese themed.

The 'magic' fortune cookies had $2 bills in them. It was so cute! And we've been playing the Sushi Go game almost daily.

Our history loving boy, Will, loved seeing the back of the $2 bill which is a picture of the guys signing the Declaration of Independence.

 

 

Speaking of history.... I should also mention that before the kids school was cancelled, they had a spirit week set up. One of the dress-up days was "Decade Day." Tyler wanted to dress in 80's clothing- which was great. (This kid loves a vest!) And Will.... well, he wanted to dress-up like a Revolutionary War hero. Yep, you read that right. His "decade" was around 1770. I was scrambling on how in the world to come up with THAT costume in December. I have to say, when we got the call that school was cancelled the first thing I said was "Thank you COVID." It certainly made my life a lot easier! But I do love that he loves history. Maybe next October I should start stocking up on costumes???

I can't remember why Lee was being silly. But it makes us all laugh when he is.

We had a family Christmas zoom call. It was fun to see most all of the family.

 

 

We went outside to look at the Christmas Star (aka Jupiter and Saturn) it was pretty cool. 

Our sweet neighbor Bob made these cool kaleidoscopes for the kids. And out of the prettiest wood! It was really special.

And we'll leave this post with photos of everyone sitting on sick mom. Two days down is about all they can handle. The dog licking Amy's face grosses me out but cracks me up at the same time.