As I turned Christmas music on and made sure every last thing was ready for everyone to come out (running in a line from youngest to oldest just like when I was kid), I could hear the little girls squealing and giggling in excitement. And then I heard Starling say, "Daisy, wouldn't it be sad if mom came in and made us read scriptures?"
Haha. Well! I didn't do anything so terrible as that! But I did, assuming everyone would know I was joking, come in and say, "You guys! Good news! You know how it was so special in The Grinch when they woke up and there were no presents, and they still came out and sang so happily? Well, we are going to get to do the same thing! Because there are no presents out there!"
I repented myself of my little joke very quickly however when I saw Starling's crestfallen face--all warring with sorrow and bravery and utter disappointment and uncertainty. Poor, dear little soul.
At one point I told Jesse that I felt a little badly that his presents were all so boring.
"Whaaattt???" he asked (flabbergasted).
Well. I'm relieved to know that he, for one, does not find calipers and files and stepper motors boring.
"Anything cool has a stepper motor in it," he told me.
(And Mike told him it was so hard to even find his gifts they were flying off the shelves so fast--since they were what every kid wanted for Christmas.)
And perhaps I didn't really think all his presents were boring. After all Mike gave Jesse this Lego Statler and Waldorf form The Muppets. (Jesse often heckles just like them, and it makes us laugh.)
When he opened them, Daisy said, appropriately, "That's sure somethin'! Something terrible! Oh ho ho!"
This is our third Christmas in The Rental. (Something we, almost none of us, believe.) And it's a bit wild how much things have changed since we came. The entire last full half of our children were in elementary school (or not in school at all--Starling) when we first celebrated Christmas here. It seemed most of our Christmas shopping was still, primarily, for toys. But this year both Summer and Mette seemed more interested in things like ... room decor!
Many of our toys have been in storage--waiting for the move into the new house before being brought back out. It didn't occur to me that, by the time we got into the house, their original owners might no longer be interested in playing with them! The lower shelf in our kitchen pantry at our old house was always reserved for blocks and Hot-Wheels and other shared family toys that the kids often wanted to pull out right in our main living area. Do I even need toys in the pantry anymore? Hans and Starling still love them, of course. But it's a little sad to feel like we've shifted away from that stage so much in just our short time here! I guess we will just have to wait for grandbabies to pull toys from the pantry shelf.
A sewing machine for Daisy. Discontinued Crayola crayons and a lava lamp for Penny. Stepper motors for Jesse (???). Minecraft Legos for Anders. Nightstands with pea-viner nobs for Summer and Mette. Needle-felting supplies for Mette as well as a hamster (all she wanted in the world). A Buddha Board for Summer. (Oh and Minky blankets. They were so excited. Starling got a Minky sleeping bag that she's slept in every night since.) Hans got a high-end remote-control Bronco. And Starling got a large cardboard house to set up and draw on. (I've given this gift before. I love it because it's lots of fun for little people, inexpensive, and ... something you can throw away in time.)
A very merry Christmas indeed.
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