Well, another little cycle of months made their way round and Christmas came again. (And ... left again.)
And do you know something interesting? This was our very first Christmas with all ten of our children together! (Despite Starling approaching three years.) Isn’t that a strange thing? It’s true though. She wasn’t here for Abe’s last Christmas with us. And he wasn’t here for her first two.
And I know Christmas isn’t about presents. … But it is kind of fun to remember a few of the gift details (as rather a lot of work and energy goes into them--thinking of them, procuring them, comparing them for fairness among ten children, wrapping them, etc.). So:
Abe’s presents were nearly all climbing related (even the one article of clothing I gave him … had a rock climber on it). (Though I should add that I’d also created two, bound books from all of his mission letters and pictures. That gift made me happy because I loved his mission letters, and I could picture his kids easily pulling the books off the shelf to read bits and pieces from their dad’s mission in years to come.)Daisy got her very own Kitchenaid! We’ve had ours since we got married, so hopefully it will serve her well for years to come. All she hopefully asked for, now that she’s away at college, was a little hand mixer. But we knew we could do better than that!
Goldie and Penny got dresses and boots. (And Penny, who is forever checking out Sherlock Holmes mysteries, got a compilation of his complete works.)
Jesse, out of everyone, got the most distinctly-well-suited-to-him-and-him-alone gifts out of all of us (even taking into consideration Abe and all his climbing gear). There was just nobody else in the family that his gifts could have been for. In fact, I honestly didn’t even know what almost anything we were giving him was! There was an R4 card, a raspberry pi sensor hat, an adafruit trinket, ... (???!). Despite the insignificant size of most of his things (at one point I had wrapped FIVE gifts for him … and they all fit in my cupped hands) he seemed ecstatic. He also got a computer monitor of his own because Mike was tired of going up to use our computer and having it all hooked to Jesse’s Raspberry Pi. We all laughed when, on Christmas morning, as everyone found their stockings and their pile of gifts to sit themselves by, Jesse said, “Mom, I can’t find my pile.” Practically everyone simultaneously exclaimed, “Jesse!” Because who else could the pile of gifts sitting there with an unwrapped computer monitor sitting atop possibly be meant for? Between his 3D printer, his projects, his monitor, etc. he has completely taken over our computer desk. And all I can do is sigh and re-determine, every time I wish, forlornly, for a tidy computer area, that it’s something a good mother should allow. And I do want to be a good mother. So. You won’t be seeing our loft/office area in any home magazines.
Anders didn’t get a real fennec fox like he wanted, but he did get a stuffed one. (Along with a sloth pillow pet for the cabin.)
Summer and Mette got their own Bluetooth microphones, Polly Pockets, and princess Barbies. (Summer got Slapzi—a game simple enough for Hans but that the older kids actually kind of think is fun. And Mette got the label maker she has been pining for for…EVER.)
Hans got several sets of toys (a kid’s tool box, magnets, etc), which would have seemed a glorious birthday (because nobody else would have been opening more presents), but because his sets meant he had fewer actual things to open than many of his siblings who were opening various books and puzzles and sheet music, he looked quite despairing when his gifts were all unwrapped. Enough so that later, when Mike went to pick something up from his parents’, he took Hans with him and stopped in Wal-Greens (the only place open) to let him choose a remote-control car. Haha.
And Starling, who still didn’t seem particularly interested in opening gifts (I ended up pulling one out of her pile to save for her birthday) got another hoppity horse. She used to hop all over the house on our last one, but it sprung a leak a year or so ago and couldn’t be fixed. Initially she seemed to have forgotten how to use the new horse, but by Christmas night, it clicked again, and off she went. Seeing her delighted face as she hopped gleefully about the house the following day, Mike commented, “That is a happy form of transport.” And, when she stayed home from church with me and a sick Mette the following day, and Abe questioned why he hadn’t seen Starling, who seemed perfectly well, at church, Mike said, referring to her happy bouncing about, “Recreation has become her religion.”
Mike and I haven’t been doing much by way of gifts for each other the past few Christmases, but he did buy me a small pair of real gold hoops I can keep in my ears all of the time. (My ears don’t seem to tolerate earrings well anymore. They get inflamed and painful every time I wear them. Unfortunately, that means that I wear them rarely enough that when I DO want to put a pair in—as one occasionally does for church or some such—I often have trouble poking them through at all as my piercings keep nearly closing up.) But gold doesn’t seem to illicit any type of allergic reaction or irritation, and these are small enough to wear sleeping etc. So now I can not have my ears bothered AND keep my piercings from closing so that, when I want to wear some fancy pair for a few hours, I have the option! It was a good gift! A few days later, Abe looked at me and mused, “You already have your gold tooth. And now you’ve got these gold earrings always in. I wonder if there will come a point when you’ll be as much gold as not.” Well. We shall see. If I am going to be bionic, it may as well be gold replacing human parts of me. It may as well.
Also, we recently finished the first season of All Creatures Great and Small and found it very pleasant watching. So Mike did get that book for Christmas for us to read aloud.
And I can’t end a post about the gifts without noting the little animals Daisy needle felted for the girls. (All except Starling, who isn’t quite old enough to appreciate the labor, anyway.) She made each of their favorite animals. (Goldie — a pig, Penny — a giraffe, Summer — a tiger, and Mette — a moose.) And! She even made me this hummingbird! Isn’t it amazing? Hummingbirds have become our family’s symbol for my dad because he loved them so much. (We even had one etched on his grave stone.) Isn’t it just charming? She even felted in shades of color for the wings! And it’s little red throat! Amazing. I love it.
