Merry Christmas 2020, Day 3
Merry Christmas to all once again.
It's nice that Christmas is a season, not a day.
Of course, we had our gift exchange on Christmas Day. We thought everything had arrived by the 25th. We were pleasantly mistaken.
A day later, the Santa UPS sleigh deposited a large box on our doorstep. It was sent by Grandpa Danny.
The package arrived late on the 26th. After breakfast on the 27th, the three of us gathered around the other end of the dinner table to see what wonders G'pa Danny had sent. His gifts are always thoughtful and fun.
Xavier, being Danny's only grandchild, was highly favored.
Xavier had a "stocking in a bag" and two wrapped packages. He opened his stocking first. In keeping with a Braaten tradition, there was a clementine to eat.
Xavier and I built the Lego light-up car later in the evening, turned out the lights in the house and played with it nearly :30 minutes.
Xavier got a new pair of binoculars, something he has needed as his last pair have seen better days.
The second package contained a remote-controlled car, one promising the ability to scale walls. Xavier squealed with excitement.
Although the wall-climbing feature did not work well on our orange peel texture, the car did well on the floor. We broke out two other RC cars and raced them quite a while.
Merry Christmas 2020
Merry Christmas to all!
Xavier has led the Christmas Joy wagon most of the month. We started decorating shortly after Thanksgiving at his request. Every morning since the Christmas tree was up, one of the first things Xavier did in the mornings was plug it in.
Xavier wanted to build a gingerbread town. We bought a kit and used it to decorate the mantle. Several of the housed lost their some gumdrops do to Xavier eating them when he grew hungry.
Last night, Christmas Eve, he announced he wanted to go to bed early. Wow, you could have knocked either parent over with a feather after that statement.
Rebecca and I got up this morning before Xavier and went about a few things. Just as I made the statement to Rebecca, "When Kathy and I were kids, we were up before six on Christmas", Xavier's door opened.
Out walked Xavier somewhat lackluster about being up. After morning hugs and a cuddle with Mom on the couch, he and his wild hair warmed to opening stockings.
Santa had left two other gifts under the tree and Xavier moved on to those. They were "Operation" and the board game "Sorry".
Rebecca began fixing a breakfast while Xavier and I played a game of Sorry. After Xavier beat me at Sorry, we ate, then got Grandma Penny on the phone. They were camping today, so Xavier opened his gifts from her audio-only.
Grandma Penny gave Xavier two puzzles: one a 500 piece table puzzle and one a four-foot floor puzzle. Later in the day, Xavier and Aunt Chelle started the 500 piece puzzle on the kitchen table.
Shortly after Grandma Penny, we called Aunt Kathy. After our yearly technology struggle, we managed to get audio and video working for the call.
Aunt Kathy gave Xavier an electromagnetic experiment kit. We loaded it up with batteries and Xavier build the electromagnet. He played with it for quite a while, and pieces of the kit are still laying about the floor.
We then phoned up Grandpa Danny and found the right technology stack for video and audio for that call.
During that call we had a mystery solved. A gift for Xavier had come in the mail. It was addressed to him, but the return address was the company that shipped the item. Inside, there was only a note signed "From Santa". We were stumped at who sent the gift, and we had several thoughts.
Turns out, it was Grandpa Danny who sent it: a fire engine Christmas tree ornament.
We took a break from opening packages to wait for Aunt Chelle to arrive. Rebecca went back to the kitchen and Xavier to his electromagnetic kit.
After a while, Xavier's desire to open some of the other presents piqued. The Holiday meal preparations were at a place we could pause, so we decided to open the family gifts.
Xavier opened Rebecca's gift to him. It was a working Stirling engine. We have yet to fully unpack it and get it working. Xavier saw the engine in operation on a YouTube video and thought it cool. "I want that!" he announced.
One of Xavier's frequent statements over the last several months has been "I am obsessed with electricity." So, Dad's gift to him was an age-appropriate electronics board with several experiments to build. Xavier's favorite being floating a ping-pong ball on a jet of air.
Aunt Chelle arrived and brought Xavier a Chinese Checker board. We played a couple of games before dinner. It has been so long since any of us played the game, we had to read the instructions.
Merry Christmas! Christ is Born!