Christmas 2020

As is true for many this year, our Christmas has been quiet in comparison to most years. My side of the family is small enough we could get together without going (much) over the size limit for gatherings so we headed to my parents Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was celebrated at home with a 5-course feast prepared by Seth. 

Normally Santa would come while we are at Mass, but we decided to go to the less popular Christmas morning Mass lest we get turned away for lack of space with the limited seating requirements. 

Santa came while we ate and gift opening was done by 8:00, leaving everyone time to play with their new toys for a bit before bed. Charlie left out a special cookie he made for Santa along with 9 carrots for the reindeer (you can't forget Rudolph!) along with a couple of notes, such as the one he was forced to leave below. (He had to replace the word "two" with "three" after another infraction)

Olivia received a few obnoxiously loud toys, which she was thrilled about. And Charlie's lightsabers were thoroughly enjoyed by all the males in the household. 

I am happy to announce that Olivia stopped her boycott of clothes on Christmas morning when we told her it was time to get dressed to go to Grandma and Papi's. I had brought down two shirts, not sure which to put her in. Once she had one on, she insisted on also wearing the other one - fortunately the first was thin. The same thing happened with her skirts the next day: I brought down a new skirt to wear, and she would only wear it in addition to her skirt from the previous day. So in one day, we flip-flopped from rarely wearing a sufficient amount of clothing to wearing more clothing than one would think of as comfortable. 

Here she is on Christmas Day (she absolutely loves her Uncle Eliud!). It was Frankie's turn to wear our one Christmas bowtie this year.

And showing off her double-skirt look the next day:

The following night Alex came to spend the night at our place, while Charlie and Frankie got to have a sleepover at Grandma and Papi's. Frankie was beyond excited! Here is a picture of Papi reading stories to the kids before bed. 

Also at Grandma and Papi's, the kids recited their annual Christmas poems that they memorized for Grandma as her gift. We sort of forgot about it until 2 days before Christmas so they were all quite short.