Hi, everyone!
Happy New Year! Right after I wrote last time, Uncle David came to pick up his Corvette! It had been sitting in Grandma and Grandpa’s driveway since July. The rental trailer he brought was designed for cars with more ground clearance, so Grandpa cut wood blocks to raise the places the front tires would sit. Then Uncle David backed the rental truck rear wheels up on ramps, so the trailer would tip toward the car. Everything worked the way it was supposed to! Uncle Steven came over to help guide the car up on the ramp to the trailer while Uncle David drove. Uncle David was afraid the car door would be too low to open after the car was on the trailer, but even that worked out okay.
After the Corvette was on the trailer, Uncle David had to make sure it was securely fastened so it wouldn’t roll off! I helped him tie down the rear and there were straps from the trailer to fasten down the front wheels. Then Uncle David got in the truck and drove off! I made sure to wave goodbye!
At the end of that week, I was busy helping Grandma get ready for the annual holiday bread party! On Friday, I helped Grandma make flower arrangements with red carnations and some of our holly. Guess what? My Christmas cactus friend was getting ready to bloom, too! I didn’t forget to add my daily item to the reverse Advent calendar!
Saturday morning, Grandma and I got up early to make the stollen dough! We made enough for 24 stollens before 7 a.m.! By 9 a.m., the first batch of dough was ready to shape into 12 Christmas trees. The rest of the day was baking and serving soup and mulling cider and visiting with all my friends. Moose-san and Tilly and LaVache all came to the party, and so did Rudy!
On Christmas Eve, I put the very last item for the food shelf in the reverse Advent calendar box. It was a can of green beans! Then I helped put all the items into bags, so they would be easier to take to church. After that, I helped Grandma make the croissant dough. When it rose enough to work with, Grandma let me bash the butter to make layers in the dough! There were two Christmas Eve services at church. James and Thomas were in the children’s pageant for the early service. James was a shepherd and Thomas was Joseph! Grandma and Uncle Steven sang for the late service.
On Christmas morning, I helped Grandma shape the croissant dough. Then, after it rose and baked, Grandma and Grandpa and I had croissants for breakfast! Thomas wasn’t feeling well, so Uncle Steven’s family didn’t come over to open presents right away. While we waited, Grandma and Grandpa and I Skyped Uncle David’s family to watch them open their presents from us. It’s nice not to have to figure out a time zone difference to talk to Uncle David’s family!
Uncle Steven’s family came over after Thomas started feeling better. James and Thomas were in charge of passing out the presents to everybody, and they did a good job! Uncle Steven’s family gave me a new reindeer friend and Uncle David’s family gave me a red Adirondack chair to put on the Christmas tree! When we were done opening presents, Aunt Kara put together James’ Connect Four game from Uncle David’s family and we played a few games.
The day after Christmas, I helped Grandma bake the very last Ground Hog day cookies. Then, on Friday, Uncle David brought Karin and Bill to visit. They stayed with Uncle Steven’s family at their new house. They brought their Nintendo Switch with them, so James and Thomas were able to join them for Mario Kart four person races.
We had another Christmas! After dinner, everybody pulled holiday crackers and got little presents and paper crowns to wear. Then Bill and Karin opened their presents from Uncle Steven’s family.
Bill and Karin really enjoyed playing in Uncle Steven’s basement! James had already built his big Christmas present, a Saturn Lego model. Uncle Steven showed Bill and Karin how the operating cars on the model railroad worked. Then everybody spent some time in the Lego lounge!
On Saturday morning, all the cousins played Mario Kart again. On Sunday morning, everybody went to church with Grandma and Grandpa. James and Karin lighted the candles in the Advent wreath! Then Grandma made lunch for everybody. Uncle Steven and James got the final green star in Super Mario Galaxy 2 just before Uncle David and Karin and Bill left to go back to Ottawa!
Grandma and Grandpa had some of our friends over for dinner on New Years Eve, and I stayed up to toast the New Year! Grandma let me sleep late on New Years Day, but then I helped take the ornaments off my Christmas tree friend. After they were all off the tree, I helped Grandma add the new ornaments we got as Christmas gifts to the ornament spreadsheet on the computer. That helps us keep track of our special memories about every ornament! Then I helped Grandpa get my tree friend ready to go back outside. That left another empty space in the living room! Packing up the ornaments and decorations took two days! Now we have an empty space on the table, too!
Love,
Lion-san
We all had a good time at your party. We are sorry that we missed Rudy though. It looks like you had quite a Christmas. And you had quite an exciting time what with the Corvette leaving and Christmas then David, Bill and Karin coming. Then the tree came down, ours hasn’t yet so we still have all that to do!