Somehow or other it came just the same...

I feel like we have so many more things to do before it could possibly be Christmas and yet...here we are! 

The kids were very excited for their sleepover in the basement today and spent all morning getting things ready downstairs. They even set up a little game table for themselves and spent some happy hours playing games together which...was perfect. They don't do that very often and I have spent years encouraging them to do so and they are finally starting to do it. 

The rest of us spent our time tidying the upstairs and working on dinner preparations. We made latkes for dinner, which is a pretty involved process (thus the reason we only do it once per year). Andrew made a lovely stew and also took charge of the latkes while the rest of us were...helpers. 

We sent out quite a few Christmas cards this year. Did I get 2/3 of them in the mailbox on Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve)? Yes. That is exactly what happened. 

But did I get 1/3 of them sent out with plenty of time to arrive and with personalized letters from the kids inside? Also yes. 

You win some, you lose some. 

Zoë wrote a letter to Aunt Katharine, mostly asking about her cats and telling her about ours, and was delighted when Aunt Katharine sent an email in response. So I emailed Katharine back to tell her about Zoë's delight and...just asked if she might want to do a family Zoom call or something over the Christmas break. 

She said she'd "totally love" that, which felt like a very exciting response to me because sometimes my ideas are met with...more...lukewarm enthusiasm. 

So, I polled the siblings and we arranged to have a Zoom call this afternoon when Grandpa and Darla arrived for Christmas Eve celebrations. Emily, Jacob, and Katharine all attended, along with our family. We invited Sarah but didn't hear back from her.

Darla introduced us to the game "Fishbowl" the other day. I had never played it before, but I thought it would be the sort of game that might work well across time and space, so I put together a list of Christmas words and inside family jokes for us to play with. You can read more about how to play the game on the website, but basically it's like Taboo and charades all mixed together. 

We tried the charades part—here's Miriam acting out what may have been an elephant:

But that was a little too difficult over Zoom. And I had trouble really knowing when one round was over and the next had begun. So we just stuck with Taboo the whole time and it was fun. Everyone was able to join in the game on their phones (or whatever—we had several laptops out at our house, too), and the website would coordinate who what on what team, and whose turn it was. You would see the prompts on your device when it was your turn, otherwise it would say "you're chilling" at the top of the screen (which you can see below).

I wonder if that game would work well for my family as well. We're planning a game Zoom call on the 27th. Here we all are talking with the online people after the game:

Here are the three youngest kids smothering Grandpa with affection:

I neglected to get a picture of the beautiful table that Zoë set, spread with the delicious food Andrew prepared...but I think Darla grabbed one. I'll have to get one from her later.

After dinner we tidied up and then gathered in the living room for the nativity. Here's Phoebe reading a book with Darla (she is constantly foisting books on people and demanding that they read to her).

After Phoebe's story we got everyone dressed up for the nativity. Initially Phoebe said she didn't want to dress up or be anybody. But when I double checked with her to make sure she didn't want to be Mary...and hold the Baby Jesus...she changed her mind. She interjected every few minutes with an excited, "I'm Mary!"

Here's Mary riding along on her donkey (Benjamin):

And here she is with Joseph (Alexander) beside her:

King Herod (Rachel) in the background was feeling a little nervous about how much Mary was sliding around on the saddle...and, in fact, Mary did eventually fall off the donkey.

The donkey then morphed into a shepherd, who was dynamically "sore afraid."

Miriam was a little less sore afraid, but she at least remembered to narrate her lines.

I made a collection of Christmas devotionals last year (which we used again this year), with a story and a scripture and a song for each day leading up to Christmas. It ends with a little reader's theater (taken more or less verbatim from Luke 2), so the kids were all following along with that.

Here's Zoë proclaiming glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men:

Here are Mary and Joseph sitting so reverently by the manger:

Here's Miriam getting ready to act as a wiseman, while Rachel sits regally upon her throne:

Somehow or other a crown ended up rolling toward Phoebe, who put it on but reassured everyone, "I'm still Mary!"

After we sang our song, we gathered around the kitchen table to play Poetry for Neanderthals.

Is our favourite part of this game standing by with the "no!" stick, ready to bop the turn-taker should they make a mistake? Perhaps...

After Grandpa and Darla left, we had scriptures and prayer and read a few stories, and then put Phoebe to bed in the basement because she really wanted to join in on the sleepover this year. She assured everyone that she would "be nice" and spent the whole day talking about how she was "'tempting to sleep in the basement."

I translated that as "attempting." 

Andrew translated it as "pretending."

But I think I was right since she's certainly attempting it!

Here are all the kids by the tree before sending Phoebe off to bed:

And here's their attempt at a silly picture:

They are cute, cute kids. We are pretty lucky to have each other!