Category: Holidays

On the Sixth Day of Christmas My Family Gave to Me…

my favorite Lego set ever!

Robin is my favorite superhero (outside of the Longbow Universe of course) and I have been wanting this set since I saw it in the Lego magazine.   I was so thrilled with my gift that I built it immediately after I opened it, I didn’t even stop to take today’s picture!

As for everyone else, they got… …all this!

From left to right, Veronica now has a Spirograph, not just any Spirograph, but a Super Spirograph.  It comes with a bunch of different pieces to make different designs.

Robert has a Hobbit clock, it shows times for breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, diner, and supper.

Christopher got a Metal Earth helicopter.  In case you didn’t know, Metal Earth makes small models that come as flat sheets of metal with designs in them and perforations to fold them.  You cut them out and then fold them into the model.

Anne got nail polish.  I understand this is a good gifts for girls, but I don’t get it.

Nathaniel also got a Metal Earth kit.  His was The Black Pearl, our first Metal Earth boat.

Jonathan received a pocket microscope.  Now he can carry a microscope with him at all times for emergencies.

I got the Lego set (which I have talked about sufficiently).

Nicholas was given Gunslinger.  It’s a cowboy themed card game.  Now he has a nerd game too!

Mom gave herself a new pair of shoes.  Another girl gift I don’t really get.

Finally, Dad got a Metal Earth plane to build.

Yep, today was another big  day of Christmas.

 

On the Fourth Day of Christmas My Family Gave to Me…

Obviously yesterday is what would be considered a “bigger” day, but we didn’t open the gifts until later.  Nicholas and I were out working and we didn’t get home until 5:30.  After we came home the family ate dinner, and then we had to clean up.

Now I don’t mind opening gifts late, but I think the suspense was getting to some of my younger siblings.  Apparently Robert told Mom that we where just staying out so that everyone had to wait!  He was joking of course, he knows we wouldn’t strain their curiosity intentionally.  Plus,  Nicholas doesn’t like to wait either.

When we did finally open the gifts and sate my siblings swelling thirst for satisfaction, we found that the day didn’t really have a theme, except perhaps that most of the gifts could be used by multiple people (what could be more glorious than ten big gifts that everyone can use!?).

Gifts from Dad to Jonathan (top row) and Nathaniel to Veronica (bottom row)

Dad and Mom got a set of rubber coated kitchen utensils to use with their brand new ceramic coated copper pots and pans (which they also got today)!  Mom has wanted ceramic pans for a while as they work well for eggs, because they have a non-stick surface, but they don’t use Teflon which can peel off and prove detrimental to your health.

Nicholas got a new phone, because his phone has been dropping calls, no doubt due to the phone itself being dropped one too many times (admittedly the last time was my fault).

I own a sizable bottle cap collection, so I got a bottle cap dart game.  It’s a large magnetic dart board in the shape of a bottle cap.  The game also came with bottle caps to throw at the board, but I have cooler “darts” to use.

Jonathan got a Wii video game that Nicholas and I found at a garage sale for two dollars.  The case actually had two games inside “Wii Sports Resort” and “Wii Sports.”

Nathaniel was given some sparring gear for him and the younger boys to use.

Anne received another video game, “Mario Kart Wii.”  Nicholas and I also picked this game up, same garage sale, same price.  This was quite the find since that game still sells for 30 – 40 dollars on ebay, even though it’s for an outdated system!

Christopher unwrapped the other set of sparring gear to use to battle Nathaniel.

Robert received an art pack and a sketch pad, because he is quite an art enthusiast.

Finally, Veronica opened (actually we opened from youngest to oldest last night, but who’s keeping track?) a cross stitch kit for an owl picture.  This gift was perfect for her.  She calls him Oliver the Unfinished Owl, but she’s been working on him all day and I think she’s almost finished!

On the Third Day of Christmas My Family Gave to Me…

a Hot Wheels car!

From oldest on the (left) to youngest (right)

Yesterday was actually Veronica’s day of Christmas.  Veronica is the youngest in the family and only seven years old (so we had to appreciate the gifts no matter what :-).  Hot Wheels cars are always appreciated actually, they are another family tradition, but this year they are even cooler than usual.  “How?” you ask.  How could these tiny toy cars possibly get any more impressive?!  Simple, Hot Wheels has finally accomplished what I’ve said they should…they’ve designed their cars for Lego guys to ride on!

Lego meets Hot Wheels

First K’Nex is designed to work with Lego and now Hot Wheels!  I can only say what my brother Nicholas said when he first saw the ride on Hot Wheels car at the auto parts store, “What a time to be alive.”

On the Second Day of Christmas My Family Gave to Me…

Five Christmas Pencils!

That’s right, every year we get twelve gifts, but not all of them are big gifts per se.  Like everyone else we get knick knacks and stocking stuffers, but instead of overlooking, or largely not appreciating,  these small gifts in the frenzy of the Christmas day unwrapping madness, we have a whole day to revel  in and treasure these gifts.  So while twelve days of gift giving doesn’t make any of the small gifts bigger it does make them a seem bigger.  In fact, as my sister Anne said, “Pencil Day is traditional and it just wouldn’t be Christmas without Pencil Day.”

Happy Feast of St. Stephen

Aside from being the second day of Christmas, today is also a feast day in its own right.  As you may have guessed from the title of this post, today is the the feast day of St. Stephen!  (I told you December was rife with holidays).

St. Stephen is one of my favorite saints.  Besides being my patron saint he is basically the embodiment of what I would like to be.  He was not one of the disciples, so he was not a bishop, but he was one of the first priests.  He was also the first Christian martyr (I’ve always liked to be the first to do anything).  Even more than that, he was martyred because when the pharisees told him to stop preaching about Christ he refused and spoke out against them.  Yep, he was martyred for being mouthy for Christ, is their anything more glorious?

How does one celebrate the feast of Stephen you ask?  Well, actually I ask that too.  Aside from singing the festive St. Stephen song, Good King Wenceslas, I don’t know of any St. Stephen’s day traditions…today is also known as boxing day somewhere , maybe Nathaniel and I should go out this evening and spar a round.

On the First Day of Christmas My Family Gave to Me….

A bunch of games!  Actually everyone got one game.  You see in our house instead of getting all of our presents on Christmas day we get one present a day for the twelve days of Christmas.  Mom and Dad handle the gift giving for most of the days of Christmas, but the groups of the children have taken it upon themselves to give the gifts for one day each (that way the parents still get to be surprised). Anne and Nathaniel like to do the first day of Christmas (they are historically impatient), so yesterday they gave us our gifts.

From left to right (and youngest to oldest), Veronica got Mousetrap (one of my old favorites).  Robert got a Lord of the Rings card game and Christopher got the same game so that four people can play together (in a large family you want very few two player games).  Anne broke the theme a little, Nathaniel gave her a kit for crocheting Marvel superheros.  Anne gave Nathaniel a display case for his bug collection (now he can stop keeping it in a shoe box in our bathroom).  This gift was also a little off theme, but Jonathan got us back on track with a monster based dice/card/board game, King of Tokyo.  I got a very cool superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse. Nicholas got the classic game Battleship.  Mom broke theme again, she got eight wash clothes hand knitted by Anne (now you know why Anne got a crochet  kit, she’s very crafty with string and yarn).  Mom also got  a cardboard house to match her cardboard Christmas village.

Finally Dad got Five Crowns a five suit card game.

Pretty cool, huh? I love it when a good theme comes together!

The Tale of Two Birthdays

Back when I was very young (very, very young) the doctors gave my Mother the due date for her next child.  Though Mom had already had two children who completely missed their due dates (one was late, the next early), Mom felt that this was the day her next son would be born.

Sure enough I arrived right on time.  I was born several years ago on December 19th, but that’s not the cool part.  The cool part is that my father was born even more years ago on December 19th.

That’s right I was born on my due date on my father’s birthday.

I’ve been punctual ever since.

 

A Holiday of Light

Happy Santa Lucia day! The 13th of December is widely celebrated in Sweden as the feast of the early Christian martyr, St. Lucy.  It is celebrated with such vigor there probably because Sweden is so dang dark and the feast of St. Lucy celebrates the triumph of light over darkness.  It is celebrated in remembrance of St. Lucy visiting the starving Christians in the catacombs wearing a wreath of candles on her head to illuminate her path so as to leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible.

Traditionally the oldest girl in Swedish families brings everyone breakfast in bed wearing a flaming wreath of candles (cool huh?).  There are also special processions and prayers to go along with the celebration.  We, however, are not Swedish so Anne does not have to wear a flaming headdress (not this year anyways).  Instead we are celebrating the day as Germans celebrate everything…with food.

For breakfast this morning Mom made us a Santa Lucia Crown.   A sweet bread with maraschino cherries and a powdered sugar glaze.img_3672

Mom found this recipe in a cookbook called “Cooking with the Saints” several years ago and it has been part of our family’s tradition ever since.

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

I might have mentioned that there are a lot of feast days in December, but today is particularly special to us because Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of our family.

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Today’s feast day celebrates the apparition of Our Lady to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico.  Juan Diego was an Aztec convert to Christianity and under Our Lady’s instructions he picked roses growing miraculously on the hill to bring to the bishop.  He carried the roses in his tilma and  when he emptied them out to show the bishop he saw that Our Lady had miraculously left her image on his tilma.  The tilma with the miraculous image can still be seen at the Guadalupe Basilica.  You can read the full story of The Virgin of Guadalupe here (and I encourage you to).

Our Lady of Guadalupe is extremely important to our family and, as I understand it, very important to the Mexican people.  One of Dad’s Mexican friends said, “90% of Mexicans are Catholic, but 100% believe in our Lady of Guadalupe.”