The Christmas Marathon

The family Christmas has come to an end with sleepovers by Danica on Sunday night and Jonathan on Monday. Since it all began Friday evening on Christmas Eve, I think that's a pretty fair observance of the occasion. As you might guess, scads of photos were taken, but I promise to be moderate, which includes making a few collages, so we don't go too overboard with tons of individual images.

Christmas Eve included snacks and snuggles.

 

Games and fun too.

A bonus of the kids getting older is that they didn't awaken us early on Christmas Day. In fact, they didn't awaken us at all although they were already up when we awoke at 6:30. We make gift opening last by taking our turns beginning with stockings. Someone opens one stocking stufffer, then the next person, and so on a so forth, and round and round we go.

Then, we break for a quick breakfast and repeat the above procedure with the bigger gifts. When I say, bigger, we aren't spendthrifts, but we don't max out the credit cards either. We try to make it good, but we don't really make it grand if you catch my drift.

Here are two photos from the morning. I hope you pardon the one of me, but I like it.

Well before noon, the kids were off to their Dad's. Sue and I went home, and Sha went into work for a few hours. She visits with her seniors for a few hours on most Christmas Days. This year she helped the dining room staff at both servings. It was a way to easily greet most of her residents. Many stayed in the residence dur to COVID and the rules and regs about isolating upon returning.

The next day, Sunday, we picked up Danica for her sleepover. Sleepovers are easier on grandma and grandpa than they used to be, at least in a way. The kids can now entertains themselves, especially after one or both of us go to bed.

Danica bought herself a MacBook on that very day with her recent earnings, and she spent much of her visit exploring it and getting it set up. Her dad is a tech guy, but he works exclusively on the PC side, but Dani managed well on her own. It should last her through high school and quite possibly university, or some of it.

Sue took the following clip as a single photo, but Google turned it into a cute little mp4.

Sue made pancakes from Monday breakfast, and I contributed bacon. Later, we took Dani home and brought JJ back with us. While Danica isn't interested in playing games, we played UNO (below, with chips),  Sorry, and Wizard with Jonathan.

He spent some time sketching with some of his Christmas gifts. Notice the earbuds, which were a main present from the step-side.

He got a yo-yo for Christmas and was picking it up really well. I dug into my memory banks from 60+ years ago and asked if he could do over the falls. I took a crack at it, and then he tried. As you might expect he didn't nail his first few efforts (below), but he got it pretty well soon after. We don't have too many subsequent photos or videos, for I think even Sue was getting too pooped to keep going.

Breakfast with JJ was a breakfast sandwich in an English muffin with bacon and Havarti cheese. We took him home after noon, and that completed the celebration for another year. We will head over to see Bob and Barb for a short visit this afternoon. Then, we may come home and collapse. 😀