Dec 26
The grandparents arrived on Wednesday night, then we were on full swing toward Christmas. We made chocolate cookies for Santa, but this time the boys were not as interested to help me. In the meantime, both boys wanted to play Chess with grandpa and showed Grandma other games. On Christmas Eve, it was rainy and therefore we did not end up going to the Christmas in the Park for the night troll. We came home after dinner and decorated a gingerbread house instead. The final product came out quite nice; I was happy that the house did not fall apart as I did a poor job with the foundation. By bedtime, the boys were excited. Connor put out some cookies for Santa and he added a box of tissue on the tray. He told us that since it is cold at North Pole, he figured that Santa might need a tissue in case of a runny nose. The boys then quickly went to sleep so Santa would not skip our house.
On Christmas Day, both boys woke up bright and early but stayed in their rooms quietly. At 7am sharp, they rushed down to check on the tree and were thrilled to find even more presents under it. They carefully looked through them and found the Santa presents. Logan was disappointed that his was smaller than Connor’s. Quickly he was over it and moved onto TV. After we all woke up and had breakfast, the excitement began. We started with the stockings and played briefly with our little toys. Then we migrated to the living room. Logan and Connor quickly found themselves a present and opened it. We had to encourage them to find presents for the grandparents, Stuart and I, so everyone could take turn. The fun time lasted more than 30 minutes and all of us received a great bounty.
The rest of the Christmas day and the following couple of days, everyone sorted through and played with the new toys. Stuart set up his new XBox One, but Logan and Connor spent more time playing their new Batman 3 game on it than Stuart can with his games. Logan and Connor both love the soft snuggle animals and carry them everywhere in the house. They like the REV remote control cars and even Stuart thinks they are very cool. They are getting better driving them. The best part of it is that the cars require phones to control and Stuart had taken out our old iPhones. The boys enjoy playing the phones even when they are not driving the cars. They have also been having fun building some figures with the classic Lego set during quiet time. From the Santa presents, Logan is learning how to use his mini robot, Ozobot, and Connor loves his Transformer/tank figurine. We all share some fun time playing with the Simon game, some puzzles and a dice game as well. Stuart blew up the Sumo inflatables, and the boys had a blast and got some exercise playing with them in the game room. I also set up my Fitbit and began my competition with Stuart and with my sisters. Here are our Christmas pictures.
Dec 23
I received sad news today that my grandma in Hong Kong had passed away. She had been in the hospital for two weeks and had become unconscious a few days ago, therefore her passing was not unexpected but the news was still quite sad. Yvonne and her family are currently visiting Hong Kong and had visited Grandma in the hospital. So I was shared the details from my sister as well as from my uncle via Whatsapp. According to Uncle, Grandma was not in too much distress and passed peacefully. She had celebrated her 100th birthday recently, and according to my stepmom, after the big Chinese celebration a couple of days ago, Grandma was indeed 101 according to the Chinese tradition. We all are very proud of her longevity and how strong she was. She was not even taking any chronic medications. In our own comfort, we are glad that we had visited Grandma in April and that the boys had a chance to meet their great grandmother. While we were visiting, she was quite alert but very forgetful; she kept reminding me that she was 100 and that we should not wait that long to visit again. With that, I was mentally preparing another trip in possibly three years to visit her again, but now I guess we will not be going back to her little apartment in Hong Kong.
Dec 20
There was a party at the cabana club Saturday morning. It was raining, but the party was supposed to happen rain or shine. We all geared up and walked over to check it out. Seeing the pool in the cold and rain definitely had a different feeling. There were only a few families there scattering around under the coverings and the awning. There was an art and craft table, and both boys seemed to be interested in it. Things on the table were not too organized, but the boys managed to make a paper Christmas tree with stickers. To our surprise, the boys wanted to keep going and move on to the next craft projects, stockings. They had to assemble the decorations and waited for the staff to glue them down. While they were working on this, Santa made an appearance. We encouraged the boys to go over to meet Santa, and the boys were the first in line. They sat with Santa, and talked with him for a little bit. They told him what they would like for Christmas and had a fist bump with him. Then they returned to the craft table to finish up. When they were finally finished, Santa was about to start reading a book to the kids. They both sat down to listen, but they lost interest halfway through. Logan went to get a cup of cocoa and Connor wanted to decorate a cookie. Probably due to the weather, the turnout was not too good, but the kids were happy with what they had made and Connor enjoyed the cookie too.
Dec 20
Our tree was decorated last weekend and the presents underneath are slowly building up. Connor has made some gingerbread men for ornaments and Logan hung his Elf from his class project up on our tree too.
Last weekend, Logan suddenly brought up that we had not yet seen Elfie this year. Coincidentally Elfie appeared the next day high up on the window sill. Connor spotted it right away after school; he was screaming with joy to share the news with all of us. Logan did not want Connor to tell him the location and wanted to take his time to find him. Every morning since then, they look forward to finding him in the morning. However Logan told us that he thinks Elfie is not real as his eyes don’t blink and his face looks stiff.
The boys had a visit by Santa on their last day of school. But Logan shared that the one at school was not the real Santa as he did not say Ho Ho Ho and he did not wear glasses.
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