Jia's 15th Birthday.

 

Jia wanted a shopping day so Gramma and I gave Jia money and five of us headed to the mall.  1st stop ear piercing.  Jia has been asking for years and years and years.  This wasn't a plan, total spur.  

So happy. It apparently didn't hurt that much.

We all had a pleasant few hours.  Jia got some Puma sneakers, a couple shirts, a fleece blanket, a pair of earrings and a set of Manga books.  It's always fun watching kids pick things out.

Then we stopped to see May and meet Mary's new baby.  9mo old poodle named Jax.  He is a total doll.  Puppy time of any kind is always good therapy.

Home for a seafood feast.  Jia's choice.

Good job once again Dad.

Jia doesn't eat desserts and barely any candy or chocolate but does like Purdys Hedgies so I bought one for the candle moment.  It was gobbled in one bite after this picture.

Happy Birthday Jia!

Christmas 2024

 

We made it through.

No tears!

I think Kai even had some fun.

My heart.  He was interested in the happenings today and was milling around in the paper with the other three :)

Kai opened his sock and Santa gift on his own this morning.  It worked WAY better to slow and calm it down for him.  Then we did the other four kids on their own.  Way more fun than the usual chaos.

I was filled with dread about today and Shannon sent me a squishy boy picture to cheer me up this morning.  It worked.  A wee bit of attitude adjustment therapy.

Mom brought snack.  Yum.  My gawd cherries in Dec!!!

The day has been great.  I'm watching the Peanuts Christmas with Mom and Lili while Eric is cooking a feast.

Mom's first temu order.  Pear nightlights for the kids.  Super cute and squishy.  They were a hit.

Who would think a blog post would use squishy twice?  Three if you count this sentence.

Christmas Eve

 

Eric is working on figuring out installing Oscar's new winch.  He wanted to show Fei and I Oscar naked today.  

The three of us went to Walmart after lunch.  Fei and I were hoping to see some harried shoppers and panic buying.  Nope. Nada. Nothing.  Store wasn't busy.  Shelves were full.  Everyone looked calm.  

Jia was up until 4am last night.  We didn't see him until snack time tonight.  No one really cared about decorating a cookie for Santa.  So Eric did it.  I did read The Night Before Christmas.  Kai talked through the whole thing.  We clearly are all done with the kid traditions.

We're all ready for tomorrow.

Should be a peaceful day.

Except for Kai, he hates opening presents.  There will be tears as he is tortured by the receiving of gifts. 

I have a new game plan for this year.  Since I'm way over waiting for him to figure this one out.  When he starts, I will tell him he can go.  We will pack up his pile and just do it later.  Or open them ourselves and just absorb the things into his world.  The torture needs to end.  It's upsetting for all of us.

Christmas Eve, Eve

 

We drove around to look at lights.

The live nativity show was awesome.  It's been a few years since we've gone.  I enjoyed it.  Not so sure about the kids. There was hot chocolate and cookies in the hall afterwards so Kai at least liked that part.

Sunday Eric and I went to the Eagles Hall to watch Al play.  He was fabulous as usual.  The hall is a throw back place.  We had dinner afterwards with friends at the Cow Bay Pub.  It was nice to get out.

We don't have any plans or traditions for tomorrow.  Fei is working the night shift so all we know at this point is we need an early dinner ;)

Christmas Crack

 

We made the famous Christmas Crack today.  Omg.

Soooo good.  Not healthy by any stretch but totally amazing.  We used graham crackers instead of saltines.

Our little local movie theater opened up on Friday with new owners.  I'm so thrilled to have movies back without having to drive out of town.  They did a great job of sprucing things up. 

Love the new seats.

We saw Mufasa.  It was good.  Especially if you like the lion king story.  It was loud with a lot of distressing scenes so it was good that Kai opted not to go.  He was too busy holding his couch down with YouTube.

Eric and I went to a friends Christmas party last night.  Lili joined us there on her way home.  We weren't in the mood for an outing but we forced ourselves to join life and ended up having a nice time.

We are heading out again this afternoon to listen to Al play at the Eagles Hall and then out to the Cow Bay pub for dinner.  My instinct is to hide at home for a bit longer but we're going to force ourselves to go be social anyways.

Last year I attempted dragons at CNY, this will make it easier next time I want to play.

Fei got the dreaded blue letter.  Summons to jury selection.  I was thrilled when I was finally picked but she is not.  Unfortunately it was mailed Nov 14 and she just got it so it leaves very little time to apply for exemption.  The plan is to have it in the mail by tomorrow and fingers crossed she can get out of it.  A 17 day criminal case.  Oy.

Jia and Luk skipped the last day of school but Kai wanted to go to the pajama, movie day party.  He came home with a full bag of goodies and had a great time.

Kai's world.  Another coding class certificate and a Rudolf coloring page.  It doesn't always make sense.

The last week has been extremely challenging in the parenting arena.  Our middle child continues to struggle.  The struggle spilled out to the whole family and it meant hunkering down at home and heaps and heaps of talking about the situation created.  That's all cryptic on purpose.  The four adults in the home are all annoyed.  I'm emotionally hurt but our job is to hold the child up and carry on with hope.  In the end, all is most likely just fine. These are hard days for sure.  So much worry.

We are all looking forward to some peace through the holiday.  It will certainly be nice to drop the schedule for a bit.  Such a delight to just have the simple joy of no alarm clocks.

I think we are all ready for Christmas.

Fei works xmas eve and Christmas night so she will be tired.  She normally gets up around 3 and then leaves at 6:30.  It's entirely possible we'll cram gifts and dinner into 3 1/2 hours ;)

Hatley Castle

 

A lovely day visiting Hatley Castle, dinner at the Spaghetti Factory and a stroll past Parliament on our way to see the gingerbread display.