Christmas

Olivia woke all the kids up early on Christmas and they were ready to open presents. The girls had each gotten a Lego Friends set from Santa, Miles got a Furby and Damon got a microscope.

We opened up stockings first, where it's becoming a tradition for people to get Beanie Boos. Miles and Damon both got ones and Amber found this little guy in her stocking.

Olivia and Carmen got books and other little things, but their Christmas was mainly a ton of My Little Pony figures and DVDs and they couldn't have been more thrilled.

Miles was very happy to get, among other things, a fishing game, Yeti in My Spaghetti, and of course, his Imaginext Penguin Lair. As he said when he opened it, "It's just what I expected!".

Damon got a wide assortment of things, like Minecraft, and a camera to use in his school photography club.

My favorite of his gifts is a laser puzzle game, but his might have been this label maker. There are labels on everything now.

Amber said her gifts this year were the patio, kitchen, and wood floors, so she only got a few small things, but she does get to share my big present, a PS4 with the new Lego Marvel game.

Eventually all the presents were unwrapped and it was time to play.

Christmas Eve

We were a little late getting to gingerbread houses this year. So late, in fact, that the stores were sold out, so Amber decided we were going to make our own on Christmas Eve day. I was assigned to be lead architect and designed two houses and a tepee (Amber's request) out of cardboard. Olivia and Amber collaborated on a stable, while Damon made his own house.

We weren't sure how they'd turn out, but they were just as good as the store-bought kits and more fun to design!

All in all, they turned out really well and we're already coming up with design ideas for next year.

That evening, we did our traditional acting out of the Christmas story. Joseph and Mary went to be taxed. Shepherds admired the baby Jesus.

Wise men came to King Herod, and presented gifts to the Christ-child.

Another tradition I've tried to keep alive is the singing of Christmas songs. I bought some more caroling books, the kids are older, and for the first year it felt like it really worked.

We let the kids open one present from a sibling on Christmas Eve. They were very excited.

Finally we got the kids to bed, and Santa paid us a visit.

Rockets

A friend of ours who works for the Rockets owed us some tickets (Amber had done some sewing work for him), so we went on Saturday to see the Rockets play the Milwaukee Bucks.

I picked this game because I wanted to see up-and-coming star Giannis Antetokounmpo in person.

It was a good, close game, and the Rockets kept a narrow lead to win it.

When we left, it was pouring rain. We ran to the car, but my nice leather jacket got pretty wet. Had to happen sometime.

Winter Festival

Amber was doing schoolwork on Saturday, so I took the kids to the neighborhood Winter Festival. We got there right as it was starting, so we didn't have to wait long to ride the train.

They had a lot of different crafts, and the kids wanted to collect all of them.

Not to mention the prizes from the games. We had our hands full by the end.

We didn't wait in line for Santa, but we did meet one of his reindeer (the most famous of all).

They also had a petting zoo where I saw these adorable kids petting this adorable kid.

We saved the inflatable bounce house and slides for last, but by then the lines were long.

When they were all bounced out, we took our winnings and headed home.

Snow

For the first time since 2008/2009, we got snow! Just like before, we got an early-December cold front that left a small accumulation of snow. I saw it as I was getting ready for work, so I woke up the kids and had them come out.

They were thrilled for a few minutes, but they quickly got cold making snowballs with bare hands.

Luckily, the snow stuck around for a little while, and they had time to suit up and play before they went to school.

And of course, they had to make a snowman.

It was all melted by the time they got home from school, but we'll take what we can get.

Angel Park

We took advantage of the Thanksgiving break by going to play for a couple hours at the Angel Park.

The kids had fun on the playground equipment.

Miles was determined to climb everything.

And give his cheesy smile while doing it.

We had a picnic lunch, then went to the fields to throw mini footballs around.

After that it was one more round of playground. Olivia was the field general, as always.

It was nice to not have a little one to worry about. Everyone ran off and played on their own and had a great time. They didn't want to leave.

Renaissance Festival

We made it back to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday. It hasn't changed much since last time, but it's always fun. As always, it's fun to people watch. I found this centaur looking at a cell phone to be amusing.

We caught some of our favorite shows, like the bird show.

And of course we couldn't miss Fire Whip. Carmen got to go up on stage this time.

I got my Polish food for lunch (the girls got a turkey leg), then we went to ride an elephant.

We stopped by the gardens on the way back from there and took some pictures.

The kids have grown up a little since some of our previous visits!

Most of the rest of the day was spent jousting and looking in shops.

The kids tried their hand at jousting.

Then we saw two shows of the real thing.

The theme of the weekend was "Heroes and Villains", so they modified the knights from their usual personas. We normally always sit in the section of England's Sir Thomas, but today he was Sir Clark, Duke of Kent, AKA Superknight. He had to do battle against the Terminator, Dr. Doom, and Mephisto, who used Kryptonite to subdue him.

Luckily, Thor and Wonder Woman showed up to help.

And in the end, the villains were defeated.

It was a happy ending to a happy day.