Throw Throw Burrito

 The kids got this for Christmas and Benji was desperate to play it. The weather warmed up over the weekend and we were able to get outside for a match:

Grandpa Steve's Marble Run

 Grandpa Steve sent this as a present to be opened on Christmas Eve. His stated intent was for us to build it that night, although I don't think he knew quite what a big project it would be. We started it the day after Christmas and are still plugging away:

December 26th

December 28th

Christmas Day 2020

 It was a novel experience to wake up in our own house on Christmas morning. We started with brunch before moving on to presents. Benji enjoyed playing Santa and handing all of the gifts out from under the tree. We saved the stockings for the afternoon to spread out the joy:

Benji claims he was traumatized by receiving this lump of coal in his stocking

Christmas Eve 2020

We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home this year.  Festivities started mid-day with an all-family Paquette zoom call:

In the afternoon, we finished up the gingerbread houses we began the day before (by baking the gingerbread and starting to stick it together):

We had a little time left in the afternoon, so I broke out these make-your-own headband kits I bought on clearance last January:

We finished up just in time for our zoom with Grandma and Pop-pop to open gifts and have Pop-pop read Twas the Night Before Christmas:

The centerpiece of our evening was celebrating the Icelandic tradition of book flood. Everyone got a gift of a new book, and we spent the rest of the night reading by the fire and eating chocolate:

The refreshments included a hot cocoa bar with hot chocolate made from scratch

Study Session

 I had one last pre-break photo. For the whole week before break, every time Benji had down time he picked up Abby's PSAT book to read (he finished it right at the start of break). He was fascinated by it for some reason:

Stonefield Tinsel Trail

 The Junior League sponsored a Christmas tree display at the Stonefield shopping center. Different businesses and organizations each sponsored a tree and you could walk around the square and see them all. We went over one evening a few days before Christmas and it was fun to stroll through them:

The Christmas Star

 Kevin was very excited when he found out that there would be a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last week. He was adamant that this was not, as the news kept saying, actually the first sighting of the star of Bethlehem since the 1200s, but they did make a very bright sight in the star and you could see both planets well through the telescope: