Christmas Week, Continued

Christmas Week, Continued

—The boys dug into their Christmas stockings after we unwrapped gifts on Christmas Day. 

By Allan Olson
Last week was a full week of Christmas. We celebrated the holiday with family in International Falls on Sunday, December 22, and then again in Baudette on Saturday, December 28. And in the interlude, we celebrated the actual holiday as a family at home on Christmas Day.
A couple weeks ago my wife and I finished the Christmas shopping, and she had everything wrapped soon afterwards. We put the gifts under the tree, and the next day when the kids ventured up the stairs, they spotted them and started to count their gifts. Well, it turned out that not every person had the same number of gifts under the tree – i.e., I kept a couple of Nikolai’s out of sight because they would have been easily identified. After that issue was raised, my wife came up with an ingenious plan to mess with the children a little. Marcus, who was obsessed with counting gifts, was the first to get tortured. For some reason, one of his gifts disappeared shortly after he counted them. He couldn’t understand how. Had he counted wrong? It bothered him immensely, and my wife and I thought it was terribly amusing. The pattern of gifts disappearing continued until there were hardly any left under the tree. The kids couldn’t figure it out.
On Christmas Eve morning, the kids were each allowed to open one gift, and that was from a friend of the family. Nikolai had nothing else left under the tree. He accepted it as part of life, and said it was okay if we didn’t get him any more gifts – talk about a fun spoiler! That evening, after the kids were all in bed, all those presents reappeared back under the tree. They were all up by about 7 a.m. on Christmas Day, but we managed to delay them until about 8:00 before we gave in and let them open their gifts.
The remainder of Christmas Day was spent doing really nothing much, although Nikolai and I did go out and hide a present for a geocaching friend in the woods near her house. The trek through the deep snow, even a short distance, was hard work but fun.
It was time to hit the road again on Saturday. That morning we visited with my cousin and family who had stopped in overnight for use of the “Bed and Breakfast” before we both headed off in our separate directions to attend Christmas celebrations. With the blustery and snowy winter weather we have been experiencing, the road north was a little slippery, so we took our time to assure reaching our destination safely. The trip took a little longer than normal, but we arrived just after noon. The kids immediately took off to find some cousins to play with and make some noise. We all visited, shared in some food, and eventually opened gifts. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up the van and head for home again. 
We left my parents’ place at a little after 5 p.m., and the return trip was not fun at all. There were a few times when I thought about turning around. The weatherman had called for near white-out conditions in the Lake of the Woods area, and he was spot-on with that forecast. The strong winds blew my van all over the road, and what little snow was falling added to the already lousy visibility. Once we hit the Beltrami County line, the conditions improved a bit, and the drive got better (and faster).
Finally home, we unloaded the van, let the kids open their gifts and then went to bed. We let the kids stay up and watch a movie Abigail that received for Christmas. Since the folks were asleep and didn’t tell them to shut the television off, the kids took full advantage – they told us in the morning that they stayed up until nearly 1 a.m.
Sunday was another day to relax. The kids slept until after 8 a.m., and so did the parents. The day was spent watching television, reading and basically not burning off a lot of energy. That evening, we sat down and played a game of skip-bo, and with four kids and two adults it was chaotic, especially since we had popcorn and candy to go with the fun activity.
This week’s agenda includes a New Year’s Eve party – who all is coming and what we’re doing, we really don’t know. We are still awaiting the arrival of our first great-niece, so a trip to International Falls will be in our near future, too. Who all makes that trek depends on when the child makes her appearance. The month of January looks to be uneventful for the most part – especially if this cold spell lingers.

Please be safe while ice fishing this season, and remember to take a picture to preserve a lifetime of memories. Also please watch out for the buses that are transporting our children. And remember to drive safely this winter season. Thanks for reading, and have a great week and Happy New Year! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

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