A Georgia Girl in Germany

December was a catch-up month for us. After being gone half the month for Granny Walker’s funeral and then our Thanksgiving cruise, I really felt behind the power curve getting ready for Christmas. No surprise, since getting the kids caught up with school was top priority. Fortunately, DODDS has a generous absentee policy (unlimited excused absences...and family trips/vacations are considered excused since they know military families typically like to take advantage of living overseas and that sometimes means parents pull kids out of school), but it also means there can be quite a bit of catching up on school assignments.

Sooo, since our focus was on catching up, we had less time to focus on getting Christmas decorations out, Christmas gifts wrapped and under the tree, Christmas letters (or rather, our annual Christmas quiz) written and sent ... you get the idea. Fortunately, our tree was easy to put up since we didn’t take it down after last Christmas. Instead, we simply moved it to the garage, with the lights still strung. I didn’t put a single ornament on the tree, so Benjamin and MacKenzie led that effort -- Benjamin even made a few miniature ornaments out of fast-drying clay.

However, I didn’t get the last of the presents wrapped until after we ate supper and attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service. The kids didn’t mind waiting to open their Christmas Eve presents, or even really staying up late. In fact, it meant that they slept a little later Christmas morning, which was a nice bonus for me.

By the time Christmas morning rolled around, they were all excited and ready to open their presents. MacKenzie absolutely loved (and still loves) her new Samantha American Girl doll. In fact, just this past weekend, she watched the Samantha movie while curled up on the couch with her Samantha doll.

The kids did real well at keeping a steady flow of gifts moving from under the tree to the appropriate recipient.

When the floor beside the tree became too crowded, the boys moved to the couch to open gifts. Benjamin wasn’t interested in clothes at all though. I had to point out when he opened a package containing “hoodie shirts” (his favorite), and even then he’d only give a miniscule second look. Fortunately, he now enjoys having those shirts to choose from.

Zachary was pleasantly surprised with what Santa gave him this year: an acoustic guitar. He’s pretty good at picking out a few songs using the instructional books that Santa also left for him, but we still need to sign him up for lessons.

Benjamin’s Santa gift was a set of Magna-Tiles, which are different shaped magnetic tiles (hence the name) that he can build with. He loves playing with them at his after-school program and can make some amazing creations, so I was pleased (and so is he!) that he now has his own set.

MacKenzie had been trying to save up her money to buy an iPod, but wasn’t making much progress with essentially just her weekly allowance contributing to her fund. Santa took pity on her and went ahead and gave her one, and she was ecstatic! As you can see, they all received lots of clothes, some wonderful games, and a handful of movies, a few books and other wonderful gifts.

Labels: Benjamin, Christmas, MacKenzie, Zachary