Advent (Week 5)

Day 18: Ediger Christmas.  See previous post for this one.  Ellie using her dry erase board… which Jeremy hung for her on the 23rd.

Day 19: Pick out teacher gifts from all the magazines.  Usually, we page through the Heifer International, Compassion Gifts, World Vision Gifts magazines to see what we can donate in our teachers’ names.  This year, the choice was made a bit late, and it hasn’t even been donated yet.  See day 20.

Day 20: Dip a tasty treat to share.  We tried our hand at dipped pretzels with extra candies.  We used Ghirardelli dark chocolate wafers, Reese's pieces, m&ms, white chocolate chips, and sprinkles for this.  Grandma happened to be over, so she helped, too.  (Again, not many pictures…)  These, along with some of our decorated cookies, were bagged up to deliver to teachers and neighbors.

    

Day 21: Have an Out of School Dance party.  We were just tired by the time we tried to do this.  It lasted about 2 minutes and we flopped into our beds.  Don’t get me wrong, we were excited, just tired.

Day 22: Christmas movie day.  Jen and Arturo are already in town, so we invited them and Gloria over for tacos and a movie.  We chose to watch the new Christmas Story sequel.  It was good, but not a classic like the original.  Had we started the movie sooner, we may have watched the other one, too, and had a marathon!  As it was, we called it a night after one plus a bit more. 

Day 23: Stuff and Stamp cards.  We finally got the cards done.  I pushed this off from the week before due to some fun things that came up for us to do.  Grandma and Grandpa braved the blizzard conditions (seriously, there’s a decent number of inches of snow with frigid temps and high powered winds; wind chill is something like –30F) to go get stamps at the post office for them and us. 

Day 24: Go to a Christmas Eve service.  At this point, the service is still on, so we will be going.  Ellie is excited to sing in the choir.  I love how it – the scripture, the music, the decorations - all pulls together to take you through the story of Christmas. 

The girls came home and put out a Santa plate although this was the first year they called into question the reality of Santa.  We will see how it progresses.  The fun of imagining what it is all about.

Day 25: Celebrate Christmas!  We had our small family Christmas in the morning.  Ellie was very excited to give Madison her gifts (room diffuser for oils and more).  Madison was excited for me to get what she made (bowl covers).  And Pepper even got some gifts.  Jeremy got a perfectly wrapped gift out of all the scraps we had. 

         

I was excited for my gift from Jeremy – a place to put our travel magnets (souvenir of choice).  It is also home to family photos and currently, a menu (we’ll see if I keep it up).  

After church, the Lego building commenced right away.

We had a pretty quiet day until about 5pm when we went over to Grandma Yoh’s to welcome the Minnesota Yoh's to town!  The kids are growing up and are all starting to play well together – not particularly quiet, but no group of cousins ever is!  It is fun to watch them bond a bit more each time we are together.

Ediger Family Christmas

I’ll confess.  I didn’t take very many pictures this year.  Christmas still happened.  We gathered on Saturday night for a sloppy joe/shredded chicken dinner.  It just wet our whistles for the food and fun that was to come.  The evening gathering is nice because it gives us just a bit more time to be together without the “interruptions” of presents and other Christmas day stuff. 

The next morning, we returned to mom and dad’s house for coffee cake and sausage biscuits and gravy.  It was a delicious start. 

As breakfast was finishing up, people took family pictures….

     

We then eased into gift opening. There was a plot twist this year though.  When Grandpa was wrapping gifts and lost track of a sticky note, the gifts became a free for all.  We each opened a gift, but we had no idea if it was ours or not.  In fact, in everyone’s random choosing, no one chose their own – kinda surprising.  Our job was to try to guess whose package we had opened.  Sometimes, the look on someone’s face gave it away… and sometimes the person just couldn't wait and shouted a claim to it. 

    

Madison received a LEGO succulent set, a small backpack purse, and a fitbit watch.  Ellie was gifted a LEGO theater set, a dry erase board and markers, and a squishmellow.  They were very excited about their gifts.  In fact, the very next day, they spent a couple hours working on the Legos right after school!

Grandpa always does a really good job making sure the boxes are securely taped shut.  This year was no exception and he stepped up his game with the use of Gorilla tape.  We gave him a taste of his own medicine with his present wrapped in different directions with packing tape.  It was a fun joke to watch. 

There was a short break to the school gym while lunch was baking in the oven.  It was a smaller crowd than normal – Lilli and Nate were recovering from surgery, Luke is awaiting surgery, and some just wanted to chill with indoor games at the house.  But for those that went, the scooters came out, the mats came out, there was Knock-out, and some hail Mary football passes. 

We headed back in time for lasagna, chicken alfredo, salad, layered jello, and zwieback. 

Throughout the day we had lots of talking, laughing, some soccer watching, domino playing, and much more. 

It was a good day to be together. 

Advent (Week 3)

Day 11: Visit Bethlehem (with a bonus drive by caroling)… The youth group at church wanted to carol to people, but didn’t want to miss anyone.  So, they stationed themselves around the parking lot and sang as people drove through.  It reminded me a bit of our COVID birthday parties!  It was fun… we even got Silent Night in German by one group! 

    

Later, we headed to the fairgrounds for a Night in Bethlehem.  We were escorted through nine scenes of Christmas – even were almost attacked by bandits after our tax money!  We all enjoyed this night.

    

Day 12: Frost Cookies… It always help to have extra help to frost.  The first 10 cookies are good, but then the fatigue sets in a bit.  They powered through.  I started frosting and Madison was my sprinkle expert.  Now we can share them.

Day 13: Attend a band concert… Only Madison had a concert tonight.  Ellie started playing the clarinet this year, but they only have a 5th grade band concert in the spring.  Madison’s 7th grade band sounded pretty good tonight.  She had some favorite holiday songs.  One song was a bit daunting with a whole bunch of 1/8 notes!  It is always fun.

         

Day 14: Draw holiday pictures… We spent some time drawing – guided or creatively some pictures.  Our plan is to spice up some our cards we send out this season. It was a fun moment.

Day 15: Wrap gifts… We used the ping pong table this year and it was a game changer – no sore back, lots of room to wrap, and a solid work surface.  They get better and better at their wrapping each year.

Day 16: Fondue night … This was a new one this year.  I was only going to do chocolate, but decided to go all out.  So, I had a chicken broth base to cook steak, shrimp, chicken, potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.  It took awhile to cook each one, but it was delicious.  Then, I rolled the chocolate out – strawberries, marshmallows, grapes, pretzels, bananas, and apples.  It was a lot of fun.

         

Day 17: Decorate at Stirrup Courage… Stirrup Courage hosted a open house on Sunday.  I took the girls (and met my baptism mentee, Cait, there) to decorate.  Ellie took off to do horse things with her riding partner from session time.

   

Madison, Cait, and I worked on decorating walls with wreaths, tinsel, and packing tape.  It was a challenge.  It was also freezing cold.  I think all of us were thawing out late into the night.

    

Stay tuned for Ediger Christmas and week 4!

Advent (Week 2)

Day 4. Make a paper craft…  This was a new activity this year.  We often do a craft, but we had not done something like this before.  We made paper snowflakes from paper lunch bags.  Here is website if you are interested. 

         

Day 5: Make something aromatic…Another new activity for this day.  We made stovetop potpourri.  The girls didn’t know what potpourri was so that was a learning experience.  But we ladies all pretty much like the smell.  Jeremy, I learned, doesn’t appreciate the smell of cinnamon-scented things.  It is on our stove and it is still fragrant.  I, personally, really like it.

Day 6: Christmas books at the library.  This one is always a treat.  I love finding picture books we have read and new ones that we haven’t seen before.  We come home and at least read 2 together.  The girls usually plow through them on their own later.

Day 7: Snowman Pancakes for Supper  This is a classic.  Jeremy happened to be out of town when this activity came up and chose to wait until he returned to do it.  Because, as they said, “Daddy always makes the best snowman.”  Gloria joined us for Sunday lunch for this one!  In the order they were created: Ellie, Madison, Gloria, Jeremy, (Madison’s weight loss snowman!), and Erin.

              

Day 8: Shop for and deliver gifts to the Humane Society.  This year we invited Grandma E to join us.  She had never been to the humane society, but we always think she should have an animal from there.  We first bought some things to donate using the money from their summer bake/garage sale. 

Then, we played with some animals.  Madison’s favorite was cat named Sugar.  Ellie loved a different cat.  We were overwhelmed in the cat room.  And there were some cute dogs – a whole litter of mini golden doodles that we couldn't play with because they had just been fixed.  But they were so cute!

         

Day 9: Shop for family Christmas gifts…. We went to Canton and braved the traffic.  We found gifts for the cousins on both sides.  The girls also have a lot of fun splitting up and shopping for each other.  We ate at an Asian-inspired restaurant called Bibipob.  It is so good!

Also on Day 10, Madison participated in the school spelling bee.  This is a big deal in that she has to spell in front of all the kids grades 5-8.  She did a great job speaking clearly and looking confident.  She got out (along with a slew of other kids) in round 8 with the word “benefitted.”  While it was disappointing to her, she also had a lot of fun and wants to participate next year.

    

Day 10: Make cut-out cookies… This is Madison’s favorite part of the cookie process.  Ellie likes this part too.  They always know when they see this on the calendar, the frosting comes soon!