Merry Christmas!
I found Carrie and Shane looking at fish together when I woke up. What were they watching? Live guppy birthing. Shane was worried that he wouldn't get to see the guppy moms have their babies, so Carrie scheduled an impromptu health and science lesson.
It was followed up with horse chores! I don't have any pictures of Shane working with me, but I do have him running in to play one of his new games. He's playing The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf.
We didn't do much for Christmas in physical presents since Shane got the aquarium upgrade. Shane bought the Smurfs game with his own money. I'd told Shane he couldn't spend any of his birthday or Christmas money until Christmas, because there are normally sales. It was a good economics lesson. Normally, The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf retailed for $40. On Christmas, it sold for either $32 on the Nintendo Switch or $24 on PC through Steam. I told Shane to pick which version he wanted. He chose the Switch, because he could play it in on the go and it'd be easier to show Cole in SC.
Which was the other big 'present.' I drove Shane down to SC to spend some time with Nana and Pop! I picked up the next Audiobook in the series Shane liked, but we only listened for about an hour and a half of the trip.
We pulled over in Lowell, NC for an emergency poop! We made it before he "exploded."
The bathroom was for customers only, so I bought some Doritos and a Diet Dr Pepper. I haven't had Doritos in a while, so I guess they were a Christmas present for me (I might have bought the spicier variety If I had known Shane didn't like Doritos!).
Traffic was light and the journey took a little under 6 hours with stops. Hooray for Christmas with family!
I wish Carrie could have come, but she got to handle horse chores for the night.
I wore my Santa hat to be festive and temporarily give Nana a reprieve from my long hair.
Shane went to looking for 'the pickle' in the tree right away. The pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. First one to find it wins....and Nana said it was worth $5 this year!
I started to tease Shane that I was going to look and find the pickle before him. It started off as a joke and to add tension, but then he couldn't find it. I started to look more in earnest and it wasn't popping out for me either.
The person who hid the pickle showed up just in time: Evie!
Kathleen and her crew showed up to greet Shane and join the pickle hunt.
They'd already found the pickle this morning when they opened presents. Evie hid the pickle anew for Shane.
Once the pickle was found, the kids proceeded to run like mad across the house.
Shane got his feelings a little hurt when Nana said his hair looked terrible and he desperately needed a haircut.
"You made me hurt his feelings bringing him here like that!" Nana said to me.
"Nana hurting someone's feelings?" Ka asked. "That comes natural!"
Pop, Nana, Ka, and I all laughed. Nana did bring it up again later, but we assured her that she's "well-meaning and honest" (and it taught us how to take criticism as kids!).
Tenley popped up while the adults were talking. She was tired.
After an hour of running, the kids had all parked out on devices in Nana and Pop's room.
Nana made them come out for a bedtime snack before everyone had to head out for bedtime.
Shortly after this pic, I swiped the tablet from Shane. It would've gone better, but Nana's tablet has a handle his hand was through! I had to wrestle for a second as he squealed.
Nana gave me a toothbrush, too. "Mike, I would just as soon kill you as have you not brush your teeth. You know that!"
Indy bedded down with Shane for the night and the house went quiet shortly after 9 PM. It was a busy and fun day.
And that's how we spent Christmas 2021! My plan was to hang around for part of Sunday and start the drive back to the farm somewhere around lunch time. Shane would get a week of extended family time fun to stay connected to the greater whole.
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