The rest of Christmas break

Since it was Will's last Christmas with us we asked him what traditions he wanted to make sure we did this year.  He always chooses Secret Santa.  Isaac and Mike hate this tradition, neither caring about gifts or gift-giving.  Eli is neutral and the girls and Will love it every year.  None of the kids guess right except for Will how knew that Felicity was his Secret Santa after the first day.  She was very excited about gifting him combs and a partly deflated balloon as well as a stamp she got at the Trunk-or-Treat.  She also made his bed, cleaned his room, did his Saturday chores, and gave him some of his favorite treats.  The other kids did service (made beds, gave coupons, helped with homework, took girls to parks) and requested Mike and I buy various treats for their giftee.  Nail polish, bath bombs, and money in pillowcases were some other ideas.  We also kept our tradition of the Aliens visiting with underwear or socks.  We did some other fun Christmas things but there were some disappointments too--our Laila gifts never arrived, for example.

Some other things we did during our break were take a trip to see lights (already posted) and take a trip to Yokahama to see China Town (I'll give this one it's own post).  A few years ago we all decided that maybe gingerbread houses were a tradition none of us cared about anymore but Mike wasn't a part of that conversation and he ended up picking up some kits at the commissary.  The boys were really nice and patient and helped the girls with their gingerbread houses.  We snuck in a family picture on the rooftop of our apartment on Christmas day and made pizza.  Over the break Will and I walked around Shibuya to find tissue paper, washi paper and a special glue so he could make his own paper for origami.  We did find most of the supplies but we had a good time together and we ordered the rest online and he got right to making paper.  His homemade paper worked out way better than the paper he'd been using and he has been making his own every couple of days.  

It was a good break and I'm sad the kids are back at school.  Having them home feels so much more natural to me than having them gone.  I wonder when that feeling will reverse...