Our Christmas holidays have always been busy. Some years would find us traveling to New York, Japan, or Oregon. Others would be spent at home, bouncing between visits to the many members of our extended family. This year was the latter, but with a new wrinkle: this was the first year with three kids when poor Sumie was on call. And, sadly, this is not a call she can take from home. She'd be schlepping to the hospital each morning as her kids - in Christmas mode - gobble cookies and complain to their father that they want to watch more Odd Squad.
Even with Mama on call, we still found a way to fit in all the festivities we could. We started off with a new experience for Mimi. She took part in her first gymnastics development meet. She's been taking classes for about two years now and finally made the cut to take part. She competed in four events, several of which were causing her quite a bit of apprehension a few days before the meet. About a week before she told us she wanted to back out, but she eventually "girled-up" and found some confidence.
The day of the meet, Kuri and Mari cheered their big sister on. When all the events were over, Mimi was holding her head high as she accepted her medal.
Kuri's Japanese preschool had a host of holiday activities. On the last day, the kids each received a special gift to share with their families.
Back at home, we opened the package Kuri received and found a beautiful New Year's wreath, complete with artwork Kuri had prepared at school.
We were also quite taken with the Advent calendar Kuri created. For each day he would glue on a cotton ball to complete Santa's beard.
Mimi's last day of school was a blast. Not only was it pajama day, immediately after school she got to make Christmas cookies with all of her friends.
A few days later, it was Christmas Eve and the kids were all wondering what Santa was going to bring them. But they'd have to wait. We had a party to attend in Napa, where amidst the wonderful time with family, there was a constant battle to keep Mari off the stairs.
And finally, after the kids had amazingly slept a full night, Christmas morning came. Mimi and Kuri ran out of their room to find a few new presents under the tree and an empty plate of cookies. The kids were raring to go, which was good for us because we needed to get through our Christmas morning quickly before Sumie headed down to the hospital.
In terms of gifts, this year was a bit of an anomaly. The kids really didn't have any recommendations to share with Santa. Well, they had a few (Mimi wanted a phone and Kuri wanted "more cars!"), but these were vetoed. As such, Santa had some serious thinking to do. Thankfully, the jolly old guy came through.
Mimi was greeted with a Kano computer. This is a raspberry pi based machine, complete with keyboard and screen, that helps introduce kids to coding concepts.
One of the best things about this little computer is that it comes as a kit. Mimi and I spent about an hour Christmas morning building it.
And, as I expected, as soon as I had connected it to wi-fi Mimi had jumped past the coding challenges and pulled up Odd Squad on YouTube. The girl is obsessed.
Ever since Netflix released their new Voltron cartoon, Kuri has been obsessed with the famous five lions. So much so that he was starting to wear out his father's original set of lions from the mid 1980s. It was time for the boy to have his own set of lions. Somehow Santa knew this.
When combined, the robot is pretty impressive.
He can even stand up on his own...
occasionally.
At 22 months, Mari is fascinated by babies, so Santa brought her a little stroller so she can play mama.
She's generally quite gentle with her little baby, but occasionally she reverts. After pushing her baby around the house contentedly she'll get a bit tired, decide it's her turn, grab the baby by the head, chuck it out of the chair, and plop herself down in the stroller.
Later that day, presents opened and played with, and Mama off to work, we set out for another family Christmas party, this time in the East Bay. All the kids had a blast actually sharing their toys (for once).
While Mimi's gift this year was pretty high-tech, we were pleasantly surprised by a more traditional holiday present. Grandma and Grandpa delivered a Lionel train set for the kids on Christmas Eve. As you may have guessed, Kuri demanded it be set up Christmas morning (he'd been asking to set it up on Christmas Eve, but was told Santa wouldn't be able to come if he didn't get to bed). Once the oval had been prepared, we found there was enough room to include Kuri's Tomica train set as well. Kuri was a bit mystified as to why the steam train was faster than the shinkansen.
This was a pretty special gift for the family because it opens up a lot of family history, despite being new. We broke out a few of our other engines.
This green one is from 1928 and was my maternal grandfather's. Amazingly, it runs fairly well and can even still pull its three coaches.
We also ran this beast, from the 1950s, which had been given to my dad for Christmas over 60 years ago. This was also the engine that pulled my train cars when I was a kid. It rather amazes me that my kids are playing with toys that span four generations our family.
It's now two days since Christmas and we've, somewhat, cleared the house of wrapping paper and gift debris. Kuri is learning how to form Voltron on his own and operate the electric train safely (we had quite a few derailments in the first hour or two). Mari is becoming a better dolly mama and learning not to sit in her baby stroller (slowly). And Mimi, with a little encouragement from her papa she jumped into some of the coding challenges on her Kano. Turns out she really enjoys them. After a few hours, and a bit of beta testing with Papa, she had finished her first game - a version of Pong - to share with Mama. It was pretty cool. She figured out how to start with a huge ball and then make it shrink just a little bit each time you hit it. She also added sound, adjusted the speed, and set it so that the first player to six points would win. Lots of "if-then" logic statements. We were pretty proud of her.
Our Christmas was a lot of fun this year, but what we're really excited for is for the afternoon of December 29th. That's when Mama finishes call, has a few days off, and we can really begin to celebrate the holidays. I hope she knows just how much this family appreciates all she does for us and the sacrifices she makes. Despite all the fun presents this year, having her home full-time will be the best gift of all.
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