A Most Wonderful Christmas

We couldn't ask for anything better. We are all safe, healthy, and happy together over the winter holidays. We are cherishing every moment: playing board games, building structures, reading books, scootering around the neighborhood, and ordering Chipotle whenever we feel too lazy to cook!

After a ridiculous amount of computer time due to virtual schooling and work-from-home for the last five months, both kids and parents having less screen-time every day is a blessing.

We get to play with our Silkie chickens, do more gardening in the front yard and backyard, or just walk around the neighborhood hunting for Christmas lights. 

Fae gets so excited about spotting new lights on a house that her tiny body shakes all over with emotion. She points at them in the pointiest pointy kind of way. I mean really, really pointing: from the tip of her toe all the way to the nail of her pointing finger tip! She even inhale-grunts for emphasis.

Then, after the many shouts of awe fade away, she resumes her never-ending quest to find every single sprinkler head on every single front lawn. She makes sure to check each sprinkler with her little fingers just in case it needs adjustment. She also cleans the mini solar panels of solar lawn lights. She can't really do much to them, but we keep a watchful eye on her anyway and help her move on when she gets too motivated. It's a fun job. That, and convincing her to stay on the sidewalk and follow the siblings. It takes quite a lot of negotiating. Luckily, we have all the time in the world right now. 

Mara and Gaius continue to build giant forest forts out of logs whenever we reach the park. We go on off-times, to minimize contact with people. 

Our county has widespread Covid-19 transmission right now, and a mandatory stay-at-home order as hospital beds are nearing capacity (source). Our area is better than the overall state, but local hospitals already started diverting patients at times. Wishing everyone good health...

But in our own little world, we try keep those thoughts to a minimum. 

Mara loves to swing from her secret tree swing branch:

And Fae is generally ecstatic about being outdoors. She simply loves it.

Every day she will bring you her little red shoes and point to the front door to convince you of her plan. We do our best to obey the little general's orders, day after day.

This year Mara and Gaius got new scooters from Santa! It was about time, they had definitely outgrown the other ones. They are perfect for Fae to start learning now.

Here is Fae passing on the knowledge she had just acquired from her older sister Mara, onto the raccoon. They do not know that they are secretly being stalked by Wisp...

We took both kids and scooters to the park, for a test ride. They are perfect! 

Fae walks her little inherited scooter around, or happily rides on it if you pull it by the handles. She's had some attempts at a single-leg ride but there's still much to figure out.

This Christmas, thanks to our friend Chandni, Mara had a most magical moment! A moment which she gracefully shared with both Fae and Wisp:

Gaius, Fae and Wisp loved playing with lights:

Fae got a ton of different Neigh-Neighs to play with, her absolute favorite word. She'll declare Santa's reindeers to be neigh-neighs too. And the occasional cow. But mostly horses.

Last, but not least, the Silkie chickens have been a wonderful addition to our home!

They are utterly silly, fuzzy companions, ever curious about exploring the garden, so fun to feed by hand, lovely to hold and hug! Some of the chickens love their human hugs and fall asleep; others will patiently tolerate it, while the four newest members of the coup are quite skittish still but slowly warming up to us. 

This week Greg surprised me with installing the Coup-Snoop, aka "🐔 Coup". It's an outdoor Nest Camera set up inside of the coup. This way I can see the chickens anytime  - even on those very cooold mornings when I don't want to get out of bed!

We luckily installed it just in time: Popo Carrots, the eldest and wisest of the chicks, decided to grace us with our very first egg, right on Christmas Eve! Here's Popo, going in for the Lay:

We even discovered a new guilty pleasure this vacation: we play Immortals Fenyx Rising together every day during Fae's afternoon nap. It's a great motivation for everyone to keep quiet when Fae is trying to fall asleep. 

The game is outstandingly fun, due to the gliding and climbing dynamics that lets you explore the world in wonderful ways. One person driving the controls, the others are watching on dual screens and proposing ideas. Greg is obviously the best at the active part, and the most entertaining - he determinedly carried a massive cabbage across multiple mountains and chasms to get a quest fulfilled! But by now Mara is a master Epic Rooster fighter as well.

Here are the kids' life-size recreations of Fenix's giant Axe of Atalanta and the very sharp Sword of Achilles:

To top it all up, Fae finally - finally! - said the word "Mommy" for the first time!

It took over a year of us casually waiting for it, then followed by a whole month of us begging her to say it, after her first birthday in November, once she could obviously say a ton of things. Like, a very clear "Bay-bee", a not-so-clear butterfly: Ba-ba, a very eloquent and quite frequent Meow while pointing to Wispy, and a ridiculously clearly stated Raccoon.

But nope, no Mommy calling whatsoever. At least not to Mommy's face!

She finally said the sweetest, cutest Mah-mee right on Christmas Eve, and warmed my heart for eternity.

So yes, indeed, it is a Most Wonderful Christmas.