Christmas 2016

Yup, it's Christmas again.  While the kids are busy playing Minecraft, I thought I'd take some time out to write a little something about our morning.  The kids are pretty well occupied and are having lots of fun, so why not?

This year, obviously, Minecraft is a huge hit this year.  Creeper and Link got Playstation cash to use to buy new Minecraft skins, maps, and texture packs.  They bought a whole bunch of stuff, including their new favorite, the Fallout map.  They're loving the chance to explore the world and ask about absolutely everything from the game.  Since they don't play Fallout (too many drug references for me to be comfortable with that), they want to know all about it.  I mean, they know some of the basics, like about Dogmeat, and Nuka Cola.  They don't know the world or anything about what they're looking at it.  They just love the world because the adults in their lives are pretty much all Fallout fans.  Their world is surrounded by it.  Besides, my dog gets called Nika Cola and I joked about changing her name to Dogmeat.

Actually, it's hard not to have Minecraft take over their lives.  They love the game and especially love to build and create.  It's a good outlet for them.  They mostly play in creative mode, so it's all about building and designing.  Minecraft is like LEGO blocks, in a way, but digital and totally changeable.

This year Pinkie's presents were all about the art.  She's been complaining about a lack of art supplies, so that had to be fixed.  She got pretty much nothing but art stuff, with some books and a Doctor Who necklace.  Some of the art stuff she got was pretty complex.  The book in the picture, for example, has all sorts of detailed pictures to color, something that will take her a lot of time to work on.  It's not like regular coloring books that take her all of two seconds to work through.  She'll be busy with that one for some time to come.

In a way she was a little disappointed at the lack of toys this year, but she's getting older.  The older she gets the less toys are going to be showing up under the tree.  Besides, I'm pretty sure she's happier with the art supplies and the Pokemon cards than she would be with a whole bunch of toys.  It suits her maturity level better.  She's been very much into art as she's always been.  She was so happy with the art supplies.  With the way she's going we may have to consider getting her more art supplies for her birthday too.  I've never seen her light up quite like she did for the coloring book and the geometric origami.  It's a little sad to see her so grown up, but at the same time it's really cool to watch her grow into the young adult she's becoming.

Link didn't get a whole lot of toys either this year.  He did, however, get a lot of Pokemon cards.  I think he's getting to an age where toys matter less and he's getting into other things.  I'm not going to say he's not into toys anymore.  He very much is, but he's getting to a point where other things are super cool too.

As you can tell by the picture, Link got a lot of Pokemon cards.  He should be able to build a pretty good deck with all of those  cards, especially since some of them are from the newest set.  He's got the special Pokemon set that goes with the Pokemon Moon game.  The set came with a few booster packs, some special holographic cards, and the Pokemon figure you can see in the picture.  Can you tell he was excited for his Pokemon stuff?

I think this is going to be a growing theme for Link.  I'm not going to say I don't want to buy him anymore toys but it's nice to be able to get him something that takes up less space and is equally fun.  Pokemon requires reading skills, logic, and a sense of tactics, making it an educational choice as well.  He's been more into video games than toys lately, but new cards should allow him to make more competitive decks, allowing him to win a bit more often.  It might be a good way to reduce screen time, as well as possibly a way to make new friends at Pokemon League events.

Then there's Creeper.  Creeper's big gift of the year was Minecraft for the PS4.  We had it before for the PS3, but that required changing between game systems, which was sometimes a bit of a pain.  Having it for the PS4 means he gets to play more often without having to change between systems.  This makes for a very happy Creeper.  He couldn't wait to play and didn't want to wait for the new stuff to download to play.  It was an exercise in patience.

There was a bit of a Minecraft theme to his presents this year overall.  Aside from a really cool Hulk figure and some art supplies, he got a bunch of little Minecraft mystery boxes and figures of Alex and Steve.  I think if Creeper's every present could be Minecraft themed from now until the end of time he'd be pretty happy with that.  He was super excited to get more Minecraft stuff.  It's just too bad his birthday and Christmas are right on top of each other.  He could get Minecraft presents twice a year to keep the present flow going.  We might just have to make half birthdays a thing, even though it'll be right around the corner from Bear's birthday.  At least it gives him a chance to get stuff at a different time of the year.

Then there's Bear.  Bear was positively spoiled this year.  Aside from the requested Batgirl costume (in nightgown form), there was also a lot of Frozen stuff, a Rapunzel tiara, a Barbie doll, some DC Superhero Girls action figures, arts and crafts stuff, and some stuff for Bear's baby doll, La-La, a gift from Bear's first birthday.  However the best gift of the whole lot was a little ceramic tea set.  Twice today I've been roped into playing tea before noon.  The only distraction was when Bear decided La-La  was hungry.  Then it was time to break out all the baby stuff and play with for a while.

Now, moment of honesty here, it's sometimes hard to get people on board with getting presents for Bear.  Bear was born male, so people often default to trucks and action figures.  However Bear prefers nightgowns, tutus, dolls, and apparently tea parties.  A lot of people aren't comfortable with that because it buck traditional gender roles.  Some days Bear wants to be a girl, and I'm okay with that, but a lot of people aren't.  I'm just really glad I was able to get Bear some really awesome and enjoyable stuff, and that we were able to have such a nice tea party together.  That really made Bear's day!

Even Nika got some nice gifts for Christmas.  She got a stuffed dragon and a Hover Disc from Ruffwear.  She's honestly not quite sure what to do with the Hover Disc.  I got it on a whim thinking it would be good to use out at the park, whatever parks allow dogs to be off leash.  It would be a good alternative to a ball and it's less strain on my elbow to throw a disc anyway.  That's why I'm able to go disc golfing.

More than anything Nika seemed incredibly confused by everything that was going on.  She didn't know what to do with all the noise, chaos, and paper flying everywhere.  Not sure what she was supposed to be doing, she chose to lay down in the middle of it all and watch the chaos from there.  I would think that would be the most overwhelming spot, but she seemed to like it well enough.  She was the calm at the center of the storm, I guess.  She was so overwhelmed that she barely wanted to hold her disc, though she carried it around for some time.  She didn't even play with her dragon toy, even though I know she loves those kinds of toys.  She likes to snatch them up, chase them around, and toss them.

Overall I'd say it's been a pretty successful Christmas, and this is just round one!  We've got two more Christmas events to go yet.  My parents are coming over tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with us.  Then the day after that my aunt and uncle are coming over.  I don't know what the kids are going to think of all that.  I'm sure they'll feel pretty spoiled after all is said and done.  It's also going to be chaotic for us.  We don't usually have that many people coming over to the house in such quick succession.  We've had our game nights, but that's about it.

The day started out the right way with presents then pancakes for breakfast.  We had our big turkey dinner last night, so tonight we're going to be getting Chinese food.  It's a Christmas night tradition.  I think that's my favorite part of the Christmas tradition.  The kids particularly love it too.  We didn't do it last year because we went to a friend's house for Christmas dinner, but I hope to make it our regular holiday thing again.  If we end up visiting on Christmas in the future we may have to swap things around and make it a Christmas lunch thing, but I particularly like not having anywhere to go on Christmas Day.  It makes for a wonderfully chill day!