Christmas

Courtney mentioned that this year didn't feel like Christmas.  I think part of it is because Ethan isn't here.  But she mentioned that she would really like a white Christmas.  We had thought about going someplace for Christmas, to get a change of scenery, but we didn't want to mess with Covid stuff so we decided to stay home.  But Bryan and I wanted to do something special for Courtney and make it fun.

We came up with the idea of making it snow in our house (not real snow, but fake stuff).  I did some research and we decided to make snow that hung from our ceiling. We spent a couple of days making the strings of snow.  We used a piece of 12-foot fishing line.  We threaded white pompoms and cotton balls on clear thread which we then tied to the fishing line.  I had gone to the library and used their die cut machine to cut out snowflakes.  We attached those, using tape, to the clear thread but then Bryan realized it was tangling the lines up so we decided to put those on after the fishing line was strung on the ceiling.

We set an alarm and woke up at midnight to put everything together.  We strung some Christmas icicle lights from the coffer in our living room (thanks to the new outlet up there) so they would dangle over the lip into the room.  Then we strung the fishing line across the ceiling.

I also bought bags of pillow filling and we put that around like it was snow. I think it turned out really fun.

Christmas morning Courtney was up at 6 am to go out and look at what Santa had brought her.  I was so excited to see her face and hear her delight at seeing the snow coming down from the ceiling.  This is what we got...

So disappointing.  She was too short to notice that things were hanging over her head and she was so focused on what was on the couch that she didn't look up.  Oh well, when she did see it she was impressed.

Christmas morning went well.  Courtney got a Minky Couture blanket from Santa. She was really excited about that one.  She got a shower curtain, towels, candy, books, and some other things.  It was a fun morning.

Ethan had made us some glass fingertip bowls with an inactive member in his area.  The member shipped them to us and we got to open them.  I was really impressed by them.

At 7 am Ethan called.  We got to talk to him and then he opened his Christmas presents with us on the video call with him.  He said it was weird to be the only one opening gifts but it was fun to watch.  He was spoiled by members in his ward and by people from our ward and family.  I was grateful that people thought of him and tried to help make his day special.

After talking to him for a while we let him to go open gifts with his companion and go to an activity with his Zone.

It was a different type of Christmas, but it was a good one.