What-What?! Week of January 3rd

 We survived the holidays!  Here's hoping 2021 is better than 2020.

This is probably not all the pictures that I will post -- there are a number of other activities and things I need to get photos of.

This year, we didn't get too many pictures of kids unwrapping presents

Most of them were blurry too xD

LEGO TIME!

Star Wars dudes, Star Warsing along

Saffron got this cool dragon fake-Lego thing.  It's actually a Game of Thrones toy, but when you just have the dragon and egg and none of the other stuff, you'd never know.  Unlike other fake Lego we've gotten, it was actually pretty reasonable to put together too!

Osric got this big pirate ship toy -- it's pretty cool, with a cannon, prisoner cage, booty, and the ship also eats pirates.

Demonstrating the pirate-eating feature.  Many, many other toys have also been eaten!

We picked up this quirky puzzle -- the way it works is you start with one set of pieces and put those together, and it forms one picture.  Then you rearrange it, and this creates space for a secret ending to the picture in the puzzle -- which is another mini puzzle.

This particular puzzle is about a kid looking for their missing friend, who has gotten lost in a magical maze.  There's weird dragons, a rave party, bizarre houses, goblins, lizards, and so on.  Overall, it has a very Labyrinth meets Hilda kind of feel -- very cute, but a little unsettling all the same.

This is a miniature model firearm that the husband picked up for himself -- these are weirdly adorable.  The finished size is only about 8 inches or so long, and it comes with mini bullets, a stand, moving slide, etc.

The husband also decided to get the grenade launcher too, because you gotta have that.

What-What?! Week of January 6th

Didn't post last week because I was too discombobled to know it was Sunday...

So here's some Christmas pictures!  I swear I had more of these, but I can't seem to find them now.  If I find them later, I will post.

First, Christmas Eve.  This year we opened one present each that night, then the rest Christmas morning:

Our Christmas tree this year -- it was a bit gappy and not the best because there was apparently a tree shortage this year.

Osric was really excited to have this, and we have now played it enough to know where all the ambiguous rules are, because we have argued about them.

This is definitely one of Corwin's favorite gifts -- the Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set.  He immediately sat down and started reading the rules and adventure, and now wants to run a game for the family.

Lego!  Much Lego was had this Christmas -- the house is bit awash in them.

Playing Trouble with Oz

Saffron organized her Lego extensively before building

He is actually happy at this time, but all the pictures of him smiling were blurry. :P

Christmas morning

Giant yeti castle thing -- this goes with his giant yeti thing

This is a pretty cool set -- it's like a cross between Lego and old school Construx.  He's built the crossbow and it works quite well, and also pretty sturdy.  I am impressed.

Saffron got a few Barbie sets this year -- she's gotten a bit back into them.  This is a bee keeper set, and she also got a set with a dog that gives birth to puppies.

Harry Potter GOOD.  This kid got lots of HP this year, much to her delight.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.  This game is moderately loud by itself, but turns into extremely loud with the two boys playing/yelling at each other

I don't know where the other T-shirt pictures I took went, but Oz got this one, Corwin also got a ninja one, I got a pyromaniac squirrel with a flamethrower, and the husband got a DnD dungeon diving one

Saffron got a bit of Hogwarts -- the Whomping Willow, and a portion of the castle, including Snape's office and the Gryffindor dormitories

This is a Lego stop-motion movie making set;  expect some movies in the near future...

A Harry Potter dragon -- the wings on it are posable, so I believe right now it's hooked on her bed

I bought the husband a Star Wars Y-wing Lego set -- this is a big model.  It's not as fancy as the special black box edition (which is something like $300), but very nice all the same.  Eventually would be cool to display this and our other Star Wars sets together somehow.

These Hot Wheels city sets are pretty cool -- the kids bought these sets for each other.  They hook together, and also hook up to the regular HW sets, so you can make a giant area to drive your cars around in.  The boys' have used their own money to buy another four sets since then.  Oz really wants you to know that he bought himself a color shifter car that changes color when in hot or cold water.  Connecting all the sets together takes up about half the living room right now.

Finished HP set -- this took her quite a while to do, but she was able to complete it by herself

Corwin got this building set to create a motorized bug -- it walks around by itself!  Pretty cool set, though he needed help with some of the screws, since the holes weren't very well aligned

Finished bug -- this guy will actually walk over bumps and stuff too, so if you get it started and forget about it, you may find it someplace surprising

There is tons of stuff I don't have pictures of -- I got a ton of music, including some stuff by The Sweet, which is really good if you aren't familiar.  Comic books, a few movies, fancy chocolates... yeah, was nice.  I took about a week and a half off work and mostly actually didn't work, sorta.  Did very little of anything, actually. :)

What-What?! Week of December 31st

Happy New Year!

I have about a million pictures from Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we let the kids open one present each (in the afternoon, so they'd have time to play):

Osric opened up a Playmobil set.

Saffron got a My Little Pony doll set.

Corwin opened up a Star Wars AT-AT toy.

The husband opened a video game (Diablo III), and I also got a video game (Okami)

I don't seem to have any other pictures from Christmas Eve -- we had ham, Yorkshire pudding, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce for dinner.  We're still eating ham.

A photo after "Santa" visited -- very quickly ran out of space under the tree...

We had a white Christmas -- a good 2-3 inches of snow.

The husband made cinnamon rolls for breakfast -- yum!

And then... presents!

The big kids both started reading their books after they were done opening presents.

This is the book Corwin got -- it's a pretty cute story, and very much up is alley.  When he gets a bit older, I think he'll enjoy the show a lot.

I found these Playmobil Ghostbusters sets on Amazon, and picked one up for each of the kids.  In total, we now have a Staypuft Marshmallow Man set, a Slimer hotdog stand set, and a Demon Dog set.

In the afternoon, we went out to play in the snow.

Getting snowballs ready.

Our conical snowman -- he lasted a good 3 days or so.

Playing with the neighbors.

I also got a puzzle with birdies -- only 500 pieces, but pretty hard because half the pieces are green and yellow.