The Goose is Getting Fat, but Not Chris (week 470)

This was an amaaazzzing week.  I've been thinking about this Christmas ever since I saw a Skilz Mini Hoop two years ago. In between then and now, I've been furiously Googling the Hoop, watching Youtube videos of other kids playing with it, and practicing with an imaginary version by dunking avocados through a stretched out coat-hanger mounted on my closet wall.  But now it is finally MINE, thanks to the mercy of Santa and my mom.  

Other parts of Christmas were great too.  Grandpa Mike and Grandma Paula got here at noon on Christmas Eve day, just in time to make lefsa (Norwegian potato tortillas) on Cheryl's griddle set up on our dining room table.  You eat them with cheese, Swedish meatballs, cranberry jelly, and (my personal favorite) lots of SUGAR.  Then we went to the candlelight service at our church where kids bravely sang solos, a handbell choir played, and Robert blasted out Christmas carols on the pipe organ.  The Hubers and the Armstrongs sat behind us in the balcony.  Every time a hymn ended, little T-Man would yell out "Hooray!" We had Christmas Eve dinner at the Hubers. I was Tyler's Secret Santa, and I gave him the perfect gift for a two-year-old: a hockey game you can play in the living room.

Christmas morning we opened huge bags full of presents from Santa and ate hot Monkey Bread. Chris stayed in his Christmas jammies all day, busy sewing tiny pillows for Mom and Dad's bed on his new machine, practicing tricks with his new magic kit, and painting the planets in his solar system.  I shot a lot of hoops on my new Skilz.  We ate little roasted chickens for dinner.

The day after Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa took us to the Museum of Natural History to see the mummies and the gemstone collection.  Chris and I took some of our own money to buy souvenirs.  I got a pyramid for my mom and dad, plus an archeology game.  Chris bought a mummy casket to store his new diary keys in. That night Grandma went out to a party with her 7th grade girlfriends and Grandpa, Dad, Mom, Chris and I all played Monopoly till almost midnight.  I couldn't even believe that Chris actually won.