Laganas rock!: December

All of my December pictures loaded out of order and I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it... so we are starting with New Year's Eve and working our way back towards the beginning of the month. Our friends had their annual New Year's Eve bonfire. This year they added some awesome fireworks for extra help "Burning down 2020"

Rett could not handle the fireworks. They kept shooting them off every few minutes, so he never felt like they were over. Finally I just decided to take him home. I dropped him off at home with my mom and put him in bed, then drove back to the party. My mom said that he popped out of bed as soon as I left and they ended up watching TV together. So he still had a New Year's party, just one more his style.

Over Christmas break we decided to explore west Volusia county and find all 6 wing mural paintings done by a local artist in that area. Over the course of one week we were able to find them all. One of them was in downtown Deland and the boys couldn't get over the "big city" lol.

Angel wings in downtown historic Deland:

Another morning we decided to go see the manatees at Blue Springs. When it is really cold you can see 100's of them all stacked up in the spring. We didn't see that many, but the water was so clear it was amazing how clearly we could see the ones that were there.

Anthony has been trying to hunt wild pigs near our house and on a whim I decided it might be fun to go with him. Never. Again. It was the most mind-numbingly boring experience of my life. I had to crouch on the ground, behind tree branches, being eaten by mosquitos in complete silence staring at this. For hours. I don't know how Anthony can stand it!

Adventuring while finding more wing murals:

Blue Jay wings at Lyonia preserve:

This wing mural was in a park in Cassadaga, a really strange tiny town near the interstate. It was founded in the 1800's by a group of spiritualists who believe that it is an ancient place of power for mediums and other-worldly cosmic forces. There is an entire "spiritualist" community that lives there and every house you pass by has signs outside saying that they do palm readings or seances. So this park was pretty strange. It had entire villages of fairy houses and strange "offerings" in the trees as you walk through the paths.

Fairy wings in Cassadaga:

Christmas morning I decided to try to make homemade cinnamon rolls. They were really good, but my yeast wasn't very strong so they were pretty dense instead of being big and fluffy. Still delicious!

The boys' big presents this year for Christmas were an ATV for James and Gokart for Rett. Here is the video of them coming to the end of their scavenger hunt and discovering their presents.

James was so cold, but so happy to test out his new ATV.

Going for their first ride:

We were also gifted this small jeep power wheel right before Christmas so we just added it on for Rett in case he didn't like his go kart. I was right, he didn't like it. He is definitely not a daredevil kid, that is for sure.

Working together to solve their scavenger hunt clues to find their presents:

Loving their new helmets:

My favorite is how the helmet squeezes their cheeks!

Opening more presents!

Back to decoding:

I always give the boys each a book for Christmas. This was the first year I didn't give them picture books. They have both officially moved on to chapter books/graphic novels.

They both love having to do a scavenger hunt or decipher clues for holidays. Rett actually requests them for his birthday or before holidays.

We got Daniel his very on Dundie!

Daniel always ends up with the favorite gifts. This year he got the boys merch from their favorite Youtubers.

Cool glasses:

Going out for a Christmas Eve fishing expedition:

Anthony and Daniel decided to do some evening fishing from the bank of the river and I tagged along just for company. It was so beautiful! No filters on these pictures, just a naturally gorgeous sunset.

We decided to go to a snow festival in Titusville where the kids can play in "real" snow from a snow machine. They loved it!

We also got souvenir light up swords because they were just too tempting to pass up.

Baby yoda! James has gotten us into the Mandalorian and we all love it now.

Throwing fabric snowballs at random strangers:

Starting snowball fights:

Inflatable hamster wheel:

Our elf: James 3 came out of quarantine and started acting up:

On the last day of school before break everyone got to wear Christmas pajamas and the boys went around with me to hand out Christmas cookies to all of their teachers.

Grandma got the boys these Christmas sweaters that light up and they were a big hit with everyone.

The week before Christmas break the staff had a dodgeball tournament between all the teachers and staff. When each team would come out to play, they would bring their classes to sit on the sidelines and watch and cheer for their teachers. It was the cutest thing! It turns out that the Vice Principal and the Business Manager are two of the most competitive people you will ever meet and since they were on my team, the office team, we ended up winning every game and going to the championship. I played so much dodgeball that week I was sore for days afterwards!

One of our games we played the middle school teachers. They decided to dress up like old people with their nursing home nurse as team captain. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time!

The 9th grade English teacher "lost" her knickers while running to first base. (Totally planned, but hilarious anyway).

I ran out of red Christmas shirts and was the only one on the team without a red shirt. I took a little heat for it and when it was time to play the next team and they needed an extra player, guess who got traded? I was told it was because I didn't have on the right color shirt!

The principle went all in and slid to first base. Everyone kept telling her not to hurt herself and take it easy, but that is not her style.

The old folks:

Awhile ago Rett asked me to buy him a small notebook that he can write in. I didn't really think he would use it, but then I found it later and decided to see what he was writing. I found pages and pages of his "To do lists". They are so adorable! He writes things like "leave school". and "listen to music" and then crosses it off after he does it.

At the cub scout Christmas pack meeting they had their traditional present exchange where they read a story and if they say the word "right" everyone passes the present to the right and if they say the word "left" they pass it to the left. Here they are making sure everyone knows which side is left and which one is right. Rett is not getting it.

The gokart Anthony found on craigslist for Rett:

Burning some brush and eating some marshmallows:

James's letter to Santa this year. He wants an ATV and a Nerf Ultra pharaoh.

This year the city Christmas parade was a drive through parade in park. We just drove through and they handed us things through the window or waved from their booth. It was small, but it was something.

The day we bought James's ATV, we brought it straight to a friends house to hide in his backyard. Anthony was so excited to get to drive it back there. It is just a matter of time before Anthony has an ATV of his own, mark my words.

Leaving the ATV dealership with the new wheels:

Rett found this awesome conch shell at the beach:

We have sprinklers!!

Rett's class on "decade day" dress down day before break. We all wore tie dye and went as people from the 70's.

James 3 came back on December 1st with lego advent calendars for the boys. Unfortunately he has to quarantine for 14 days, so he didn't do much this year. Just moved his jar around the house.