Declan Hercules & Keevah Nyx House: Declan Hercules: Holiday fun!

The holidays have come and gone, and we're all in recovery mode. It was such an amazing month, full of lots of friends, family & fun! We started the day after Thanksgiving with a trip to Steve's Trees to pick out our Christmas tree. Mama doesn't waste any time getting the house decorated! Gran was still around, so we had a few fun days & dinners with her. Even the dogs got into the Christmas Spirit!

The Elves showed up on time on December 1st and had some crazy antics this year. At the top of their shenanigan list was poor Pit getting frozen into a block of ice by Elsa!

floating ramen & thin ice

in a bubble balloon...

The first weekend of December, we continued our annual tradition of inviting our friends to the local ice skating rink. We followed the skate with roasting some smores over our firepit. Keevah went to dinner with Mama and Dada, while I headed with my buddies to our school dance.

School Dance

The last week of school before the Holiday Break, both Keevah and I had huge presentations at school. Keevah did a "poster person" talk on Deborah Sampson, a revolutionary war hero. She did a great job! Then I had my first of two eight grade debates. The topic was "Should College tuition be free?" I was on the team arguing that schools should still be able to charge tuition. Not to be cocky, but I NAILED it! Mama and Dada were definitely proud, but tons of kids and parents told me what a great job I did. Should I consider being a lawyer? (As of now, I'm still leaning towards astrophysics...)

Deborah Sampson poster person

Then it was time for Keevah's birthday party. I can't believe she's TEN! True to form, Keevah chose to have a Wednesday Addams themed party, complete with an actual guillotine that she made with Dada. In addition to a sick cake that Mama made (complete with a stained glass window on top, and two halves decorated separate for Enid & Wednesday), we guillotined small stuffed animals in half & sewed the parts back together in weird combinations to do "stuffie taxidermy"! Mama's brain never ceases to amaze us! We made some "eyeball slime" and did a "mystery box" game as well. Did you know that whole peeled tomatoes feel an awful lot like hearts? Or that dried mangos can be bat ears? The party was great, but I'm the most excited about her main birthday gift: SCUBA lessons! We can now ALL finally go diving together!

building a guillotine

prototype

The decorative tree caught on fire with the candles - kinda perfectly fit the theme...

eyeball slime and science project!

Didn't Grandpa make a great Uncle Fester?

SCUBA lessons!

A new window bed!

A few days before Christmas, we continued another longstanding House Family tradition, and went to see the Nutcracker in SF. We loved our brunch at Son & Garden - they always have the most colorful fun food! The ballet was lovely as always - made more interesting by the minimal lighting in the theater since SF was in the midst of a significant power outage.

On Christmas Eve, we relaxed at home and watched the Santa Tracker all day long. Keevah even sprinkled "reindeer food" on the roof! In the evening, we got all dressed up, went to look at the Christmas lights on Paradise lane, and went to dinner at Auberge de Soleil. It was all so lovely! We got home in time for the clouds to part and for the hail to start! We completed the evening by reading Twas the Night Before Christmas in our coordinated Christmas jammies (my fleece Grinch onesie was amazing). We set out carrots for the reindeer, and a cookie & milk & blue cheese & sauternes for Santa! Mama and Dada remind us every year that Santa gets too many sweets for Christmas, so we make sure to leave out the blue cheese & Sauternes too. Keevah and I have a tradition of spending the night together on Christmas Eve, so this year, I slept on her new window bed.

Santa Tracking

Keevah spreading reindeer food on the roof

The lights on Paradise Lane

Twas the night before Christmas

Sleepover in Keevah's room

Christmas morning came, and we were allowed to wake up Mama & Dada at 8am ON THE DOT. We were blocked from seeing the living room by a giant wall of wrapping paper - which we then burst through to find a huge pile of presents by the tree. We opened some fun stocking stuffers: my personal favorite was a potato with my face on it. We had a yummy breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls, sausages and eggs from our chickens. And then we finally were allowed to open our tree presents after ALL the dishes were cleaned up. We all got so many awesome gifts. My favorites were some fancy books from the Folio Society (God Emperor of Dune, The Iliad & the Odyssey), a homemade stranger things pillow that Keevah sewed by herself, a new Apple watch, and an amazing collection of RAMEN! Keevah got a new ipad and a hugely upgraded sewing machine - and we got a trip to Disneyland for sometime in the near future.

my face on a potato

Keevah gave her good math work to Dada; I'm loving my Stranger Things pillow

New ipad and RAMEN

Disneyland!

We all did a polar plunge in the pool (which was not heated) in the rain, and warmed up with a nice jacuzzi. Christmas dinner was oysters with mignonette followed by a rack of lamb, veggies & wild rice. I After everything was cleaned up, we all watched Stranger Things - complete with Demogorgon onesies that Keevah gave us for Christmas.

We spent a few days after Christmas at home, and then we went to our Tahoe Cabin for a week with Gee & Grandpa. We were able to catch a great snowstorm and went skiing most days. We also loved some sledding sessions and Keevah made a snowman with Mama. The dogs absolutely loved the snow too!

We played Reindeer games (see some videos below) before dinner each night, and enjoyed an awesome dinner out at Edgewood as well.