Gifts and Jedi

The kids recently ran across this old blog post from our time in Maryland, and requested that I put a similar sign on my door last night.  I was more than happy to oblige.  I don't do festive before 8:30am these days.

As you might expect, four young Hendricksons entered my room this morning at 8:30am sharp, loudly singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (just what any groggy parent wants to wake up to on Christmas Day).  I wearily dragged myself out of bed and changed out of my pajamas . . .

. . .  into something more appropriate: a delightfully tacky Christmas dress I bought this year.  It even has twinkling lights.  The kids love it.

Favorite memories from this year's gift opening session include Anna trying to reach a gift Joy taped to the bottom of a huge box . . .

. . . and Daniel carefully using his new pocket knife to remove wrapping paper.

The kids have also been asking for another Christmas treasure hunt, so I put one together last night.  When Anna read the final clue taped to a plastic wand ("Wingardium leviosa!"--don't forget to swish and flick!), I pulled a ribbon that "levitated" the treasure up from its hiding place behind the blanket basket.  I'm actually kind of surprised that stunt worked, but I'm glad it did. :)

The rest of Christmas looked pretty much like this: playing with a fun little drone, and reading lots of books.

These are my top book picks from this Christmas (plus a mini stollen from Trader Joe's--yum!).  I love Adam Giowitz's retelling of my favorite original Star Wars episode, and the "Jedi lessons" he includes at the end of each chapter are fun and sometimes rather thought provoking (I doubt I'll ever move stuff with my mind, but his instant meditation tip is very helpful).  And I would never have guessed that Shakespearean riffs on Star Wars films would be so much fun if I hadn't read them (and loved them!).

That said, I'm torn about whether to buy the Shakespearean retellings of Episodes 1-3, because I found the films so disappointing.  Maybe the modern Bard's versions would be better though, since I like this author's style much better than George Lucas's prequel scripts.  I decided to look for the Shakespearean prequels in our local library system's online catalog, and was delighted to find that some branches list them in the nonfiction section.  I knew it!  Star Wars is real!!!