Keeping up with the Manssons: Christmas 2015

After Santa Came

Christmas was a pretty laid back affair this year. We didn't do any decorating until after Jillian's party mid-month, so we had a very festive two weeks trying to squeeze and the craft projects in. Andrew and I have been slowly buying stuff...but most of it is educational...which is my way of justifying buying so much. Henry's legos are great and he LOVEs doing them. Jillian likes them as well, but not quite as much as Henry. So she is getting Goldie Blox, which seem to be a little more her speed. The Zipline is one of her favorites. We also got a snap circuit board for Henry, which he likes. Jillian likes it too, but she is still too little to understand the physics behind it. We also got a board game called 'robot turtles' which is great. Even my brother seemed to like it...which is something because he is skeptical about everything. The basis of the game is to teach the logic of coding by putting 'code cards' down to move your robot turtle. I am so glad we got this. The kids love it and it great to play as a family. Andrew also got Jillian all the Octonauts for Bath time. She was only missing 2 of the 8, but you can't buy them separate! I have a hard time saying no because bath time is one of the only times that Jillian has one on one Daddy time. Jillian also got a few board games, since she loves to play games. And books, lots and lots of books. Henry is now reading at a 5th grade level! He is just amazing. I am having trouble finding books that are age appropriate that challenge him. He is very happy reading the Magic Tree House books, and those are around 4th grade level. Magic School bus books are good too. He wanted to try Hero Factory (which is a Lego brand), and those are over 5th grade, so we will see what the content is. I figure he has to like the books. Jillian is starting to sound out words, so I think we will start her on the BOB books, but mostly she likes princess, my little pony, and other fun books to read. For Andrew and I, we did our shopping a little early. We hit up La-z-boy and purchased a new couch and entertainment center. These were very needed because the old couch was stained from the kids/dogs. And the entertainment center was broken because the kids hung on the doors. This also meant that Andrew purchased a new TV (yes folks, we now have 2 TVs in our house!) and a Bose Sound bar. The new one is a whopping 60 inch flat screen if you can believe it. Andrew did some hemming and hawing, but he decided on the bigger one. It is a 'Smart TV', which I love because I can play Pandora on it and not have to hook up the iPod to listen to music. Plus it connects with all our TV services (hulu, netflix, our computer) without needing the xbox or other console. So it is very nice and it is HD so it is WAY nicer than our old TV. The old one has a home in our sitting room (Grandma's old room) and it is a good size for that. We moved all the game systems over there, so that riffraff (controllers and stuff) is out of the living area. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!