Ehlana and Naomi:
The girls are taking this update because we’re not having co-ed sleepovers tonight – though one of us did suggest that to the parents; and that might have been fun if they’d agreed. They didn’t; so we’re at Naomi’s house for the night; while Ethan is at Aiden’s home; and there is a kid-free night happening at the Proctor homestead!
The news we should cover from last night included the family-and-friends’ dinner; an hour of Christmas ornament crafting; and animated Christmas shows that were picked by the youngest kids in the house. About half of the boys skipped that and opted for gaming in the lounge, but after the rest of our guests headed for their homes for the night; we had the lounge available for co-ed cuddling and a ‘Home Alone’ mini-marathon that none of us stayed up late-enough to watch beyond the end of the first sequel. We’ll have to book the rest of those movies for another night.
We all had chores to do this morning at our respective houses, but that only took a couple of hours; and then we were part of a moderately-large group that headed for Maple Valley and their pandemic-adapted Christmas festival. Instead of a parade and then the usual food, games, and entertainment; they set up a section of town including their park for a socially-distanced walk-through event. Floats, booths, and stages were set up along the route, and while small groups could stick together; there was a fair bit of spacing between each venue and those groups of walkers. We think that the plans were a nice compromise; and we had a lot of fun even without the same sense of community participation. We picked up holiday treats, a few gifts, and won a total of eight prizes for our group; the music and skits were entertaining; and we liked the floats and balloons – even if that definitely isn’t the same to have them stationary while walking past them instead of the other way around.
We didn’t stay together after getting home – the larger group, but Ethan and Aiden were with us for snacks and hot chocolate with Mom and Dad; we followed that up with a band practice; and then it was time to pack overnight bags for two of us before we split up once we got to Naomi’s house. While the boys moved on to a night that is including video gaming and other guy stuff, we’ve helped out with making dinner; dealt with Zack and Eli as they’ve done their very best to annoy us since getting here from Zack’s house; and we watched a Christmas chick flick with Naomi’s parents – in part because that at least kept Zack and Eli from bugging us for the entire hour-and-a-half. They still bugged us with random pranks and attempts to scare us – and have continued that trend since we all headed for our rooms for the night, but they also needed time between ‘attacks’ to plan out the next prank – and they’ve gotten distracted by their video games two times now too.
Since coming up to Naomi’s room, we’ve played some music; watched Christmas music videos; and enjoyed the girl-chat time – with the breaks to fend off Zack and Eli. Those younger brother or cousin irritations are a small downside to an otherwise awesome day; so we can’t really complain about them too-much. That doesn’t really work anyway; since the louder we complain; the more they get motivated to bug us to new extremes.
Okay, that isn’t always true, since pretending to ignore them can goad them on too, but we’re sure that anyone reading this in the future can relate to our situation if they have annoying younger siblings! ;^)
That’s pretty much all we have for today; so we’ll wrap this up with our Christmas music pick for the day. Naomi’s choice fits in with our theme for the week; and one of the songs we’ve been practicing with the band to use at church. We hope that you like it as much as we do.
Light Our Way – The Florin Street Band
This is Ehlana and Naomi (Seager) Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
