Christmas puzzles

[jethrien]

I wanted to do something special on Christmas Eve. In previous years, I've taken ARR on long, elaborate adventures - up to the Botanic Garden for the train show, or out to the Museum of the Moving Image for a Muppets Christmas Special. This year that obviously wasn't happening. So I sent Chuckro and ARR on a walk and I made them a string maze. They each got a ribbon that I wove all through one floor of the house - around chairs, under furniture, through handles, criss-crossing themselves and each other, etc. They had to follow their ribbon, wrapping it up as they went. Every few feet was a surprise - mostly notes with terrible Christmas jokes, but also individually wrapped s'mores supplies (so at the end, we could make s'mores). We've stolen a Christmas Eve tradition from Iceland - we each get to unwrap one new book, and then we cuddle in bed and read and eat chocolate. So halfway through the string was their chocolate bar, and then the strings wove their way up stairs and ended with the wrapped book on their respective pillows. Entertainment was had.

On Christmas, ARR drafted Chuckro into a project while I was upstairs reading. I guess he'd decided it wasn't fair that I didn't get a maze. So he insisted on doing a scavenger hunt for me. He came up with a dozen clues all by himself and made Chuckro type and print them, and then he hid them around the house. He drew me a picture to be my prize. Then he came up to retrieve me.

I think it might have been one of my favorite presents ever.