the education of henry

The First Wave of Christmas

2025-12-14

This was a busy week. We did all the normal school stuff, and Mom started Christmas baking. We took an overnight trip, did some LEGO shopping, and dealt with some cold days and nights. But first, we had some snow.

Moving snow.

School went well this week, we are right on or ahead of schedule on most things. And I am really enjoying baking and cooking classes - especially when what I make tastes so good.

Food Lab: Pizza!

Kneading the dough.

Shaping the dough.

Adding sauce.

Adding cheese.

And into the oven it goes.

Looks good!

This one gets pickles and peppers.

Looking tasty!

Ready to cut.

Now to use the pizza bat'leth - because it looks like a Klingon pizza cutter.

Chop chop!

Qapla' !

Thursday afternoon we had to make a trip to the orthodontist because one of my brackets was loose on my braces. Dr. Brandon fixed me up easy enough, and Dad an I had some extra time to listen to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the drive over and back.

Mom did some baking without me this week. She has been watching Christmas movies and making treats. Maybe someday I will learn how to make all of these....

But for now, I am sticking with bread and basic foods.

Food Lab: Smashed Potatoes, Cooked Carrots, and Biscuits

Making biscuit dough.

Checking my potatoes.

Saving some of the water for later.

Gettng them out of the pot.

Draining the carrots.

Seasoning

Biscuits are done.

Smash smash smash!

Looks good, tastes even better!

Saturday morning we left early in the sub-zero temperature and drove to Freya's house. Once we were there we played with Zelda, exchanged some Christmas presents, and handed over some of the things Mom made (pictured earlier).

With Freya and Zelda.

After we left Freya's, we went to some BAMs - four of them actually. At the first stop, we got to see the castle display that Elliot told us about last time we were up. It gave us some good ideas for the one I am building.

We definitely want to build a windmill and barn like this, and maybe even have a wheat field.

We are going to expand our castle, and I have already built my siege towers.

I don't know if we will build a fortress on a mountain, though.

Dad and I are going to try to build one like this.

The tree and the church are nice additions to the courtyard.

And we need a tower like this, too.

And maybe a dock.

This police wagon chasing bad guys was funny.

Mom found a donut shop next to one of the BAMs. These donuts were AMAZING!

One of the BAMs had a big Minecraft display, with lots of cool details and underground parts.

We also made it to the official LEGO Store, and Dad and I spent some time filing boxes at the Pick-a-Brick wall. We met Kara and Freya there, and Mom walked around with them while we were looking at LEGO. Sorry, no pictures.

After all that, we checked into our hotel, had something to eat, and then we went to see Freya's play, Matilda, at her school. GG and Grandpa Kevin were there, too - although it appears we didn't get any pictures. The play was awesome - so much fun, lots to laugh at!

Dad holding flowers for Freya for after the performance.

Kara showed me around the school.

Freya got a lot of flowers.

After the performance we went back to the hotel.

Sunday morning it was even colder than Saturday, and after having some waffles at the hotel, we headed over to see Nancy and Dave, and to meet some new pugs. Nancy also let me open my Christmas present from her early, but Dad was too slow and didn't get a picture. I got a book on pirates and one on the Plantagenet dynasty by Dan Jones (who wrote the book on Henry V I read earlier this year).

Playing my Switch while waiting for breakfast to open.

These are some friendly pups!

Dave and Nancy with me and Mom.

Then we went to see Great-grandma Muriel, and Gary was there, too. We stayed and visted for a few hours, and then it was time to head home - it's a long drive, and we wanted to be back before dark.

We made it home and had some supper, and after all that time in the car, we all did our own things for the evening: Mom and Dad watched separate movies, and I went down to do some LEGO building.

Even with all that and the baking, Mom still had time to do some puzzles this week.

For this week in reading, I finished my paper on Lord of the Flies. Dad and I finished listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and we listened to all of the second book in the series, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe while we were in the car driving around over the weekend. Dad and I also read some more of Discipline Is Destiny for philosophy class.

We watched some good documentaries this week. The first was The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, about a boy who had a spinal disease that left him in a wheelchair, and how he had a whole life online in World of Warcraft that his parents knew nothing about - until he died and his online friends met his real life family. It was really good. If you have Netflix, you should watch it.

The second documentary was Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about the world's best and most famous sushi chef. Jiro did really dream of sushi. He worked every day at his restaurant, perfecting his craft. He aspired to be a shokunin - a master craftsman, and he became one. A really good story about pursuing your work with everything you have.

We also watched Anthony Bourdain visit Sicily, and Andrew Zimmern visit Britain. We wondered what disgusting stuff Zimmern would find in England, and he did a good job finding some unappealing things to put in his mouth.

And I picked out two History Hit shows for us to watch. The first was about Frank Whittle, who invented the jet engine during WWII. The second was called "The Longest Alliance," and was about the alliance formed between England and Portugal that was started in 1386 and continues today.

That was my week - take care!