the education of henry

Christmas

2025-12-28

This week was so much fun. I had no school and I was ticket-free for screen time - and I took advantage of it! Dad took the week off of work, so he was home every day, which meant more time for us to hang out. Mom stayed busy making so much delicious food for us to eat - but she also got a break from doing school.

One of my first activities this week was working on a LEGO project, a vignette about a Roman senator attempting to assassinate Cleopatra.

My second draft of the same idea.

Mom made some more French bread.I did help a little, but Mom did most of the work.

Wednesday: Christmas Eve

Mom was busy making food most of the day, including cinnamon rolls, in addition to all of the Christmas goodies, and our evening buffet. And we opened the presents we got each other in the evening.

Focaccia bread for supper.

Mom making savory tartlets.

Here's the whole spread for our Christmas Eve buffet.

While Mom was busy in the kitchen, I got a fire started.

A plate of good food, a pile of presents, a roaring fire...if this isn't nice, what is?

A poster of Winston Churchill.

Star Trek: Lower Decks complete series for Mom.

WALL-E and EVE

Travel tea mug for Mom.

K-2SO

Star Wars: Outlaws video game.

A new Wrecker shirt.

Mom got a new cup for her dirty brown water.

Toothless!

Dad got some books.

Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline Trilogy for Mom.

Mom and Dad bulked up my present pile by wrapping up the gift-with-purchase sets they got when buying my presents.

England!

Mom got some fancier tea.

Dad got more books.

Whoo-hoo! Money!

A travel tea-brewing thermos.

A Star Destroyer!

Mom and I had a little tussle over the new bread book.

More books for Dad, no fighting over them.

Mom found a guidebook from Harlech Castle!

Dad got the complete Longmire TV series.

And Mom got The Picard Legacy Collection, which has the complete Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series, movie series, and the complete Picard TV series.

A shirt with Dwight's favorite things.

Once everything was opened, we watched The Man Who Invented Christmas, a movie about Charles Dickens that was similar to Shakespeare In Love, in that it showed the real-life things that inspired Dickens to write the story. Not sure how much of it was true, but it was a very good film.

Thursday: Christmas Day

Christmas morning we did a video call with Kara, Josh, Freya, Zelda, GG, Grandpa Kevin, and Great-grandma Muriel to open more presents. Since we were on a call, there aren't many pictures of everyone else.

Zelda got to open the first present because she is the youngest.

More money!

A WWII book.

Dad got a history of the Vikings (the people, not the football team).

An Osprey book on Henry V conquering France.

The only picture of all of us at once from Christmas.

Dad - boxing day is tomorrow.

Bloody Crowns! Michael Livingston's new book! And I just got an email from him, too!

Very excited about a new book from my favorite historian.

Freya got some books, too.

Another Osprey book - about Agincourt!

The new MTT!

Trying to recreate some of my boundless youthful exuberance while opening presents.

Zelda wearing the sweater we got her.

After the presents, Mom had a rest day before she had to do some more baking. Dad and I played my new video game for a few hours, and we all watched A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Saturday

In the morning we packed up all the treats Mom made for the Christmas party at David's scheduled for Sunday...that ended up being cancelled due to the predicted blizzard. We also went to BAM and picked our final bag of free LEGO. It was nice to get all the free bricks, but we are all tired of having to pick so many bricks every month. And Grandma Wynne and Grandpa Al were both sick, so Dad picked up my presents from them while Mom and I picked bricks.

Last one.

Sunday

Mom went to work getting things ready for school to start up again on Monday. Dad and I played Outlaws, and hung my new posters. And we all watched the rain in the morning and the snow that fell all afternoon and into the night.

The space in the middle is for Shackleton - once we find a poster of him.

And I opened the last of my Christmas presents.

Phoenix Squadron!

A Clone Wars t-shirt.

A big biography of Winston Churchill. Mom says I have to read all 1,000 pages of it before we can go to Blenheim Palace (where Churchill was born).

This one was heavy and full of newspapers.

...and a brick?

Ah! These are for the kind of bricks I like.

And because I don't think we have enough pictures from this week, here are some other LEGO projects I worked on:

Han and Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina. I did this a week or two ago, but I don't remember if we posted a picture.

A new mercenary knight. I am making up a whole story for him.

And I made him a little cart.

A little Lion Knight vs. Viking vignette.

I had the week off from reading, but Dad and I did finish Life, the Universe, and Everything. And then we started the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.

We took a break from documentaries this week. As mentioned earlier, we watched The Man Who Invented Christmas and A Muppet Christmas Carol as a family. Otherwise, it was all about Middle Earth this week. Since I was ticket free, I watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy - the extended editions - three times. Then, over four nights, Dad and I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and The War of the Rohirrim. Oh, and I also watched a documentary about J.R.R. Tolkien on History Hit.

And that was my week. I hope everyone had a nice holiday, and thanks to everyone for the presents! Also, big thanks to Mom for making so much delicious food while Dad and I played video games and LEGO. We all know who keeps the train running....

Take care! And Happy New Year!