We had a very fun holiday this year. Right before Christmas one of Big Daddy's old grad school friends stopped by on a long layover from DC to Australia. They left us on Christmas Eve to fly to Australia and landed in Australia the day after Christmas -- yes, they "officially" missed Christmas!
I loved having Christmas on a Sunday. I wish it could always be on a Sunday from now on. A shortened church service and then home for a more mellow opening of presents. The kids called it the best Christmas ever because they were so excited Santa knew just what they wanted and surprised them a little, too. I loved Christmas since my in-laws gifted me with the motion picture
17 Miracles -- a fabulous re-telling of the Willey Handcart Company of 1856. Big Daddy found it the most depressing movie and I, one of the most inspiring. The kids enjoyed it and we have been reading from
I Walked to Zion as part of our nightly story time ever since.
Two days after Christmas, Grammy came in with a cousin and stayed for several days. Although our fridge was full of leftovers, Grammy enjoyed taking us around town for several meals. I'm pretty sure no one felt even one twinge of hunger during our visit! So much good food! Thankfully we took many walks together. The kids enjoyed playing and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. It was hard for the kids to see Grammy leave on New Year's Eve -- they wanted to go visit Utah right then and play in the snow with all the cousins.
This year is the first year I let/encouraged them to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. We played games, snacked and watched
Phineas & Ferb until it was FINALLY midnight (and boy I had not anticipated the outbreak of potty talk that erupts after 9:30 PM around here). When I was growing up, we used to take a large belt of old horse sleigh bells outside at midnight a shake it to ring in the new year. I told the kids to get something loud. Little Man grabbed a bike horn and Tiny Toes the mini cow bell we use to signal dinnertime. Although no one on our street was out making noise, you could certainly hear celebrating around us, but when I told the kids to make noise, I got one toot from Little Man and one half bell ring from Tiny Toes and then they raced back to the door and wanted to go in! I had to call them back out to get a picture only to have them scowling and shivering (which is on my new camera which is presently at a conference in Chicago with Big Daddy). [Last summer, I was hosting a sleepover with 5/7 cousins at Grammy's. The kids wouldn't settle down by 1:30 AM, so I turned on the backyard floods and sent them out for "silent" midnight tag and then a bonfire until 4 AM.] I couldn't believe how LOUD my kids were then, but they sure got shy on New Year's. I'll have to post the scowling, shivering children later.
