24 December 2019

Christmas Eve ’19

We spent Christmas eve at Cara’s house. The children ran and played and we all ate. Lots.

Then it was time for the Christmas eve service. 8 played Joseph and The Goblin Child was one of the cows present in the stables. The Christmas story was told from the animals perspective and Joseph didn’t have anything to say.  Both children had fallen asleep in the car on the ride over and 8 woke up mad. He scowled his way through the program and not having a speaking part was a very good thing.

I used to love the candle light service and sneak in pictures of the children looking beautiful in  the soft light. Lately The Goblin Child refuses to be in  any pictures without her tongue stuck out. No  more beautiful pictures.

 

15 December 2019

Christmas Pictures

It was  the perfect winter day. Warm but snowing. I had picked up a Santa hat the day before and wanted to get some video of Rusty dressed up for Christmas. The kids came out to play and it turned into a family photo shoot. I thought this was much more fun than sitting on a human Santa’s lap!

 

3 December 2019

Thanksgiving Vacation

We went to Missouri  for Thanksgiving to see, well, everyone!

Uncle Justin came down with his children and Grammy, uncle Tim and Shelly came down and we all went to see The Greatest Grandma.

It was a full house. The first night the children all ran wild through her house terrorizing her glass baubles. There was only one fatality, a heavy glass bowl of Christmas ornaments that had sat under the dining room table. 8 pushed them off with his foot right onto Grandma’s feet. The cousins loved each other though and were happy to play until we hauled them off to the hotel pool so the adults could talk in peace.

The next day brought more pool time then lunch and an afternoon spent at BassPro shop. We all splintered in different directions with so much to look at. 8 and The Goblin Child liked the escalator best and ran  laps, down the stairs, up the escalator, down the stairs, up the escalator until I was exhausted. The we met up with Justin  and children again to play with all the toys and the carousel. Finally exhausted we retreated to the hotel, without swimming.

The next day there was more swimming then we collected Grandma and were off to Silver Dollar City. It was a beautiful day and the streets were packed with people. We managed to get a few rides in though. Both kids rode their first real roller coaster. The Goblin Child loved it. 8 not so much. Then it was a mad rush through the park, total sensory overload as they tried to take everything in. I think the favorite ride was the pirate ship that swung back and forth. They both begged to ride it over and over again until grammy and I begged to stop. The Goblin Child loved Fire in the Hole! as much as I did when I was young. 8 loved the swings that went around and around.

I loved Silver Dollar City so much when I was little it was good to see them get to enjoy it too. By the end of the night they were exhausted. Again.

The next day it was time to go already. Everyone was sad for the trip to be over. We had long drives home though and needed to get going. The children had one last chance to wreak havoc on Grandma’s house as we said  our good byes.  We drove half way home and stayed at Tim and Shelly’s, mom and Justin had to drive the whole way. It was a long trip with tired grouchy children but it was sure good to be home!