Christmas

It was a good first week off.  The weather had been great, so we got outside for some good ball playing.  Henry put Caroline in as his goalie, which would have been nice had she not gotten distracted on the job.  Henry didn't take too kindly to me making goals on her.  He had strict rules for me that I could only kick the ball from a standing position nearly up against my fence.  So I had to kick it all the way across the yard to make a goal.  He, of course, could dribble the ball all the way to my goal.

They had fun inside making blanket forts.  This is the one and only reason to have lots of blankets down here.  Fort-making.  There were issues when the kids no longer wanted to live in a group home, but wanted individual apartments.  The demolition crew was forced to come in and fold up their equipment.

We made it to a local Children's Discovery Center.  It is an off-shoot of the Children's Museum in Houston, so it had a lot of similar things.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Towards the front, they had craft tables.  The first one was Kwanzaa hats which the boys wanted to make.  They kept those hats on the entire time we were there.

Henry flexed his muscles and pulled himself up on the pulley chair.

Henry and another little boy had a lot of fun in the police car.  The boys mom even came by to tell her son to let our kids have a turn at the wheel.  Henry told her, that no, it was okay, they were having fun.  Meanwhile Caroline was in the backseat enjoying herself.  She told Todd she liked sitting in the back of the police car.  Just so long as she doesn't make a habit of it.

They got a taste for different occupations.  Josiah worked on car maintenance and repair.

Caroline worked as a check-out girl with a cool screen that really worked.  They boys were bringing her basket after basket of groceries.

They all loved the veterinary area.  They seriously would not leave this room.  It had just gotten to noontime and the Center had cleared out.  We weren't sure if they were closing or what, but it just turned out that most all of the families had little kids (toddlers) and they had left for lunch/naptime.  We almost had the whole place to ourselves.  So, there was nothing getting those kids out of the Vet Clinic until their own grumbling bellies got them out the door.

We made it to the park one day.  The kids spent so much time on all the spinny equipment.  I had to take a quick picture and look away.  They made themselves sick going around and around so much.  When Caroline initially got on each of the spinny things, she'd start to spin around and then ask Todd, "Will this unscrew all the way?"


Caroline spent the second half of her week as a princess.  Todd's cousin sent the kids a box of goodies and inside Caroline had a tiara and wand.  She has been wearing it all the time.  When she puts it on now, she's learned to ask, "Is it straight?"

When we were getting ready to go to church on Christmas Eve, Caroline and I got into a disagreement over wearing pants under her dress.  Usually this is something she does, but knowing that it would be a packed service and it was already a very warm day, I told her no pants.  She had quite the meltdown.  Probably not our first disagreement over what she wears to church.  She did, however, wear her tiara.  It came off only at the very end, so it didn't make the pictures, but she proudly wore it through the service.

Josiah had a bit of an emotional week.  The boys all watched the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie.  When Han Solo died, Josiah cried.  I was a bit shocked that he was that emotionally invested in the movie.  I didn't know he was capable of that at his age.  I thought I had gotten out of watching Star Wars, but Caroline wanted to watch a movie with me and picked a Lego Star Wars short movie.  She knew it, too.  "Mommy, watch, Yoda is in the bus."  "Mommy, look over there, see Jar Jar Binks."

The kids were happy we made it out to see Christmas lights.  We drove around a bit longer than I had planned because I got lost in the neighboring neighborhood.  We just drove aimlessly around looking at lights, but then I found myself passing the same houses and couldn't figure out how to get out.  We drove for about an hour.  The kids talked the whole time.  Like non-stop talked the entire time.

And finally, it was Christmas.  Even though we've always told the truth about Santa, Josiah ran downstairs and said, "Santa came. Santa came."  He totally confuses Henry.  One of the first things the kids opened were Henry's presents.  He had made both Josiah and Caroline comics.  Caroline gave the best reaction.  She looked at the pictures he drew and just genuinely laughed out loud.  It was a comic about the Ninja Turtles.

We only got the kids three gifts each and no toys (we said we wouldn't and we weren't kidding), so our kids are very blessed to have very generous grandparents and great-cousins (if that's a thing).
Henry had a tornado kit going almost the whole day.  Although, it was Josiah's gift, Henry carried it around from room to room watching the tornado go.  Josiah loved his Spy Gear glasses.  He wore those for much of the day as well.  But what was loved the most were the Magic Tracks and the Lego kits.

They played with the Magic Tracks all day long.  Literally.  They were going all day long.  Caroline loved them as well.  So much so that she got right up close to them.  She had a big chunk of her hair get caught in the first car, the red one.  We cut her hair off as there was no untangling it.  As Todd was working on getting her hair untangled from the tire axle, which actually was not that easy, she came downstairs with the second, blue car tangled in her hair.  The first time she was just nonchalant about it, but the second time she was mad.  We laughed that it happened again and we had to get a picture, but she was not having it.


Later, in the evening, I asked her what she liked best and she whispered in my ear, "playing Magic Tracks by myself."  She also had a lot of fun with her new bear in his new high chair.  She moved them up and down the stairs a lot.  It was a good day.

Unfortunately, our day didn't end exactly as Henry planned.  Todd wanted to have something special for Christmas dinner, so he found a crockpot recipe for meatballs cooked in cranberry sauce and onions.  It sounded weird, but they tasted really good, kind of like Swedish meatballs.  Henry, who is very good at trying new foods, but who also does not like cranberry sauce, asked, "Next time, when it's Christmas, can you just cook something that we already know so that we like it?"  He didn't mind the pumpkin pie for dessert.

Caroline's favorite park statute.