Turkey Day and Wedding Day

At church (two weeks ago) they played a video of the Marshmallow Test, because the sermon was about the importance of waiting.  Basically a woman took a small child (around age 4-6) to an empty room (with a hidden camera), set one marshmallow on a plate and told the child that they could either eat the marshmallow right then, or if they could wait 15 minutes for the woman to come back, she would give them a second marshmallow.  The hidden camera, of course, showed the kids poking at it, pretending to eat it, taking minuscule pinches off of it with their finger tips.  But the vast majority held out and waited for the second marshmallow.  We thought it would be fun to put our own kids to the test.  Caroline was first.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and I tried to spy on her to see how she was reacting.  She had her hands on her lap the whole time, and she was either looking at the clock or the wall, but she showed no temptation.  When I came in after her time was up, I gave her a second marshmallow and she asked, "Why can't I have three?"  That wasn't the deal, sweetie.

Henry was next.  I set the timer for 15 minutes for him.  I was able to take a few pictures to see how he reacted.  He did touch it and poke it, and there were some marks on the marshmallow, but he did not eat it.  He earned his two.

Josiah, who had seen the video in church, asked me to set the timer for 19 minutes.  I did and he, of course, was not tempted to eat it.  Caroline had a little bit of Adam and Eve come out and instructed Josiah that he was not to eat it or touch it.  (Eve added the "do not even touch it" bit about the tree they were to leave alone in the Garden of Eden.)  They had fun and wanted to do it again. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving here.  I seem to really make out on Thanksgiving.  Todd cooks the turkey, my in-laws make all the sides, and I only have to wash dishes.  Every year, after the fact, I think I should bake something the day before, but then a year passes and I forget...  We did get our kids-with-the-turkey pictures, and one grown-up with the turkey.



I never went to sleep Thanksgiving night because I did not want to be late for my trip to Aruba.  Todd and I left at 2:15 a.m. getting me to the airport by 3:00.  I wanted to be three hours early for my international flight, as recommended by all the websites.  Apparently, ten other people in the Houston area along with yours truly thought 3 a.m. was a good time to get to the airport.  Even the TSA agents weren't ready to check-in passengers.  I sat at my gate for a good 90 minutes before another soul entered the area.  But I wasn't late!  All the flights went well and we touched down to sunny skies and clear blue waters.

We had amazing views from the resort balconies.  I read my book for several hours every morning with these views.  That is, after I slept 9.5 hours each night.  That would be 9.5 uninterrupted hours.

I got to live, talk with, and eat dinner with these crazy kids every night.  It really was great to catch up.

We even made it in the Caribbean Sea where it was super easy to float.  It had the right salt content and I had the right fat content to stay perfectly afloat.

I finally got to meet my sister's now-husband, who was very fun and friendly.  He had a great family and they were all a lot of fun.  They had a beautiful sunset ceremony on the beach where they exchanged vows and (officially) became a family of four.  It was all very sweet and simple, but very nice.

I got to go shell hunting with Claire and my new niece one morning.  They had coral and conch shells galore.

After five days it was time to go back home.  I was ready to come back, but I will always remember those 4 days of glorious sleep (and the wedding...).  Hopefully they'll hold me for the next 9-10 years.  I was quite nervous to fly out to Aruba since I had never traveled internationally by myself before.  It all went so well getting there, that I really wasn't nervous flying back to the States.  In Aruba, when the Homeland Security guy asked me if I had anything to declare, I said no.   I didn't think he believed me and then at the next checkpoint I got pulled for additional screening.  I thought that surely he had flagged me, that was until the teenage girl behind me was flagged along with two other random people.  So, they patted me down and I was clean.  Then our plane to Houston had to make an unexpected stop in New Orleans to refuel because the fog was so bad in Houston they didn't think they would be able to land.  We do get some intense fog in this area.  In New Orleans, the mechanics had to check the plane because the instrument that allows a plane to land in foggy conditions wasn't working.  Oh joy.  We finally set off for Houston and we had an amazing pilot because one moment we were flying in a cloud and then two seconds later we were on the ground.  Visibility was next to nothing.  I didn't actually get home until 2:45 a.m., which was a little sad since I had just caught up on all my sleep.

While I was in Aruba eating almond encrusted grouper (which was amazing), the kids enlightened me that they had eaten a whole pumpkin pie, donuts, and had gone to a sandwich shop.  They were happy with the Dutch cookies and chocolate I had brought home, but even better than that, they each got an Aruba pencil and a little notebook.  No trip is complete without an unsharpened pencil to commemorate it.

While I was gone, Todd, Grandad and Nana took care of the kids.  I never worried, especially since they had a 1:1 ratio.  Todd said that Henry learned the words to Feliz Navidad.  He went through many different versions first: Fleece Nomidad, Feliz Navidod, Feliz Momidad.  Fortunately, he practices things until he masters them, so he has Feliz Navidad down now.

Grandad and Nana were able to watch the boys at Robotics again.  It was nice that they reported our boys were doing a good job building their robots and not goofing off.  Meanwhile, Caroline and I read a lot of Berenstain Bears books and played house with a family of dinosaurs.

We all ate at Sweet Tomatoes, our favorite.  Henry wisely sat next to Grandad since he knows I let the waiters take his plates away.  By the end of the meal, while we were all eating our dessert, Henry still had every plate on his tray.  He would take a bite of cornbread, dip it in his ice cream and eat some more, following that up with a spoonful of chicken noodle soup.  That's our Henry.

Grandad and Nana continued the tradition and got the kids new Nutcrackers again this year.  I have failed to take a picture of all the kids with their Nutcrackers (or even with their grandparents!), so that is the job this week!  They also got them big velvet coloring papers.  They kids have really enjoyed those.

Josiah has been watching videos from Art Hub and drawing lots of characters from that lately.  He is working on a husky in the picture.

While we love his artwork, there are some places that we're not totally keen on seeing it.  Our church has sermon note pages for kids.  This morning, Josiah's sermon notes were a bit sparse.  So, I turned it over.  Uh huh. 

After church today we had a quick lunch at Costco before the boys and I had to head back to church to practice for their WAM concert this evening.  The boys did well.  They sang their songs and did their hand motions.  Todd got a picture and pointed out where they were.  :)  Henry to the left, Josiah to the right.

Last Wednesday, when we practiced for the concert, Henry stood on stage and did not open his mouth to sing a single note, nor did he lift a hand for any of the hand motions.  So, we had a talk about it.  I pointed out the lady who does sign language for one of the boys on stage.  The hand motions were not just silly things, but they're communicating words to those who can't hear.  We talked about showing respect to the leaders who put in all that time and effort to teach them these songs.  We talked about a lot of things, but I think the little boy who is deaf made the biggest impact.  Both boys mentioned they knew who he was now and thought his cochlear implant was neat (but I get the impression he still doesn't hear very well even with the implant).  He also has a little sister Caroline's age and she is deaf also, so I told Henry he needed to do the signs for her.

And, finally, as we are now in December and entering the Christmas season, Todd's cousins sent us a wonderful package.  The kids have dubbed them Aunt Cheryl & Uncle Phillip, which is much easier to say than First Cousin Once Removed Cheryl & Phillip.  They sent us The Giving Manger and for the month of December we place a piece of straw in the manger after doing something to serve others.  I love the idea of getting the kids into serving and helping others.  Then on Christmas Day, we place baby Jesus in the manger (and hope he has enough straw padding).  The boys took this and ran with it, sweeping, dusting baseboards, cleaning the kitchen appliances.  They were asking what else they could do and just seemed to run out of steam when we mentioned all the Legos on their bedroom floor.  Apparently, that wasn't "straw worthy."  I do hope we remember to keep this up.  It really is the reason for the season.