Staying Entertained

Back before Christmas, Amelia and I were amusing ourselves at Audrey the piano teacher's house during Evelyn's piano lesson. You gotta love a piano teacher that has a rubber chicken lying around.

Hmmmm...I wonder if Audrey appreciated us playing with her rubber chicken? Maybe that's why she suggested I just drop both girls off at her house and run errands during their lessons! That's an awfully nice way of keeping the parents from dinking around with her stuff! :)

Crazy Hat Day

:) 

Gainesville Polar Bear Club

Aunt Betty and Uncle Steve used to live in North Dakota, which is why, upon moving to Gainesville, FL, it seemed natural to make use of their (unheated) neighborhood pool year-round. Keep in mind that, while it IS Florida, and IS warmer than North Dakota, the average daily December high temperature is only 66 degrees (hardly pool weather for the typical sunbather), and the average daily low is 44 degrees--which can turn pool water into a toe-froster.

So here is the Gainesville Polar Bear Club taking its post-Christmas dip this past December, with mom as a guest polar bear. As crazy as it seems, it does appear that chilly dips can be a big help reducing inflammation and joint pain--so I think they've got something here!

Another Holiday Memory

Back in December the girls, my mom, and I met the RVR interns at a local mall's annual train display. It was quite the event, replete with an artist doing free temporary tattoos.

Of course the girls wanted them. Evelyn chose a dragon. Amelia picked a Hawaiian flower.

Then Mom, inspired by a few of the interns, got one, too. She figured it was one more thing to add to her list of "70 Things I've Never Done Before." She chose a rose, and obviously her granddaughters thought it was great.

And inspired by the moment, I opted for a cute snowman. And here we all are:

One more fun memory from the 2013 Christmas season!

I Need to Make My Will

Evelyn just came up to my home office, smiled apologetically and said, "Mom, I don't mean this to sound bad, but could I have your desk when you are...you know...D-E-A-D?"

We Wish You An Epic Christmas and a Happy Road Trip

I'll start Christmas a little early--at the Baltimore Choral Arts Society's Christmas for Kids concert. I'm probably more fascinated by Pepito the clown than the girls are--she's so athletic and physically funny! My mom came, too--a great girls' morning out.

We had an early Christmas gathering at Mom and Dad's--there WERE men there, they just enjoyed watching some football. Aidan was nice enough to stand in for all of them. What a comfortable afternoon of hanging out, talking, and watching the kids do installment after installment of original modern dance routines! Thank you, Mom and Dad, for kicking off Christmas!

The next day we headed South--VA Beach! Grandma and Grandpa Blackman's breakfast nook is the favored location for the many domino games that take place.

Alan remembers drinking out of these tiny Santa mugs when he was a kid. Aren't they cute?!?

Grandma and Grandpa have a very pretty tree. Alan has pics of the whole Christmas gathering on his phone--Becky, Matt, and Casey joined in the fun, and the kids entertained all of us opening their gifts on Christmas morning. The girls also learned to play pool this year--thanks to Aunt Becky--and enjoyed adding that to the list of things to do at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

A trip to VA Beach is not complete without a trip to the, well, beach! It was COLD this year, so we didn't stay as long as we usually do, and no one dipped any bare toes in the ocean!

I love this picture of Evelyn. I also love it of Amelia, even though her photo bomb was not welcome by her sister. We managed to put together a gingerbread house--it stood for less than a minute. These are not where my skills lie, I'm afraid.

Our favorite hike in VA Beach--First Landing State Park. Every time we have Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Blackman, we do this hike--goes all the way back to the days of the double stroller! 

Mt. Trashmore refurbished their enormous playground. I had a scare here--the girls were playing hide-and-seek, and Amelia hid so well that another father, his two middle-school-ish kids, Evelyn, Alan, and I took to searching for her. I was never so glad to see a pink sweatshirt behind a bush.

 Va Beach was the place we stayed the longest on our epic journey, and we are so grateful for the company of family and the memories we made. Thank you for your hospitality, Mom and Dad Blackman!

The day after Christmas we drove for 13 1/2 hours. It wasn't SUPPOSED to be that long, but all the other Christmas travelers were on the road, too. Plus it was raining. We hit our first log-jam within 20 minutes of leaving Mom and Dad's...but sticking with it proved worth it. Look where we ended up:

Gainesville! We'd never visited cousin Patrick and Alyson, Henry, Ceci, and Malcolm, and they'd been our guests at least three times--so it was TIME. We joked that our kids took nothing from one another--they only GAVE to one another--spurring one another on to incredible heights of  enthusiasm. Above is a picture of all the kids at a sinkhole-turned-state-park. Alyson and I thought all the steps would wear them out. HA! Not even close, even after having them take turns racing up and down the stairs while we timed them.

In spite of rainy weather, we managed to do some more hiking (even spotting an alligator!), and spent a great evening at Aunt Betty and Uncle Steve's new house (they've relocated to Gainesville, too), of which I have no pictures. I do, however, have some interesting video from that evening that I will post soon. My parents were down there celebrating their 49th anniversary and we were glad to cross paths with them for a night!

 Evelyn enjoyed jumping into the Kee family for this photo. Wow we drank a lot of good coffee with these good peeps. We also spent hours listening to records--REAL records. Alyson's dad gave Patrick his old stereo turntable and the whole record collection, and they've been faithfully adding to it. We spent hours with Patrick, Ryan, and Alyson playing "Stump Alan." (He knows his tunes.)

Thank you, Florida Kees! We had such a good time with you all--thank you for letting us crash at your house, for making space in your laundry room for us, for planning such fun, and for giving us more great memories.

Then we had to drive off again, this time to St. Augustine. Our little motel had a heated pool!

Our motel by moonlight. It had a nativity on the front lawn, but I'm not sure you can see it in the picture.

The girls awoke WAY before the breakfast was due to be delivered (can you believe THAT?!?) so we decided to do something we'd never done as a family--watch the sunrise over the Atlantic! Let's just say our feet were freezing! It might be Florida, but the sand and water get COLD overnight.

Later, the girls sat on our king-size bed eating the tray of food brought by the hotel staff and watching PBS kids' shows. Amelia said, "I wish we had maids to do this for us EVERY day."

One more dip in the pool--it wasn't quite as warm first thing in the morning.

And then we were off to explore the fort in downtown St. Augustine--an adorable little town. The town was a little crowded, but we got to watch the shooting of a cannon off the roof.

Then it was off to Savannah for an overnight. We rented a little house with a swing and went out to a restaurant for dinner.

After dinner--some famous ice cream. It was doggone good.

Just ask this guy.

Next door to the house we rented, someone had painted this lovely command on the side of a shed. :)

And...we're off to NC! I am SO bummed I didn't take more pictures here. We had such a great New Year's Eve with Aunt Barbara, Uncle Diego, Kelby, his girlfriend, and a few of their friends. I think I might have a video of the girls running around with some sparklers, but no pics of people. Sigh.

Wait--look! Right there over Amelia's shoulder--Aunt Barbara! So I DO have a picture of her...thanks to Amelia and her love of selfies.

Thank you, Kennedy-Caballeros for your hospitality, great food, firepit, and good company! After a wonderful brunch with their neighbors, we hit the road for home, complete with new finger puppets. They, along with "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," kept us going and going.

There it is...the epic Christmas road trip. Wow...we have really great family!

Christmas Tree Chronicles

We took our Christmas tree down today. I know--a little early for us. But it was starting to droop. 

It was only the second time we'd ever had the tree in the living room. The first time was the Christmas after Evelyn was born. We got it up and got the lights on it, and I could go no further. So we hung all our Christmas cards on it. Sweet memory. :)

I usually try to take at least one picture of the tree each year. However, our 2013 tree was only caught on film in these photos of the girls playing Wii.

See those great Just Dance III moves?

So that got me thinking about our former trees. This was the 2012 edition. We'd spent years getting little trees to avoid rearranging furniture to accommodate them. In 2012 we threw caution to the wind, took all the furniture out of the entryway and got a big, fat tree that filled the whole room.

2012 was likely a reaction to 2011, which, as you can see, was quite diminutive. I thought it was adorable, myself. Plus, small trees are so easy to decorate and undecorate.

This was 2010. I couldn't find any pictures of ALL of this tree. The pink birthday card to Jesus from Evelyn has hung on all our trees since. If I remember correctly, the inside says, "Your angels are cool."

And there, posing in her kindergarten "Crazy Hat Day" creation, is the author herself.

2009 was one of the first years we started going to the little corner tree lot near our house. Maybe someday the mystique and wonder of combing the beautiful, wintry hills and fields of a tree farm will return, but for now I love that we can leave the house, pick out the tree, and have it in the tree stand--all in about half an hour.

 I don't have any full pictures of the 2009 tree, either. Nor do
I have any idea what is on Evelyn's nose to the right there.
Play doh? Cookie dough? Not sure, but makes me smile!

All our pre-2009 pictures are stored elsewhere, so this is where the chronicle ends. I do enjoy the Christmas tree
tradition!

Next post: the 2013 Christmas Memories!

Tooth Tales

Amelia lost this one in the inflatable boxing ring at RVR's Maizefest in October.

Then what happened??

Hmmm..."I think I'll let Mommy pull out that other, really wiggly tooth...what could happen?"

"Oh wow!"

Alan remarked today how utterly devastating it would be if our two front teeth fell out. We wouldn't go out in public, would complain about how hard it would be to bite a sandwich, and would definitely not be taking zillions of pictures of ourselves.

However, we are not seven years old. :)

Dinner Conversations

Last week at dinner:

Amelia: Daddy, what were you born in?

Alan: Born in? You mean what year?

Amelia: No, I mean WHAT were you born IN--you know, like Jesus was born in a manger.

What's in a name?

Yesterday on the way home from school, a discussion about names ensued.

Me: My name, Christina, means "Little Follower of Christ."

Amelia: (blandly) Except that you're not little.

(Pause)

Evelyn: Well, compared to GOD she's little!

I'm glad we've got some perspective around here.

Biblical Vocabulary

Evelyn started reading through her Bible recently. She said she wants to read from Genesis to Revelation.

Last night she came downstairs and asked, "Mom, what is 'circumcision?' I keep seeing this word, 'circumcision, circumcision, circumcision,' EVERYWHERE, and I had to come down and ask what it meant."

People who don't read the Bible don't realize what they're missing.

(And yes, I gave a frank and undramatic explanation.)