Non-Buggy Christmas Memories

Fortunately, Christmas break wasn't ALL vermin and disease.  We did have tons of fun with grandparents and cousins.

*Dan and Melinda took the girls to the local children's museum not once but twice.  Bob and Jonathan took Micah, Drew, and Verity the first time.  It was those kids' first time to go, and they had such a blast!

 *We went to Young's Dairy not once, but twice.  The second time we were celebrating Emily's 10th birthday--hard to believe the girls are getting so old!

*Luke and I finished this 1500 piece puzzle (well, mainly Luke because he's really amazing at puzzles, but I did help out a lot because I really do love working on puzzles, especially with Luke).  I love this picture--mountains, snow, a castle.  It's my happy place!

 *We took some walks to the local park.  It was nice that the weather allowed us to do that, and it was nice that Drew didn't face plant off the swing into the mud this year, like he did last year!  The downside of the nice weather is that even though we packed up all the snow stuff, there was never a need for any of it.  Alas!

 *While the girls were at the children's museum a second time, Bob and I took all the boys and Verity to the Air Force museum.  This was definitely the first time Micah really got anything out of it, and he was so awed by everything!  "WOW, look at that huge propeller . . . that balloon in the air . . . that BIG airplane . . . hey, what's that guy doing? . . ."  They have all these little scenes set up like the one below, where a training pilot has crashed his plane and is getting yelled at by the instructor.  Micah was really taken in by all these scenes.  They might as well have been real!

I love the Air Force Museum.  It does such a great job of tracing the history of flight/the Air Force, especially through WW2.  It's a lot better than the DC museums--and it is *actually* free, not any of this "well, the MUSEUM is free, but you have to pay $15 a car to park" kind of ridiculousness, not that I'm bitter.  Ha!  So you should definitely make a trip to Ohio to visit!

 *We had a lovely Christ-honoring Christmas.  Here we all are at the Christmas Eve service, where again we are happy to report that no one started a fire.  This year all of our kids managed to sit through the whole service without needing to be taken out, so that was a nice new experience.  We all look very festive, and Luke is wearing a bow tie that he tied himself, which we were all very impressed with.

 We all got lots of fun and thoughtful gifts (and we were even able to fit everything back in the van--whew!).  All 5 girls got journals from Grandma and Grandpa, which was timely since we listened to Harriet the Spy on CD during the drives out and back.  As a complete aside, that book was weird, and not really how I remembered it as well.  There was not much redemption in the ending, although it provided a good opportunity for discussion on *why* it is important to build people up, think about things that are good, honorable, kind, etc., and generally treat people with love and respect.  And not leave little kids with nurses for their entire childhoods, so they don't turn into little "Lord of the Flies" people.  Like I said, interesting discussions.

 Micah and Drew were thrilled to get these storm troopers from Caleb and Jonathan.  They were a real steal too--$5.99, marked down from $40 at Best Buy!  So far one has gotten his head knocked off, and the other his gun, but both are still providing great fun (the head will stay on if you don't swing it around or anything).  I don't think these storm troopers are going to have an easy life around here . . . we'll see how long they last, lol.

 Bob got me this amazing massager from Costco.  I am not exaggerating to say I love this thing.  It is amazing!  Micah loved it too, as has everyone else who tried it.  We convinced Dan and Melinda to get one too!

 Verity just loved everything about Christmas, from the stocking candy (especially the stocking candy) to the presents.  She got some cute things, like these slippers Luke is helping her put on.  She never wants to wear socks around the house, but her feet are always cold, so when I saw these at Walmart, I thought they might be just the ticket!  They worked at grandma's house, in that she kept them on for a long time, so now we'll see if they work here at our house . . . they're adorable, though!

These are just some random pictures, but you can see that even with all the sickness and disease, we still managed to have a really fun Christmas with family!  What a blessing to all be together!