Christmas Break

We had a GREAT Christmas break. No sickness!!! The last two years we've had pretty miserable Christmases with the stomach flu ruining our holidays and the time surrounding the holidays while the kids are out of school and Greg is off work. This year was different. Thank you, Lord! We truly were thankful for wellness this year. We enjoyed the holidays themselves, times with friends, playing games, doing puzzles, reading, watching movies, and just enjoyed being together and having down time.

We gave this plate to Grant for Christmas, and we are loving it and so is he! He's been a very picky, finicky eater, and right around Christmas time, he finally started trying some new foods. This was BIG news, a very big deal. Dinner time has not been pleasant around here. We got the face plate, thinking it might make meal times a little more pleasant, and you know, it has helped! He thinks it's so funny to give the man food hair, a food mustache and beard, to taste some "hair," some "ear," and some "beard." We'll see how long the novelty lasts. It's still going strong right now, and we're going to milk it for as long as we can. Eventually, he will eat. The other kids have. That's what we keep telling ourselves.

One of the fun things we were able to do over the break is go see a movie in the theater together--all six of us! This is something we'd never done before because 1.) It's expensive! and 2.) Grant has been too little to sit through a movie.  We used some Christmas money from Great Grandpa and Grandma and went and saw Disney's "Frozen," even splurging to get popcorn and soda. We all enjoyed the movie and enjoyed the experience of going together. It was fun! I'm liking this new phase of life we're entering.

It's a terrible phone photo, and no one looks happy, but they all were. :)



 

It was sad when Greg had to go back to work the day after New Year's, so the kids and I took a trip to the zoo. It was cold but dry and a good outing for us.

 The sunset was beautiful one night after Christmas  (the photo doesn't do it justice), and I think it is fitting to end my Christmas break post this way. It was hard to send the kids back to school that Monday, which surprised me because I'm usually ready for the kids to go back to school and for us to get back to routines and schedules after a couple weeks off. But not this time. We'd had such a good break and a good time together, I wanted a little more.  I'm thankful for a wonderful Christmas this year, though, and hopeful for more like it in future years.