Well, Christmas is past, the year is new, and its time to think about taxes. Happy January! We had a great time up in Cheyenne with my parents for Christmas. It was great getting to spend time in their new house and watch the kids enjoy themselves. I wish we could have gotten up there sooner to hear my dad preach for the Christmas Eve service, but circumstances kept us from arriving in time. I was very disappointed and so were the kids. DS #1 said to me, "He's the preacher! Couldn't he just make the service go longer until we get there?"
But we had a nice time. The kids opened all the presents filled with toys that they had requested at some point during the recent past. As luck would have it, one toy broke, then another, then another. After drying some tears and using a lot of super glue, I found myself getting discouraged. But God is good. He used this situation to cause our family to come together and really think about what we were celebrating. The Birth of Jesus Christ. We watched the movie "The Nativity" which started wonderful conversations between my children and their grandparents. I loved watching their curiosity and listening to their questions about Christ (and circumcision and birth which...well... we'll come back to that when they're a little older....)
We stayed until the afternoon of the 26th.
The kids, of course are still home on Christmas vacation (otherwise known as "holiday" vacation.) They will be returning on Tuesday, Jan 6. Not sure why they can't go back on Monday. I think they will be good and ready to go back...at least Mom and Dad will be. The house has been so full of life over the past couple of weeks, but a little quiet time will be much appreciated. The boys have been playing with their new video game almost constantly. It's hard to get them off to do more active things...I'm glad to see them enjoying something together, though. My daughter loves to get online on the "Webkinz" site. Its pretty typical to see her playing online and singing at the top of her lungs at the same time...usually a song from her Christmas program. She went to spend some money that she got from Grandpa and Grandma L. and she chose a Barbie doll that came with a little dog that Barbie could "walk" etc. I was amazed when after seeing her play with the toy dog for an hour, I saw that the Barbie wasn't even taken out of the package!
I asked her, "Did you just get that Barbie for the play dog?"
"Yes," she replied without looking up or stopping her play. "Look Mommy! See, if you put the food in the doggie's mouth like this...and then you lift up its tail...it poops!!!"
I stood there in shocking disbelief...what has the world come to that they would make a toy dog that poops?
