Holiday Break

By the time Christmas rolled around last month, we were aching to be lazy and stay home in our pajamas for daaaays.  So that’s exactly what we did.  I’m pretty sure the kids changed from one set of pajamas to the next for a few days.  It was heavenly!

Prior to those lazy days, we had Christmas Eve.  We spent the day at home making Christmas cookies and hanging out together. 

  

Then we had a non-fancy Christmas Eve dinner with turkey, potatoes, and all that goes with that.

After dinner we held the typical Christmas lesson and nativity reenactment with scripture reading.  Then opened a few presents and sent Tanner to bed.  Jade and Ridge prepared a plate of cookies and peppermint chocolate milk for Santa before heading to bed themselves. 

This year Jade requested to put the little tree in her room.  I obliged.  Then one day I noticed a little piece of paper on the top that read “chub.”  I asked Jade what it was for.  She explained, “It is Tanner.  Because he is my chub chub and I love him so much so he is at the top of my tree.”  What a funny, sweet girl. 

Santa and his elves had everything ready to go this year.  That meant no staying up until 3 a.m. wrapping and building like the previous year! 

The kids woke up before dawn, ready and excited to get to the tree! 

 

  

Ridge had asked Santa for a Rubik’s cube and camera and Jade had asked for an American Girl set to go with her doll.  Luckily, Santa’s friend had told him about Jill’s Deals on the Today Show and was able to get 60% off the AG stuff!!  Santa purposely put the big presents at the back of the tree to hopefully open last.  Jade told me later that after opening a smaller gift from Santa, she thought that was all she was getting and began to wonder to herself, “was I good this year?!”  Needless to say, Jade was thrilled when she opened up her new spa chair. 

  

After Jade purchased her doll, I told her she couldn’t exclude her brothers from her play just because she had a new doll.  She needed to find ways to include the boys.  Jade has been really good about it.  Ridge has enjoyed being involved and they actually have a lot of fun together playing with dolls!  Don’t worry, Ridge still has plenty of time playing with cars and guns and balls, but it’s quite sweet how Jade and Ridge can play together so well in a variety of make-believe worlds. 

 

After spending a few days at home in our pajamas, eating Christmas treats, and playing with new toys, we decided to venture out on Saturday.  The day ended up being a gorgeous, sunny, warm day.  We asked the kids if they’d rather go to a movie or to the zoo (since it was so nice outside!).  They opted for the zoo.

 

We had not visited the local zoo yet, but it was the perfect day to go.  One of my least favorite things to do is to pay a ton of money to go to a small zoo with limited animals and be tortured in the hot, sweaty sun of summer!  I can kind of be a zoo snob after Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and even Hong Kong!  Even Cody made the comment that visiting this zoo made him miss Asia.  The Turtle Back Zoo is quite small, but winter tickets are discounted and it was fun to be outside on such a nice winter day.  I thought it was pretty funny there was a giraffe statue out front, but not a real giraffe on the inside of the zoo!

 

The zoo was decked out for the holidays, so that was pretty fun for photo-ops. 

 

 

They did have a giant snake as advertised out front.  Cody’s favorite animal was the giant pig.  I’m not sure if that thing could even walk! 

 

Another highlight was petting the stingrays. 

 

The kids were doing it, then I thought, “hey, I’ve never pet a stingray!”  They are slimier than I’d imagined! 

 

The very best part of the day though was watching the kids use the “adventure kit” Santa had brought the boys: a Kidzoom camera, walkie talkies, and binoculars.  It mad the zoo trip that much more fun!  It was adorable.

   

 

Okay, so one other thing was also the very best part of the day:  watching Tanner play at the zoo playground.  I realized he hadn’t been to a playground since he started walking in mid-November.  It’s been too cold!  Oh, that boy was in heaven!!  It was so stinkin’ cute. 

  

Of course, Jade and Ridge loved the playground too! 

  

We ended the zoo visit with a ride on the carousel.

 

The next week we headed to Maryland to visit my sister’s family.  It’s about a 4 1/2 hour drive, but we don’t get down there as often as we’d like!  Kids in school and busy church callings can slow down the traveling a bit.  We knew we had to take advantage of Jade’s and Cody’s days off!  The six little cousins had a blast running around together for a few days. 

The girls had fun playing girl stuff and the boys had fun playing boy stuff.  Lucy and Jade—who are both six—especially got along well. 

 

What was really cute though, was how well Hannah (age 10) and Ridge (age 3) became buddies.  Ridge loves to cuddle, so during movies or books, Hannah would ask him if he wanted to sit on her lap.  The answer was always yes.  Then she’d hold his hand going place to place and call him her little buddy.  Hannah was so cute with him.  Ridge quite liked it!  In fact, just last week when I asked Ridge who his best friend is, he thought for a minute then exclaimed, “Hannah!”

 

Having all these crazy kids together sure makes my heart happy! 

It was so fun to hang out with my sister too!  We were able to stay up late to chat or watch movies together.  It was so nice!  She is such a great hostess.  We are already trying to figure out when to visit again! 

 

 

Having Cody and Jade home so much during the holidays was so fun!  After the first day back to school, I was talking to some other parents during pick up.  They were complaining about being annoyed by their kids during break.  I was almost surprised!  We loved having Jade home; Ridge especially missed her when she had to go back to school!!  The holidays went by too fast, but we sure enjoyed them while they lasted!