Christmas in VA this year was a blast! We got to see several old friends, both my grandmas and my uncles, and of course, we got lots of sibling-tastic chill time.
After having passed through the fiery cauldron of adversity that is I-95 traffic (seriously, I've seen mold grow faster) we were ready for a little fresh air and exercise. A good handful of us gathered together and headed out to a nearby park.
After about fifteen minutes of horsing around on the swing set, Julianna says, “Let’s go on an adventure,” which in our family means lets get lost in the woods and hope we don’t get eaten by bears. It’s a frail hope, because I’m pretty sure bears have a sixth sense for stupid prey. You know how they say you are supposed to wear a bell and clap to keep bears away in the woods? I’m pretty sure that some kind of bear practical joke. It’s gotta get boring in the woods sometimes.
Somewhere mid-hike we came across a woodland amphitheater. Of course, for Jake, the youngest of nine children and by far the star of the family, saw this as an opportunity to put on a show. (Ok, maybe we egged him on a little). The plot line was a little hard to figure out. I’m pretty sure it was some take on Dr. Suess’ The Lorax, because at one point Kelly was holding a twig on top of her head to be a tree and Jake was chopping her down. Emily was the Onceler (she had to do a lot of waving her arms and once-ing), until Jake got confused and decided he was the Onceler. At some point, after I was helping Jake onto a log (so he could speak for the trees), the plot took a twist. “And then,” said Jake, “the Onceler got STABBED!!” People got brought back to life once or twice, but in the end, everyone just got stabbed. It was downright Shakespearean.
After that, we spotted a lost Frisbee on top of a picnic pavilion that just had to be saved. Julianna got on top of Dad’s shoulders, and at a combined height of about 9 feet tall, they just barely got it down. We took the Frisbee out of the woods onto a neighboring golf course and tried to convince Jake that golf chickens had left all those balls there.
These are our family chickens here. Just regular chickens. Not golf ones.
Fresh off a climbing things high, David and Julianna decided to climb a tree. Apparently picnic pavilions are a kind of climbing gateway drug. We’re going to have to buy that girl a helmet.
The next adventure was a Pinterest adventure (which is a bit more my speed). Mom had seen a picture of a Christmas tree with ribbons on Pinterest and asked me if I could do it to their tree. We have an odd assortment of boxed up old decorations that you could probably decorate five trees with. The crazier the ornament, the more the kids love it. For example, we have this one very frilly Santa in a pink fur trimmed coat that they all lovingly refer to as “Gay Santa.” Drew says to me, “but we HAVE to put gay Santa on the tree! It’s a Christmas tradition!” I rolled my eyes and said, “Ok, maybe in the back.” So much for Pinspiration. By the way, If you ever try to do a ribbon tree, enlist help. I tried at first to do it on my own, scrunching all the ends into a hair elastic and floofing them into a sad little bow. When I tried to run around the tree, the ribbons followed me around like a glittering menace. In the end, I handed each kid a ribbon and we maypole-d the sucker. Take that Michaels sales bin ribbons! I may be finding glitter in my clean socks next week, but we totally owned you in wrap around the tree department. Until next year, my sparkly friend.
Kelly and I tied bows at the bottom and stuck gold flowers in the grid spaces.
This is the tree the kids did to house all the, how shall we say, less than aesthetically pleasing, ornaments. Although, I did walk into the living room to find Gay Santa front and center on the big tree that night.
This is Emily’s cat Tigger. He thought he could eat at the table if he dressed for dinner.
Julianna has a birthday right at Christmas time. Yes, the cake does say “Birph dayy,” and yes, that’s what we sang to her.
This is me reading my Mom’s book “Unexpected Afghans.” David originally thought it was “Unexpected Afghanis,” which would be an entirely different book all together.
By the way, the blanket on my lap is an almost finished Mama original made for my b-day this year. I can’t wait to take it home.
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Sometimes we like to wrap presents in a way that will throw the recipient off the scent of what it might be. In this case, a Trojan duck.
This is a much larger Trojan duck that Colin and I wrapped for Julianna. You’ll see what that is later.
This is Drew getting Beef Jerky. He really likes jerky
Kelly is opening the teeny (therefore obviously cuter) edition of Preach My Gospel. She’s working on putting in papers to serve a mission soon.
Emily with a Dr. Who t-shirt. I’m pretty sure Kelly is going to come home one day to find a TARDIS in the middle of their room.
So what about the large Trojan Duck in the room? That’s right. Julianna got a chain saw. I thought it might be because she had been helping out with Hurricane Sandy disaster relief, and maybe, kinda, knew how to use one. Well, no. But she has had offers of people to teach her how. Apparently she wants to build a log cabin. I think we’re going to need to get her more than a helmet for this one.
This was my favorite picture of all. Jake opened a sonic screwdriver (because he follows after his sister in Dr. Who adoration). He asked Mom if SHE got that sonic screwdriver for HIM. She said that she and Dad had gotten it for him. He said “this is the best Christmas EVER!” and literally ran across the room to hug her. I've never seen such a big reaction. Sometimes I wish I were six, so that I could show that kind of unbridled gratitude (without freaking people out or knocking them over).
Merry Christmas Everyone!
