Festivus Festivities

Our Christmas season was terrific. We used up every last minute doing fun things and enjoying all of the time off from responsibility. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm trying that approach to this blog. So let's begin the merriment. . .

Cousins are the best. They're just like brothers and sisters that you don't see enough to find annoying. We began our Christmas break early by missing a few of the last days of school and heading to Oregon to visit my sister who happened to be up from Vegas. (And now you understand why Tom "the voice" Jones is headlining our blog music. Mock me if you will but picture me riding onto the strip with a few friends. I'll be the one with my head sticking out of the sun-roof, ahhhh, some day.) The above picture captures one of the milder moments as we were able to corral five of the 11 children into the Man-Cave to watch a movie. They look sweet and innocent but on the underside that snowman is button they repeatedly pushed that would bark out jingle bells over and over.
A favorite for the tween cousins. Choose your future squares. I can just hear how this conversation would go down, "What do you suppose my future holds today Scottie?" "I think it entails several art project involving glitter, glue and stickers." "Fabulous, every perfect day starts that way!"The male cousins, (Jackson and Grady not pictured) lost interest in the future when they found themselves marrying various girls in their respective classes and opted for self-made martial arts; Here they are demonstrating, "The corn dog." Who wouldn't like to wake up to this little Sugar Plum fairy? With a girl majority, dressing up is always a big part of cousin get-togethers.
The cousin fun was supposed to continue at the Grandparents for a bon-fire. Unfortunately it was rained out and we opted for Hot dogs on the Foreman grill. (side note here, It is not possible to have any kind of good result with marshmallows on afore mentioned grill.) Good to see that Gunner is able to show some serious disrespect to his aunt by putting both of his stinky feet on her.And look who's paying me back by teaching my child various rude gestures! My parents asked me to try and take a good picture for their Christmas card, Don't know if I succeeded there but apparently two stow aways infiltrated the photo shoot.

Not a great pic, totally unrepresentative of the fun party we had with friends. I think we even have the back of the Birthday Boy's head. We learned all kinds of things about each other by playing a toned down version of, "The Newly Wed" game. Apparently Joe thought our first kiss was like Hot Tamales. (Few, good thing I crossed out Goobers before we tallied the points.)
Another fun thing about Cousins is the fun plagues we all share. Though my children didn't, I enjoyed a few days of "Swinemas." On one of my achiest days we had planned to go to the carousel down town and visit Santa. Since this was an event we just couldn't miss, I spent a lot of time in the car. But did manage a half-hearted smile for the pic. Tess was so cute and asked Santa for a great gift to give to Scottie instead of one for herself. Everyone but me enjoyed a Cinnamon roll from Panera and sang along loudly to the various Christmas Carols Delilah favored us with while we looked at lights on the way home. Since having Joe around all day for 11 days means a ton of cooking for me. I made sure we went out to eat at least once over the break. Unfortunately after the votes were cast we ended up at, The Old Country Buffet, or O.C. Barf as I like to call it. But the kids love the unlimited desert section and a group of old timers sitting nearby commented on how good our kids were. I though for sure that as they approached we would be thoroughly scolded for having a noisy, messy table but what a relief to hear something nice.

On Christmas Eve we did our family draw-names/gift exchange as well as acting out the nativity. As any new mother would be, Mary, is apparently a little unsure about the strange man who came bearing gifts. And perhaps wishes Joseph hadn't let him into the front room when she was nursing.
Christmas morning is always terrific and it's so fun to have the kids bring all their gifts from Santa onto our bed and show them off. The rest of the day was spent lazily playing with the new loot. this is one of the few moments Gunner wasn't shooting his new BB Gun, pictured in the bottom of the Screen. Another gift favorite was the keyboard dad bought the family. The mic was a hit and Tess is in heaven blasting out her favorite songs.
Joe also got some cones and a football tee and the kids played a little foot ball on the front lawn. It was a good way to make room for the delicious Christmas Dinner we had later with friends. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures but the food was excellent and while playing games we all learned that when in a pickle, the word Chaos will not trump a rain storm. Still reveling in the fact that Boeing (blessed company) gave Joe almost two weeks off we went to a dollar movie in the middle of the day. We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and while it was nothing like the book it was really good. Joe and I found ourselves laughing out loud in several spots. The only person who came away unhappy was Tess who just couldn't accept the science of food shooting out of the sky. Since she is four going on 75, we've come to accept this kind of skepticism from her.

We were supposed to go camping at Ensign Ranch with Cousin's from Joe's side but the weather was bad and they have a brand new baby so they came to us! I think I've clearly explained how I feel about cousins and a great time was had, swimming, eating and chatting.
We were still a little bummed not to be getting out of town so we stole an idea from our friends the Craguns and headed to The Great Wolf Lodge in central Washington. It is a huge indoor water park and resort. And Boeing (again, blessed company) arranged a sizable discount for employees. We just did the water park but there are a million fun and expensive things to do there. Maybe next time. The bait shop was Betsy's favorite place to hang, and she loved all the squirting toys. Tess, old woman that she is, preferred riding the tubes in the wave pool with dad, "Because he's handsome and like Gaston." After several hours I finally convinced her to try one of the tiny slides that Betsy had already gone down 15 times. After she got off she remarked that, "It was actually fun, mom, I can't believe it was actually fun."
Gunner loved everything there, except the big Tornado ride and was left to wander completely on his own. At first I had trouble convincing him to go down the big slides. We decided it was best to bring friends and boys his own age for the peer pressure. But on the second day after riding everything at least three times he said he was ready to leave. The night before, Joe and I had left Gunner in charge in the hotel room and quickly run to try the headliner slide. You can see it from I-5 as you pass and we loved it! And when we got back everyone was still alive and thoroughly enjoying some of the cable drivel on TV that we don't get at home.

We just couldn't swallow paying $65 for another O.C.B. like buffet at the lodge so we went North to Lacey and ate at Izzy's. Wow, we loved it! I feel like running an add for that place. (Betsy especially liked the chocolate pudding.) And ended 2009 with our bellies stuffed and exhausted. The Sunday before we all had to return to our various drudgeries we decided to enjoy all of the ginger-creations made during December. The kids dove in with wild abandon. Thankfully no bicuspids were busted during the melee.