Winter Break

-
Six days into the new year and we are almost back to normal life again.

I enjoyed our Christmas Day. It was quietly spent at home. We woke up and opened gifts, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, played with new gifts and enjoyed a delicious dinner at home. We appreciate the gifts that we received from distant family members, including a tiny wooden bird perch, which was crafted by Steven's Grandpa Donald, who passed away in November, but left Christmas gifts packaged and ready to mail.

Steven's mom gave us a new DVD/Blue Ray player for Christmas (the old DVD player we had was possessed and would turn itself off randomly in the middle of movies), but we weren't able to hook it up because our TV set was too old to have the right connections. So, the Saturday after Christmas we did some research and took advantage of the gift card from Steven's Dad, and some other resources we received, to order a brand new flat screen TV.  
On New Years' Eve we stayed home watching movies, playing games, and eating snacks. The next day we took down the Christmas decorations and cleaned house. We also bought some curtains and a lamp, and rearranged the furniture in our living room, so the whole room has a different feel to it.

The TV arrived January 2nd. It is slightly too wide to fit comfortably in the cubby of our TV stand, so Steven is contemplating taking the TV stand apart and rebuilding it into something else. The kids have really enjoyed watching movies on the new TV with the new DVD player.

The rest of our holiday break has been spent reading, watching movies and playing with LEGOs. John and Josh have spent time working on programming. Hannah has created movies (using her brothers for actors and voices) and posted them on YouTube under the name Lala Isfluffy.

Last night, as we were getting dinner on the table, I mentioned a game I'd played in the past, and all the kids expressed a desire to play. So, after dinner the family gathered around the table to play Fictionary.  (It's like Balderdash, but doesn't have a game board.) We borrowed the little dry erase boards from Wits and Wagers (which is remarkably similar, only using numbers instead of words) to write on, and had a lot of fun with it.

School starts again tomorrow. The winter break has been fun, but I'm looking forward to returning to normal routines and schedules.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Talk about Gratitude

-
I recently told my bishop that I enjoyed giving talks in Sacrament Meeting, and it is true. I didn't expect, however, that I would get an email from a bishopric member on Thursday last week to say that his talks for Sunday had to leave town, and would I be willing to speak? Here is the talk that I gave on Sunday, May 27th, 2012: For my topic today, I was given a talk which was given by President Monson in 1992, entitled “An Attitude of Gratitude”. In his talk President Monson begins by telling the story of the 10 lepers. I would like to share it with you. In Luke 17 we read: And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And when he saw them, he said unto them, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” And it came to pass, that, as they went,
Read more

How Clean is Clean Enough?

-
Image
How clean is "clean enough"? I realize this question is loaded and the answers are very individual, so for a moment, think about yourself and your home and consider, for you, how clean is "clean enough"? What is the difference between a "quick clean", a "daily clean" and a "deep clean"? At what point do you consider your home "clean enough"? Does "clean enough" mean having a clear path from the front door to the other rooms in the house? Is it having the clutter picked up and the floors vacuumed? Must it be dusted every week, every month, or at all? Is it a quick swipe on the surface to remove the dust or crumbs? Is it a scrub with disinfectant? Is it clearing tables and desks, or delving into cupboards and drawers, purging and organizing?    Does it depend on the day of the week? Is "clean enough" on a weekday the same as "clean enough" on a weekend? If not, is it more clean, or less? Is there a
Read more

School closing, Josh adventures, Back pain relief...

-
On Wednesday school was cancelled all over the Denver area because there was a credible threat that an 18 year old woman with a fixation on the Columbine shooting would attack a school. Apparently she arrived in Denver and bought a gun and then vanished, so they shut down everything just in case. (They found her body later that day... She committed suicide. More info here .) John was frustrated that school was cancelled because one acts are coming up (they are this week!) and he needed the rehearsal time. Instead, John took advantage of the free day to go to School of Mines to check out the campus and talk to someone about getting his admission deferred. I got a ride to my book club, and both of us were home again before Josh and Peter rolled out of bed. Early in the afternoon I took Josh to Children's Hospital to see a cardiologist about his seizures . They did an EKG, but the results were normal. He doesn't have a heart murmur or anything else they could identify. I still thi
Read more