playing catch-up: christmas 2014

In December we had some special friends come to visit - the Kindness Elves. On the first day they appeared in Jed's room under his mini Christmas tree, with a note introducing themselves - Cindy, Mindy, and their little brother who didn't have a name yet. Jed named him Joe. They were little elves who love to help out and notice kindness in others, and they had come stay for a few weeks, to help us get into the Christmas spirit. Jed found them every day in a new location, holding a note that suggested something we could do that day to be kind to someone else. They were usually next to, or in, something that we would need for that day's activity. Sometimes they would model kind behaviour by getting Jed's breakfast ready, or bringing him a gift, or getting something off of a high shelf they thought he might like to play with. (The inspiration stems from Elf on the Shelf, but this version is much more positive and much less creepy!) Jed got SO excited every morning when he found them, and would yell, "A note! A note! Mama, I see a note!" He would ask me to read it several times throughout the day. The elves got a bit lax once we went to Texas, but were pretty consistent up until then. The last note was a Christmas card next to his stocking on Christmas morning, talking about our Savior and keeping the spirit of Christ with us all year long.

On a Tuesday in the middle of December, Jed and I went downtown to see the US Botanic Garden and their Christmas display of model trains. Every year they have the trains running through scenes with buildings constructed entirely of plant materials, and every year the theme is different. One year they did famous buildings from around the world (Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, etc). This year, the buildings were US lighthouses. Jed loved the trains, especially since some of them were characters from Thomas the Tank Engine. We also went through the rest of the conservatory to look at some of the neat plants that they grow there, and saw the display of Washington, DC buildings made of plant materials that they set out every year.

We spent Christmas 2014 in Texas again, and got to see both Scott's family and some of mine. We arrived late Sunday night the 21st, and Jed did not nap on the plane - or in the car on the way to Matt and Cassy's house - so with the time difference, it was 2 am by the time he got into bed (and he SCREAMED when we tried to put his pajamas on and get him to sleep. He has rarely freaked out so much about anything!). Matt and Cassy moved from New York City to Houston over the summer, so we finally got a chance to see their new house. Monday morning we got up and, when everyone was ready, went to the Houston Zoo. Everyone loved it, of course. We met the Beussmans there, but the Hubers weren't coming until late that night (they were driving from Wisconsin).

The Hubers arrived Monday night, and the whole clan was finally together. Over the next few days, we spent lots of time hanging out at Matt and Cassy's house, which has plenty of space for the kids to run around, but also went to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science, ice skating, and to see some Christmas lights in College Station. Jed LOVED playing Penelope's drum set! The first time he wanted to play, I told him to go ask Penelope. He suddenly became "too shy of her." I gently insisted that if he wanted to play, he needed to ask Penelope, and that I wasn't going to ask her for him. After 10 minutes of being "too shy," he looked at Penelope and whispered, "Can I..." and then turned around and ran away! It took him another 15 or 20 minutes after that, but he finally got up enough courage to finish the question (in as soft a voice as he could manage) and was granted permission to play the drums. Another thing that kept the kids busy those few days were my twisting balloons and pump, which I had brought for them to play with. It wasn't very long before a pile had built up in the corner, and once the rest of the first bag was gone, I told the kids to play with what they had! Christmas Eve we watched some Christmas movies (Jed was terrified of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), and read the Christmas story while the kids acted it out. After the wise men brought baby Jesus 3 gifts (3 plastic cups from the kitchen), Jed decided to shower Jesus with more and kept returning to the kitchen until he had taken all the plastic cups that he could reach and thrown them into Jesus' manger. The cousins, of course, thought this was hilarious.

On Christmas day we all drove to Austin to stay at Laura and Dave's house. We went to Into the Woods that night, but could only get seats in the very front row - Leslie, Rachel, and I quickly became so nauseous that we had to leave and missed much of the movie. The next day we relaxed, went to the park, and played board games. Saturday we went to Inner Space Caverns, ate lunch at Chuys, and went to the Bob Bullock museum (Texas history) in the afternoon.

Sunday the 28th we went to church with Laura and Dave in the morning, and in the evening Scott, Jed and I went to my sister Sarah's house. We got to meet her brand-new baby, Sophia (only 3 weeks old!). She is so tiny and so adorable. Jed was absolutely in love with her, and wanted to hold her frequently. He quickly learned the "baby-holding steps" - wash hands, sit on the couch, ask the baby's parents. He would go from being loud and rambunctious to being very soft and quiet as soon as he noticed her nearby, whispered things to her, and gave her lots of very gentle kisses. He put blankets on her and made sure they weren't covering her face. He sang her Silent Night and told her that she had such cute, cute, tiny fingers and he loved her. It was so incredibly precious that I could hardly stand it. 

We were also able to Skype with my brother Timothy, who finishes his mission in the Ukraine this May! I am so proud of everything he has done over there and am so excited to see him when he returns. We flew back to Maryland on New Year's Eve, which was a pretty good time to fly because the airports weren't very crowded. We used New Year's Day as our chance to unpack and get settled back in!