Wrapping Up 2015 #3

And Thanksgiving 2015 . . .

We loaded up the van Wednesday morning and headed down to Eau Claire.  I sat in the jump seat between the two girls from the beginning, making sure they were happy from the get go.  I don't really remember much at this point but I do know tears were involved on Greta's part.  But, at one point in time she did fall asleep.    I've heard rumors about children who you put in a carseat, drive a block away from home and they are out cold.  These children, I feel, are a tall tale, much like Paul Bunyan. A fable made to entertain.

 

We stayed at the Robertson's house and had fun with the cousins.  

Making cherry pie

Her name tag reads Princess Alice

Greta checking out Izzy outside

We had a delightful traditional Thanksgiving meal, Lilly prefers the fake turkey to real turkey.  We had pie, conversation, and fun.  I am fairly certain.  It is ten o'clock on a Saturday night now, so who knows what I am forgetting.

I do know that Greta was a HORRENDOUS sleeper while we were there.  Thursday night I think I got four hours of sleep total.  Much of that with Greta in my arms.  One positive thing that came out of being up with her all night was I got a lot of reading done and finally made a respectable showing in the "Read More than Ms Robertson" challenge I offer each holiday break.  And, by the way, I read over 1000 pages and still came in second-to-last place.

On Friday, we headed to Menomonie to go to my brother's house for my extended family's gathering.  We had a hot potato bar, good conversation, and Nick and Lilly spent most of the time in their basement playing Legos.  My mom also brought hula hoops for everyone, for in retirement she has found the joy of hula hooping, or hooping as she likes to call it, for exercise.

My brother Matt holding Greta

Friday night was pretty exciting.  We told Lilly she had three more minutes to act crazy and then it was time to calm down and go to bed.  Then, Lilly and I played chase.  And her feet slipped and she hit her chin on the ground.  At first I scooped her up and distracted her, she calmed down fairly quickly.  Then I noticed the blood.  She split her chin open and we had to debate whether or not to bring her in to the ER for stitches or if steri strips would be sufficient.  The decision was steri strips and Nick's dad ran off to Walgreens to get the necessary supplies and Frozen bandaids. Nick and his dad closed up the wound, Lilly was a rockstar and super still while they closed up the wound.  She looked pretty tough for a good week with the bandaid on and eventually the steri strips fell off as well.  One can still see the mark on her chin from the accident.  It will probably result in a little scar - but she'll match her dad, who also has a scar on his chin.

I am failing to remember much else from the trip.  We headed back at some point on Saturday.  When we got home it was time to set up for Christmas.  This is the first year where Lilly was super excited for Christmas and I felt bad that we weren't getting a real tree and that our Christmas decorations involve a tiny tree, some Christmas lights, a Santa statue, and one of those decorations that spin from the convection heat from a candle.  I promised her we'd work on our Christmas decoration collection so we could have more next year.  We are also contemplating a real tree next year, but with being gone almost a week right at Christmas, it always seems a bit wasteful.  So, we'll see what next year brings.

Baths were also involved.  Baths, I have also been told, calm children down and are often administered right before bed.  Both of our children get what we affectionately call "wet dog" syndrome, and baths rile them up and turn them into crazy children.  We do our best to give them baths before dinner, or immediately following dinner, or on weekends mid-morning, so they have plenty of time to calm down after the thrill that is a bath (yup, they are thrilling and hyperactivity inducing, rather than something to be feared).  We did baths and attempted a photo of the two of them in their matching Christmas PJs.  That was an epic fail.  Here are some attempts:

And a photo from the next day, the two playing together in a box.  You can get a nice view of Lilly's chin in this picture.