December 22nd: Christmas with Papa
Today we headed over to Dad's to celebrate Christmas! Jason, Tiffany and Braley had spent the night over there, so it was a full house =) The kids had a lot of fun playing together, although Braley and Donovan have different ideas of fun. She does not want balls thrown at her, for example. They all liked sliding and playing in the castle though. =) Dad made breakfast, three different rounds of it I think. And we had a great lunch! Dad and Brandon had pulled down all the loose branches from their trees, so the kids got to go out and explore some of the ice covered trees. It really is a Winter Wonderland, and I think it fascinates Eric even more than the kids. He ooohs and ahhhs over it everywhere we've been today. Maia got to snuggle with Papa and was very content with her day =) The biggest hits of the day were Donovan's fancy new stable, built by Papa, which he filled with the awesome set of horses from Uncle J and Aunt Tiffany. Serenity got a sticker machine, which all the kids love already. And I'm just waiting for my turn to use it ;) Eric got to play a game of Settlers of Catan with J, Tiffany and Brandon. Braley let me read her the Good News Bad News book Mom got her from the book fair. And she knew right away that her mermaid tail was a new costume, and she wanted to try it on immediately! Yay!!!
We ended the day playing an awesome round of Dominion with Serenity! Maia and Donovan were both zonked out, so we decided to give it a try. She did an awesome job! She understands the game mechanic really well, and she paid attention for the entire game. She has a thing for silver, and figured out that getting villages helped her play her bureaucrat, mines and council rooms. And she won. =) Granted, Eric was trying out the benefits of using a Chancellor, but she really did make a good deck! And she was SO excited about the whole thing! I just love our little gamer =)
