December 21st: Christmas with Grandma Today was such a fun day! I woke up early to run to the store for avocados and flour. I promised to bring sand tarts and orange date cake to Thanksmas. I was brave and tried to make gluten free sand tarts in addition to the regular kind. Kelly said she ate them so hopefully they tasted ok =)
Jana invited us to go with her, Kiley, Brayden and Cooper to the moves. We saw Sing. It was so funny! Braley wanted to go to the movie, so Serenity and Donovan wanted to go too!! YAY!!! Normally my kids are not into movies, but they are very into Braley so they went. And they liked it. Their favorite part is probably when the bunny rabbits sing “Oh my gosh, look at her butt.” At least, that’s what they repeated. A lot. And after the movie, Serenity kept remarking (loudly) that they were “Butt Bunnies!” After hoping she’d get over that particular comment I finally said, “Honey, you have GOT to stop repeating that.” It led to a lot of hilarity at Thanksmas when I shared that story. DZ also liked it when the Daddy gorilla broke out of jail to go see his son. And Serenity only cried a little bit when the theater was demolished and when the gorilla dad said he didn’t want to see his son again.
After the movie we rushed off to Jen’s house. Eric had invited everyone to play football, and they all had a blast! They used muscles they hadn’t used in a while though and felt it the next day =) Donovan and Braley and Maia just ran around happily while football was happening. Occasionally they would be passed the ball but they were glad to just be around the action. After a while, Maia started playing with Forrest. She would lay on his back, drape her whole body over him, saying “Good job boy, good puppy.” She made it “snow” grass all over him, let her hug and kiss him. He is the best and most tolerant of dogs.
My sister was in a particularly silly mood, so I had fun in the kitchen with her. We took a series of very blurry selfies. She mocked the way I cut up avocados and then implied that my tomatoes were not sufficiently diced. So I cut up one tomato into teeny tiny miniscule pieces just for her. She wasn’t even tipsy yet, she said she waits to drink until Don gets there as he refills her glass frequently.
Several games of Colt Express were played, and Donovan hung in there with all the grown ups. We had planned on minute to win it games, and didn’t quite get around to it. But J had gotten us pie in the face, and the kids played that. Some liked it, some cried. Jana also planned a fun game of unwrapping saran-wrap filled with dollar store prizes. It was crazy fun. You got to unwind saran wrap until the person after you rolled doubles, and you got to keep whatever you got out of the wrap. It was a little too intense for Serenity, but some kind cousins and Aunt Jana gave her a few things to make her feel better. DZ traded for some cool cat clips. Aunt Kelly also gave him a cool Batman that consoled him when it was time to take the tired boy home. He and I snuggled on the couch watching a super hero Christmas special until everyone else joined us.
I got to play some Above and Below with Alex and Eric after the kids went to sleep. Such a great day!!!
