Christmas Break, Week Two: Part Five (The End)

This is it! The finale! Hooray!

Friday, January 1st

I'll be quick, I promise because I have to go plan Family Home Evening, and resume my mothering duties.

We kicked off the new year by taking the kids bowling. This was the first time ever for my kids, and since I was busy bowling a stellar 58, I had very little time for picture taking. It takes mad concentration to be that bad at something.

We had a great time!

Seth's mom sent Chloe some Wyoming pride for her birthday and Seth wanted her to wear it to church. I thought the bowling alley was a more appropriate venue for debuting her Cowboy wear.

Alyssa was the only kid to bowl a strike...GO ALYSSA! Little Miss Olive won though...GO OLIVE!

Alex managed to do even worse than I did, and he had bumpers. It didn't help that a few times he was throwing the ball down the lane before the gate was even up. He just wasn't that interested.

Nachos, on the other hand, were right up his alley.

Some of our little kingpins. Olive, the champion was unavailable. Off signing autographs, or going potty? One or the other.

We spent the rest of the day just letting the kids squeeze in some more Wii time, and refereeing fights. It seems that if kids are locked up together for 5 days, they become siblings. They were all sad to part, but they needed a break. Punches and potty talk were starting to flow too freely.

We put the kids to bed early, since they had a big drive ahead the next day, and the adults played Scrabble. Real Scrabble this time, no editing parentheses required. We also made and consumed THE PERFECT BROWNIE. The kids got me the perfect brownie pan for my birthday just days after my mother in law had posted about how it doesn't work. We lost the receipt so I figured we might as well try it out. It worked, sorry Ann! (we already sent her a text message to tease her) The stencils weren't too great which is why my house is all powdered sugared, but the pan worked. It was fine, but I wouldn't say that you need one unless you have trouble cutting a brownie. I am much more interested in an all edge brownie pan, which I invented years ago. Someone just beat me to the market with it.

Saturday morning dawned freezing cold, and the mid-West quickly lost it's charm and drove the Englishes South once again. We made plans to try to go to Tennessee in the Spring, and we all parted ways.

We are so grateful to our family for making the trip up here. It made the holidays feel more like the holidays. I love that Sarah's family is within driving distance. They are not close, but 10 hours is closer than the 30 it would take me to get to LA. It really is such a blessing to be able to get together and let the kids develop friendships. It is amazing that even though they do not get to see each other often, they remain the best of friends.

Thanks for coming guys! See you in the Spring!

Now we are caught up. Life is now back to normal. I sadly put Alyssa back on the bus today, in the frigid cold. The bus was late and I was so tempted to just let her skip today. I feel like Christmas break was way too short. She agreed. The first thing she asked this morning was when the next half days and holidays would be. Then, to make it worse, it was too cold for outdoor recess so she couldn't talk to her best friends about Christmas break, since they are not in her class. Why do schools in Wisconsin not have an indoor playground? They end up with indoor recess half the year. Oh well, I am caught up now so I will not go on a tangent.

Resolution complete. Back to blogging as usual! Did anyone even make it through all 5 posts? I mean, besides Grandma Ann who had 6 cute grandbabies to look at?