Coffee Break–Volume 149

A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.

1.Christmas break activities. We have been trying to stay busy since the anticipation leading up to Christmas day always makes my boys a little jittery.

First up—we got a couple of inches of snow. It was way too cold to go sledding (-3 was our high), but the boys did take a few minutes (forced by me) to trudge around in the back yard.

Next, we attempted our first ever gingerbread house (Grayson’s idea). I bought a kit and even though the instructions seemed simple enough, there were a few frustrations (curse words, mumblings of how we will never do this again, etc.) I think we nailed it—especially the boys’ addition of the murder scene in the front.

It had become clear that the boys needed to get out of the house—so a real murder scene didn’t occur. So, I took them over to Air City 360. This is a great place to get out energy as it’s a giant room full trampolines and bouncy house type structures. They also have what they call the ‘360 Ride’ that I decided to give a try. It’s a lot scarier to do than I thought it would be, but also very fun.

Both boys have been lifting weights during the school break and decided to test their strength against Daddy with arm wrestling challenges. Close, but not quite.

There was also a lot of down time–reading for Grayson, trying out his new air soft sniper rifle for Morgan and then dozens and dozens of games of Uno.

And finally—Christmas cookie decorating. For the boys–they love it and come up with fun creations and eat all the frosting and sprinkles, but by this time for Super Rockstar and I—we are about “holidayed out” and it’s just a “let’s get this over with” exercise.

2. Christmas Eve. We got to enjoy our annual tradition of leading worship and hanging out with the wonderful folks at Calvary Fellowship Monument. We even stuck around this year for their chili cookoff and got to participate as judges. Oh my. It was hard to choose a winner.

After church, we came home, and each got to open a gift–new jammies for everyone.

And then the boys left cookies out for Santa.

3. Christmas Day. We spoiled each other rotten and it was a blast. The anticipation of Christmas morning is overwhelming, and Grayson usually can’t sleep at all. This year we told them to wait until 6am. Super Rockstar woke up a few minutes before and found that both boys were in Morgan’s room (and had been for over an hour) talking excitedly. I love that they both paused briefly to whisper “Happy Birthday Jesus” before tearing open their presents. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but the shrieks of joy will carry me all year. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the gifts, napping, eating and watching movies.

4. Christmas Kansas Trip. Our final Christmas tradition is heading to my parents house in Kansas. It’s so wonderful to be in their home and my mom always makes the most delicious feast. Afterwards, my Dad always reads the real Christmas story from the Bible and then we exchange gifts. I also get to see my sister, Steph and her husband, Todd. They just moved back to our home town—so now we have two wonderful homes to visit.