Flagstaff Christmas

We drove up to Flagstaff on the 23rd for a balmy Christmas holiday with Jeremy's family. Last year we sledded and played in the heaps of snow; this year we hiked in 50+ degrees! It's crazy warm all over Arizona, and while we missed a white Christmas, it was nice not to have to bundle the kids up every time they wanted to go outside. The cousins had lots of fun playing in Pa and Grandma's backyard, hiking on the low slopes of Mt. Elden, and visiting Cowboy (the horse).

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Pa's church in the morning and then over to Aunt Em and Uncle James' house for Elias' birthday celebration that evening. Elias chose spaghetti for his birthday dinner, and we ate together in their yurt, heated by a beautiful wood-burning stove. Afterwards we gathered around the table in the house for Advent candles, reading, singing, and birthday cake. During most of the evening Elias said he wasn't four yet--he was "turning four." But once the cake came out and he was ready to try the lighter (a privilege saved for this particular moment), he made the turn and was fully four! (I think my pictures of this evening are on Jeremy's phone. I'll see if I can upload them later.)

This year the Bauerles and Singletons did stockings and Christmas morning/breakfast at their homes. So when our kids woke up on the 25th, they hurried Pa and Grandma and us downstairs so they could get into the stocking goodies!

 Tousled twins

We filled the kids' stockings with matchbox cars, styrofoam airplanes, nail polish for the twins, a little Lego for Josiah, some leftover Halloween candy (shhh!), and cute little gnomes Cousin Nicole sent.

After stockings with Pa and Grandma, we had some breakfast and readied ourselves for a full day with the relatives. We had scrumptious hors d'oeuvres (see below) and then a brunch with everyone, read the Christmas story together, and--of course--opened presents.

 James' bread, cheese board . . . what more could you ask?

Amidst predictable meltdowns, it was fun seeing all the cousins enjoy their presents and each other. They're a great little clan.

Abby 

Clara 

Lydia 

 Twins with Cedar's thrift store dog, which was the hit of the day with everyone :)

My sweet, funny, crazy stinker 

Blurry, but a record of a milestone: Josiah learning to be a good sport!

Josiah played Stratego with everyone who would give him 10 minutes. He roped Pa, Uncle James, Uncle Justin, and Daddy into playing several times each, I think. He got the hang of the game overall but hasn't quite mastered strategy. I enjoyed seeing him learn to say "Good game!" even when he lost!  

Cedar, Emily's mini-me 

Elias 

Bad lighting, but I love seeing the relationship between these cousins developing 

Of course, Kez and Lydia had a riotous time together . . .

Poor Willow looks like she's teething here 

We forgot to get the annual picture of the cousins all lined up against Grandma's rug, but we did get Grandma with the "big" kids:

With such beautiful weather, we were even able to eat brunch outside!

This girl has attitude 

E 

Daddy and twins 

Josiah likes practicing his winking skills 

Anna and Willow 

Abby

The day after Christmas, we met up with the cousins for "ice" skating at a free teflon rink in downtown Flagstaff. The kids had a blast, even though teflon doesn't allow for gliding quite like ice does.  

Clara and Willow had to watch from the sidelines 

Lydia had a cold by this point :( 

How are my twins getting so big?!

After a fun morning with everyone, we returned to Pa and Grandma's house to eat lunch and pack up. We had such a fun Christmas weekend and were sad to leave! We had some weepy kids in the car that afternoon as we drove down the mountain. 

The Literary Six-Year-Old

 Dressed in his cloak with battle-ax

Josiah listens to a lot of audio books. Every afternoon during rest time, he happily tinkers with his Legos and listens to story after story. Often he bursts out of the room to update me on the plot or retell a particularly thrilling bit (or just a mundane detail). In this way, he's listened through lots of great books--Narnia (many times through), Thornton Burgess animal stories, George MacDonald's fairy tales, versions of King Arthur and Robin Hood, the Little House books, The Wind in the Willows, several Paddington books, Winnie the Pooh, The Cricket in Times Square, The Moffats, Thimble Summer . . . and plenty more I'm forgetting.

Recently he's been into Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. (On his first listen-through, he came out to tell me about Akela's death [the wolf pack leader and Mowgli's adopted father], and he was fighting to hold back tears--my sweet boy!). Though his reading skills are currently lower than most of his peers, and he still lags behind in intelligibility and speech clarity, his capacity for good literature and his vocabulary certainly aren't suffering.

I've heard the influence of audio books (and books I read aloud) on his conversation and commentary. For instance . . .

One morning, Josiah contemplated his breakfast and then, apparently approving, said, "It's enough to feed a man."

Another day he was annoyed at a cut on his toe: "This owie has a little piece of skin coming off. Wretched foot!"

After listening to a bunch of Narnia, Josiah unfortunately picked up on some of the less-acceptable insults the Pevensie children use. When Lydia was getting a bit crazy/silly at lunch one day, he said (laughingly), "Stop being such a beastly ass!" (Needless to say, we had a little discussion about the necessity of avoiding that epithet in our society.)

Josiah listened to Howard Pyle's Robin Hood for about a week straight and subsequently commented on games, tricks, jokes, etc. by saying, "That was a merry jest!"

He loves to play Robin Hood, too!

In a less cultured style--but thankfully not as shocking as his Narnia lingo--Josiah currently likes to imitate Jonathan from the Paddington books in using "Crikey!" as an exclamation. It sounds a little funny, but hey . . . why not?

October Train Show

Back in the first weekend of October, Emily and her boys came down for a visit, and we all went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Fair. Our neighbor is a model-train enthusiast and has a tent each year to display his newest train configuration and paraphernalia. So we stop by his spot and then check out other set-ups, wander through the permanent model train building (like a museum), and usually allow the kids a ride on the carousel or train. This year we did both rides (well, I stayed off the carousel--those things make me sick), much to the kids' delight.

The big babies 

 Cedar is just so stinkin' cute!

Abby holding Cedar 

Lydia with a unicorn, Elias with his lizard 

Cedar was enthralled with his kitty! 

The twins and Elias and Cedar even got face-painting, and we got to spend awhile at the "jail" playground (sort of an Old West set of adobe play-buildings, a stagecoach, etc.), which Josiah desperately wanted to do. Clara the daredevil makes me a little nervous sometimes . . .

What a fun day we had with the cousins!