Tuesday, 31 December, 2002

Christmas has come and gone as well as another year almost.  But it was a lot of fun.  Last Monday (the 23rd), Santa Claus rode around the neighborhood on a fire engine and Amy was even brave enough to talk to him.  All season long, she would see Santa Claus and shrink up next to us saying, “I don’t want to talk to him.”  That night we went to the fire station where he arrived on the fire truck amid lights and sirens.  We had a hard time finding a parking space and kind of blocked Santa’s grand entrance for a minute or so.  We didn’t know if they would be meeting inside the station or outside, so we bundled the girls up.  Once inside, I stood in the line to have pictures taken with Santa, and Chris climbed on the fire trucks with the girls and took pictures.  The place was pretty packed with families and lots of kids, so we didn’t stay too long.

On Christmas Eve, we continued a holiday tradition from my family and had Chinese food.  We went to the restaurant to eat, but as the girls get older, I want to do more of the tradition by getting take out from the restaurant, and having a fun family dinner at home.  We drove around and looked at the lights in Longmont after dinner and then brought the girls home for more celebration.  We have tried to focus on Christmas as Christ’s birthday and not just Santa Claus and presents.  We read the story of Christ’s birth using a fun little felt nativity that Grandma Ball sent.  Amy gets into the story but Misha is more interested in messing up all the little felt pieces.  We also opened up one Christmas gift--jammies for everyone--and changed right there in the middle of the living room.  (That obviously won’t be a tradition that we continue for too many years.)  I then had a small box that was a present for Jesus Christ and we all wrote down one thing we would work on in the next year to be a gift for Jesus.  We will open it up next year and then add new gifts.

Both girls slept without a problem (I used to wake up so much the night before Christmas).  I had just finished showering and putting on makeup when I heard Amy up.  She was already downstairs looking for me but hadn’t yet been in the living room.  I made her stand outside the living room until I had the camera ready and Chris climbed out of bed.  She was awed by the presents under the tree (I hadn’t put any out for fear that Misha would just unwrap them all).  Plus there were some great unwrapped gifts sitting next to the tree–a little tykes kitchen, a tonka truck, a slide, and a doll stroller.  (All but the slide were purchased at garage sales last summer).  I got the slide hoping that Misha would climb on it instead of the kitchen table and chairs, back of the couch, toy chest, etc.  There were so many wonderful things that Amy didn’t know what to start with first.  Misha woke up around 7:45 and then the party started (along with the fight over toys).  They had a lot and got even more and they both always wanted the same thing at the same time.

Grandma Ball said they were scaling back on Christmas this year, but you wouldn’t know it by all the gifts they sent.  She sent a cash register, a cassette player with microphone, a ball bopper toy, dresses, and more little toys.  The cash register and cassette player are a big hit.  She gave Chris a picture of Christ with all of his ordination information overlaid and money for the new bedding we got. 

Chris’ dad gave us money for Christmas (which is always welcome) and also brought a Mr. Potato Head family for the girls.  So many pieces!  Aaagh!  Oh well, the girls love it.  He flew in on Thursday afternoon and out again on Sunday morning.  Actually, he hoped to fly out in the morning but wasn’t able to catch a flight until later in the day.  We went out for my early birthday dinner that night at Armadillo’s in Thornton.  None of us were too impressed with the food or the service.

Friday we tried to find some snow hoping to go sledding with the girls.  We drove up into the mountains past Nederland, Golden, and through Blackhawk and everything was brown.  Blackhawk is basically a town full of casinos, but by then Grandpa had to go to the bathroom.  Chris took Amy as well.  By the time they were coming out of the bathroom, security had spotted them on a camera and were there to escort them out!

So we came home and made a ham dinner.  Grandpa finally got to have his mashed potatoes with the skins on.  He bugs me about it every time he comes here.

Chris had arranged with a friend from work to come and help him put up the molding in Amy’s room.  They spent a couple of hours working on that Saturday morning.  Grandpa Kline has his check-ride in a couple of weeks, so he spent most of the morning studying for that.  He has to pass this test or he can’t fly airplanes anymore.  We didn’t do anything exciting on Saturday, it was more of a relaxing day in the afternoon.  Chris and I drove into Longmont with Misha to pick up some paint for her room and Amy stayed with Grandpa.  He took her to the park which thrilled her to her toes.  Sadly, Grandpa was kicking her inflatable beach ball a little too hard and burst it.  She was pretty upset with him.

Chris took the girls and Grandpa Kline to the airport on Sunday morning.  It was a wonderfully nice treat for me to have some time to myself.  I know I don’t make time for me often enough.  Sadly, when they arrived back, Misha had already slept in the car.  That equates into a crabby girl in church.  Amy had a nap though.  And Grandpa Kline called from the airport to say that he was bumped from his flight.  He would try to find a roundabout way to get home faster since the next direct flight wasn’t until 7 that evening.

I took Misha to nursery for the first time on Sunday.  She loved it.  She walked right in and started playing.  It was Amy’s last week as she will become a Sunbeam on Sunday and go to regular Primary class.  She is pretty excited though we told her there wouldn’t be any more treats or toys to play with.  I hope she likes it.  I hope that Misha likes nursery without Amy there.  Amy used to cry when we came to pick her up because she realized then that we had left her (she had a good time while we were gone though), but Misha wasn’t even too anxious to leave.  Hurray!  It was so nice to have a quiet Sunday School class and Relief Society.

Chris didn’t go back to work until Thursday, the 2nd of January, so he had Monday through Wednesday off this past week.  We went into Longmont on Monday morning to do some shopping and ended spending a lot of the day there.  The missionaries came for dinner that night and since they had used up all their miles for the month, Chris had to go in to Longmont and pick them up and then take them back home again.  He picked up a pizza on the way.  One of the missionaries was pretty sullen, to the point of almost being rude.  He made me uncomfortable.

On Tuesday we headed north to Loveland and Ft. Collins.  It was nice to be out together as a family.  Unfortunately, Amy was having accidents galore, and both days I had to buy her new pants because I didn’t pack enough extra in the diaper bag.  I think she must get stressed when her schedule is messed up.

For New Year’s Eve, we stayed home with the girls.  After our frustrating day with Amy and her accidents, we didn’t feel like going anywhere.  We put them to bed at their normal times and watched a movie together–“Minority Report”-with Tom Cruise.  It was enjoyable but didn’t all come together until the very end.  I even stayed up past midnight which is quite an accomplishment for me.  Still, I have such guilt in the morning if I don’t exercise that I was up fairly early.  I did sleep through my 5:30 alarm but woke up an hour later.  The girls have both been sleeping later in the morning, so I was still able to get a shorter session in.

I took the Christmas tree and most of the decorations down on Wednesday.  I had started on Monday night.  It was nice to have my house back to normal, but I love the warmth of having a Christmas tree.  I left the Christmas lights on the tree this year.  It should save me a couple of hours next year in my decorating.  Chris was at Jamie Stanworth’s working on a computer during the morning and came home to find all traces of Christmas gone.  He was rather surprised that I had managed to pack up the tree and heft it back downstairs.  It was kind of heavy, but I was on a cleaning kick and wanted it out of the way.  It was hardly a relaxing day for me.  I think I worked non-stop all morning long.  I started painting the border in Amy’s room.