Christmas Fun

Silly cousins

Mr. 5 and Cousin F had a grand time together. One of the most
memorable is the long story they weaved all about the adventures of
Papa. Papa standing on the roof of the car, ziplining, shooting at
ducks, teleporting, playing with reindeer. They are quite a pair!

Starting the new year off...

This year we decided to travel over the Christmas break.  Now that the kids are in school, it's more difficult to get away so rather than Merpy Thanksmas we thought we would try just Merry Christmas.  We left on Christmas Eve after a morning of having our own Christmas celebration complete with Christmas surprise.  Each year we have planned a Christmas surprise for the boys - many involving late nights and lots of planning.  My parents will no longer visit us at Christmas after we had them up until 3am putting together bunk beds a few years ago.  This was a little more low key - a scavenger hunt where they each found a package containing cat supplies.  We're getting two cats - but not until we return from our trip.  The boys had a great morning and we managed to finish our packing and get out the door on time.

We flew to Chicago and spent the first half of the break there and then took the train to St. Louis and finished our trip with family there.  There were some great moments but Mr. 3 does not make staying in someone else's house easy and by New Year's Day we were ready to be back in our our house.  We said goodbye to everyone and jumped on the train back to Chicago.  We discovered train travel with our crew is great - if you subtract the craziness and stress of getting everyone and all our stuff on the train and finding seats together.  Once accomplished, the kids read books, play on their tablets, do puzzles (Mr. 5 is a puzzle guru), draw, and take lots of walk (Mr. 3's favorite part).  We had lots of snacks and even a picnic dinner to keep us well fed.  So far, so good.  

We arrived in Chicago at 8:30pm and planned to stay in a hotel right by Midway to make our early morning flight easier.  Step one, walk 4 blocks to the Metra and take the train out to Midway.  Unfortunately it was freezing and we had 4 tired kids and lots of luggage, but we rallied and everyone did great.  There was a bit of a shock when we realized there were 2 stories of stairs to climb outside to get to the train but we're brave and made it to the top.  When we arrived at Midway, it was a very long walk to the shuttle spot for our shuttle to the hotel.  So we missed the original shuttle they had sent for us.  And had a to wait in the cold for the next.  We handed out snacks and everyone cheerfully waited.  We got to the hotel and up to our room later than we would have liked but we were there and knew it was a short shuttle ride back early in the morning.

Unfortunately Mr. 3 was way too tired to go to bed.  While trying to get him to bed, all of our other kids fell asleep in our bed and so we decided he would just sleep with us.  Big mistake.  He spent the night waking up every hour or so and terrorizing one parent or the other.  This was coupled by a heating system that seemed to either continuously be on or off.  Our 4:30am alarm came quickly and everyone was super helpful in getting us back to the airport on time.  We grabbed a quick breakfast for the plane and loaded up.  All was fine until landing when we realized that Mr. 3 was not smelling so good.  We'll change him as soon as we get off we told ourselves.  As we were walking up the jetway, with David and Mr. 3 in the lead, the older boys and I noticed something yucky on the path.  One of them commented that it looked like poop.  I made sure we gave it a wide berth but it never occurred to me that it might be from us until I got Mr. 3 into the bathroom.  Yikes!  Once clear and dry, there was no way he could wear those pants.  And that's how we ended up walking through Logan with our 3 year old with no pants.  We picked up our luggage, fortified the boys with donut holes, put some pants on Mr. 3, and decided we would take the train home rather than a taxi.  An hour, one bus, one train, and one long cold walk later, we arrived home with much celebration.  Maybe next year we'll go back to Merpy Thanksmas.

Visiting the cousins

In October, Mr. 3 and I left the older boys and David at home and
headed out to meet Baby M and see the cousins. It was a great weekend
and now Mr. 3 always wants to know when he'll see the cousins.
Luckily we'll all be together again for Christmas!

Piano Guys

For St. Nicholas Day this year the boys received fleece-lined long
underwear shirts for hockey, wool socks, and tickets to the Piano
Guys. We love the Piano Guys - Steve may be why Mr. 5 is playing the
cello and they are by far Mr. 11's favorite music to play. So last
Tuesday, our piano guys and our cello concert had a fantastic time
seeing them in concert.

Surprisingly all the gifts were a huge hit. Mr. 9 reports that with
the shirt and socks he is not cold at all on the ice!

Shark on a roller coaster

Mr. 11 filmed a movie last movie last week.  There's some rather good editing including putting in a holographic image of the villain Loki.  However probably the best line in the entire film is:

"I have them in my hands now."  Maniacal laugh.  "I am sending my greatest minion - a shark on a roller coaster."

Cue Mr. 5 in shark costume green-screened riding a roller coaster while roaring.  Hysterical!

Shhh...

In the past week Mr. 3 has seemed to grow up more than he has in months.  On Saturday he sat through an entire Christmas concert without yelling, throwing something, or running away.  This is major progress.  He sang, he clapped, and was rather delighted to be there.

Yesterday we were headed in for the Lessons and Carols service at our church.  David and Mr. 9 were at hockey so the rest of us cleaned up dinner and set out for the train.  Mr. 3 refused to ride in the stroller but happily ran alongside Mr. 11 and Mr. 5 enjoyed the ride (he had a rough morning and was happy to take a turn in the stroller).  Suddenly he stopped and put his hands up and very seriously told us in his whisper voice  "Shhh...  Baby Jesus is sleeping."  He looked at us for a few more seconds and then took off running and laughing down the path.  We arrived at the station and found out that they were actually bussing from Alewife to Davis to Porter to Harvard.  This was going to take awhile.  We ran up to catch the shuttle bus.  Mr. 3 told me at each stop "Next stop Kendall" and then laughed when I told him the right station.  Mr. 11 read him books, rapping his way through Green Eggs and Ham and singing his way through Where the Wild Things Are.  I think half the people on the train were laughing.  So although we were late, we made it in time to see our friend S talk and had a rather enjoyable trip.

When we got home Mr. 3 was very excited to tell us all about the Christmas story.  He told us that the shepherds came and the angels were singing and that Mary was Jesus's mommy and God was Jesus's daddy.  Pretty good for someone who was only speaking in 2 word sentences in the spring.