Marathon

Boxes make the best toys... and when you've been Christmas shopping online there are lots of boxes.

We did go to a few stores.... after a trip to Chik-fil-a.   Shopping with them reminded me why I shop online.  

Quite pleased to taste the chocolate buttercream I made for my birthday cupcakes.  I made Benzene again for my chemistry class. 

My new ridiculous Christmas Chemistry shirt.  I wore it to class last Friday- a former student told me, "You have a real problem; you need to get some help!"  Haha.  She's just jealous of my awesome nerdy t-shirt collection.   

 Saturday was a Christmas marathon.  We started our day with Brunch at the Wyss Christmas.  Poor Rachel got to join in the fun.  

 The girls played outside a little bit with the other kids.

Little cheese.  I ask her to smile for a picture and she starts grinning and dancing.   

 I'm related to some cool people.  :)

 The big girls got butterfly wings from Great Grandma.

And Cadence got this really cool Fischer price Camper play set.  It was the hot toy of the afternoon.   

 Cecily and Emmy had a great time playing with Cliff and Boden and Jack... Cadence was in heaven carrying around a cup full of snacks in one hand all day long.  She even took a decent nap so I got to play a game with my cousins!  Who needs toys when you can be bears hibernating in the toy cabinets?

We had to leave before supper and headed straight for the Beutel Christmas.  The girls were still going strong, I was starting to wilt a little bit...  I spent most of the evening chasing Cadence around: finding her stuck on the chair rack, playing in the toilets, eating food off the floor.  *sigh*  G and G Beutel turn 90 this year so they had a cake with 90 candles on it and showed a bunch of pictures from over the years.  We left before they were done with pictures and before the nativity play because it was getting late and we had been gone from home almost 12 hours.... poor girls wanted to play with their new toys so bad and we made them take baths and go straight to bed.  And then we went to church the next morning so they had to wait even longer!  Woe is them. 
Sunday was my birthday.  Woot.  It was a pretty good day.  Kathy handed me a package 'just because' in Church and it was this awesome book.   

After church Cecily and I went to the Nutcracker!  It was her first ballet and it was so fun.  One of my chem students from last year was in it and it was so cool to watch her.  Cecily's favorite was the girl in the purple dress (the sugar plum fairy) and she thought the guys wore weird pants.  Haha.

Then for supper we went out to eat... we ended up at Logan's Roadhouse, not my favorite, but it fit the criteria for eating out with our three hooligans:

• loud enough that we won't disturb any other patrons
• you're supposed to throw peanut shells on the floor so dropping food/napkins/everything isn't a big deal
• not McDonald's because I'm not eating McD's on my birthday
• close-ish to home (not across the river)
•  kid friendly food
• Bob friendly food

They FINALLY got to try the Perla beads Kacie gave them for Christmas!  

Monday morning at 6am, Bob, Matt, and Nathan started a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.  Crazy boys.  They had breaks for meals scheduled in between movies and watched all six in one stretch.  Bob would text me every three hours or so when they would finish a movie.... all the way to 2:30-ish in the morning.  Over 20 hours of Tolkien films.  He got home around 3am.  I don't know if I would ever do that.... even for bragging rights.
Anyway, so he slept through Cecily's school Christmas program.  Haha.  He didn't really miss much.  We apparently should have gotten there earlier because it was standing room only.  She's up there somewhere.

I think we would have been standing up with these two hoydens anyway: selfies while we wait for it to start. 

 These days Emmy is into dressing up and playing with her babies.

And Cadence likes to be just like the big girls. 

 Kacie also gave them a bag of kinetic sand.  It's the coolest stuff.  

 Cadence liked it too, and she kept it in the pan!  

Bob is done with work until the new year, yay!  And Cecily has one more day of school.  And then we have a quiet weekend until the Christmas craziness starts up again.  
Blessings.