My mom and dad came out last week for an early Christmas with the family. We had such a wonderful time and were very busy as you will see!
The big and little "kids" loved sledding. The last time mom and dad went sledding was probably when I was a sophomore at the Academy and we went to Winter Park for the weekend. Needless to say, they had as much fun as Elizabeth. Andrew was not too sure about everything going on, especially when someone fell off the sled but he had a good time watching. It's really funny as he did not want to participate but if you now ask him about sledding, he says how much he likes it and that it is really fun (and that Grandma and Pop pop are ok (he is so sensitive and thought that they were hurt when they fell off the sled).
We also went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which we all loved! Andrew is still talking about how the dinosaurs roared at him and Elizabeth just loved the little baby triceratops that were hatching out of their eggs in the T-Rex exhibit.
On Saturday morning, we had swim lessons. The kids are do much fun to take to the pool. Elizabeth is swimming really well and does not give us the "death grip" anymore in the water. She swims around like a little fish and floats on her back with confidence. It's almost as it something just clicked overnight with her. We had Andrew in the mommy/daddy and me classes. We very rarely get time alone with Andrew and just cherish those times. He acts differently and more calm when he is one on one.
When I was a little girl, mom and I made Gingerbread houses each year. The highlight was getting to go to the store to pick out all of the candy for the house. Mom decided to pick up the tradition again this year, now that Elizabeth is old enough to fully participate. While mom made the structure for the house, Elizabeth and I made gingerbread cookies. She just loved decorating them and sat there for over an hour with the sprinkles and candies for her gingerbread men. They ended up tasting really good too as mom has the best gingerbread recipe.
As you can see, our gingerbread house had some structural integrity issues. For next year, we have to figure out what needs to be done differently with gingerbread and the icing glue that mom makes at altitude. With that said, the house was ok the next morning. Elizabeth calls it the Marzipan Palace!
The highlight of the weekend for Elizabeth (and for me too) was the Nutcracker ballet. It is such a gift to be able to watch the Nutcracker through Elizabeth's eyes. Mom and I spent most of the ballet watching Elizabeth, rather than the show. A few times, she brought us both to tears with her precious comments and excitement about the performance. She is so familiar with the ballet from reading the books that she likes to provide us with a commentary throughout the performance. Good thing we sat in the balcony :) And even better, when us girls came home from the Nutcracker, dinner was ready. Jan made a standing rib roast, lobster and all the fixins. What a great ending to a wonderful day!
And the favorite gift of Christmas for Andrew and Elizabeth? The Nutcracker of course! Elizabeth carries the Nutcracker around with her everywhere and talks to him just like one of her dolls. Well, Grandmom and Pop Pop saw the look on Andrew's face when Elizabeth got the Nutcracker and he got a little Mickey Mouse snow globe (which he actually likes now) that Pop Pop had to make an emergency run to Target so that Andrew could pick out his own Nutcracker. Now he carries his everywhere with him as well. 2 kids, 2 Nutcrackers and one tube of Crazy Glue for all of the patching up.
