We have really enjoyed the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, when there isn’t much going on and we can all be home together.
One of the fun things we did one rainy day was make bread for Grandpa and Grandma Cole, which was JT’s idea. Actually, I wrote that incorrectly. The kids made bread. I watched. We were completely amazed at their baking skills (I don’t know why… they’ve been baking with me since they were little). They found the recipe, read it, simmered the oatmeal, checked the temperature before adding the yeast, mixed in the flour, all of it. And it was soooo good!
We also got ready for New Year’s Eve… by sporting our Alabama attire for our weekly shopping trip. Shockingly, no one said a word to us and we only saw two UW fans. We’re not really a college football town.
The kids have been enjoying their new books from Christmas. Haley has whipped through maybe five chapter books this break, and JT (who is more of a grazing type reader, having several books going at a time) is never far away from something non-fiction. Also, my parents bought Haley her own typewriter. Manual. She has typed two pages of two different stories and she is adorable.
On the big game day, we were torn. How would we cheer? Jim pledged to be neutral, and wore gray, and so did I. The kids both wore Alabama shirts and UW hats, and tried to cheer both ways. In the end, we felt ourselves leaning more toward Alabama… and they won anyway. We’re looking forward to another national championship next week!
We hosted lots of family and friends at our house on New Year’s Eve, and it is our nephew’s birthday too. We watched football, had a bonfire, played basketball, and celebrated New York New Year’s together. Then the over-40 crowd went home, the under-15 crowd went to bed, and those of us brave enough stayed up well past midnight. 😉
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| Haley had a secret plan to spray Preston with silly string after we sang to him! |
The kids still have a few days of break left, but we’re back to work today. So we finished our family puzzle last night! This puzzle is the kids’ biggest yet – 500 pieces! I was proud of the way they stuck with it and worked for solid blocks of time to finish. I think it’s a new tradition.
The Keene Family 