No, it wasn't the same, but different can be good

Christmas 2020 is in the history books. Such a different holiday for us. Bill and I visited each of our four adult children in their homes instead of everyone gathering in our small house. It really was very 

intimate and special this year.

Seeing the great grandsons was as much a delight as it was seeing our own kids and older grandkids who were home from college/work. We spent quality time with each family, missed two oldest grands, but we plan to throw a big bash this summer where we can all be together again, hopefully. Good-bye 2020!

We walked in the front door with a container of fluffy, plush snowballs and set the boys into action. They bombarded paw paw and had the best snowball fight with us. Their laughter is a happy memory.

Alex is quite the tinkerer at age three. He received two sets of tools and has been using them! He likes his goggles and work gloves. He has a car that has removable parts and he loves it!

Charlie is the typical active  two year old, vocalizing in full sentences now more than striking out and screaming. But as you can see he got very excited here when he realized what was about to happen...

Charlie saw Alex wearing his chef outfit, and mama on her way to make green pancakes for Christmas breakfast. Alex loves to help cook. 

Liam, age six, received SO many video games and battery operated cars and things to play with. However when I showed him what we could do with the empty box in which I carried the gifts, he was mesmerized. He has inherited his mom's artistic ability. He had fun with his remote control car that did flips and zoomed around, but he was as interested in what I was doing. He watched me turn the box upside down and lay out dry erase markers and eraser. He took the things into his room and began to draw on the plasticized cardboard which makes it a dry erase board. Charlie left the chaos of the livingroom to find Liam, and when he did, he sat right beside him and also drew. 

 Who says kids need expensive toys?! I used to present workshops for teachers: Learning Games from Trash to Treasure. Notice, the box is on a slant. When the child rests his arm on the box, it provides the stabilization needed to support the wrist/forearm. This discarded box provided much entertainment. 

I hope you had a good holiday and are prepared to beat the heck out of 2020 tomorrow night. When the boys' mama Ashley was three, she was spending the night with her great grandma. I called at midnight and told her to get a pot and big spoon and beat the heck out of the old year.

She handed my mom the phone and said, "Nana wants me to beat the heck out of an old deer with a pot and spoon."

We are on a countdown now. Blessings to you and yours.