Christmas Stay-cation

One of the advantages of working in academia is that your schedule is determined by the school calendar.  So technically, Emmett has almost a month off for Christmas!  This isn't exactly true, because he has research to do and classes to prepare, but he does have a lot of free time over the next few weeks.

We decided that he would not work the whole week of Christmas, so our family has been enjoying a stay-cation in the RGV.  Here is the itinerary:

• Saturday ... backyard Nativity
• Sunday ... nothing because the kids were feeling crummy
• Monday ... Christmas Eve (fondue for dinner)
• Tuesday ... Christmas
• Wednesday ... ice skating and the Festival of Lights
• Thursday ... Wreck It Ralph
• Friday ... Chuck E. Cheese
• Saturday ... taking down decorations and play time at home
• Sunday ... church and the Bears game
• and someday next week, the zoo!

Take a look at some photos from our week.  It should be pretty obvious that we have a new camera, and we're still figuring out how it works.  :)

Santa Ben and ice-skating Evan:

Somebody is starting to explore!  I love it.  

 
Checking out the new Chuck E. Cheese in town.  A certain big sister shared many of her tokens with her little brother.  She took him on the teacup (I think it was supposed to be hot chocolate - note the marshmallows), a safari boat, a carousel and down the slide. He thinks she's the coolest sister ever.

The big kids enjoyed tossing footballs.

Corrie has been helping Ben try out his new toy wagon.  It's safe to say that he likes it.

 
There has also been some more music about the house!  Corrie loves her Hello Kitty karaoke machine.  We need to get some CDs for it.  Any suggestions?

It has been a good week.  I have loved watching our kids enjoying each other.  It's nice to have everyone out of school - makes me look forward to summer, when we'll be able to hang out all the time.  I say that now ... we'll see how we all feel when summer arrives.  :)