Winter in Weatherford

The kids get two weeks + off for winter break, so we took a few days off the week between Christmas and New Years to get a long stretch (with company holidays) off with them. To get a change of scenery and break out from our same old routines, we went to visit Uncle Ken and Aunt Chantelle in Weatherford, outside of DFW. Unfortunately, their girls are out of the house and working now, so we did not get to see them. We took it easy the first night, and the boys drove into Dallas the next day for the First Responder Bowl. I asked them to take a picture, so here it is:

 

While the boys were away, the girls went to the downtown area to peruse the shops and get pedicures. We found a neat shop with Star Wars stuff and a Harry Potter room in the back, which was a nice change from the antiques and vintage clothing stores.

The kids enjoyed some time with their dog, Cooper. Hadley even got to take him for a brisk walk one morning. They said that was probably the fastest paced walk that he's gotten to take in a while.

The next day we went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. I have been there a few times as a kid and during high school, I think, but it was remarkably the same in a lot of ways. We let Ken and Chantelle lead, since they used to go frequently, and it was nice to just be a passenger instead of the planner. 

Here we are, about to embark on our first ride, the Runaway Mine Train. Although it was a Wednesday, it seemed that most of the Metroplex felt like it was a good day for Six Flags, too. We averaged about an hour wait per ride, which made for not many rides.

I was observing the kids and taking notes on their ride tolerance for future note at DW! Our next ride was Texas Skyscreamer, which is basically swings that go up 400 feet and around at 35 mph. Chantelle and I weren't feeling it, but Owen hopped off the fence and decided to give it a try. He and Hadley are on the swing below, while Ken and John were a few seats ahead of them. I can't believe how high they got!

We also went in one of those fun houses that have the building oriented differently than the expected horizon and things seem to roll up hill. It was a little nausea-inducing, but hey, at least it was decorated for La Posada.

We rode a few more rides, but our last ride of the night was the Texas Giant, which had a very long wait. This wooden-steel hybrid roller coaster gets up to 65 mph and has an initial drop of 79 degrees! 4 of us were up for the challenge.

Owen and Aunt Chantelle said "No thanks!" and found a petting zoo and s'mores while they walked around some more.

As night settled in, the "Holiday" part of the park started to shine. Lights in the trees and this tunnel were fun additions to the scenery.

Alas, our time in DFW was done. On the way home, I insisted on a stop in Waco at the Magnolia silos, which is part of the Fixer Upper dynasty. We have driven through Waco several times and never stopped. H and I like to watch this show sometimes, so she came with me while the boys stayed at our lunch place, an easy walk away. It was a bit of a mad house - tons of people and not a ton of home goods. We got some hand pies and headed back, but at least now I know what the fuss it about.

Holiday Season

The holiday season always starts with lights for us. I usually wait until Dec 1 before holiday decor comes out, but this year Thanksgiving was a little early, and the kids needed some projects to keep them busy on their week off. (I called some pros, but they wanted $1200 to light the roof outline and flowerbed!!) I did the flower bed lights (Phase 1, sore fingers) and most of the tree wrapping (Phase 4), but the kids did most of the rest (Phase 2 = door garland, wreath, potted plants, and a couple of shrubs, Phase 3 = rest of the shrubs). We did phases because I finally (for our third Christmas here) found our Idaho container of lights stashed behind boxes in the back of the attic! It was a mini Christmas in itself, and they nearly all still worked!

The next big holiday component is the music! We started with our church's Messiah concert, which is always a beautiful way to kick off the season. 

Then we followed it up with a junior high orchestra concert. Owen is the cello to the farthest right this time. (He says they just pick wherever they want to sit. No chair tests yet!) Their entire concert can be heard here; Owen is in FYO (First Year Orchestra), which played Jingle Bells, Jolly Old St. Nick, and Good King Wenceslas (below).

And to round out the week, we had a date night at a Carols and Keyboards concert with our Life Group. There were 4 grand pianos on stage, dueling (quadueling?) dramatically, as well as professional soloists and a full backup choir. Quite a production for free!

We also got music from a drive-thru light show, but I'll spare you the video. The kids enjoyed the show through the sun roof.

Christmas sweets were pared down this year, just for an exchange with our neighbors. Dipped pretzels for the win! Kids did these all by themselves too - an assembly line with a dipper and a sprinkler, and Christmas tunes blaring for the festive atmosphere.

And we enjoy our Christmas card wall every year through most of January.

The kids were invited to participate at the Christmas Eve childrens' service. Hadley was an Angel again, though now as a reader, and Owen reprised his role as Joseph, this time with no lines. One rehearsal and one show = not too shabby. 

Hadley practiced her lines at home, and we had a few discussions around her insistence to say "BethleHAM", instead of "BethleHEM." During the show, you'll notice her look up at us as she decides to go with "HEM" after all. :)

We hadn't been to this service before, because it's at 3 pm and, as you can tell, full of young families. The littler kids were the stable animals. We got to watch a few of the boys pummel each other with their horse/cow heads, while their backends thrashed the poor poinsettias during the production. That and the star falling off the stable were the most memorable parts of the Christmas story this year. At least we got to sing the classics!

Finally, it was Christmas Day!! Did I mention that the kids put up the tree and decorated it too? Gosh, they did such a great job this year bringing us the Christmas spirit!

Lastly, some of our favorite gifts: books for Hadley, Legos for Owen, and a homemade (by Hadley) book of word searches (including one with all 50 states!) for Mom and Dad.

We kept it kind of small this year, because there was one big present at the end. I set up a scavenger hunt with rhyming clues and 5 steps to hidden presents/clues: What (Stitch card for a family trip), How (Star Wars ship for a plane), Who (Lego Mom and kids (boy with lightsaber, girl with wand) in a Minnie container), When (SW calendar with trip marked for spring break), Where (SW/Harry Potter books for where these two worlds meet = DisneyWorld!!). They did not understand the scavenger hunt clues, other than being clues for the next thing to find. And did not really understand the present until we talked about it afterward. The scavenger hunt was still fun!

Birthdays Galore

Following on the heels of Thanksgiving every year are Will and Addy's birthdays. This year, they had it at a park inside the loop. 

Our kids were the oldest ones there, but they still enjoyed checking out the park, which had a tunnel, slides, and an elevated walkway.

 

They helped out as child monitors and also found some use at powering the merry-go-round for the little ones.

After cake and breakfast burritos, we decided to make a day of it and headed to the Museum of Natural Science where we saw some familiar exhibits, as well as a few new things. Dad made the dinosaur exhibit more interesting by having the kids teach him something they learned from the signs in every "room."

One of the new things was an exhibit on jade and gold. This is very intricate gold sculpting; the skull made it one of the kids' faves.

Before we headed back to the car, we strolled around Hermann Park a little bit and enjoyed the cooler temps. Hadley felt that these columns were model-worthy, and they had so much fun rolling down Miller Hill again and again. We had flashbacks to our scavenger hunt from last year at the same time.

Unlike 2020, we felt okay with having an indoor birthday party for Owen this year. We had it early in the month to avoid holiday/activity conflicts, which worked out well. He chose an indoor trampoline park and a select group of friends (Matthew, Cole, Joseph, Jonathan, Brian, Jayden, and Timothy). The 11- and 12-year-olds had a blast playing dodgeball and hide-and-seek throughout the facility for two hours.

We went with two kinds of pizza and two kinds of cake, and strangely enough, we had a lot of leftover food! I think they were having too much fun (and getting too sweaty) to stuff themselves. Water was very popular though!

The party package is for a set minimum number of kids, and we had a couple of spots left, so Hadley was able to bring a friend of her own, Haley. They did their own thing and kept out of the boys' hair, for the most part.

Since the party was a couple of weeks early, we celebrated Owen a few times. He really wanted a cookie cake (that was explicitly forbidden by the trampoline park, for some reason!), so he got one of those on his actual birthday.

Hadley attended another birthday party for a friend, Olivia, where she got to go indoor sky diving! Right up our little daredevil's alley! The instructor said she was a natural and that she could come back in 11 years for a job.

Lastly, we took the kids to see Potted Potter, which is a 2-man live show that recaps the 7 books in the series in 70 minutes. The kids thought it was pretty funny! Yay for the return of live theater!

We made a day of this also, since it was in a different part of downtown. Our first stop was St. Arnold's, so I could get my free pint for donating blood! It was a gorgeous day!

Our second, and last, stop before the show was City Hall and the surrounding parks.