New Years Eve 2021

The kids are old enough to help make the treats and stay up until midnight. So they each were in charge of helping with a munchie for the night. Jason wanted to use his BBQ as well so he convened the "BBQ Committee" (he and Eva) and they made ribs. They were so tasty. 

We watched North and South this year and, for the most part, they understood it. 

We ate almost all the treats and ended before midnight so we could open the sparkling cider and countdown. Then we toasted to the new year and said "so long!" to 2021. What a crazy year!! Hopefully 2022 is better. We had some far away neighbors that did fireworks though I think they may be illegal in this dry climate. We enjoyed watching them from the balcony. 

 

El Paso Zoo

We wanted to check out El Paso Zoo today. Once we arrived we decided to buy a yearly pass since two trips to the zoo in a year would pay for itself for a family of our size. It is a smaller zoo but we really like it. 

They had some great exhibits. We were able to get super close to some of the animals. See how close we are to the mountain lion and the tiger? 

The back part of the mountain lion enclosure overlooks the antelope exhibit. The big cat kept checking on them and stalking around by the fence. It was so funny to watch. The poor cat must be driven crazy by being so close to prey daily. 

We got lots of pictures of the kiddos too.

The howler monkeys were SO LOUD! Their howling drove Brendan mad but the rest of us thought they were funny. They walked around with their hands in the air hooting. 

There was a tunnel and viewing bubble in the groundhog exhibit and a waterfall that came on and splashed onlookers every few minutes. 

We will definitely be back. 

Gingerbread Houses

We made gingerbread houses today! I took the kids to the store with me and let them pick out the candy yesterday. This morning we got it all out and got creative. 

Darby tried to go for the whole "candy storage" approach and the graham crackers wouldn't hold up. She asked to use Dad's exacto knife but cut her finger. It really rattled her. He hugged her and helped bandage her up. Then she was back in the gingerbread game. 

Jason made the Battle of the Alamo.  "I have created the Battle of the Alamo as represented by the Texas lone star. This is the Alamo. Here is the lone survivor and the gummi bears with their rifles. And this one is exsanguinating." Bonus points for the use of "exsanguinate" in his description of it to me. 

Eva made a cute little house with outdoor decorations. "I made a house with shingles, trees, and little gummi bear figures with a bow. There is also a chimney with marshmallow smoke coming out of it and a roof flecked with snow."

Paige made a Native American village. Guess what she has been studying lately in Social Studies? There are several teepees, a fire, a wild buffalo, and more. "This is the healing tent and the green gummi bears are the healers. These gummi bears are dancing and these others are just walking away. These people killed the buffalo and the one on top is saying, 'I am victorious!' Then I put a tree here and apparently its top is being destroyed. And this is a girl who just found out her boyfriend is dead. And this is the chief telling a story because he has an awesome hat. He is roasting some buffalo meat and they are all listening to  him around the fire."

One of her warriors fell on the floor so she had to find him and then demanded a second video interview. "This is a guy on the horse with a helmet. He fell on the floor while I was moving it."

Darby finally settled on making a Christmas scene from the original Rudolph movie, complete with a secret candy compartment. "This is the Christmas tree forest. This is Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Here are people walking around in the forest. And this is a sledding hill. This person is pushing the other person on the sled ramp (which has jelly beans inside it - don't tell anyone.) This is the snow pile."

Then I asked her what happened to her finger. She gave me a look with narrow eyes and said, "That's classified."

Brendan made the Grinch's cave. He took quite a while and had to cave out Max from a Mike and Ike. The Santa outfit on the gummi bear Grinch just kills me. "This is the Grinch's cave. This is Max buried in the snow and this is the Grinch. Seems fairly straightforward." When I asked him if he wanted to say anything else he replied, "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch."

Ice Skating

 We went ice skating at the hockey arena here in El Paso. Yes, El Paso has its own hockey team called the Rhinos. Surprising. 

Anyway, the rink is much smaller than we are used to but since we don't ice skate often it was fine for our needs. We will need to come to a game sometime.

Jason can skate fine, however, most of the kids spent a fair share of their time holding onto the edge. Daddy helped the girls off and on. 

Paige fell a lot in the beginning and was sad. But she gained confidence and by the end was having more fun. 

Brendan and Darby left the edge and were skating okay by the time we left. 

Christmas Day

As the kids get older they understand the "don't wake us up until 7am" rule. They all woke up before Jason and me and got into their stockings. When I came downstairs I let the dog have what was in hers too. It had the added benefit of keeping her busy while we opened presents. 

Brendan was elf this year and passed out the gifts. The reactions were great this year. 

As for Jason, he got red panda socks from Eva, a Babylon Bee shirt from me (which he then wore for the rest of the morning), some tools,  and new Prana pants.

I received some cooking utensils from Eva, a new water bottle from Jason, and more Willow Tree figurines for my collection.

Brendan got some Dungeons & Dragons books and supplies, a dice rolling pad, and a few funny T-shirts (one from Eva and one from the parents). 

As for Eva, her gifts were a new scripture bag, a pot holder, new silly socks from her sister, and quite a few books.

Darby got new pajamas, a squishie corgi, a brush for her AG dolls, a Ken she has been wanting (to complete her collection of different nationalities), a Barbie boat from Paige and a few books. 

Paige was so excited the whole time. She got a boy AG doll, paints, clothes for her dolls, a new Ken (in a wheelchair because they like the bendy Barbies), a couple of Beanie Boos, another book in a series she loves, and some earrings from Darby.

My dad sent us some candy and card games.

Even Stella got a new toy.

We watched the new Star Trek films back to back all day. The BBQ committee made us some delicious ribs for dinner and I made the much-requested chocolate peppermint pie for dessert. 

 Merry Christmas to all!