ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

We intended to leave on Saturday but Payton was getting sick so we held off for a day. Mom and I headed off to my favorite movie theater to see The Queen which basically takes place the week between Princess Diana's death and her funeral. It focuses on how the royal family handled it and Tony Blair's attempts at dealing with the royal family. I loved it.

That night it was several hands of 5 point Pitch - boys vs. girls as always. Mom and I killed the boys every hand. :-)

Sunday we left and got home around 9, just in time to get everything put away and get settled in with some wine to watch the ball drop. Also in enough time for Payton to leave to have a spontaneous sleepover at a friend's house.

This morning Payton headed off to the bus stop for school to start again only to be told by her former teacher (who as driving by on her way to work) that school doesn't start for the students today - it starts tomorrow. Oops.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and is getting settled back in. Happy 2007!

The weather on Friday was in the 50s (very nice for December in Kansas) and rain later in the day was predicted. We got outside to play since we hadn't all week and wanted to get some time in before the rain. There's a very nice, newer park in town that we headed out for and my dad and Harley the dog went as well.

Some pics from our time at the park...





Then it was time to try out the stomp rocket Blake got from Santa back at my parents house...




That night we headed for dinner with my parents at a restaurant in town. I ordered boiled shrimp and hated having to peel them all (hate working on my food when out to eat). I mistakingly thought they'd come ready-to-eat. Never again. :-)

Then we all headed over to my Aunt Pat and Uncle Leland's new house. They moved a couple of months ago into a house that's just 10 minutes from my parents. It's really beautiful and well done plus Aunt Pat is Mrs. Christmas so all of the decorations made it even nicer. We played some games (including 31 which I won - anybody need any quarters?!)...


My cousin Vicki was also there as she managed to make it in from Denver despite all of the snow. Normally, my cousin Suzy and her family (which includes 5 children) would be there as well but the kids had all been sick for over a week with the flu. Can you imagine taking care of 5 flu ridden children? Me either.

So the final thing we did at Aunt Pat's was to play Nintendo Wii. Yeah, they are crazy cool and managed to get a hold of one of them and it was so much fun. I am kicking myself for not taking pics of us playing (or even a video as it looks pretty funny). We played the bowling and golf games and it was so much fun for all of us that I think we'll probably buy a Nintendo Wii game system once they have them available again.

I think our night ended around 2...very typical of game night at Aunt Pat's house.

Today's events included a trip to Crown Center with Andy's brother, Dan, and his family. Crown Center has always been very special to me because it's very magical and has lots of different areas, all beautifully decorated at Christmas.

The day started with Payton leaving a bit earlier than the rest of our family because she was going to ice skate with them. Andy and I can't ice skate (or ski) after attempts to do both. I don't even mean that we can't do fancy tricks...I personally can't even stand up on skates (or get anywhere on skis). Maybe we'll conquer those things someday soon but it wasn't going to be Thursday, December 28.

Some pics from ice skating

Holding on to the wall...


Payton letting go of the wall at the opening...


That child in the middle in the blue coat is our 3 (almost 4) year old nephew, Joey. Yeah, he puts us to shame.


While we waited for them to finish up ice skating, we explored the fountains and things in the area.



Then it was off to Kaleidoscope which is also part of the Crown Center shopping area. It is a free children's museum-ish place put on by Hallmark. The tickets are free but you do have to get tickets for one of the times they have and then you go in for 40 minutes and do as much as you can. This was my favorite fieldtrip to go on as a kid and I always thought I would take my kids there when I was older and we've had a chance to do that a couple of times.

Blake in front...


Making a drawing for a puzzle...


Turning the machine to cut the picture into puzzle pieces...


Silly mirror...


In the blacklight room decorating masks...




Making a greeting card...


Another silly mirror...


After that, we headed for lunch as it was getting to be late afternoon and none of us had really eaten all day. We headed for the restaurant called Fritz's which is a new addition since I've been at Crown Center but I had been to the old location elsewhere in the city. When I was Captain of the Safety Patrol in 5th grade (!), we got to all go to the old location and thought it was so much fun. I had mentioned to Andy that I'd love to take the kids there sometime so I was thrilled to see they had a Crown Center location which is much nicer than the other.

Ok, so the thing that makes Fritz's fun is that it has trains that circle above and they deliver your food. You order your food by phone and then it arrives via train. Blake never stopped being fascinated by it. He spent the whole meal trying to work out the engineering aspects of how the train knows where to go. Some pics...

Blake and Joey in front...


Trains up above...


Then it drops off the tray of food at your table and lowers it down to you...


Ours nearly fell off...


oh, and the food is yummy too! I'm betting if you asked Blake his favorite thing all week this might be it.

No pics from Wednesday either but I think the day was just spent trying to track down a Nintendo DS game Payton wanted to get with her gift cards plus grocery shopping so I could make fajitas for dinner (my dad's request as he loves my recipe).

We spent a lot of time playing the game Whoonu all week. It's so much fun for kids and adults and involved picking out words that people like (examples: the color green, fixing things, traveling, bunnies) and if you pick the one they like the most, you get the most points. We will be buying it for ourselves and highly recommend it for others.

Andy and I took the kids over to where his mom was and left to go pick out fabric for our sofa and chair to be recovered (there aren't any stores in the DFW area with the brand that we needed). We then went to see For Your Consideration at my favorite movie theater which is old w/beautiful architecture, inexpensive and they show indie flicks. Movie wasn't all that great but it was ok. It was just nice to go out and do something without the kids because we haven't in several months.

My brother's kids apparently woke them up at 3am because they were so excited to get their gifts. My brother did the same thing to my parents when he was a kid. I didn't and neither do my kids. So this year Blake was the last one up and we all sat waiting patiently for him since he's the only one who still "believes" and would be the most excited. Payton waited patiently to open her gifts and Blake finally got up around 9:30 or so.

In our family, Santa leaves out all of the gifts and they are already setup and ready to play with for the most part. So Blake comes out and starts to play with the big item that is setup in the living room....



He loves playing with it ("it" is a suspension bridge marble track with an elevator that takes the marbles to the top once they reach the bottom) and says "I love this...I wish I had one." We think that he thought it was Payton's because she was showing him how it works but it was so cute that he didn't even know the stuff was for him.

Payton's gifts didn't take up nearly as much space but did take as much or more from the bank account. The piez de resistance was the one item she had wanted so much...

...a lime green 4GB iPod Nano.

I stuff 6 stockings every year (the kids, my parents, Andy and Ali) and it's my favorite thing by far, hands down to do. I've been doing them since I was 15 and love to find very personal, small gifts to go in each one. Some stockings being opened...




Harley the Dog opening his gift bag...


After we exchanged gifts, my parents left to spend some time with some family and we stayed at my parents house. It was one of my favorite Christmases ever because we got to really relax, the kids got to play with their toys but we still got to see some family. Andy slept most of the day....


The kids played most of the day...


and I cleaned up and did laundry. I didn't set out to clean for so long but it takes a lot of time to get all of the gifts put up and organized and it felt good to have things straightened up after making a mess.

We never got out of our PJs - it was perfect.

Andy's family always celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve so we were off to Andy's mom's house for the evening but first my mom, me and Payton were off to Lawrence for lunch and a movie. We ended up seeing The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith which is based on a true story. I knew the story ended well because I've seen interviews with the real man so I was able to hold back the tears even on the most heart wrenching scenes but there's a scene at the end that may earn Will the Academy nomination and sent me into tears. Great story, great performance by Will (and his real life son who plays his son in the movie) and I hope to read the book about the real man.

In the evening, it was off to Andy's mom's house. She's such a good cook and made ham w/hot slaw - my favorite thing she makes...yummmmm.

Andy's youngest brother, Nick, had just gotten his second dog days before. Her name is Sophie and she stole everyone's attention.

Sophie the dog...



Mini game of foosball...



Blake and Joey trying to identify which presents belong to who...


Kids tearing into their gifts...


The multi-talented Uncle Mark with his very heavy leg weights...


And Blake slept that night with the metal detector he got...

Today's plans were for my brother and his family to come over for our gift exchange and for his family to spend the night plus my Grandpa stopped by for a bit. They live about an hour and a half away and didn't want to have to drive back late at night so it became a big slumber party. Between my family of 4 and his family of 5 plus my parents, it made for a crowded house but we had a lot of fun (to be honest, I didn't think it would be much fun with so many people all in the same house for a long time but we all really enjoyed ourselves).

All of the kids opening gifts...


Colton, Lindsey (with crazy hair just taken out of french braids) and Blake playing a game...


My parents opening the new garage door opener that we all got them. They've never had one before (!) so we got them one, complete with installation courtesy of Rusty and Andy.


Installation didn't begin until 11pm and took a few hours. I may have just been tired but the sight of the two of them belly-to-belly on coolers cracked me up.


They did a great job and the opener is so quiet that you can't hear when someone opens it when you are in the house (compared to ours which you can hear open even if you are taking a shower in the back of the house!).

Rusty was the last one to get up the next day. Ali's favorite location is near a sleeping person.

We headed out in the late afternoon for our drive to KC. We made a stop at Kami's for pizza and a gift exchange between the kids.

They actually played together instead of fighting this time. :)


Reaghan waiting patiently to open gifts.


Finally get to open gifts!


All of the kids (with Reaghan wearing the personalized toile apron we got her)


We also got Reaghan a cheese grater and a block of parmesan cheese so she can have fresh parmesan at home, just like they do in the restaurants. She knew exactly what it was and was so excited - I knew she would be! :-)

Kitty in a box


We headed out for the last part of our drive to KC and got to my parents' house around 2 am. Blake had been sleeping in the car but the decorations were just too good and he got up for a couple of hours to take it all in.

Christmas tree train that fascinated Blake.


Pretty tree...


Village all lit up...


Holly lights...