A busy December indeed

I don't know if Oscar will ever be glad that Wesley has joined our family.  He still hates him and will hiss at Jim's brown boots because he thinks they are Wes.  So sad.  That being said, at least Oscar missed the majority of the dress up that has been going on here since it is December.  I broke out the antlers.  Wesley hates them as much if not more then Oscar does.  Ha Ha Ha.  Get used to it buddy.  They aren't going anywhere!

We even got a dress from a friend of mine and stuck Wes in it.  Jim came to his rescue however and that particular piece of clothing has been banned.  Shucks!

Wesley isn't the only one who's been dressing up!  The girl scout troop sponsored a Father-Daughter dance the first weekend of the month!  They even opened it up to Mother-Sons, but Ben and I had other plans for the night.

Jim and the girls look lovely! They had a wonderful time!

The last time Ben and I had a Mother-Son date we did everything Ben wanted to do and at the end of it, he said he really didn't have that great of a time.  Thanks Ben, way to make a lady feel special.  However this time he said he had a better plan.  So we shall see.  When I asked him where he wanted to go for dinner he immediately said Olive Garden.  While I have nothing against the Olive Garden, we had just eaten there the weekend before for the Lilly's final birthday celebration so I told him he had to pick another spot.  Unfortunately for me his second choice was the Golden Corral.  I don't really have anything against the GC, in fact I have many fun memories of eating there in college with my friends, but it is not exactly what I had in mind for our date.  Since he is cute, I relented.  I hope Yuma gets a Sweet Tomatoes soon.  Sigh.

The kids also had their first Track meet.  Of course that isn't the only thing we had going on that day.  First up was the meet.  The kids did great!  They competed in Sprints, Hurdles and a few Relays.  We could not stick around for the final events due to the fact that we were already late for Jim's work Christmas party.  It was a Brunch Party complete with Santa flying in on a Helicopter!  The theme was The Polar Express so the kids quick changed out of their track gear to some Christmas PJ's.    Two events down and two to go.  Of course the Army/Navy game was also on that day.  We had volunteered to help with a party at the bosses house (of course we did).  Actually, we did very little in the way of "helping."  I am pretty sure we just offered moral support and called it good! Navy rolled on to a pretty decisive win and the kids and I exited early to get ready for the last event of the day.  The Light Parade!  Yuma has a Christmas Parade that is a little different.  First off they have it at night and secondly it always has a theme.  This year the theme was Rock and Roll and so our troop (combine Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts) decided to take it literally and did a Flintstones float.  All the kids were encouraged to dress in animal print.  The trick is you have to be able to add lights to the costumes.  Light sticks were the easiest option because I didn't have enough time to find some battery operated lights.  I hot glued the light sticks to some animal print PJ's I found in the clearance section of Wal-Mart.  The girls threaded some small Styrofoam balls on two light sticks and created necklaces.  DONE!  It was fairly cold at night so I encouraged them to wear black underneath the costumes because you wouldn't be able to see them in the dark.

They had a BALL!!  Our float had a smoking volcano, Fred Flintstones car AND a Dinosaur.  Sadly, we didn't place.  We were ROBBED!!!

The week before Christmas break the kids had the opportunity to dress up as their favorite Christmas Character.  Well of course they are going to dress up as MY favorite Christmas Characters.  Ha Ha Ha
I had been telling Ben that he would be the perfect Heat Miser.  He was not really all that excited about the prospect, but I wasn't worried.  I knew he would do it.  Lucy said there was NO WAY she was dressing up.  Fine - be a spoil sport.  Lilly was all in.  She embraced the Grinch idea like I knew she would.  The day before, Lucy decided she would dress up as Snow Miser.  Well I had an idea, but I don't know if I could pull it off.  Oh well, I am sure it will be fine.

As you can see in the picture, Ben is unhappy.  COME ON!  You rocked it!  When I picked up the kids from school that afternoon I asked if anyone knew who they were.  Lilly said everyone knew she was the Grinch.  Lucy said most people thought she was snowflake cowgirl.  I blame the hat.  I could not find a straw hat last minute.  Ben said a few teachers and staff knew who he was but none of his classmates.  Sigh.  What is wrong with these people.

Basically the one thing we completed before we our trip to Tahoe was to take a picture for the gift tag we put on the Chex mix (nuts and bolts) Jim makes every year that we give to co-workers and neighbors.  Next year I plan on doing this the DAY we get the tree up.

The next day we loaded the kids in the car and headed up towards the Grand Canyon to take a ride up to the NORTH POLE!  After years of talking about it, we finally pulled the trigger and got tickets for the Polar Express out of Williams, AZ.  We arrived at the hotel in plenty of time - WRONG!  The check-in line was super long and we stood in line for almost an hour.  That will be heavily featured in our Yelp review people.  The hotel itself was just OK.  Nothing special.  The food was included with the room and train tickets so we had no choice in where we ate.  If we ever go back (and spoiler alert - we will go back to Williams because there is this place called Bearizona that sounds really cool!) we will explore what the town has to offer.  This trip was all about the Polar Express!

It was awesome!  There was snow on the ground and the lights were great.  I wish the North Pole village had been a bit more fleshed out but Santa Claus more then made up for it.  He chatted with everybody and happily posed for selfies and he even passed out silver bells and hot chocolate.  

The next morning our travel agent (Jim) had us up early and on the road.  We had quite a bit of earth to cover before nightfall.  We headed North and West and did a quick blink-and-you-will-miss-it drive by of the Hoover Dam.  First we were only going to walk across the new by-pass bridge and look down upon the Dam, but it was a pretty slow day for the Dam so we ventured a drive by and actually got out and took this picture illegally on the side of the road.  The kids did NOT want to stop, no surprise there.  Of course Ben's eyes are closed as they are in the other two that I took as well.  Oh well.  Onward!

Up next was Vegas Baby!!  Before we got there we asked the kids if they wanted to stop - a resounding NO! filled the car.  Of course that quickly changed to YES STOP when we started driving down the Strip.  Sorry kids, not this trip. We still have several hours of mind-numbingly boring terrain to cross before we stop.  Our goal was Lake Tahoe.  The state of Nevada really has their work cut out for them.  There is NOTHING and I do mean nothing between Las Vegas and Carson City.  NOTHING!   Oh the map tells you there are towns where you might be able to buy gas or use the bathroom, but most of them are no longer viable towns, just a few crossroads of abandoned buildings.  Seriously, it is sad. We stopped in Mina (population 155) which was one of the few actual towns we went through and the only place to use the restroom was a rather dank bar that was filled with 10% of the town's inhabitants.  Our children may have been the only children those people had seen in YEARS!!  

The whole drive Jim and I debated the wisdom of driving to Tahoe without chains for the car.  The forecast was iffy and there was a highly likelihood that we would be in trouble if we ran into snow on the way up the mountain.  Being the gambler he is, we just rolled the dice.  

We made it!  FINALLY!!  The resort is awesome!!  We are situated on South Lake Tahoe and our hotel is right beside the gondola you take up the mountain. The perfect set up!  

The next morning everyone suited up, we dropped the kids off at ski school and we were off! 

We caught up with the kids later on that afternoon.  The weather had started taking a turn for the worse and the mountain closed an hour earlier.  We had to wait a while to get down and we were all looking forward to a nice warm shower!  Jim, Lucy and Ben got in the hot tub back at the hotel.  Lilly and I passed.  

That is frozen hair y'all

I am cold, so very cold

The next day the Mountain was closed due to a snow storm that promised to yield at least 3 feet of powder.  So we did what everyone else was going to do - go see Star Wars!!  It was incredible!!  I actually had to keep telling the children to hush because they kept asking me questions.  I was like - later!!  I will answer all questions later!!  Afterwards we toured the town and found an arcade and this guy.

Ben decided he wanted to try snowboarding on our last day.  The process to switch him over apparently was painful.  Thanks Jim for handling that!  You are the BEST!!  

So we had a wait a bit for the winds to go down before the lifts were running but finally they turned us loose.  I grew up skiing - water skiing!!  So while I can ski on snow, it is rarely pretty.  I do enjoy it, but I am not interested in getting hurt or killing myself so I can be boring to more accomplished skiers.  For example, I had no interest in skiing in the 3 feet of fresh powder that Jim kept telling me was "epic!"

After our third fight in about thirty minutes, Jim and I split off.  We would meet for lunch and then pick up the kids.  Fresh powder as it turns out is really really really fluffy and when you fall it is hard to get up.  Really hard!   Especially if your arms are shorter then the powder snow.  

Moving on - I skied by myself, had a lovely time and met up with the daredevil for lunch.  Afterwards I saw the girls a few times on the slopes and agreed to pick them up a tad early so we could ski together.  At this point no one has actually seen Ben all day.  We are hopeful he has enjoyed his snowboarding lesson.  By the end of the day I am so cold that I am going to get in the Jacuzzi which is saying something because it is COLD.  I do not like to be wet and cold AT ALL.  Back at the base we picked up the kids from ski school and it turns out everyone had a wonderful day.  Ben announces "Snowboarding was awesome - I will NEVER ski again!" so we are thinking he had a great time.  All the instructors gave good reports.  Ben now wants to know if he can make a living as a snowboarder.  Money well spent!

Well all things must come to an end and we need to get back to Yuma!  It is Christmas Eve Eve y'all!  A few quick pictures around the lobby Christmas tree and we are back in the car for 12+ hours.  Ugh.

We are driving through Joshua Tree National and Jim decided we had to get a photo.  So he pulls off the side of the road and the kids sprint about 75 yards over to this tree.  There were trees just as impressive closer to the road but apparently we had to get a picture of THIS tree.  The whole thing lasted about 4 minutes.  Jim says we will be back, but I am kind-of doubting it.

So we roll back into Yuma on Christmas Eve Eve.  Have we made cookies yet? Nope.  We signed up to deliver Christmas Cookies to the Fire Station by our house.  As soon as the children finished breakfast we broke out the mixer and the cookie cutters. Operation Christmas Cookies was underway!

Jim had criticized me when I dressed Wesley up in the Christmas dress, so what does he do?  He buys this horrible Christmas sweater! Poor Wesley.

Of course I had to try it on Oscar too!  He liked it even less then Wesley.

Christmas Eve after Church we went over to our friends house who always have a terrific Christmas Party!  It was hard to leave but since it was Christmas Eve and all we needed to get these children in the BED!

Christmas morning came all to soon.  Although, the children slept longer then I thought they would given how excited they were for Christmas, we still had all the typical craziness and shredding of Christmas paper!  We had convinced them Santa should start bringing only four gifts this year: something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read. 
I, for one, am excited about this idea.
Christmas day we were lucky enough to have our good friends the Libermans have dinner with us! Here we are with our paper crowns after dinner.  So much fun!

With only a few days left in 2015, you would think it would be safe to say that our adventures were over for the year.  Well, you would be wrong!!  Jim's sister and family came by for a visit.  Their destination was San Diego, but we managed to convince them they NEEDED to drive 2.5 hours and come see us!!!! Jim enticed them with tours of the base and an extremely challenging hike! They fell for it!!  Ha Ha Ha!

Just kidding, it was great to see them and we hope it is just the first of many visits.  We are "fairly" close to so many amazing places.  So if anyone out there wants to link up, please do so!

Suddenly it is New Years Eve!!  We spent it with several friends and actually made it to midnight!  Even the kids. 

2016 is already looking to be even crazier then 2015 and maybe all the previous years put together.  Hopefully I can stay ahead of it and keep all our far away friends and family up to date!