Last half of December...last few weeks of 2009

We stayed busy enough for the last bit of the year that I didn't take the time to blog about it. I wish I had and I am aiming to do better in 2010. :-) Here is what went on the last few weeks of December...and 2009.

Morgan performed in a holiday musical at the Maury County Arts Guild. On opening night we came home and decorated our tree.

We didn't do a lot of other decorating because the morning after the final performance we headed to Cleveland, Ohio. Corey had a week of training up there and we decided to all go with him. We got to spend quite a bit of time with Amnon, one of Corey's co-workers from NY. The kids and I haven't seen him since we left NY (in Nov. 2002) so it was wonderful seeing him again. On the first day I took the kids to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We had a wonderful time.

On our second day in Cleveland, we did some school work in the hotel room and then went to lunch and then had playtime at Chuck E. Cheese. This isn't normally something we do but it was so cold & wet and I didn't want to do everything in the first day or two. On the third day we headed down by the river to the Great Lakes Science Center. They produce some of their own power with a wind turbine and a bunch of solar panels. Their cafe is very eco-friendly which thrilled us to pieces. We had a great time doing all the hands-on activities as well as watching an IMAX movie, Sea Monsters.

The kids really enjoyed the simulators for landing the lunar module and the space shuttle.

We returned to TN in time to celebrate Yule, the Winter Solstice. The kids each received 2 gifts. It was good to be home again. We took the kids to see Avatar one night. Oh my goodness, it was fabulous!! All four of us loved it. We managed to find time to make my grandmother's oatmeal cookies. Then we started putting together cookie tins and cookie platters. On December 24th we delivered the cookie platters to our local police station and fire station and the cookie tins to friends. We love continuing this tradition that Corey's mom started. It is great getting to take a little time while delivering the cookies to visit with the friends we are giving them to.

Late on Christmas Eve, Corey made a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls to be baked on Christmas morning. Morning came early, as usual. We had told the kids they couldn't wake us before 7am...they woke us at 7:04am. LOL! They dug into their stockings and then started with the presents. We were all very happy with what we received. We saved the best for last and had the kids open their big gift together. They were thrilled! We got them a trampoline. :)

Alex spent some time building the air rocket kit that he received and was very proud that he made the rocket blast off several times.

Early Christmas afternoon we headed over to GC's house to exchange gifts with GC & Uncle Michael and have Christmas dinner.

The day after Christmas we all headed outside to put together the trampoline. It wasn't as difficult as we were expecting (thank the gods) and the kids were able to start jumping on the trampoline before it got dark. Yea! They've been jumping on it several times a day since. However, they were very upset when it rained!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with their loved ones. We were blessed to be around friends and family the entire season. We are looking forward to 2010.