Sledding at the farm

The day after Christmas, we packed up and headed to the farm in Oklahoma.  My aunt, uncle, and grandma were sick and tired of their nice, quiet house so we did our best to make it messy and loud.  Mission accomplished!  That afternoon, I bundled up Dan and Ben and we headed out to play in the snow.  I don't know why I didn't think to bring one of our sleds from Leavenworth, but we adapted a trash can lid and it got the job done.  At first, the boys weren't too sure about sledding down the hill, but after Aunt Lauren showed them how it was done, we had no problem convincing them it was a fun thing to do.  

Christmas morning

As usual, Dan was up right at 7:00 but he was very patient and waited for Ben to get up before looking in his stocking.  At the Alexander Christmas the previous Saturday, he received a Thomas coloring book from cousin Kelly so he occupied his time by reading it.  (Coloring books very rarely get colored in at our house, especially if they have words on each page.  Dan and Ben think they're just regular books with black-and-white pictures).

Finally, at 8:30, I couldn't stand it anymore and sent Dan upstairs to wake up his lazy brother.  The boys opened stockings while we ate breakfast--yummy egg casserole, monkey bread, fruit, and QT coffee.  The boys are at the stage where they want to stop and play with everything as it's opened so the grown-ups opened presents while the boys played (and Zach and I assembled).  They loved everything, especially the fake food and Toy Story DVD from Granny, aircraft carrier from Aunt Deirdre, dinosaurs from Grandma and Grandpa, Thomas trains and railroad crossing from Tom and Mary Beth, books from Aunt Layne, and the Playmobil ambulance and police van from Santa.  (Playmobil is a little too realistic--tiny sniper rifle for the police and IV tubes for the EMTs?  Really?)

After naps, Zach and I took the boys to see Monsters, Inc.  Yes, I know it's not a new movie but it's back in theaters, plus Dan and Ben are a good 10-20 years behind in their movie watching so they don't know the difference.  It was Ben's second time at the movies and he did a great job.  We had a wonderful day and are so thankful to be able to spend it with near-by family.

Christmas Eve

The weather in Wichita was bitterly cold most of the time we were home so it was a challenge to come up with fun indoor activities to keep the boys occupied.  On the morning of Christmas Eve, we broke out a gingerbread train kit and decorated it.  Well, Dan and I decorated it while Ben ate one piece of candy at a time.  Dan actually got really into it which kind of surprised me.  Maybe more arts and crafts are in our future (yippee?).

That afternoon, after naps, we headed to an indoor ice skating rink to try our luck on the ice.  I was off the hook since I'm pregnant and haven't been on ice skates in close to a decade so Zach and Uncle Jesse took the boys for a few laps around the rink.  And when I say a few, I mean a few--like maybe four laps before the boys were tired of falling down.  Zach and Jesse were happy to quit too; it must have been exhausting to skate, hunched over, while trying to keep a squirming boy upright.  Maybe next year we'll have more luck but I'm not seeing the NHL in our future.

Alexander Family Christmas

We arrived in Wichita on Friday the 21st and headed directly to my dad's office for his retirement party.  His last day of work wasn't officially until the 31st but his co-workers wanted to do the party before everyone took off for the holidays.  The two themes of the party were golf and chocolate (my dad's favorites) so Dan and Ben had a great time putting plastic (and real) golf balls and stealing chocolate from all the tables.  I didn't take any pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

On Saturday, we headed across town to my Uncle Craig and Aunt Jill's house.  They hosted Christmas for the Alexander side of the family.  Dan and Ben were obsessed with the train that ran around the Christmas tree so one of those might be in our future.  We had a great time eating and catching up with aunts and uncles and cousins.  No gifts were supposed to be exchanged, but cousin Kelly couldn't resist getting a little something for the boys.  No wonder she's their favorite first cousin once removed!

First day of snow!

A long, long time ago, it snowed in Leavenworth!  (I'm trying to catch up on everything that happened before/during/after the Christmas break.)  Last year, it didn't snow at all here so some friends that moved to Florida were gracious enough to give us their unused sleds and shovels.  And for about 10 minutes, the boys and Zach put them to good use the day before we left for Wichita.  Then everyone got too cold and had to come inside and curl up under a blanket.  Wimps!  (I was smart enough to never leave the house.)

KU vs. Richmond

Rock chalk, Jayhawk!  I just couldn't let basketball season pass without seeing a KU game in person since we're only about 45 minutes from Lawrence.  Tickets are very hard to come by (186 straight home sell-outs) so pretty much the only hope of getting tickets is for a non-conference game after finals are over and the students are gone.  The KU vs. Richmond game fit the bill and we had a great time.

Originally, Zach was going to stay home with Ben while I took Dan and met up with my sisters and parents.  Unfortunately, Zach's flight home from Germany got delayed by a day so we had to drag Ben with us.  He wasn't too interested in the game, but the cheerleaders and dance team did hold his attention.  Dan wanted to keep an eye on the mascots, Jay and Baby Jay, but he did pay a little attention to the game itself.  I forgot that everyone stands the whole game (at least where we were, in the cheap seats), making it hard for the four-feet-and-under crowd to see.  The game certainly wasn't a nail-biter (KU won, 87-59), but hopefully this is just the beginning of a lifelong obsession with the 'Hawks!

This was right before he put on his Jayhawk yarmulke.  Pairing an ugly Christmas sweater with ugly Hanukkah headgear is a bold move.