Christmas and the Aftermath

We stayed home this Christmas and my folks drove up for the holidays. Christmas morning was at my sister's house and the house was full. Wendy and her family, the folks and us with everyone including the grandkids. Luke was also able to stop by for a short time before he had to work. The kids opened first and as you can see in the photo above, Ez was happy to help his Grandpa (Rocketman) with his presents.

The folks stayed until Friday and as soon as they left we got Noah and Ez for the weekend to give their Mom and Dad a little break.

As you can see, Ez loves his Grandpa. We were going to go to an indoor play center that I had found on the Internet but Ez woke up Saturday morning with a fever over 103. We stayed in that day and fed him Tylenol every four hours. 

Sunday, Ez awoke with no fever so we went off to Monkey House in Maplewood, MN. It's an indoor park for kids. The kids were so excited. It was only open from 10-12.  We got there shortly after 10 and there was only one other family there at the time. But by 11 it was pretty packed. We left around 11:45 am.

 It was so touching to see Noah helping out Ezra. He did this all on his own and it truly moved me to see the love he has for his little brother.

Ezra was constantly in motion and constantly talking. It is amazing all the words he knows. One of the favorite things he did was when you ask him a yes or no question, he always answered, "of course."

We dropped them off on Monday just before the snow began to fall. We stopped by the Mall of America to return something and to eat lunch. The drive home in the light snow was a little treacherous and we even saw a pretty nasty accident that blocked a lane of traffic in the opposite direction.

The rest of December was spent relaxing, getting corporate taxes going (Rocketman) and catching up on some bojagi (Becky). I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions because I've always felt why set yourself up for failure but I am ready to do a big one for me and stick to it. I am giving up soda (Pepsi). It has been in my diet on a daily basis since I was 16 and it's not good for me.

Also, for the first time, I'm going to choose a single word for my 2014 mantra. It's SOAR.

The definition of soar:

soar  (sôr, sr)

intr.v. soared, soar·ing, soars

1. To rise, fly, or glide high and with little apparent effort.

 

What one word would you choose for 2014?