The day after Christmas we went to Visalia. We had a good time playing with cousins. Everyone was there except Casey. Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Donna were all there. Ruby had a runny nose when we got there that turned into strep a few days later. But we got her on antibiotics right away and she felt better fast. Luckily no one else got strep, but lots of people got colds. The sad part was that she was sick on the day everyone went to the snow. She was really sad about that. She and mom stayed home that day. We also went to see some Christmas lights in Tulare one night. Ruby was sick that night, so she and Bob had a date there the next night. Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Zonda and Grandpa Cliff and Danny, Rachel, Bob and Jean went to the Fresno temple to do baptisms one day. It was really great to be there with all of them. We ate a Sal's on the way home. We made several shopping trips. Did a few puzzles. We had a nice New Years Eve. We played mall madness and watched the ball drop and had sparkling Cider. Ruby made it to 11:00 and fell asleep, but everyone else made it until midnight.On New Years Day we drove home so we could have one day left of the break to do our celebration of Kwanzaa. (I love that tradition.) The kids worked hard and we got so much done. We went to see the new Star Wars Movie as a reward.
Watching over his flock.
before kids
After kids
We had a great Christmas break. The first week we did lots of baking and kids had friends over and we slept under the tree and went to see the cactus garden. Bob has a few friends who have a tradition of having Chinese food on Christmas eve. So we tried it. We got Panda express because all the kids love it. Then we did the navity and opened sibling presents. Christmas morning we got up at 7:00. Danny got shoes and socks, a speaker and a charger and a sweatshirt and lights for his bikes. Rachel got a new bike (it was so cute! It's a cruiser that has gears, it's pink and it has a cup holder-that's her favorite part), bean bag chair, pajamas, a brush and a beanie hat. Aaron got a new mountain bike, a couple remote control helicopters, some fun encyclopedia books, a sweatshirt (all the boys got matching ones). Seth got a batman imaginext toy that he and Ruby were wanting. They play great with all their imaginext guys and setups. He also got some legos, hi ho cherrio, Ruby and Seth got a lego subscription that is kind of like netflix for lego sets. Ruby got magformers, spirograph, a batman ship, playdoh set, clothes. The kids all got a ping pong table. The sad part was that I forgot I needed to buy the paddles and every store is closed on Christmas so they couldn't play it! Bob got a new computer, an egg sandwich maker, a sweatshirt and a selfie stick. I got a new camera lens that will be good for family pictures. And Bob got me a robot vacuum and a robot floor mop. I love them, especially the mop. It cleans so well. The vacuum is a little slow and random. We named the vacuum Zoram and the mop Zonda. We also decided to start a new tradition on Christmas Day to have a family testimony meeting. Christmas eve is more about the Savior, but on Christmas day we just eat and play, so we thought we'd add some religion to that day too.
