Gingerbread

Cousin Vanessa is nanny to Owen, age 6, and Emily, age 8. They invited us over to make gingerbread creations. I bought a house for Kevin, and they had a train. The kids had fun assembling and decorating,


but Kevin's house was having difficulty staying in one piece, due to Grandma's poor construction skills. I suggested a few times that we needed to eat the house as soon as it was done.

Well, no sooner was it complete than Kevin smashed it flat! The beauty did not last long, but the treat was yummy.


Since the boys were covered in frosting, they pulled their dirty shirts off, then proceeded to be hoodlums!

Activities and Angels

I pulled out the advent calendar I made for Karin and Greg many years ago. Since Kevin didn't arrive until the 17th, he can add three ornaments per day to the calendar.

When Kevin is here, I try to spend some time teaching him to play the piano. This week, we are using an old Mel Bay Christmas carol book. He is beginning to really catch on! :) He goes to the piano on his own and tries playing new songs.

Kevin played in the snow in our yard this morning.

He drew this angel in the snow and said it was Mommy.

He climbed a redbud tree, couldn't get down, and called for help. When I saw him, I told him to hold on while I ran for my camera and asked Grampa to rescue him.



The funeral for Great Uncle Duane was this afternoon. The family gathered in an anteroom with a window facing the cemetery behind the church where men were completing placing the vault with a small crane. The grandsons and Kevin were intrigued by the process. Each of the grandsons created a picture or note to place in Grandpa's casket. Each was a sweet tribute to a loving grandfather.

The liturgical service, full of meaning, was meticulously developed by Duane, beginning with a processional of the immediate family, including grandsons, following the casket into the sanctuary. I don't think I have ever cried so much at a funeral, yet left buoyed with the love of God. Kevin and the grandsons stayed with a babysitter during the service and made crafts. Kevin used a pipecleaner to decorate himself.

They also made halos.

Joys and Sorrows

This morning, Kevin enjoyed exploring my house and the activities set out for him. Here he is working on a simple Christmas puzzle which belonged to his Mom and uncle.

I had arranged for my Rotary Club's exchange student from Brazil to join us for lunch before going to a Holiday Pops Concert.

The decorations at our country club are gorgeous this year. Kevin loved them so much that he drew pictures of some of them!

And here Bruna and Kevin are in front of the fireplace he drew.

The Christmas tree.

A reindeer

Kevin with the reindeer.

Then on to the concert. Santa was in the vestibule! :)

It was a fun concert with, among other pieces, Lloyd Anderson music, some entertaining demonstrations of instruments, and selections from The Nutcracker with a Youth Ballet performing!


I am sad to report that on the second anniversary of Karin's Crowning Day, Dec. 15, Karin's Uncle Duane passed away. The wake was held this evening. Knowing that Karin's cousins' children would be present, Kevin went with us. Steve and an early childhood educator thought it was inappropriate for Kevin to know about a casket, see his mother, or be involved in the funeral in any way. Having grown up in a small town where we attended every funeral, I was very familiar, as a young child, with death and the accompanying traditions and rituals. Kevin knows that Mommy is buried in the cemetery, but he doesn't really know what that means. Someday, I knew that Kevin would need or want to learn, so I purchased this book for him.

We read it this afternoon. It is an excellent resource for young children dealing with death. Together, we decided to share it with his little cousins. He carried the book into the funeral home and almost immediately met Alexander who is one month younger than Kevin. Kevin explained to Alex that this book was about a grandmother dying. Alex retorted, "But my Grandfather died." Kevin patiently explained that gender didn't matter ending his speech with, "This will help you."
There was an open room next to Uncle Duane's parlor. The boys were set up in there with toys and videos and adults checking on them periodically.



They were well behaved (for the most part). Alexander remembers meeting Kevin before when Kevin hit him in the head with a yellow truck. I do not recall this incident, but Alexander is sure it happened and mentioned it to Kevin repeatedly through the evening. Hearing about your misdeeds, even if they did happen and especially if they didn't, is annoying. By the end of the evening, Kevin insisted that Alex was NOT his cousin. In fact, he said he could not understand how any of them could be his cousins. At home, we had to pull out some photos and explain the entire Walsh clan.

Going to Canada

Kevin had a short school morning as his final day before the Christmas break. His school booked two hours at a bounce house giving me time to run some errands for myself.

It ended with a gift exchange and sending home an ornament each child had made -- probably as a gift to their parents.

Kevin with his teacher.

Hanging his ornament --

Between a Russian Santa and his 2009 photo with Santa.

On the way to the airport, I asked Kevin if he wanted to visit Mommy, and he did. He is such an artist! He did not like the way I had positioned the wreath and wanted the bow at the top, so we had to remove all the twist ties and redo the whole thing. I have to admit, he was right! It did look better his way!

At the airport, I wanted a Starbucks and cookie while waiting for our flight. The baked cookies were not impressive looking today, but the packaged chocolate grahams are always yummy. I bought Kevin the milk chocolate ones while I had the dark chocolate. I may have started a new obsession for him too!

We brought along plenty of activity books to keep a boy busy!

The snack offered was Jet Blue's signature Blue Chips made from blue potatoes. Kevin insisted they were purple, not blue, and found them to be acceptable.

We had an hour at JFK. Kevin was intrigued with these innovative lounge seats and used some of his own innovation to have fun.



We finally made it home at 10:30 PM with a sleeping boy. Once awake, he was wired and eagerly ran around my house to see all the decorations, giving them his stamp of approval plus wanting to know how I did it.

I have several music boxes which he had fun inspecting. Among them, I had set out one which was his Mom's. She had it in her bedroom for much of her childhood. I told him he could have it. A special aspect of this music box is that you can watch how it works!

He found a bouquet of candy canes in the kitchen and decided to add his touch to my decorating.

Christmas Begins

I flew to NC today to pick up Kevin for the holidays.

Fearing Karin's wreath will not stay on the stand without being secured to the wreath rack without twist-ties, I brought some in my purse and stopped at the cemetery after leaving the airport. It had blown off, and the stand had one leg out of the ground with the other two legs remaining planted. When I tried to reposition the stand, the ground was frozen! I could *not* push the third leg into the soil. I began praying, then searching for some implement to use. The only thing I found in my purse was a CN Tower plastic stir stick.

I knew it was impossible to use something so flimsy, but I had no other option. I prayed with all my might, "God, help me, help me, please help me get this in!" I spoke my prayer aloud pleadingly and repeatedly. God answered my prayer! I pushed the stick in and out of the frozen ground bit by bit until it penetrated the crust 1 to 2 inches!!! God truly DOES care about the little things in our lives!!! It was nothing short of a miracle!

I had arranged to have dinner with Heather tonight. Steve joined us as well. Children never have trouble finding something to do. Playing with Daddy's hood was fun.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

At http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/home, you can request Santa to send a video to your child! Here is Kevin's --
http://www.portablenorthpole.ca/watch/JlvHSE5DNZZuE05UVX96yw