Winter 2002

Christmas 2002

We had a long and happy Christmas in 2002. It started in Arizona and then went on the road to Edmonds. We did pretty everything we would have done in Arizona. We bought a tree, hung up stockings, and wore Santa hats around the house.

Jackson had a lot of Christmas activities at his school. I should say rather that he had "Holiday" activities since you can't use the "C" word in public schools these days. One of the activities was to build a gingerbread house. I was the parent helper in the class that day. This is Jackson's creation. I think he ate part of it on the way home from school.

Even though we would be in Washington for Christmas, we still bought a tree for our home in Arizona. Lisa wanted a nine foot noble fir (the most expensive kind naturally). I talked her down to a 6-7 foot noble fir. We all had lots of fun decorating the tree. Zachary no longer puts all of his ornaments at the bottom of the tree, but he did keep trying to hang the heavy ornaments at the very ends of branches.

What fun is it to have a dog if you can't subject him to indignities every now and then? Bailey was pretty tolerant of the Santa hat although in this picture he looks like he wants to take a bite out of me.

We all flew up to Edmonds, WA on Christmas eve. Grandad Ken and Grandma Barbara had a tree, but it was mostly decorated by the time we got there. We brought our Santa hats along. Angela seems to be having some trouble with "Some assembly required".

I'm not sure where the flag came from, but Zachary and I have such nice smiles in this picture. I've been working on my fake picture smile lately. My fake smile used to make me look either dopey or smarmy. This one is pretty good.

One of the fun things we did while in Washington was to go skiing at a place called Stevens Pass. Angela and Granddad Ken came with us although Granddad was just getting over the flu.

Lisa bravely offered to watch the boys while Angela, Ken, and Grant got to go skiing. There were lots of nice day lodges and probably lots of fun activities for the kids. I'm sure Lisa had no trouble at all while the other three of us had fun.

One of the fun things the kids did while we were skiing was to make snow angels. I'm really not sure why Zachary did this, because he hates getting snow down his pants, shirt, or boots.

After exhausting all of the other possibilities, the kids found something they really liked doing - namely throwing snowballs at their mom. I'm not sure if she fought back or not. In this picture she appears to just be "taking it".

I agreed to come down after a couple of hours and give Lisa a break. The boys started throwing snowballs at me. I fought back however. I would wait until the kids bent over to make a snowball and then I would throw one at their butt. I was wearing a fleece pullover that was a snow magnet. I kept on having to tell them "Don't aim for my head".

This picture is odd, because I seem to remember it raining the entire time we were in Edmonds, but this picture proves that was not the case. The boys and I took an afternoon walk down by the train tracks. They are in their foul weather gear - rain boots, gloves, and hat.

Alicia, Aidan, and Pat were staying at Granddad's as well, so the boys had to sleep on sleeping bags in the study. Zachary didn't like it at first, but then the boys figured out that they could giggle and poke at each other when it was time to go to bed. Eventually, we worked out a system where I would tell them a story and then they would settle down. The story they wanted to hear over and over was "The Little Drummer Boy". It got to the point where they would correct me if the current night's version was in any way different from what I said the night before.

Reading and Snoozing

Jackson is a really good reader. We try to have him read for at least half an hour before he goes to bed. He usually prefers nonfiction. In this picture, he is reading a book titled "Crystal and Gem". Other favorite topics include hurricanes, snakes, and scorpions. He once told me that he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. I told him that was a good idea.

Zachary wasn't really interested in reading at first, but we set up a reading routine for him pretty much like Jackson's and now he likes to read. The only problem is he wants to read the same book every night. We have this really annoying book called "Wacky Wednesday" which Zachary really likes. I've tried hiding it in the bookshelf, but he always seems to find it.

It's hard to punish the boys, because I won't hit them and they have pretty much figured out that they can ignore us when we yell at them. One punishment that does still work is the timeout in their bedroom. Zachary doesn't like the timeouts in the bedroom because there is "nothing to do" (which, as I explain to him, is the whole point). Sometimes if Zachary gets a timeout after a long day goofing around, he will crawl into bed and fall asleep.

Hiking, Karate, and Science

There is a little boy who lives on our street named Chase. Zachary spends hours over at Chase's house. One day we felt guilty about this and invited Chase to go hiking with us to Picacho Peak. It's a pretty difficult trail up a 1500 foot vertical rise, but the boys were amazing. They took turns as the trail leader and we went at least two thirds up the mountain with only minor falls and scraptes.

Lisa was looking for an activity for Zachary to do when he wasn't in daycare and she chose karate. Actually it's Tae Kwon Do, but I can't spell that so I'm calling it karate. He is in a class with six or seven other little kids. Their instructor is a young guy named Mr. Lopez. In this picture Zachary is getting a black stripe for doing something good in class. Five black stripes and you get a special patch.

Jackson's school has an annual science fair, and this year his class studied "How can we build the best spinning top". They tried different top designs and different materials. Each student wrote up a little science log of their findings.