Lego Life

We've entered the phase of the Legos here. Not Duplos, not Legos Junior, real honest-to-goodness (complicated) Legos. Fiona likes to play with them once everything is built, but she's not that interested in putting them together. Quinn and Dec - VERY interested in Legos. Building, creating, playing. It's all awesome.

Both Q and D got new Lego sets for Christmas, which brought them great joy. As we tried to stay entertained while stuck inside because of the rain, I was drafted to build Dec's new Lego camper. As interested as he is in Legos, he's still four - which means he's not quite there on the instruction booklet skills. My Lego skills are sketchy, but with a solid assist from Quinn, the four of us built a pretty impressive truck and camper. I was very proud of myself - and proud of the kids, who were so into the process that we pushed lunch by almost an hour to finish.

That same evening, Quinn talked me into pulling her new set out. Dec's camper was almost 400 pieces. Quinn's swimming pool was almost 600 pieces! I was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of Legos that I would be putting together in a single day. However, Q had decided that she wanted to try putting it together mostly by herself!

She did such great job and only needed a bit of help occasionally. A diving board may have been thrown across the dining room in frustration, but overall, she did an excellent job. She finished about a third of it the first evening and then got up bright and early the next morning, ready to finish it. After the [alleged] diving board incident, Mike hung out at the table with her and the two of them had the very best time talking construction, engineering, and who knows what else.

Dec's favorite part of Legos is all the details. Quinn told me hers is the instruction books. She loves following the directions and seeing it all come together. Sidenote: Quinn got an "American Girl" (Target brand) kitchen from Santa. Her favorite part about it, hands down, has been organizing it. While her Lego skills will quickly surpass mine, I totally understand that girl!

Rainy Christmas Break

We are celebrating surviving the last two weeks. It has been incredibly busy in every way - including starting my new job on Thursday. I'm two days in and not sad for a couple days to rest my brain. All that to say ... yeah, we're still talking about Christmas here in blog-land and you are just going to have to deal with it.

Exactly zero Vannestes were happy as we loaded up our stuff to head south after several wonderful days in GR. Thankfully, the cousins were as unhappy as us and agreed to make their busy day busier by meeting us at the Children's Museum for an hour of play before we hit the road. We are so so thankful they did. We needed to soak in that last bit of cousin time - and run some serious energy out before buckling into the car for the long slog home.

The drive home was uneventful (I will never stop being thankful for uneventful road trips) and we pulled into our house mid-afternoon. We beat both the weather and the traffic and were happy about that! As we ended up with about 5 inches of snow that night (that turned to freezing rain and so.much.ice the next day) and Rapids ended up with over a foot of snow, it was probably a solid decision to get home. 

The kids were pumped to find that Santa had left gifts under the tree - and as soon as the car was unloaded, we let them check them out. Santa brought exactly what they had asked for and three short Vs were delightfully happy and content for the next 36 hours. Hour 37 is when the days of rain, frozen brown ground, and house walls started getting to all of us. 

It was the tale of two breaks. In GR, we were outside as much as possible with all our people enjoying everything great about winter. At home, we were stuck inside with awful weather and no people (because the roads were icy and treacherous). By Saturday, we needed to GET.OUT. And on Sunday, we were eternally grateful for some friends who hosted a football party. While not caring about the game, every Vanneste was happy about friends and new scenery!

We got a lot done around the house, had fun, relished in the more laidback schedule (pjs until lunch worked for the Vs), and prepped to start the new year on the right foot. It was a good break, even if we missed fresh air in the later half. And thankfully, we still had our New Year's Eve celebration to look forward to before reality (and the requirement to get dressed) hit.

Holly Jolly Christmas

Thanks to our very busy Christmas Eve and the darkness of our room in Gma and Gpa's basement, the gang didn't get up until almost 8am on Christmas morning. So delightfully civilized!

Once we heard Gma, Gpa, and Auntie moving around upstairs, we headed up to see if Santa had come! The stockings were full and the cookies were gone ... an excellent sign. Santa always leaves their main presents under the tree at our house for when we get home, but he swings through GR to fill stockings. We sang Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus and then got to work.

Everyone was thrilled with their stocking contents and the girls proudly modeled the new hats that Santa brought. Under the tree, we all found treasures, including comfy new robes, another nerf gun (that Mike, Gpa, and Declan all had fun playing with. We scored two new guns over Christmas and exactly zero boys were sad about that), books, a magic set, Legos, and more. Q'l Lego set was a pool with almost 600 pieces and she could not wait to start on it!

We took our time, enjoyed watching everyone open gifts, and then cleaned up to head over to Auntie Tracey's for the day. Gpa V was over there when we arrived as well as a friend of Uncle Kyle's and Frank's 200lb+ Rottweiler Oz. Oz was the sweetest dog ever - but soooo big and eye level with the kids. Fiona and Dec adjusted just fine (although I think Mike washed Dec's face about nine times because Oz really liked licking him), but Quinn was really unsure. She didn't freak out (too much) but she stayed pretty close to anyone she thought would keep the dog away from her.

Serious nerf gun work

Auntie Tracey did take the kids into her room to visit Luna the kitty and there was plenty of train track building and Barbie playing. I'm also pretty sure that they snuck more cookies than I care to know about. Gma wasn't happy with me when we got back to her house and I told them they couldn't have a piece of fudge. But wow, sugar overload for the day!

Once the kids were nestled into bed, Mike and I started (unhappily) packing our stuff up. We had planned to stay in Rapids until Thursday ... especially since my cousin Harry had cut a Grinch Trail behind his house and everyone was going exploring Wednesday afternoon. But Mother Nature had other plans ... and 12-18 inches of snow was predicted, starting Wednesday night. The National Weather Service was recommending "no travel" on Thursday. So as much as we didn't want to make a grown up decision, we did ... grumbling all the way.

Conversations with the Kids

We interrupt the Christmas break recaps because, honestly, these are too funny not to share. A few of the more unique conversations we’ve had with the children the last few weeks. I can’t make this stuff up, you guys!

Dec and Fiona are playing downstairs. He comes running up to get something.

D: Mama, Fiona says I’m a masterpiece.

Me: a masterpiece?

D: Wait. No. A troublemaker.

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Fiona is learning about states in school. She was telling me about it and Dec figured he was an expert too.

Me: Dec, what neighborhood do we live in?

D: Merritt Street

Me: What city?

D: Shakopee

Me: What state?

D: Minnesota

Me: What country?

D: Amazon

Mike: What planet?

D: Earth

… so close!

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Quinn and Declan are both in gymnastics classes right now. We headed to D’s first session last Monday night.

Dec: Mama, I want to wear a leotart like Quinny.

Me: Buddy, boys don’t wear leotards.

Dec: But I want a leotart.

Me: [puts him in a tank and shorts that he decides looks like a leotart and hopes the conversation dies. It does not.]

Dec: [sitting on my lap because his class gets done 10 minutes before Q’s] Mama, I just really want a leotart.

Me: Buddy, boys just don’t wear leotards.

Dec: What do boys in gymnastics wear?

Me: A singlet [and then show him one on my phone. He begrudgingly agrees to a singlet. I begrudgingly agree to order one.]

Dec: [two minutes later] I really don’t want a boy leotart. I really want one like Quinny.

Me: Buddy, you can’t wear one like Quinny. It’s not made for your … boy area …

Dec: What?

Me: [in desperation] Your penis won’t fit in it!

Lady sitting next to me: [snorts with laughter]

Dec: I’ll just wear my cup nut [nut cup … but he always reverses it when he talks]

Me: That won’t help, man.

Lady sitting next to me: [basically hyperventilating]

Me: [later that evening, to Mike] You are now in charge of this conversation.

Mike: Not a chance.

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Gma and Gpa Nash gave mp3 players to the kids for Christmas, which has been the best gift ever. Fiona already had one, but now two vultures are not trying to steal hers. She got an upgraded version, so I was loading it with new music.

Me: What new stuff do you want on it, Bugs?

F: Tom Petty, Michael Jackson, High School Musical, and Green Day.

Me: [feeling really solid about my parenting]

F: [flipping through the book of CDs that I’m pulling the music from] Mom, are these your CDs or Dad’s?

Me: Mine. Why?

F: Do you like Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Me: Sure do.

F: Can you put some Chili Peppers on my music?

Me: … … … um … … …

F: [sighing] Mo-om, I know not to say the bad words.

Since the bad words were only part of my concern with RHCP, we have agreed that Mike and I will listen to the CDs and will deem what is marginally appropriate enough. Until then, I’m going to reassure myself that she will believe Mary Jane’s Last Dance is about a dancing girl for many more years.

The Rest of Christmas Eve

In case skating that morning wasn’t enough, we also continued our Christmas Eve sledding tradition – meeting Anna and family at the lake lot mid-afternoon. The weather was so perfect! It was sunny, a few snow flurries were falling, and by the time we were done, a glorious sunset was starting.

As is often needed on these sledding adventures, we had adults positioned at the bottom on “tree duty.” While the guards had varying degrees of success, no children were injured. Children may have been clotheslined, toppled by other sleds, and actually ran into a tree or two. Turns out, redirecting hurtling sleds full of children is harder than it sounds. But the recordable injuries were zero – so we’re taking our win and slightly-less-structurally-sound sleds and calling it a day.

Declan straight up refused to pull his sled up the hill and also thought he didn’t need to self-propel himself up. While Mike, Auntie, and I enabled his sled retrieval ridiculousness, we did make him walk up. Consequently, he spent a lot of time sitting at the bottom of the hill playing in the snow. It didn’t seem to impact his enjoyment – and when the hill looked too fun, his legs magically gained strength again.

About an hour or so later, with red noses and rosy cheeks, we headed around the circle to my cousin Brenda’s house for the annual Johnson Christmas Eve party. Dec even scored a ride with Otto and Milo … because he decided to climb into their car and neither Anna nor I had the heart to break up the bromance.

The party was perfect – great food, delicious cake, some of our favorite people in ugly Christmas sweaters, special Christmas sangria with extra special Fireball in it ... what could be better?!?!

Well, one that that could be better is that near the end of the evening, all seven little cousins (including baby Beau) put on matching Christmas pajamas and (with a little bribery assist from Brenda) smiled at the camera at the same time. Christmas.Miracle! It was a good thing we had matching pjs, because our ugly sweater game was pretty tough to top!

We also really nailed it on the presents this year. Otto, Declan, and Hux opened their first present to find superhero action figures and promptly decided they were done with presents (thank.you.very.much) and would like to go downstairs to play superheroes. The little boy energy is strong in that group!

We hardly saw our kids at all – unless we were feeding them, opening presents, or ruining their lives by telling them it was time to leave. However, their cousins were also leaving, and everyone was pretty excited about putting out cookies and milk for Santa. The magic of the night was not over yet.