Williams Family Lunch

(From 12/23/16)

This morning we went to do our annual tradition of delivering Christmas gifts and food to families through City Union Mission.  As I mentioned last year, this is an important value in our family.  But this particular event has increased in popularity, so this year they only had one bag for us to deliver, and unfortunately that family wasn't home.  So we said a prayer for that family and dropped off the gifts and food back at the main office.

We then headed home briefly before going to lunch with Meghan's extended family. Mark and Barb are in town for Christmas, and Michelle is too.  We met with all of them, along with Eric and Christine, at Chapala for a nice lunch.  We'll see them all on Christmas afternoon at Eric and Christine's house, so thankfully this wasn't our only chance for interaction.  But it was great to see everyone, and we're looking forward to the main event on Sunday.

Wii Wish You a Happy New Year

Last year and the year before Meghan put together an elaborate set of activities for us to do with the kids. This year, we scaled it back a bit. We still had our traditional fondue, though, which is something I always look forward to. As an activity, we thought it would be fun to break out the Nintendo Wii. I’ve had the Wii for years (maybe seven?) and I used to play it occasionally before we had kids. But when you have kids, your free time diminishes, and that was one of the casualties. But I’ve kept it around hoping that some day the kids would be ready for it. This also gives me a free opportunity to play it, so everyone wins! Joshua previously had a brief experience with real video games, and he likes playing the little kid games on his Kindle Fire, but this was really the first significant exposure he’s had to a video game. Wii Sports is the game that comes bundled with the Wii, and it has bowling, golf, tennis, baseball, and boxing, and we chose to go with bowling. I made a Mii for each kid and helped them bowl. They had fun, especially Joshua. It was a little hard for them to learn the motions and the buttons you have to press and release, but Joshua and Clara mostly got it. We then also played MarioKart, which is one of my all-time favorite games. They all liked it quite a bit, though they really struggled to not only stay on the track, but to go the right direction. When initially choosing characters, Joshua recognized Mario but couldn’t quite remember his name, and called him Remargo, which was really cute. After I later told him it was Mario, I guess he didn’t quite hear me right, because Joshua liked to be “Baby Marro” (there’s Mario and Baby Mario in the game) until he discovered Bowser, which was then a way cooler option, apparently. Hannah liked to be “the one with the bow” (Baby Peach), and Clara liked to choose various different characters without really having a favorite. Meghan and I helped coach them (which mostly consisted or repeatedly telling them they were going the wrong way and that they should turn around), so we didn’t play much, but it was still a lot of fun for everyone.

For dinner we had appetizers, and then we had the New Year’s Eve event for the kids, since they weren't going to be staying up till midnight.  We put on hats and I distributed noisemakers.  I used the small, cheap, plastic disco ball that I have for solely this reason, and played some music off a party-themed CD we have, and the kids had a “dance party”. They loved it and were really disappointed when it was over.  The above pictures were actually taken in near darkness with only the light of the disco ball until the bright flash of the camera illuminated everything.  But check out their dance moves!

              Without the flash, things were a little different.  I have no idea what's happening here, but I love it.

                                                      Here the kids are entranced by the disco ball.

I then pulled up some random countdown video from YouTube on my phone and we did a countdown and then blew our noisemakers, and then it was midnight, at least as far as they were concerned. We weren’t tricking them, because they don’t even know that’s a thing.

Then they went to bed, and Meghan and I had a couple hours to kill before the actual midnight (we’re so old).  And yes, this was my outfit.  We had plenty of theme parties when I was in college, so I had a handful of crazy shirts which worked in various situations.  And I kept them, because I thought you'd never know when you'll need a crazy shirt.  Well, it turns out you do know, and the answer is that I don't really need crazy shirts at this point in my life, as I think they've all gone unused since college.  So I decided to break out one of them for our New Year's Eve party, so here I am in my sweet blue lamé shirt. And notice that was lamé, like the fabric, not lame, thank you very much. Anyway, we drank champagne and watched some of the specials on TV.  Like last year, Pitbull had the best show (what is this world coming to?) as he had fun and energetic music acts, as opposed to the lame acts and horrible “comedic” banter from comedians trying too hard (but still failing) to be funny. Shortly before midnight Pitbull himself performed (and continued until the end of the show), and I realized there’s a surprising amount of Pitbull songs that I like. For some reason Ke$ha didn’t show up to sing her part of “Timber”. I can’t imagine she had something more important to do, but whatever. Anyway, we had a really fun evening, and it’s been a great 2015 for us, and we’re looking forward to 2016.

Sand That's Not From a Beach

For Christmas from Sam and Michelle, the kids received some Sand.  That might not sound like a very good Christmas gift, but not that I said "Sand", not "sand".  It's a big difference, in that regular sand could never be used indoors at a kitchen table, but Sand is a product (by Brookstone, although Kinetic Sand is another brand) that is basically a cross between sand and Play-Doh.  Like sand, it's fine grained, but like Play-Doh, it's mostly cohesive in that it sticks to itself.  It's moldable, cuttable, shapeable, etc, but it won't break out into individual grains and make a big mess.  It's a lot of fun to play with, and the kids (well, and the grown-ups) really like it.  So we are appreciative they sent us Sand and not a box of actual Florida sand.

Joanna is in town for the Christmas season, and when she is, we always try to get together for a lunch.  We went to Chili's this time and had a good meal, although as always I ate way too much chips and salsa, but that meant I got to take home half of my meal for leftovers.  We always enjoy spending time with each other, so I was thankful we were able to make something work with both our schedules before she flies home tomorrow.

Nick's Pics

As I mentioned previously, Nick Schale was the photographer for the Nicholl Family Christmas.  He did a great job and took a lot of great pictures.  There were plenty of good ones, so many in fact that I couldn’t include them in the original post, or it would have been ridiculously long.  So I’m dedicating this post to highlighting some of my favorites that he took, both the formal and the silly.  If you like his work, you can see more and contact him via his website.

                                                               Some great pictures of our family

                                                            Clara loves being silly with her grandpa.

                                                                           Couples and Families

                                                              Other combinations that we requested

We finished with a round of pictures of the cousins on the couch.  Nick had them make various facial expressions, which resulted in some humorous results.  A funny situation unfolds as it appears Benjamin falls in love with one of Hannah's pigtails.  In the lower left it looks like he's smelling it while Hannah is a little weirded out by it, and then in the lower right he can't help himself and grabs it but then is stunned by what it feels like, or something.  I'm pretty sure that's not quite what happened, but the pictures tell their own story.  Anyway, we were grateful that Ron arranged for Nick to be there again this year so we could have all these great pictures.

First Time Sledding

It snowed last night and today for our first snow of the year.  The kids were excited to go out and play in it, and Joshua was really excited about shoveling it.  I was working today, so I wasn’t available to go out front with him, but he was quite content to shovel the deck.  He also enjoyed making snow angels.

Yesterday I bought sleds, as we previously had no sleds that we owned.  I love sledding, and I think the kids are old enough to enjoy it too.  I bought two saucers and a toboggan.  Hannah, being Hannah, needs something a little more low-key and secure, so I bought her a “baby sled” that goes slower and has a seat with a chair-back to support her, and it has a seatbelt strap as well.  That seemed more her speed, and she was pretty pumped in the store when we got it.  In Kansas, you never know now much snow you’re going to get in the winter season.  Usually we get a handful of decent snowfalls, but with my travel schedule, it’s possible I won’t be available during future snows, so I decided to make sure to take advantage of this one and take the kids sledding. So after nap today we packed up and I drove to a nearby hill, which was really just a very small incline next to a neighboring subdivision.  But it was perfect, because no one else was there, and it wasn’t too tall (maybe only a 15-foot elevation difference) and was a gentle slope.  Joshua loved it. I showed him how to do it the first time, and them he took over from there going up and down as many times as he could on his saucer.  Clara liked it a decent amount and was able to bring her sled back up the hill, though it wasn’t easy for her, so I helped her when I could.  Hannah kind of liked it, but it was cold, and we had some mitten issues, so that made it less fun.  But she did really like the safety and security that her baby sled provided.  I also let her ride with me on the toboggan, and she thought that was fun too because I was able to hold her and keep her safe.  I only went once or twice by myself since I was mostly helping the kids, but it was still really fun and made me wish I could go down a big hill by myself, but that doesn’t really happen in my life at this point.  They were cold at the end, and we went home, but until that point they all had a lot of fun, and our first family sledding experience was quite a success.

Christmas Season Trip to KCDC

Julie, Andrew, Joanna, and Kirk went in on a joint gift for our family this year to get us a membership to the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center in Topeka.  We’ve been there a few times and really like it.  There’s a lot to do indoors and outdoors.  I wasted no time in taking advantage of this gift that we received yesterday by taking the kids today, giving Meghan a chance to relax after an exhausting holiday season.

A place I hadn't explored with the kids before was the vet clinic.  Joshua immediately sat behind the desk and picked up the phone to make some important calls.

Joshua told me I could be his assistant, and he handed me the clipboard.  He said, "You're the one who talks to people, and I'm the one who works on the laptop."  So I guess I'm relegated to greeting people as they come into our clinic, while he does the important stuff.  He's the boss, and I'm the assistant, so it makes sense.

He apparently also hired Hannah as an x-ray technician, as she went to work on checking out this giraffe's x-ray.  Yes, we're a specialty vet clinic that not only handles cats and dogs, but also African animals.

The plasma ball is a new addition, as it wasn't there last time I was here.  These things are always fun to play with.

In the mechanic shop, Hannah decided she would lounge around while others did the work, but later she was intrigued and decided to get her hands dirty by refilling the antifreeze.

There was a traveling exhibit which focused on China.  I found it quite interesting, as there were plaques everywhere with interesting information.  For example, in China baby clothes have a slit in the back, because babies get potty trained much earlier, so they need to be able to still wear their onesie while sitting on the potty.  They had a setup of different rooms in a typical Chinese house, including this living room that was showing The Monkey King, a popular cartoon there.  The kids did not care what language it was in, as they saw a nice couch and a cartoon on TV and plopped right down to watch.  There was a lot of info on pandas, and there was this crib with stuffed pandas in it that you could pretend to feed milk, but Hannah for some reason took that as an invitation to climb in the crib with them, though I stopped her before she could join them.

We finished with the grain-moving structure and the coin well, which they always love.

I stayed a little longer than I should have, and the kids were overtired when we left. They were all indignant at being forced to leave, and Joshua was so tired that he ended up bursting into tears because he wanted to stay so bad.  I did need to stop at Walmart to get a few things on the way home, and they had cheered up by then and were excited to go shopping with me.  It was a full day of fun with Daddy and the three kids.