Christmas Fun

Wow – what a Christmas. Eva started her school break with great disappointment that she didn’t have school and quickly learned that winter/Christmas break is a lot of fun. She went to a gymnastics camp for two days and had a great time. Then, it was time to jump full-force into holiday fun. On Christmas Eve, we welcomed Aunt Jan and Uncle Tom and then had friends, Andrew, Doug and Eva Maria join us for dinner. Eva Grace was most intrigued by the huge bags Eva Maria arrived with, and sure enough they were for Eva Grace. Eva Maria had saved her cabbage patch dolls (and accessories) from her childhood and passed them along to “Little Eva.” Eva Maria was Little Eva’s best friend that evening and chose to have Eva Maria get her ready for bed and read to her!

Christmas morning could not come too early for the little missy, and her mom and great aunt and uncle managed on a little less sleep than ideal to humor her with a 6:00am start to the day! Before I go any further, I should mention that a few days before Christmas, Eva and I were at PetSmart to get live crickets for Lou the Gecko (class pet we hosted for the 1^st week of break), and who should be there having photos made with pets but Santa. He welcomed a human child and Eva shared that she would like a pony and a hamster for Christmas. Well, Santa came through – not quite the way Eva hoped (i.e., not live), but still she got ponies (and a barn and horse trailer to boot) and a hamster (a battery operated hamster in a clear ball). She was delighted with everything she got, and spent considerable time on Christmas (and since) playing with the horse barn and accoutrements.

We were delighted to have my friend, Sarah, and her friend Emma, who is a Chinese graduate student at Vanderbilt, join us for lunch on Christmas Day. Eva was able to greet Emma in Chinese, which tickled Emma to no end.

And the day after Christmas we left for Ohio to spend 2 days in Columbus with my cousin and family and 2 days in Lancaster with the whole Whalen clan. Lots of fun. A Columbus highlight was seeing the Christmas lights at the Columbus Zoo, particularly considering the weather was downright balmy (60+) the evening we went. That’s where I got the picture of Eva on the giant W; so glad they had “our” letter as part of a display! The lights were beautiful and Eva enjoyed seeing the animals we could see and the aquarium. We watched the manatees “dance” for some time.

It would be hard to pick just one highlight from our time in Lancaster, but if I had to it would be the white elephant. For the 2^nd year running, the hit of the exchange was a rubber band ball that I brought; little did I know last year what delight that silly thing would bring and that I would know what to bring for years to come. Of course, we enjoyed playing games, putting together puzzles including one made from a photo of our family from Whalen Family Week last summer, and swimming at the hotel pool.

We hope you and yours had a lovely holiday. Eva and I greatly enjoyed receiving Christmas cards and all the photo cards are up in our kitchen and may be for some months to come; they really brighten our days. So, thank you to all who were in touch. We love staying connected in that way. And Happy New Year!