The Munhollands: Happy Holidays Part I

Halloween has come and gone, Thanksgiving as well. We made a trip to the zoo and Zoe and I made a quick trip to WA.

Dexter decided he did not want to dress up for Halloween this year. Zoe stayed true to her cheer leading / Minnie Mouse passion and went as Cheerleader Minnie. Kellan still doesn't have the scary in him and went as a not-too scary skeleton.

Jim made a Thanksgiving feast as usual. Kellan told us, after it was made, he doesn't like Thanksgiving dinner. Next year we'll try something original. Kellan decided to say Grace - yes, we were as shocked as everyone else. It's not as shocking once you watch the video, we gave him props for creativity (no, he did not read from The Bible, but from The Peanuts). I am super excited to not have gotten made-up, or even dressed for that matter and Jim filming me about a foot away. These days that's frightening enough even if I have make-up on. We asked the kids what they were thankful for - one original answer on the video, granted I should be happy - family, friends, food and "shelter" came to the top of the list...I'm Ok with that.

Click for Thanksgiving video

For me it was nice to have two, four day weekends in a row. Zoe and I made it to WA for a visit the weekend before. Zoe of course had a bronchial thing going on and an ear infection. Always makes for good traveling. For the first time in my flying career, we sat on the runway for close to two hours, then had to de-plane for another hour while the airline did some "troubleshooting." I think of troubleshooting when it comes to my job, not when it comes to a plane I'm going to be flying on. If anything, I figured it made for a well inspected plane. We saw grandma, family and friends - it was tough as usual to leave. We did miss our boys though.

I still don't understand most things Dexter says; Kellan & Zoe continue to be my translator. Yet he talks non-stop. He knows the chorus to so many songs, even when he hears one for the first time he'll start singing. I'd video it, but I can't seem to do him justice. I did video him (couldn't figure out how to rotate the video) the other day saying "meatball" - he said it for a few minutes before I got it on video, so enthusiasm was waning a bit. For some reason it cracked him up.

Dexter meatballs and computer video

Dexter has made the move from watching the kids on the computer to doing his own thing. He navigates from one page to the next, goes back, uses the mouse and keyboard. "My turn, my turn." So I'm not too worried about not understanding him - and ultimately maybe that's my problem, not his....

School parade

A day at the zoo. Kellan is getting too old to do most of the things we suggest these days, so it was good that he was excited to go - in fact he was the most excited.

Patience

and even more patience

and finally his turn

He spends up to a good hour on the computer. I'm sure there will be a study soon about this....

Someone is not too into taking pictures anymore, Zoe makes up for it

Happy Willow on a sunny day in WA with her new chair

I went to put the kids to bed and Dexter passed out before it was his turn. He was going to bed before them - finally, but we're back to him waiting up - afraid to miss something.