Christmas Greetings

Our green, Family of Blacks Christmas Video. Merry Christmas!

Another Tradition

We began another Christmas tradition 3 years ago. I think some of it was because it was so cold and I just wanted (needed) to get out of the house. Some of it was because Vince was traveling a bit and I needed something to burn some time at the end of the day when Vince was not around to help tag-team with the boys. And some of it was just because it's fun.

The boys typically go to bed at 7:00, but when A Charlie Brown Christmas is on TV, we make it a special, "late" night. We eat an early dinner, the boys take an early bath, and we load up in the van to drive around, listening to Christmas music, and looking at Christmas lights. Then, we come home, pop some popcorn and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas as a family. This is a fantastic Christmas movie! I love when Linus recites the passage from Luke. The Peanuts Gang seems to really understand what Christmas is truly about... I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Denver Zoo Lights

As a child, my parents started a tradition that around Christmastime, we would all head down to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch and then go look at various Christmas displays downtown in St. Louis. I have very fond memories of these times and want to create similar traditions and special memories for our boys. So, in an attempt to begin new traditions, we headed down to Denver on Saturday. The Denver Zoo has a pretty large Christmas light display and we wanted to surprise the boys with this new Black Family Tradition.

We first headed to Denver in order to grab an early dinner. Lesson #1 learned for next year... make reservations, even if you are going to eat "dinner" at 4:00 in the afternoon. After our third restaurant which was full and had no tables open until 9:30, 2 bus rides, and walking up and down the streets of Denver for about 30 minutes, we landed (much to my memories delight) at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We waited for about 45 minutes and then ate before we headed to the Zoo.

Lesson #2 learned for next year... get directions to the Zoo from the place we are eating (which we will know since we will have reservations next year, learned in lesson #1). We drove around for about 45 minutes, and stopped twice to get directions, before we finally made it to the Zoo.

Lesson #3 learned for next year... order tickets to Zoo Lights online. Once we arrived at the Zoo, Vince waited in line for about 30 minutes to buy tickets. By this time, it was 8:15. If you know us, you know our boys are typically in bed by 7:00... so this was a stretch for everyone... but it was well worth it!

Ezra and Asher in front of a Christmas light peacock.
Ezra with his snazzy glow-stick, given to him by a man pedaling rickshaw in downtown Denver.
Obed enjoyed the lights... as seen through his hat.
My honey and me.
The boys and mommy.
A light monkey swinging through the trees... getting ready to steal the fuzzy ball hat off Vince's head.
Ezra and Daddy walking through one of the light tunnels.
It all got to be a bit much for Obed and Solomon at the Zoo... they cashed out part way through the walk through.
Ezra followed suit on the drive home. We didn't get home until after 10:00... but it was well worth it and a great time was had by all. I'm thankful for new traditions!

Just a Smige Large

What is one to do when one's 4 month old child poo's out his diaper, all the way up his back and down the legs and one's extra stash of diapers is depleted and one's 2 year old is FINALLY asleep in the room holding the extra diapers (since one's 2 year old has opted not to take an afternoon nap for weeks now) and the only diaper one has is a diaper from one's purse and it's a size 6 for the 2 year old? Well, one takes the size 6 diaper and puts it on the 4 month old of course... even if it is a smige too large.

Hillbilly Son

Asher has always been a bit accident prone. I suppose this is pretty typical for a lot of children. The problem with Asher's tendency towards accidents is that he never really acquired the very important skill of putting his hands down when he falls.... resulting in his face taking the brunt of most of his falls.

When Asher was about 18 months, he fell off a bench in our house and knocked one of his front teeth up into his head. The tooth came back out, was rather chipped, a bit crooked, but none worse for the wear. Then, in February of 2008, Asher was standing in a canoe in the snow (yup, you read that right) when he fell (shocking, I know), hitting his mouth on the side of the canoe. He knocked his two front teeth up into his head again. This time they started to come back out, a bit buck-toothed, a bit more chipped... adding to the character of our son.

I noticed last week that Asher had a sore on his gum. It looked like a canker sore, but I thought I should probably keep an eye on it. It has not gotten better over the last week and a half. In fact, it got worse. I called the dentist this morning. I remember our dentist friend from Minot told us to watch for a sore on the gum because it could mean an abscessed tooth. Well, the sore was indeed an abscessed tooth. No longer does Asher have crooked, chipped, graying, spaced out front teeth... he's got no front teeth... possibly for the next 2-3 years. He'll be our hillbilly son, but a pretty cute hillbilly nonetheless.