Christmas Vacation

Today's the first day of the kids' Christmas break. Friday is my normal day off so I'm home with them today and then Gene is off with them for the next two weeks. I took three extra days off the week of New Year's so we plan to go away for at least a couple of days and of course have no idea what we'll do. Logan very much wants to go up in the Sears Tower so that's a definite possibility. Today the kids just wanted to hang around home and play with the neighbor kids. Little Girl had school today, but Little and Littlest Boys were over most of the day.

Logan wanted to play hide-and-seek. I was doing the puzzles in the paper and not paying much attention to the game until I realized the three boys were taking FOREVER to find Kaylin. Even though Kaylin kept yelling out hints to where she was hiding... Her yelling was obviously coming from the kitchen, but the boys kept running to both ends of the house, outside and even into the garage. They did this over and over and over. I was finally laughing so hard that Kaylin noticed and asked what was so funny? I told her I couldn't believe how terrible Logan was at hide-and-seek. I would have figured the younger boys (2 and 4) wouldn't be fantastic, but Logan is seven. I thought it was hilarious that he couldn't figure out where Kaylin was by listening to where her voice was coming from. They played round after round and nobody could ever find Kaylin without her yelling or bumping around. Ridiculous.

The kids are now making a gingerbread house. It was one of those projects that sounded more fun than it actually is. The royal icing is sticky and gross. The candy isn't staying on the house. Cementing the house together was a two hour process. Kaylin's having a tough time with the thick icing in the dispenser bag. I'm trying to stay out of it :) Hopefully next year they'll agree to decorating cookies instead. At least they're working together without fighting!

It's been a crazy week at the zoo with moving hay and adjusting to new schedules and getting ready for the two holiday weeks. Our Christmas party was Tuesday night. We had it at the new zoo lodge and it turned out to be a good time with only zoo people and no worrying about bothering other customers at a restaurant. I wrote and sung my customary spoof song and received a brand new Easy Bake Oven at our white elephant gift exchange. I'm saving it and giving it to Kaylin for Christmas. She's going to flip! I told her there was NO WAY I was spending that kind of money for a toy oven when she could use the real thing. I'm pretty sure she'll be able to make the mixes all by herself and will be really happy.

Sigh. The gingerbread house just collapsed. Better do some damage control.