The First Adams Christmas Ball

 This year we decided to start our new Family party Christmas tradition: we decided to make it a Christmas Ball. We made a special dinner, played some games (including Minister's Cat) and then ended the night with a dance. We danced to everything from Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear", to "I'll be home for Christmas," by Frank Sinatra, with a little Tao Cruz: "Dynamite." Timothy loved dancing with Evelyn, and liked jumping on my lap while I bounced on the exercise ball, and even strutted his own unique walk to Four Seasons "Walk like a Man."  Evelyn and Daddy Ballroom danced the night away. I think he has forever ruined dances for her: where is she EVER going to find a boy who treats her like her Daddy-Boy?

Here is our Photo Shoot for the night: 

Photo Shoot

I love the smug looks on both of my children here! We keep telling Evelyn that "Smug" is her super power: Everytime she acts smug in a board game, she wins!

Gelo and Timothy are becoming fast friends: There's nothing sweeter than seeing a boy with his dog! 

 

Thanksgiving

 We were so nervous that Thanksgiving just wouldn't be fun this year of the infamous pandemic. How can we celebrate without all the extended family? The cooking competitions? The hoop-la!?

But we bought our little turkey breast, and our two little yams....and hoped for the best. 

Michael was a genius. It was him who made our holiday perfect. He decided that instead of just saying what we were grateful for, we would then do it! So I went first, and I said I was grateful for a clean kitchen: and bam! Within 15 minutes, my kitchen was sparkling! Then Evelyn said she was grateful for swimming! We knew the rec center was open 'til noon, so we grabbed our suits and jumped in the car! We got to swim for about 45 minutes! When we got home, Timothy said he was grateful for naps. So we all got to take a little nap. Then Daddy said he was grateful for board games, so while Timothy extended his nap, we played a couple board games. Then I was grateful for preparing and eating good food. 

Dinner turned out so good! And Evelyn decided this year that she actually DOES like sweet potatoes! Timothy did NOT like carbonation! 'Gelo loved everything he could wrap his tongue around. Evelyn loved making the table beautiful! It was a rewarding to work so hard. 

After dinner, Timothy said he was grateful for a fire. So we bundled up and went outside for a little 30 minute fire. There we had a little devotional where we sang praises to the Lord. It was fun, but short because it was so cold. 

When we came in, Daddy said he was grateful for playing together. So we made a bear cave and stacked cushions and played together for the rest of the night! 

More Bears! And Timothy's too!

We turned Timothy's tummy into a bear: with his belly button as the mouth! He was thrilled! I did the same thing to Daddy's belly, but the pen didn't like Michael's skin: so I got another one, and it drew so deeply that it irritated his skin! We thought I might have accidently given Michael a bear tattoo on his whole tummy! 

Washing off the bear!

One of our favorite things to do as a family is drawing competitions: we like to mix different things with pugs. The challenge for this one was a pug mixed with a T-Rex: 

And this one was a pug mixed with a polar bear: 

Timothy walking! Love that concentration!

Here are Evelyn and Timothy playing bears in a bear cave! This is an especially great game because it is good for Timothy's physical therapy to climb all those cushions!

 

Getting Ready For Christmas!

Timothy and Evelyn have loved getting ready for Christmas this year! We had to buy a few more trees so we could have our entire house Christmassy! Timothy has decided his new favorite animal is a polar bear: so I had to buy a few of those as well.

Timothy loves to read. He can sit for a long time just looking at picture books. I try to keep a stock in the main rooms we hang out in. 

Evelyn was thrilled when her fairy garden got some snow on Thanksgiving!

We made some gingerbread men. I took the opportunity to tell Timothy the story of the gingerbread man: he was so excited at the ending because his favorite stuffed animal is a little fennec fox named Eya (after Evelyn), so he liked that she got to eat the gingerbread man at the end of the story. (She liked it too!)

 

I think Gelo was a little jealous the Eya Foxy was so involved in the making of the gingerbread: he was literally begging to be involved. 

Evelyn is getting very good at creating gingerbread: she made some cute Eya Foxy shapes, some traditional ones, an of course a Blue the Raptor! 

"Run, Run, As fast as you can so that the gingerbread raptor doesn't eat you, man!" --original poem from my sister Jane

 

Going to the Zoo, zoo zoo!

We took Timothy to the zoo! It was a really great experience: not too busy, not too hot, and a lot of the animals were a little more active. 

Timothy was especially excited about the elephants: elephants have been his favorite animal the majority of this year. Here he is trumpeting like an elephant with Daddy elephant.

More trumpeting:

 There was a cute new baby Gorilla. It was funny to see it cling to the mommy's forearm as she walked around: so little!

There was also a funny scene with the orangutans but I didn't get a very good picture: they fed them pieces of pumpkin, the kids grabbed a bunch and ran away, because if the dad saw it, he claimed it as his. He was so greedy, he was trying to shove all the pumpkin shell pieces in his mouth at the same time, until it was crammed so full they would all pop back out! Then he'd try again.

Leopard kittens: getting big!

Lazy sleepy tiger!

There was a baby Titi monkey that was fascinated with Timothy. They would touch hands through the glass. Then the monkey would go torment its parents and come running back to Timothy. It was like he was showing off just for Timothy!

Timothy was scared of the boa constrictor! I am not sure why: it was curled up in  a ball sleeping: you couldn't even see its face: but Timothy knew that huge thing was scary!

Timothy also loves seeing the seals swimming. He could have stayed and watched them all day!

Timothy was fascinated through the whole trip! At the end we were able to get Evelyn and Timothy some little souvenirs. Timothy got some polar bear toys and Evelyn got a stuffed animal rattlesnake?!?! So cuddly!