December Part two: Florida and Christmas.

We had one full day back in Des Moines, long enough for us to take a breather and for me to unpack and repack a suitcase for our plane trip to Saint Petersburg Florida to attend memorial services for my grandmother.  I lived with my grandmother from the age of 1-4 and then 8-11 or 12, and then again when I was 15 or 16 until I moved out when I was 21 to move to Iowa to go to nursing school.  So, the majority of my childhood.  I loved her, and I felt very awful that my brother and I were planning to rent a camper and drive down with all of our kids to meet her, and we didn't make it in time.  I would have liked her to be able to meet her granddaughter, because I know that she would love her.  However, someone told me afterwards that now my grandmother can see her all of the time. I hope that is true. 

We went to an indoor playground with Finn's cousin Robby.  He loved Robby!  I tried really hard to get a picture of them together, but they were too active and fast so all of my photos were blurry snapshots of the back of their heads.  Finn keeps requesting Robby by name.  This is very special because while he often requests to "play with friends," or "I want cousins," Robby is the first peer he has ever requested by name.  We are hopeful that Robby will be able to visit us in Iowa sometime. It was nice to be able to hang out with my Brother who I don't get to spend that much time with now that we are grown ups with kids and spouses and jobs, and our cousins whom we haven't seen in almost 10 years!

Very Often, my Adeline thinks she is bigger than she is.  She loves to climb things and explore.

We were lucky enough to be able to stay at my aunt Carolyn's house.  Which was nice because I had missed two weeks of work, had two unexpected trips and wasn't exactly flush with cash.  I also didn't have to pay for carseats or a rental car, because I accidentally let my license expire and didn't realize it until the car rental attendant kindly pointed the fact out, followed by the fact that I couldn't take one of their cars without a valid license. So, my brother rented car seats for an insane amount of money (honestly I should have just bought a couple new ones), and then refused to let me pay him back.  I tried to pay for them myself, but they wouldn't let me use a card in my name, because it was different then the name the reservation was under.  Ummph.  I ended up using the extra money to buy extra gifts, including Nerf guns for all of us, and we had a holiday Nerf gun fight when we got back to Des Moines.

 We, unexpectedly were able to spend time at the beach.  We weren't packed to go to the beach, because I grew up in Florida and don't ever remember going to the beach at christmas time.  It was in the 80s, with a water temp in the 70s, and feels like temps into the 90s! I had "sweater weather" packed and had to make a run to Target to look for swim shorts.  However, even the target in florida doesn't sell swim shorts....or any shorts for that matter, in December.  So we settled for a thin pair of pants, and a short sleeved shirt.

Finn would have lived in the ocean for the rest of his life if we had let him.

Finnigan absolutely loved the beach.  I wasn't sure, with all the stimuli; the feel of the sand, the wind, the sound of the waves, that he wouldn't have a giant meltdown, but he didn't.  He just took it all in.  Adeline though?  Meltdown. She hated all of it. She refused to go into the water, was scared of the birds and the sand, and she's usually very laid back and mellow.  Just shows you that you never know.  The birds even attacked us while we ate our sandwich under our rented canopy, and bit Finn in the finger while stealing one of his chips, but he still enjoyed the day.

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 This was a pretty big hit at my family's christmas party.  It's just butter puff corn drizzled in almond bark. It was very addicting, it's called "crack corn."

It was nice to be home, and to be able to get ready for christmas.  Colin missed his kids so much, he put a swim diaper on Addy's head...because why not I guess.

I didn't get a lot of pictures this year of Christmas because I was trying to engage Finn and make it really fun for him.  Finn got a train table, and a hot wheels race track.  Addy got an activity cube and a ball pit.  That Finn immediately pummeled until it died.  Finn really got the hang of christmas last year.  We read a lot of christmas stories, watched christmas movies and sang christmas songs.  There was an advent calendar along with the hide and seek elf game.  We read stories of the birth of baby Jesus, and Finn absolutely loved decorating.  Other years didn't go as well as this year, so I was grateful for our progress, and a very good christmas day.  There was some fighting over christmas toys, and they both needed a nap in between morning christmas and going to their grandparents, but I feel like that is pretty typical. By the time we got to his grandparents house, Finn was begging to "open presents," and telling his dad and uncle to hurry up and come out so he could get the party started.