Life En Route: The first days of Christmas

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The first days of Christmas

We arrived in Durham for a week of Christmastime, and got to overlap for two nights & a day with the Freys! Timo, Asher and Adah Joy were nearly inseparable and full of energy (though not without occasional tears or "stop it"), and Abram and Mattias got along really well, too. I think talkative Abram inspired Mattias with quite a few new words.

No time in Durham is complete without being at Oval Park! We even had a thermos of tea on this afternoon.

I was able to see my old childhood friend Alyssa for the first time in over a decade! She and her husband and 4 year old daughter moved from California to Virginia this year, so we might be able to see each other once in a while now when we are both in town visiting our families. (though on this visit we only had an hour at the park, because they were leaving town the next day) So many memories and stories to get caught up on... and we made a tiny but happy start.

Stories before bedtime -

Lunchtime

Asher learned how to play skip-bo this visit, and got Jim and Craig to play a game with him

On our second afternoon together, Sam Poole invited anyone who was interested to come out to the farm where he is boarding his horse. The two younger boys stayed home to nap but the others went and had an amazing time learning about the horse and walking around the Quail Roost grounds.

That is a 17 hands high horse!

Sam (very patiently and graciously) taught the kids how to approach a horse and then how to brush her down on the sides (where they could reach!). No, Timo, it's not a good idea to run straight under the horse's belly.

Christmas Eve morning we had a special celebration together since the Freys were leaving at lunchtime. We had cinnamon rolls and even - a first in the Hawkins family - hot chocolate for the kids!!! After breakfast the Freys opened stockings and then together we opened a couple of gifts.