Wayne Racetrack

Today Jared's friend brought over his motorcycle and all the kids were doing laps in the cul-de-sac. It was fun to watch and they had a blast!

Sydney's new Scooter

Sydney got an Electric Scooter from Santa and today she finally got a chance to ride it. She did an awesome job and she loves her new scooter.

Sunset in Southern Indiana on our way home

Trip Home

So we were on our way home from our Christmas with my side of the family and to pass the time I thought I'd follow Jared's lead and take some pictures. I thought I'd go for the artsy look of monochrome. So with that said here are some of the shots I got.

Christmas down South

We spent actual Christmas day with the Southern clan this year and we had all the traditional British foods (YUM), exchanged gifts and did the traditional after Christmas store run. We got to meet out new nephew, who is very cute. Best of all we got to spend time with family, which is what it's all about!

Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas Everyone. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday

Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday

Our "Christmas Day"

So today was "Christmas Day" and the kids had a blast opening their gifts and we had a blast watching them.

Merry Christmas to Lizzy too!

Our "Christmas Eve"

We celebrated our Christmas Eve tonight because we will be travelling. The kids wrote letters to Santa and the reindeer's to say Thank-you for coming early. They set out cookies and eggnog for Santa and a carrot each for the reindeer. For some reason a Christmas dance was created

Wayne Family Christmas

We headed over to Jeff's Dad's house tonight for a Christmas celebration. It was good to see everyone, have some good food and have fun with the White Elephant gift exchange!

Sydney's Christmas Class Party

Sydney had a class party today. She got to play "pin the bow on the present", cotton ball races and decorate a Gingerbread man cookie.

Jared's School Christmas Party

Jared had his class Christmas Party today and they made wreaths and ornament necklaces and had cookies and a drink. He looked like he was having fun!

Icy Driveways

We had quite a bit of ice fall and the kids wanted to try sledding down the driveways and they had a blast. The sleds went really fast and they were unpredictable, which made for even more fun!

Trip downtown

So we thought we would go downtown and see the circle all aglow with Christmas cheer and to take the kids to Giorgio's Pizza. The kids loved Giorgio's and the best thing about the Circle ---It was covered in ice so the kids did the funnest thing they could do and turned it into an Ice Skating adventure.

Gingerbread House

We finally got around to putting together our Gingerbread House. I think this is one of Sydney's favorite traditions!

Today's sunset

Today's sunset was really vivid and full of color. I just thought it was beautiful.

Syd's field trip to Conner Prairie

Sydney went on a field trip to Conner Prairie today. We went to Prairietown where it was Dec. 24, 1836. We started at The Golden Eagle Inn where we met a gentleman who taught us about Hanukkah and the Menorah. He also let all the kids spin the dreidel, Sydney spun ש-Shin which means she had to put in treats. We then visited Mrs. Zimmerman who ran the Inn and she told the kids about German Christmas traditions. She also let the kids us a Springerle (German cookie mold) in the cookie dough.She then took the kids into the kitchen to show them how to cook over a fire.After that we went to the Schoolhouse where Mr. Ferguson told us it would cost 3 cents a day to attend school. They would have to go 6 days a week and school was held December, January and February and they would have to be at school on Christmas day as it wasn't a holiday back then. The kids also got to do some spelling and math using a slate, soapstone and a piece of fabric.

We then went to Mr. Whitaker's store where he taught us about money. They didn't have American currency here so they used Spanish Dollars which they cut up to make smaller denominations which coined the terms 1 bit, 2 bits, etc.

We finished our tour at the Curtis' home where the kids got to churn butter and have a cookie and we learned their version of Christmas was what we celebrate today.

I thought it was informative, the kids liked the hands on stuff but not the speeches so much.

Syd finishes another round of Gymnastics

Sydney did a great job at gymnastics, she's working on her back handspring.

Sledding at Fort Ben

We went sledding at Fort Ben today and the kids said it was their favorite thing they did all weekend. One kid went down standing up, one went down sitting down and the big kid went down the hill on his belly. Go figure!