Lots and lots of random fun moments to end the 2025 year, and while we are down to just 4 in the house on most days, this month had quite of few that included Sam and Davis, and even Noel. This month included a new game of "Coyote" that Ruby borrowed from her friend Claire. This one is everything in a game that I hate, but it turned into me just trying to prove that I could handle a game with hand motions and routine reading skills...but I could not. I have lost everytime, and with Ruby and Claire often witnessing, I lost so bad they had to come up with new rules just to keep me in the game. Christopher Popinkins arrived again this year, but a day late, as he had to work on a few extra things for Santa, and completely forgot that is was December 1st. He also hid in some completely new areas downstairs this year, and periodically moved at random times during the day. That extra day at the North Pole apparently left him with some extra magic throughout the month, altho he also had some days where he must have been busy and did not change places on that night. We got to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop, then head over to Buccees again this year. And Rick May brought us another amazing Christmas Turkey this year.
Our December was full of puzzles, puzzles, puzzles with Ruby, but me, Davis and Sam all joined on on different ones that she had been collecting, but had not had time to put together. There was a night with a weird decorated bread that Magan bought, and put a candle in it to make butter to dip the bread into. There was another Daddy Ruby chuck E cheese day, and the CEC sketchbook was broke again. We are up to about 1800 tickets, trying to get to the 3000 level for some prizes there. Belle went to the Florida College Winter Camp at Shocco Springs. Davis rode his scooter over to Tuscaloosa to visit Lisa over there for a book signing. We made our way to McDonalds to get the official Grinch combo that came with Grinch socks...but were too late, all had been sold out. The girls and I had our annual visit to the Galleria shopping for Magan's birthday and christmas gifts...this year we did great, finding a few new stores to hit...the girls laughed as I made it over to Torrid to return some items for Magan, but neither of them wanted to save me the embarrassment either...Two full Auntie Annies on this day also...Both of the girls found some really good gifts in Boxed Lunch for Mom.
I laughed when riding with Belle on a night out. First of all, we went to the new pizza place in town, and when we got to the parking lot, there were two that were available to her, so she just went diagonal into both of them. As I opened my mouth to try and explain that this was not how you parked a car, she gave me the look and said "I know Dad, you make me nervous". Then after pizza, we drove over to the Raceway to fill up her tires, and after filling one side, I told her to do a three way turn so that I could fill up the other side. Well she went to one turn, then backed up to the same spot but then kept going to a third point behind where she started, and I finally had to stop the madness and explain what I needed. Her answer was the same look as earlier with a "Well, why didn't you just tell me to turn around, I have never done a three point turn before".
We were at a Cracker Barrel one night, and the girls started trying the peg game. Belle kept playing and could only get down to three. Well, Ruby wanted to try, but clearly could not grasp how it even worked. She got started, then frowned when she said she picked the wrong one to remove at the beginning because she had no jumps. We showed her the three or four she had choices from, and she laughed as she finally understood. At least we thought she did until she started bouncing saying that "I only have two left"! She had beaten her sister and got to only two pegs. Then she showed us that her board and the two pegs were right next to each other. After we showed her that now she could still jump and get to only 1, she cheered again, as we all cracked up laughing that she had no idea that she had beaten the game.
Belle's Christmas Recital went well, except for the young girl that passed out in like the second song. So we all watched as Amaia fell head first into Mrs. B, apparently having locked the knees. And they got all of us to leave the theater area, then into the hallway, then into the gymnasium. After the paramedics picked up Amaia, we finally made our way back into the theater area to finish the band and choral show.
The boys got to work with Granddad for a week at Rozars, and while I was working that week, we met up at Full moon for a LARGE lunch. And of course got a full pic with Granddad on a quick stop back at Rozars. I also had a fun time with the boys at the Alabama/Arizona game they played at the BJCC. Our seats were typical cheap seats at the top of the legacy arena, but it was just fun hanging out with the boys. They never even question when their dad wants to get a family pic with Big Al, and always good sports with my random pics for these blogs. We did make it down to some seats in the lower section for the last 4 minutes or so, but by that time Bama was getting stomped. They actually stayed ahead of #1 Arizona at the half, but within a stretch of about 5 minutes, Arizona was ahead by 25 points in the second half. They were pretty amazing to watch.
We did go out searching for Christmas Lights while the whole crew was with us in Chelsea one night. We started in Westover where we found where the Cloutier (old neighbors) christmas had been moved to a church building along 280. And it was really neat seeing their show again, and this year, they had an online site where you could vote on the next song that would be played. Which was fun because we heard Sound of Silence and other songs we wanted to hear, but then as we were leaving with lots of other visitors coming in to watch the lights, our kids (including Noel) thought it would be funny to vote for the song in Espanol over and over again. So if you happened to have been on 280 that night, you had to hear "Noel en espanol" not once, not twice, but multiple times. Magan told them to stop, but I think that made them just do it more. I feel bad for those still at the show that played the same song over and over again.
And Magan and I got to go on a date night in the middle of the week. And yes, we are old, but we found the perfect date night agenda by attending a movie on a weeknight at 3:00PM, so that we could eat dinner afterwards at a reasonable time, and be home not so late. We watched Housemaid, that both of us had read the book, and they gave us some changes to make the movie fun as well. And Yes, I covered my eye, the one on Magan's side. Afterwards, we went to the Culinary Dropout for dinner, and we had some really good food. I had a pasta that I thought might have not been a good choice, but then quickly found it to be amazing. Magan had a mushroom pizza (definately not on the menu with the kids) that was surprisingly good. It was really fun, and I guess we have more opportunities for that now that the kids are older. I guess we just have to take advantage of them.
