Christmas, December 2010
| As the youngest member of the Williams clan in Decatur for Christmas, Robert took it upon himself to be the first up. Actually, Steve was up earlier and trying to make coffee, but Loren accidentally locked him out of the house. With the next door neighbors out of town for the holidays and happy to have their house not look unoccupied, Steve, Helen and Aaron were staying there while we stayed in Loren and Susan's temporarily crowded house. With the kids all off at college or out of college working, Loren and Susan's house is very big &mdash except when we all descend on them at once. |
| At any rate, Robert was not alone too long with all the presents. The coffee was made and the the stockings and Santa presents were opened and unwrapped as the family gathered around the tree. |
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| Santa brought Robert a pair of walkie talkies and a measuring wheel (more on that later). Sam and Kate (Sally too) got warm clothes — you'd never guess they live in colder climes now. |
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| Kate had board games on her list and so got a new Monopoly game. Robert got coal (the chocolate kind), and Aaron got a very cool magnet game that kept everyone entertained. |
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| Sam was pretty psyched to get Spiderman underwear — and Robert pointed out that he had Spiderman underwear too! Check out Aaron's cool magnet game: You have a stack of magnets and try to put them on the board without attracting or pushing any already played. If you push one off the board or force one to connect to another, you have to pick it up. Whoever plays all their magnets first wins. |
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| As the games started to get played with (rather than unwrapping more presents), Kate and Sally started to work on the mondo crossword while Robert took his measuring wheel out for a spin. The driveway was 96 feet long and the next door neighbors chicken run 131 feet on three sides (Robert didn't cross the fence to measure the other side). During the break, Loren and Steve went to pick up Smom and bring her back for some of the present unwrapping. |
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| Sam may have won for most unusual wrapping job with this box for Loren: a very nice ribbon on the Christmas Eve Lasagne box. Inside was a very nice looking micro-brew beer. Robert probably won for most unusual present: the measuring wheel was pretty unexpected as was the new John Deer tractor blanket Sarah made for him. |
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| After that round of unwrapping, Robert and Susan got out the Sculpy Loren and Susan gave to Robert while the girls returned to the crossword and Oscar came by to play guitar with Sam — which we all enjoyed. |
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| This was the first white Christmas in Atlanta in 128 years (according to the papers). We had a lot of fun: before the snow set in, Robert got out on his bike a bit, and with Carmen and family gone, we were able to feed the chickens and let them in and out of their coop. But clearly the best part was the time to hang out with family and friends. |
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| It was too short a trip (just a few days), and the drive back was a little more "interesting" than we might have hoped for — but not nearly as bad as it could have been. The storm that left snow on the ground in Atlanta went up the coast mostly east of highway 95 and left just a dusting on the ground in Alexandria for our return. Robert took advantage of the time off from school and pretty weather to get on his bike some more once we were home (looks like a larger bike may be in our future soon). |
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Vacation notes:
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