So I know I promised the other part of my trip but I had to post this. We have been trying to teach our kids responsibility and helping out. Each day they have an assigned chore and at night the have an after dinner job. Sometimes getting them to do these jobs is really hard and sometimes the quality of the work is not great and you just have to redo it but I keep reminding myself it's the process that is important. Well tonight I was flying solo but I really wanted them to get back in the habit of doing jobs. They were actually eager to them which was helpful. Jocelyn was assigned to rinse the dinner dishes. Jocelyn loves to play in water but the second she gets her clothes wet she freaks out. I wondered how long it would take tonight before that happened. Not long. First time she got water on her shirt, off came the shirt.Well it didn't take long for the pants to get wet. Next went the pants. So there my happy little dish rinser stood in the kitchen, rinsing the dishes in her underwear. The underwear picture didn't turn out for some reason so I won't be sharing the that one. In the meantime, Jackson my table clearer had dutifully been full filling his job until he came across the oven mitts. Suddenly I had football plays being run through the family room. Apparently the oven mitts inspired our budding football player. Kelsey was just enjoying good food and great entertainment. As I watched this circus go on I just had to laugh to think it's amazing what can transpire as we try to urge our children to do chores. The dishes sort of got rinsed, the table got cleared for the most part and I got some interesting entertainment out of all of it. I guess it was a success for all.
One might wonder, what happen to the Blacks? It has been almost a full month since our last posting. Well, to sum it up, we have been on a road trip across the US. Yes this does sound nuts and, yes, it was. But we did it! It all started with an interview in Iowa City the weekend before Christmas. Iowa City is a lovely town and we rather enjoyed it. We had joked weeks leading up to the interview that we should turn left and head West after the interview rather than the East back to Ohio. I had flashbacks about the drive out a week before we left to Iowa and decided I didn't want to go. The weather was a big factor as to what we would decide. We literally were deciding as we were getting on the freeway if we should do it. I said no and John-David said yes-I guess the driver won. We left in a snowy whirlwind that was only supposed to last for two hours. With every car I saw on the side of the road I announced that we should turn around but we didn't. To save you the boring details of our travels I will sum it up to this: there was a lot of wind, a lot of road, a lot of throwing up and we drove all night. We arrived at my parent's house at 9:00 in the morning. John-David and Kelsey went to sleep and I took the kids to church with my mom because they were awake and ready to go. The kids actually slept really well in the car.
That evening my parent's hosted the annual Meier Family Christmas party. 19 out of the 24 cousins were there, all 10 aunts and uncles and even Grandma and Grandpa were in attendance. It was so fun to see everyone. My cousin Jay even did a little presentation on his medical trip to Zimbabwe fixing cleft pallets. It was pretty cool. It was so fun seeing all my cousins and their families. I think it is so awesome that my family is still doing this party after all these years.
The next two days were spent preparing for all the festivities on Christmas eve and Christmas, recuperating from our travels and a trip down to Temple Square for the lights. Two of my sister's joined us with their girls. We decided to take Trax, which the kids just loved. It was fun to see the kids get excited about the lights. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay too long but traveling by Trax allowed us to see all the changes that are taking place in Salt Lake City. As many of you know, Jackson's birthday is on Christmas Eve. We had originally planned to have a fireman birthday party for him when we returned but we thought that since we were there, we would celebrate it with family. I called the local Murray department to set up a station tour. They were more than accommodating to do this on two days notice and Christmas Eve nonetheless. To put it mildly, it was amazing!! I was promised a 15 minute tour which ended up being an hour long one. I'll let the pictures in the slide show tell the story. It was a birthday to remember!!!!
Later that evening we had Christmas Eve with John-David's family where we celebrated with food from Great Brittan. We even had beef wellington which I never had before. After dinner we had the Black tradition reenactment of the 1st Christmas. That always makes for an interesting production. This year there was no short supply of animals which seemed to be the popular part to play. After all the Black festivities we herded our animals home to get ready for Santa Claus. Our kids have yet to get up earlier than usual for Christmas morning. I think this may be that last year. I'll let the pictures again tell that story.
THe rest of the story is to be continued. Stay tuned for the other half.
Well it didn't take long for the pants to get wet. Next went the pants. So there my happy little dish rinser stood in the kitchen, rinsing the dishes in her underwear. The underwear picture didn't turn out for some reason so I won't be sharing the that one. In the meantime, Jackson my table clearer had dutifully been full filling his job until he came across the oven mitts. Suddenly I had football plays being run through the family room. Apparently the oven mitts inspired our budding football player.
Kelsey was just enjoying good food and great entertainment.
