The excitement from Christmas has finally died down and we are (almost) back to our regular routines. I'm not sure why, but I always find the new year ever-so-slightly depressing. This seems strange when so many other people are eager for the new beginnings represented by a new year . . . maybe it's simply because there's no longer a big event like Christmas to look forward to (and shop for!). Anyway, I'm sure no one reading this is really interesting in my meanderings about the new year, so we'll proceed with our weekly recap.
Monday was, of course, New Year's Eve. And not incidentally, my youngest brother's twenty-sixth birthday. To celebrate, we started off the day with a breakfast of crepes, made by Justin's lovely wife, Lia. (Of course, the breakfast tended to go in shifts--not all of us made it upstairs when breakfast officially started). After breakfast, it was off to the bowling alley for the first *official* Collings family bowling tournament. After a slight hitch (Cougar Bowling was way too busy--a one hour wait for the bumper lanes--so we removed to another bowling alley), we got ourselves in position. Justin, Dan, Andrew and I were in one lane; Jeni, Emi, Lia, and Julia were in another lane; and Jared, Mitcee, Joshua and Jacob were in the third lane (we tried to divvy up small children as much as possible, because they tended to slow down the proceedings just a bit). After signing in blood (aka leaving id cards at the counter) we were allowed to get smaller 6 lb balls for the little kids. And who knew that bowling shoes came as small as 6T? Andrew had some pretty snazzy flourescent yellow bowling shoes that he was quite enamored with. Apparently the lanes were somewhat uneven--at least, that was the main reason we were given as to Dan's and my victory (we were playing in families). For quite possibly the first time in my life, I bowled over 100 (101 to be exact)--Dan only beat me out in the last frame with a spare (108). And this, mind you, was without bumpers. Andrew actually did pretty good for a little "doober" (as Celie would say)--with the bumpers, he managed a 58 or something like that. But probably the single best shot of all the children's was Julia's astounding .4 miles an hour (yes, you read that right, .4--we were afraid the ball would stop before reaching the pins) roll. Andrew was close behind her, with a .5 mile an hour roll, and Emi had one that was .9 (she may have had slower ones when I wasn't looking). I think that's when the parents decided we should "help" the kids roll their balls a little. Jacob and Joshua impressed the crowd by being the only ones to bowl unaided of the small children. And Andrew managed to distinguish himself by bowling down the wrong lane (a family with small children was just getting set up there)--he dropped (literally) the ball before I could stop him. The kids were all thrilled with the bowling for the first five or six frames (in fact, Andrew seemed to think every other turn should be his--he loved picking up the ball), but after about the midpoint of the game they started to lose interest. Anyway, I think most everyone had a good time and we're looking forward to handing off our trophy to a more worthy opponent next year. (I don't think my bowling luck will hold that long--Jared and Mitcee are both definitely better at bowling than I am).
That night, we had a birthday dinner in Justin's honor--a pasta (al forno?) dish with a yummy cheese and marinara sauce. Unfortunately, the guest of honor was a little late (he and his family were visiting friends in Salt Lake), so we started dinner without them. We rang in the new year by all retiring before midnight.
New Year's day everyone sort of lay low, although there wasn't anything we could really claim to be recuperating from. (Translation: neither Dan nor I can remember much about what happened. Maybe Justin's blog will say something. We seem to remember that Justin's girls weren't feeling well so we more or less quarantined Andrew in the basement for the bulk of the day. Dan spent the morning in Salt Lake, helping his sister Sarah unload their moving van).
On Wednesday, Dan went back to work (which I'm sure was thrilling for him), and Jeni, Justin and Lia, and I took our collective offspring up to Salt Lake to the Church history museum (specifically, to the children's collection). My mom came with us, ostensibly to lend moral support to whichever parent needed it (but really, I think, to spend more time with her grandkids). The children's exhibit was actually pretty nice--with lots of church themed activities, like temple building blocks, CTR rubbings, and a mini recreation of Lehi's dream, where the kids could walk across a low balance beam representing the straight and narrow path, culminating in the tree of life (upon which were hung white fruit with CTR written in different languages). There was also a mock stained glass window that you could remove the pieces from and put back in (Andrew loved this, as it was similar to his beloved puzzles). But possibly the crowning part of the exhibit for Andrew was the nursery when you first came in. I think it was designed to promote the importance of families--at any rate, Andrew immediately "adopted" one of the babies and carried her around the entire time we were there. He insisted on putting her down for a nap, changing her diaper, feeding her, and generally loving her. I'm not sure whether this makes me optimistic or not about his prospects as a future older sibling. (He certainly likes babies, but he hasn't quite got the concept of gentle. And of course, dolls don't protest when you huck them in the corner). After we finished with the exhibit, we crossed the street to visit Temple Square, to see the temple and the large Christus statue in the visitor's center. Andrew refused to stay still in the visitor's center, frequently ran away from me, and was vocal in his protests to stay put when I attempted to restrain him, all of which made me quite crabby. I was probably more glad than I should have been when the others decided they'd had enough of the visitor's center, and we headed back home to put the children down for much needed naps. (I think I took one too--I probably needed it as well!)
That afternoon, I put the finishing touches on an Elmo cake that I'd made for a belated celebration of Andrew's birthday. We wanted to wait until all the Christmas festivities had died down, so that his birthday could get it's own focus. Not all the cousins could make it, but Jeni's kids and Justin's kids were there. We made tater-tot casserole, which has hitherto been a big hit with the small children we know, but apparently it backfired with this crowd. Andrew liked it and Samuel liked it, but Julia point blank refused to eat any of it. (Her parents finally insisted she eat four bites before she could get down from the table, and in order to get cake later, and I think she threw up after the third bite. Granted, she was getting over the flu earlier in the week, but this still isn't very high praise for our culinary abilities!). I don't think Jacob or Emi ate much either. At any rate, Julia's food mishap meant that she and Eli were upstairs during the rest of the festivities (which also explains why they don't show up in many pictures). The other kids were excited about the cake, which they all recognized, and Andrew's eyes were particularly bright when it came to blowing out the candles.
(We're not sure who invited this four-eyed, four-horned creature--thankfully not a flying purple people eater--to the party. He must have snuck in with Samuel).
After Christmas, of course, Andrew was a pro at unwrapping presents, although this didn't stop Jacob from trying to help and offering his own expertise. Mostly, Andrew got puzzles and books, but he seemed pleased.
And of course, there was still enough cake left that Andrew was able to indulge his taste for sugar at least another time or two. The one downside to an Elmo cake, is, of course, the vast amounts of food coloring (even if it is a non-toxic variety that doesn't affect the taste of the frosting) required for black frosting and bright red frosting. Andrew didn't seem to mind.
Thursday was Justin and Lia's last day (and I think they were profoundly grateful to be going home and getting back to their own routines). We didn't do much during they day--they mostly had errands to run and we helped run interference with the kids--but that night we joined Justin and Lia and Jared and Mitcee at a Red Robin restaurant in Salt Lake. The food was okay--the french fries were quite good--but our waiter was pretty hopeless. (I suppose we should have suspected as much when he didn't even have his own nametag on--he was labelled "Hannah," and when Justin asked if that was really his name, he explained that he'd had one made for his daughter and borrowed hers when he couldn't find his). Jared managed to talk most of us into ordering his favorite burger--a barbeque chicken on crispy onions--and it wasn't until after I'd started eating that I remembered that I'm not actually a bit fan of barbeque chicken (unless it's served by itself, fresh off the grill. Sorry Jared). Andrew impressed us all with his eating abilities--he ate a lot of french fries (and even more dipping sauce), part of his spaghetti entree, and probably half of Joshua's macaroni and cheese. Lia officially dubbed him the biggest eater among the grandkids (not, it should be noted, that this is a huge accomplishment--his cousin Lydia on his dad's side has been known to eat him under the table. And she's three months younger and at least three inches shorter!).
Friday and Saturday were pretty quiet around here, particularly since I spent as much time as possible in bed, having come down with some kind of cold (I knew it was bad on Saturday when I managed to fall asleep with the lights on and Andrew puttering around in the room with his dad). Today, after church, we went to visit Sarah and her brood in their new digs. I think it was a good thing that we came up--she seemed like she could use some adult company, since Aaron had gone back to St. George to work for the weekend, and she had been suffering through the kids by herself all day. The food was great, and Andrew had fun running around with yet another set of cousins. And that, thankfully, wraps up the events of our week! (I'm looking forward to the little bit of downtime that remains to me tonight).
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