December 27, 2008

Jacob got his first hair cut.

Guests

Lexie's sister Jennifer lives in Maricopa about 3 hours east of Quartzsite. We were delighted that her family came out to visit us today. We did a sort of pot luck Christmas dinner together. Given our lack of oven space and a few miscalculations about cooking times dinner was a couple hours later than intended but that made it all the better. It is a wonderful experience to be very hungry around delicious food with the great excuse of "It's the holidays! I am supposed to eat!".

We had a great time visiting with Wade and Jen. After dinner the Becksteads didn't have a lot of time because they needed to get back home. In the little time they did have we took them out for their first geo caching. I had a lot of fun and I think they did as well. I enjoy watching the kids sort through the junky toys in the caches deciding which one to claim as their treasure. I also of course love the hiking.

Once the Becksteads left for home we continued from our last geo cache find to a place between Quartzsite and Bouse that the president of the local rock and mineral club told us we could find green laced marble. My geology skills are very weak and I am not sure how to tell marble from other rocks but we did find several rocks with very interesting patterns. There was also a small cave which appeared to be the start of a hard rock mine which the kids were able to enter. It is easy for me to see how people get excited about rock hounding. The longer we were out the more I wanted to be out. We finally wrapped things up as we saw the sun was setting.

Happy Christmas

The kids loved their presents.

Things were a bit different from our norm for Christmas this year. One of the neighbors did run Christmas lights off their generator for a couple of days before Christmas but overall the atmosphere lacked a lot of the things we typically associate with Christmas. The most notable thing missing of course was the snow. My mind shifted from thinking that we were in very non Christmas like weather to realizing we were in the most Christmas like weather we ever had been. I did a quick check of the weather at one point and was pleased to find that Israel was at 55 degrees fahrenheit and lightly raining just like the local weather here in Quartzsite Arizona. I have enjoyed looking at the local desert and mountains imagining what things might be like in Israel.

Christmas really is a strange holiday in that even though it is stated as a celebration of Christ's birthday most of the celebration that surrounds Christmas in the United States is a morph of St. Nicholas day in Europe which Europe celebrates between the 5th and 6th of December. Also the date of December 25th itself is not the understood birthday of Christ. It is my understanding that the date was selected to overlay a Roman holiday to give the Christians a way to celebrate Christ's birthday without drawing attention to themselves.

It would seem it would be possible to get things cleaned up. We could Get St. Nick's day on the 6th of December, give the 25th of December back to the Romans for their holiday if they still want it. We could then celebrate Christ's birthday on his birthday. I am not sharp enough on my history to know if there is a consensus concerning Christ's birthday or if each little church has their own date picked. Lack of exact knowledge concerning the date could be part of what is keeping things as muddled as they are.

As for our family's particular celebration this year we took further liberties with the already muddled traditions. Tyrell made our Christmas tree out of construction paper. Because of the lack of space in the trailer we did not buy a lot of presents. We skipped the stockings and instead wrapped what would otherwise have gone in a stocking. That aside I suppose it was a rather normal Christmas. At first Lexie and I were really wondering if it would be. Tyrell and Dallin woke up Christmas morning about 7:30 AM. Dallin began chattering about the dreams he had the previous night, which he usually does when he first wakes up, and Tyrell pulled the blanket over his head to try to get some more sleep, which he usually does when he first wake up. Lexie and I turned and looked at each other quietly talking back and forth about how strange it was the kids didn't seem to acknowledge Christmas. Not long after that, Ty sat bolt up in bed and asked "Hey, when do we get to open presents?" After that the morning had the electricity in the air Lexie and I had been expecting. By the time we finally got to opening the presents the kids were literally gyrating with excitement. The kids were very pleased with their presents exclaiming they were exactly what they wanted. Natalyn was particularly cute when she got her Barbie, she held it up and joyfully exclaimed "My Dream!".

Tyrell made our Christmas Tree this year.

The Barbie's dog was the hit of the morning because it could poop. The dog came with little brown tick tack shaped metal poops which doubled as dog food. A person could lift the tail to feed the dog, drop the tail for the dog to poop, and finally clean up the mess with a little magnetic pooper scooper. The mess cleaned into a trash can which attached to the dog food container from which the process could be repeated. It was my preference to simply feed the dog directly from the pooper scooper. The boys spent the morning between Transformers and Legos. By the time lunch came around the kids were so loaded up on candy and cookies that they weren't hungry so we decided not to push the issue. Skipping a meal really helped to keep the day simple. For dinner we had elk meat, which I got from my brother Dave, with rice, it was a big hit.

The pooping dog was the hit of the morning.

Tyrell bought me a glass chess set for Christmas. Unfortunately the board was broken when I opened the box. I am quite sure that we did not break the set so we will be returning it. I was touched that Ty was very obviously reaching out to get some time with me. I am looking forward to when we can get down into Mexico, we are planning to shop for a replacement chess set there. In the mean time Ty and I can still play chess on the computer. It really does surprise me how grown up Ty is getting.

Ty bought me a chess set, somehow some toilet paper got wrapped, hey, I'll take it.

I felt more vested as a dad this year than I ever have. I am sure it is because I now have two children old enough I can remeber when I was their age and also I have the same number of children as I grew up with in my family. As I was giving the lecture of the meaning of Christmas to get interrupted by "when can we open presents?" it was fun to ride my little power trip and say "You'll open your presents when Dad says you can open your presents." I'm sure I have heard that some where before.

The kids loved openning presents.