More pearls

This year I thoroughly enjoyed being with my kids for Christmas. Because of my husband's work schedule my in-laws invited the kids and I to stay with them for a few days so that my sweety could get plenty of rest and I'd have some help. We had a blast.

Among the kids' favorite activities were:
ice skating
going to the reptile store

roller skating
laying around watching cartoons with Muggy
going to McDonalds for lunch
going to Old Chicago with Uncle Danny to see Aunt Katy at work
and sledding


I am blessed to have family around who are interested in the lives of my children and who care to help me out with them. Having the extra adult help enabled me to spend time with my kids one-on-one. Getting the extra time with them really helped me to get to know them and to treasure them for new reasons.
A few of the pearls that I've collected for my string this Christmas are:

Cale is more athletic than I give him credit for. He has incredible balance on the ice.

Dante is incredibly persistent. He really is listening to what I tell him. When he was ice skating and roller skating he wouldn't let anyone help him. He wanted to do it all himself. Every time he'd fall down you could hear him say, "try, try again. Try, try again. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Dante pays attention to the little things and loves to please the people he loves. Papa bought him some candy and Dante made sure that they also got some for Scotlynn, but not just any candy, her very favorite. And in his words, "momma, I wanted to get you a Mountain Dew, but Papa wouldn't let me."

Ila is full of adventure. She loved being on the ice even though she wasn't very good at it. And she worked really hard to learn to roller skate well. She was all excited to try ice skating again.

As a new year begins I am excited to collect even more pearls for my string.

*as posted on String of Pearls 1/2/09