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Eric, Tara, Benjamin and Tarini
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Christmas Day at Aunt Heather's house
Santa made a special visit to Aunt Heather's house.
A few pictures from Christmas morning.
Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
This girl loves Dora!
The gingerbread house Tarini made at school.
Benjamin and Tarini thoroughly enjoyed all of the Christmas festivities. Tarini handled all of the excitement really well and loved opening presents. She embraced all that Christmas is about and loved everything from Jesus to lights and Christmas music and Santa. Of course it didn't hurt that Benjamin is all about the lights and Santa! :) I spent many a night driving the streets looking at Christmas lights with them. Although their favorite was a plastic, light up, old school style baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
And Tarini has requested that there be a Christmas tree at her birthday party...in June! I'm guessing she's going to want that
hideous lovely, red artificial tree she saw at a store and loved.
*sigh*
Posted by
Eric, Tara, Benjamin and Tarini
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My brother Kyle came in for the holidays from DC and it was also the first time Tarini met her Uncle Kyle.
Posted by
Eric, Tara, Benjamin and Tarini
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...from our family to yours.
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Eric, Tara, Benjamin and Tarini
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My 81 year old grandma was in the hospital in St. Louis after a stroke so we decided to take the long Thanksgiving weekend to go back home and visit her. It was also the first opportunity she and Tarini have had to meet. Tarini and Grammy hit it off almost immediately and before long Tarini was sitting on the bed with Grammy watching TV. It was a match made in heaven and Grammy and her newest great grandchild are both talking about their next visit.
Tarini loves to sing songs but is very shy about it around too many people so she likes to sing in your ear. Here she is singing Grammy a song in her native language of Oriya.
Anakin and Avy got in on the Grammy lovefest as well.
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Eric, Tara, Benjamin and Tarini
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We decided to take in some local attractions in between visits to Grammy. We even broke our one-activity-a-day rule, much to our chagrin.
The first stop was
The Magic House, known for amazing kid-centered activities with a heavy emphasis on education through play. It has more than doubled in size since I visited with my parents oh so long ago as a child.
"That's a lot of candy!"
The Magic House has an incredible two story house inside the museum that houses a restaurant, a TV studio, grocery store and many more adult experiences that have been made "kid size".
serving up a couple of cones
They have an amazing water play area; we practically had to drag the kids away from it.
hall of mirrors
one happy girl and one very unhappy boy (he did not want to leave)
And then it was on to the
Gateway Arch!
The last time I was at the Arch, I was a child going with my parents. So it was surreal to be taking my own children. The Arch just didn't look as big as I remembered it. :)
straight up from the base
The doorway to the tram we rode in to the top.
It was very close quarters, especially since it was made for five and we were seven.
taking a look out the river side of the arch
a view of the city side from inside the top
A parting shot of us underground at the Arch.
I can say with certainty that we "survived" the visit to the Arch. Turns out we went on the busiest day of the year, security was tight to say the least and it was below freezing. It took us over an hour just to get into the base of the arch. It was well worth it though because the kids are still talking about it. :)
No trip out of town would be complete without lots of swimming.
With Anakin's help, Tarini mastered jumping in from poolside.
It has become typical for Benjamin to spend pool time next to, near or barely in the water.
By the second day, Tarini was swimming all over the pool with just the water wings. Not bad for a girl who only started this two months prior.
She loved the hot tub too, in small doses. :)
He loved the ring, just not actually in the water.
Christmas Day at Aunt Heather's house
Santa made a special visit to Aunt Heather's house.
This girl loves Dora!
The gingerbread house Tarini made at school.
