Christmas Day came and went in a flash. Dylan woke up first and I videotaped his super sweet reaction to seeing the stuff under the tree. He inspected the stockings, the plate of cookies and the gifts under the tree.
Dylan was so patient! Christmas Eve was such a late night that the little girls both slept in! Chloe woke up about an hour after Dylan, but Cameron slept all the way until 9-ish!! That had poor Dylan declaring that she’d never wake up! But, of course, she eventually did….
Santa always brings an off-list surprise!
Chloe wasn’t quite as excited about Santa gifts. She initially used her’s as a seat!
Dylan finally stepped in to help her. He was pretty stoked for her — Lego Duplo play house! They’ve been enjoying this present every day! It’s awesome to see the little girls building (and Dylan, too, of course!!). Chloe especially likes the swings but it’s still a little tricky for her to get the people on there so she says, “I wanna fing, I wanna fing. Can you help me?” That last phrase, “can you help me?” is especially clear. Survival instincts honed!
I continue to have an especially keen interest in exposing the girls (not just mine!) to engineering and science. To this end, I caught sight of a video that went viral around mid-December–an advertisement for Goldie Blox set to the tune of a Beastie Boys song. It was very compelling — how to get girls interested in engineering — and catchy! It showed an amazing Rube Goldberg machine that went from inside to outside and back inside the house, all to turn off the television set (the Beastie Boys ended up filing a copyright infringement suit but that didn’t actually keep me from buying it!
I was pleased to see even Taliana taking an interest in the toy.
It is not my goal to have any of our kids actually become engineers (that will be their choice); however, I would love to encourage all of them to develop analytic, logic and design skills and an enduring curiosity and interest in understanding both how things work and how to make their own creations! Also, programming is, to me, less about authoring software than it is about developing problem solving skills and learning how to work with technology…it is important to me to at least introduce the kids to it!
It is still also true that women continue to be under-represented in science and engineering — there are fewer role models, etc….I could actually go on and on about the gender gap, but won’t. Suffice to say that I am especially interested in encouraging my girls (and all young gals) to explore STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
Dylan, of course, is already an amazing engineer–I now go to him for suggestions on finding solutions to our everyday problems! He is extraordinarily innovative and analytical and he seems to genuinely have a knack for this stuff (last night’s dinner conversation included a lengthy discussion on how we could design a pulley system to haul stuff up from the garage. He saw our lazy Snudda and said we needed something like that (and then he thought of the Sky Glider at the Boardwalk) as a cog/gear. Indeed!
Lately, he’s been tinkering with his Snap Circuits, independently wiring up his own home-cooked projects–I have explained that each project requires a resistor of some sort (a lamp, an integrated circuit or a switch) to prevent short-circuiting and damaging his stuff. He got the concept immediately and has been building away without destruction for days!
Santa also got Dylan a Lego motor, an infrared receiver and a battery pack for his Lego Hogwart’s Express (purchasing a motorized Hogwart’s Express Lego kit actually runs in the $1K range, I kid you not! So a DIY solution was needed).
I examined the train and wondered aloud how we would fit the necessary components on the train. Dylan immediately went to work to find a solution. He built a new train car (matches the look and feel of the existing train pretty well!) and figured out how to connect everything up. He already had a remote control from his Lego City train and it can control multiple trains, so we set up the channel for the Hogwarts and got the thing up and running!
After opening gifts at home, we headed to Christina’s house for brunch and more presents.
Chloe loved the little Santa band beneath Christina’s little tree. There is a little miniature carousel and she just loved watching the horses go up and down!
My nephew Rob made these amazing woodcuts for each family and together they make a whole! I am so proud of this guy. We just recently found out (at last weekend’s celebration for Chris’s bday) that he completed his AA degree, all on his own, with very little help from Cindy!! Not only that, he won first place in an art show and won an Android Tablet for his efforts! Phenomenal!
The picture above is of his wood cuts put all together and the one below is our family block.
Ty and J are still all about hockey! Glad to hear that the hockey trading cards we got for them continue be a hit!
In total, the girls got something like 5 new dolls this year. Of course, one of them had to be one that poos and pees!
In the evening, we headed to Cindy’s house for dinner. There is always a nice set-up for the kids, complete with activity!
Mom continues the tradition of getting new matching PJs for everyone! Love it.
And then boom, just like that, Christmas came and went! So much busy-ness, but so much time spent with loved ones! It is still my favorite time of the year.
