Christmas Break 2013

Belated Merry Christmas everyone! I hope all of you had a blast being with family and friends while celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Me, I had a great, restful Christmas. Some of my favorite things I did over the break:
- Google Hangout with my family, including my sister who is on a mission in AUSTRALIA(!) on Christmas Eve night. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! And I love technology that lets us video chat with each other, even though we are thousands of miles apart. 
- Spend Christmas Eve night with the missionaries in my ward having dinner and playing games. Special thanks to the missionary couple in my ward who hosted it :)
- Attend a Venezuelan Christmas dinner hosted by my church friend's mother, and eat SUPER delicious food. It's food I dream about- it's that good.
- Sleep in and laze around my apartment
- Watch Catching Fire and read the Hunger Games Trilogy (another post) and dream about Finnick Odair! 

And this year, I drove up to Michigan and spent a few days with family friends before Christmas Day, and got to hang out with these three little cuties:

These three children are like nephews and nieces I don't have and they are A TON of fun to be with! For example, that little girl is slightly older than two years old, and is learning to talk and converse with people, resulting in conversations like this:

Me: Hey little missy, who's adorable?

Little Missy: Me!

Me: Who's Little Missy?

Little Missy: Me!

Me: Who's adorable?

Little Missy: Me!

Me: Who's pretty?

Little Missy: Mommy!

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha darn right! And then when I asked her to pose for my camera, she did this...

...and held this pose until I took her picture. SOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!! 

The middle child, Little Mister O, is equally adorable and EXTREMELY SMART. He's only four and just started learning how to read, but he can already read scriptures (and I mean the adult version, not the simplified kids version), tell time, and does math that I know I could not do when I was his age, such as 47 - 7 = ? and 36 + 8 = ? A 4 year old who does math like a first grader (or better) *fainz* 

The oldest, Little Mister J, is a TERRIFIC big brother who is very well-rounded. Not only does he excel in school, he's a very good piano player, and enjoys all kinds of sports- baseball, soccer, football, basketball, etc. I played checkers with him and we tied- can you believe it?! So embarrassing for me! And he has A BIG HEART. It comes across so obviously in the way he interacts with his siblings, like the way he allows his younger brother to score on him in soccer, or the way he gently plays with his little sister. 

And just to show them off a little bit more, the two older brothers can:

- Name the fifty states of America

- Name the capitals of the fifty states of America (seriously. I can't)

- Name the states that border Texas (there's four of them). 

- Beat me in soccer and baseball. We played these two sports in their basement, and even the four year old scored more goals and batted more balls than I. *Miss Keesh epic fail* 

- Most importantly, they are VERY well-behaved. I was so impressed!

Doing the best I can with my camera phone. I think the older two tried to make bunny ears.

It was very lovely visiting their family, and a nice break from Columbus.

While in Michigan I also visited the Henry Ford Museum, and I highly recommend it to everyone, especially those who love American history. I'm a museum junkie, and I know a good museum when I visit one. There's lots of cool American history artifacts, such as the Rosa Parks bus, the limousine that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in, the chair that Abraham Lincoln was shot in, and of course, the Ford T Model. Plus it was interactive, clean, and very kid-friendly. 

Too bad the Christmas season is over, which means my holiday is creeping to a close. *sigh* I could really use another month of break. 

How was your Christmas break? Would love to hear about it!