Chasin' Raisins: Bumpy Beginning

Advent is an important time of year and I try to make it really special. One traditional part of our advent celebration is to go on "Mom's Wild Goose Chase Adventures" to see the Christmas light displays around the Triangle. Last year's trip went two hours longer than expected for a five hour drive. As a result, we thought it might be better this year to try something new and drive only three hours round-trip to see the light display at the Greensboro Science Center. Unfortunately, life and the weather kept getting into the way of these plans until we only had one day left - January 1st. Since we had season passes, we didn't have to leave too early and arrived at the zoo about 1:30pm. We weren't the only ones who thought a day at the zoo was a nice way to spend Sunday/New Years Day but as we all milled about confused, we realized the zoo disagreed. After some phone calls and some searching on the internet we discovered the light show would begin at 5pm, but the regular zoo was closed. Now we had to figure out how to spend the next four hours. Since it was New Years Day it seemed everything was closed. Then Jared had a brilliant idea, to go walk around the Guildford Court House Battlefield. We had seen the park and walking trails next to the zoo, so without even having to get back in the car we began our walking journey. This turned out to be a great idea. The weather was perfect and exercise invigorating.

After the first memorial, the kids really started to get into the mood. Everyone found a stick and started doing stuff with them. Next thing Chris and I knew the kids were doing a mini-reenactment, including marching in-time and multiple dramatic charges.

Needless to say, all this activity worked up everyone's appetites. We had been given recommendations on where to eat the last time we came to the zoo, so we preceded to the first one on the list. It one was in a sketchy part of town in a shop attached to a gas station, so we kept driving to the other options; they were either closed or equally sketchy. Chris parked outside the last one and I got on my phone to find somewhere to eat. Thankfully, I found a place close by that was open and had GF options. The restaurant was called "Wicked Burger" and boy was it good! They even had goat cheese option and awesome sweet potato fries. Once we were all stuffed it was time to head back to the zoo to finally see the lights.

The lights were very pretty. Chris and I had a big laugh, when the spinning globe was playing "Christmas in Hollis" with dancing reindeer and other animated animals - we of course jammed a little with the tune. The kids then ran down the psychedelic tunnel and it was time to bring our trip to a close - or so we thought.

There were one more treats on the horizon, the gift shop they filter you through at the end was 75% off and the carousel outside was free! Titus and we girls girls took a ride while the other boys enjoyed watching on a comfy bench to the side. Holly said she couldn't remember the last time she rode a carousel.

On the way home, Jared said with a smile that it was the first time in years we had told to him to "Pause" - playing with sticks and nerding out about history was so much fun. Lance said the day was so great; he felt like a kid again. Titus loved getting his little stuffed penguins to add to his collection. Amber loved the lights, stars and carousel. Chris and I were just thankful to see our kids so happy. What a wonderful day of "making lemonade."

Then the month started to get back into a traditional flow. The Mc-Family was over for dinner on the 4th. Titus tried-out and made the TKD Demonstration Team and had a great time at the Teams party afterward playing dodgeball and dancing. Additionally, we finally finished up the Christmas puzzle (less one missing piece) on the 11th.

On the 13th was our first FIAR Field Trip of the year to the Museum of Natural Science Downtown to go on a Creation based docent tour.

After this, I went down for the count with some serious health issues that took into February before I could even manage to get out of bed and go downstairs. During this time, Chris did an incredible job of keeping the house running with the help of ALL the kids. Lance and Chris took turns getting Amber to riding and the boys to TKD.

Amber and Titus spent the sunny days outside, working on trying to make a creek dam that could handle the water load of the rains, moving all the daffodils into the backyard to concentrate their beauty and creating a fire pit for the back yard with old bricks we had laying around.