Fast away the old year passes ...

The last hours of 2019:  Brendan brought over a special gift he received from his godparents. It is a HUGE pop-up book of the Harry Potter series, and it's pretty amazing. Brendan loves it. He couldn't wait to show me all the cool pop-up features. The entire book UNFOLDS into a map of Harry's world.

 Brendan knew every little detail and was careful to point out each and every one of them to me!

 Isn't this so cool?

 I loved listening to him tell me about all of the different movies and books he has seen or had read to him so far. I am pretty sure that Dylan has read the first three books to Brendan, and that they've seen the first three movies. I have only read the very first book. It's a good read, for sure--I'm just hesitant about all of the wizardry and witch stuff that seems SO admired in the books. Something just doesn't sit right with me about it--but I don't think there is any real harm in it for little kids.

 Brendan also brought over an interesting game called "Metro." We TIED in our first game. We each had 69 points. I'm so glad Brendan enjoys playing games. His folks are enthusiastic game players too--something they enjoy as a family.

 Matey kept interrupting and downright sabotaging the entire board. We finally had to shut him up in his cage while we played.

 Silly Matey!

 We spent a very long time doing Origami and even making Origami snowflakes. One thing that really stands out about Brendan is his PATIENCE and PERSEVERANCE. He is completely undaunted when something doesn't turn out "right" and simply puts the failed project to the side and starts over! That's a very good trait to have, Brendan.

I was really unsure if Brendan would appreciate playing my Fousball game. I was SUPER GLAD to see how much he enjoyed it. We had such fun banging that ball around and we spent a lot of time cracking each other up.

Brendan had an entire agenda for our New Year's Eve. He told me that "near the end" we would watch the COUNTDOWN on Netflix. I wasn't sure what he meant, but assumed that it was the REAL deal at Time's Square in New York, etc., so I figured he was determined to stay up until midnight. At about 11:15 when I could hardly see straight, Brendan asked me if we could get on Netflix to see the countdown and I figured we could perhaps get an early view of what was going on down there. You see, I don't have a television, and thought maybe Netflix was just being nice and broadcasting stuff LIVE. It turns out that all we had to do was to go to the KIDS part and click on any number of cartoon countdowns that were each about three minutes long! I could have done that at 9:00 for goodness sake! No harm. We popped popcorn and watched "Heidi" while we were waiting for the night to pass. Dear Brendan cried during parts of the movie because he was so sad for the Grandfather and Heidi. I love this about you, Brendan. You have such a tender and dear heart.

HAPPY 2020!

A snowy New Year's Eve

I drove over to Fallasburg Park early this afternoon, before picking up Brendan ... 

We had a fresh 4" snowfall overnight and I certainly didn't want to miss out on the pristine beauty of such an event. Who knows when I will have the next opportunity to try to photograph such loveliness? I think the picure above is definitely Christmas Card material for some future year!

 I took an excessive amount of pictures of the Fallasburg Bridge ... but it is so beautiful! This location is a mere 20 minutes from my little house. I live in a very beauty-accessible place on the planet. I'm so thankful.

Brendan was sitting on my lap in front of my computer as I edited these shots. He LOVES watching the changes my photo program can make of a bad picture.

 Anyway, lots of these pictures are very repetitious. I at least have enough angles to make a few pretty cards, not just Christmas themed.

 This is the Flat River ...

 The Fallsburg Covered Bridge is super old! I'm pretty sure the sign says it was built in 1837.

I was here for about 45 minutes--thankfully, not many other people were out and about to get in the way of taking a nice photograph. I left the park and drove over to Brendan's house to bring him back with me to spend the night for New Year's Eve ...

These sweet kiddos

Monday, December 30:  Well, here it is ... the eve of New Year's Eve! Since we are all on holiday break during Christmas and New Year's, Brendan has no school all week and so he was invited to come over with Aidan this afternoon. 

 About two weeks ago, Brendan and I were looking at these number transformers and talking about which one to order. You see, there are many number transformer sets, but not all of them can be attached to each other to make a bigger robot or truck--THIS one does. There is, however, one particular problem with this great set--it is SUPER HARD to make it transform! Thankfully, Brendan has a mechanical mind and did a really good job figuring a lot of it out. It took Emma 45 minutes the other night to join the first 5 robots (numbers zero through 4) into a nice-sized robot. We went online and watched a video, which was very helpful. I wasn't any help whatsoever. These are just tough little numbers to maneuver--even Emma said so--and she is VERY mechanically minded. Brendan did like these, but I'm definitely going to have to figure out how to more easily work with them. I think I will take them with me to Detroit when I go there a few weeks from now and let Terry and Ruthanne show me how to make these do what they are intended to do.

 Matey joined us for our lunch and was intent to eat Brendan's Mac 'n Cheese. Brendan was not having any part of it! We did set out a noodle or two on the table for Matey, and he messed around with that for awhile. I finally had to put him back in his cage--he wasn't going to give us any peace while we ate otherwise.

 I'm so glad the grands are enjoying our little bird. They have such delighted little faces when interacting with him. 

 Naturally, we built a "fwack" using all of our tracks today. I'm glad I have enough to make an interesting layout every week. And I have enough floor space so that the kiddos don't have to be right on top of each other while they separately play. This worked out quite well for us today.

 I love this picture of these two sweet boys! Look at their beautiful faces! Notice the two-colored origami airplane Brendan designed! Good job, Brendan!

I love you guys. NEXT week, Brendan will be back in school and it will be my first time having AIDAN & baby ERIN together at my house. Whew. It was nonstop with these two today, but mostly because Brendan is pretty intense with all of his activities. It might not be as difficult next week--no matter, it is what it is! I will endeavor, with God's strength, to be a kind and loving grandma to whichever children God gives to me.