A Thompson Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a "Thompson year" meaning my side of the family gets first dibs on get together. Both Ryan and my family is in the area. Thompson Christmas's always entail a "gingerbread compitition." Past compititions were

Gingerbread bridges - the bridge who could hold the most weight before breaking won

Gingerbread towers - the tallest one won

Gingerbread catapolts - farthest throw won

Gingerbread race cars - fastest won

ect.

There are always a bunch of rules typed out a month or so before but the number one rule is and always have been, everything you use has to be edible. EVERYTHING. No glue, tape or anything else. If there is any question you have to eat it on the spot.

This year we did an egg drop. We made contraptions or protection covering for our egg and then dropped them at varying heights. The one that could be dropped at 16 feet (our tallest rung on the ladder) and the lightest contraption won. This was a great competition because in years past we have had time issues where now that we have little kids it is hard to find time to design and engineer and build your gingerbread entry which you usually had to leave a day or more to fully dry or cure for full function. For this competition we made our egg protectors right then and there and for the first year no one used gingerbread. Most the grandkids could make these too and so it was fun for all.

Here we are putting them together. We all brought a bunch of ingredient and it was a free for all. I had several nieces and nephew defect to my team. This is not because I am the best at these competitions. Actually contrary to what some of you are thinking I bring very little competitions to the table. Even though I am somewhat handy and build thing and am somewhat mechanically minded, I don't compare at all to more then half of my siblings. Those are not my talents in this family. As a nurse I can't compare to the mechanical engineers and computer geniuses that litter my family. Family members have been known to draw up plans in Cad for these things. Luckily everyone having kids has muted the playing field a little.

Most the entries. Marshmallows were really handy to have. Just sticking a bunch of marshmallows all over your egg and using a bit of fruit by the foot or won ton wrappers could get you to the 16 foot level......of course it wasn't the lightest.

You can't help but love the designs.

One of my many entries. This one was in Soren's name. What I lack in engineering I made up in sheer quantity. Lets face it, the funnest part of the whole event is dropping eggs from 16 feet up in the air and I got to do this a lot. This is an orange who's center is scooped out and the egg is placed inside with a marshmallow cork and some fruit by the foot tape to keep it all together. It survived it's first fall in which the orange partially split ruining the integrity of design. This wasn't our best one but the best picture. Soren took it well.
Everyone loved watching the eggs drop........except we did have a few nephews who got upset when their eggs broke. Not my boys. They were like, "awesome, destruction!" I had to grab a few eggs from their hands to prevent an "egg fight". Known potentials
I didn't get a pic of the winning design. It was by my brother Shem and it was truly awesome. He made a mold out of cardboard that had a cone with an inverted umbrella on it. Then he covered it with soft rice paper and let it dry. He put the egg inside with no padding. The thing gently floated down and the cone protected when it hit the floor. It was awesome. Upon impaction it broke part of the umbrella part making it lighter. So he re-weighed it and sent it down again. It survived 3 falls and came in at just over 3 oz of weight. His other design was also cool, sucessful but a bit heavier. It was a part of a baguet with the bread scrapped out and the egg placed. Then attached 2 semi circles of rice paper around the bread top at angles. The contraption twirled as it fell. Really cool to watch. My brother Corom made this awesome trophy that we will pass down every 2 years when we have the competition. My Dad was the one who started all of this and he would have really loved this year.

The real Santa

Soren's school had a little christmas craft night and Santa was there. He completly looked the part and was quite jolly. He tolerated all of Soren's touching and all of Xander's questions. I think he just might be the real thing.

Xander has been asking a lot of follow up questions about Santa Clause. Questions like, How is he going to go down our chimney? Where is our chimney? But there is glass blocking our fire place (it is a gas fireplace). Do the reindeers really fly? How does he get to all the kids in the whole wide world? This is my 3 year old. Soren has asked no such questions. I love Soren's blind belief in everything I say. Xander on the other hand argues about everything. I thought he just likes to be contrary but here is proof that he thinks through some things. The last question blew me away. I thought I would face this much later. Xander asked, "Mom, is Santa real?" Quinae, "Uh, Uh, why do you ask? Where did you hear that?" I don't care to lie to the boy but really I have to field that question now? Xander, "Nowhere. I just want to know." Luckily I was able to side step the question with, "So, what do you want for lunch?" Next year I may not be so lucky.

May I have this dance?

I don't know if I have already told you, but Soren has a thing for the ladies. He just likes them. Every day he is debating which one he should mary. It is pretty funny and a little concerning. Anyway, last night at our church Christmas party we had this great Christ centered program with lots of musical numbers. Most the kids started out sitting on the floor in the front watching, but by then end most of them are on the edges of the gym or running circles around the building. Too many brownies I suppose. Well, I was standing on the edges trying to keep the reverence and not start a full on revolt when Soren came up to me and verbatim said,

"Mom, how do you ask a lady to dance?"

Too curious to derail his plan and encourage him to watch the program I simply replied, "You say, May I have this dance?"

He then excitedly said, "Great! Thanks!" and dashed off.

Hmmmm, this boy is on a mission that I must watch. One of his favorite lady friends is his 5 year old neighbor named McKenzie. She is adorable and adventurous and I don't blame him. He dashed off to where she was twirling around to the music.

Soren then said, "McKenzie, may I have this dance?"

McKenzie just kept on twirling.

"I said may I have this dance."

She starts twirling farther away from him.

Not willing to accept defeat he runs after her proclaiming, "Dance with me! Dance with me!"

By this time it is not only quite evident he needed some additional pointers but he was also quite loud and beginning to disturb the program. I get McKenzies attention and ask if she wants me to show them how to dance together. She happily obliges which I was relieved and not sure she was going to do. I put them in ballroom dance position and tell them to twirl. It was soo cute and I was lucky enough to have my camera on me.

Here Soren is running after McKenzie asking her to dance while she is twirling.

Look at how happy he is. They were both giggling and really loving it.

Soooo cute

A blast from the past

This suit was Ryan's when he was little. Xader wore it to church last Sunday. Soooo cute!

Here is Soren in the same suit when he was 3.

This suit was Ryan's when he was little. Xader wore it to church last Sunday. Soooo cute!

Holiday fun

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We kicked off the day going to Regional Hospital - the hospital where Ryan and I work. We take care long term ventilator patients - people who can't get off the breathing machine. Regional specializes in getting them off but as you could expect this is the end of the line for these people, so if they can't get off here they are ventilator dependent for the rest of their lives. Some of these patients are neurologically totally with it but can't talk due to the breathing machine and have been there for months. Ryan and I have been taking turns caring for these certain 4 patients. All of them are completely with it. One of the ladies have been there since July and had failed for a second time getting her trach removed. She was crushed and has been struggling. So I thought we could bring our boys in and make their day. Having a couple work as nurses at the same place is somewhat of a rarity, so to get to meet the whole family was really fun for them. We had to gown up in every room as by the time you have been in the hospital this long most people have resistant bacteria - if they didn't come in with it. The boys were great. Soren is so sweet to sick people. Xander of course was asking a million questions. "Why can't they talk?" "What is that bag?" "Why is it yellow?" ect. By the time we left he would meet some of the staff and ask. "Mom, why do they talk like us?" - like he forgot that most people can actually talk. We then went to a 3$ movie theater for the first time with our whole family and saw toy story 3. Xander had never been to a theater and he did awesome. Lastly we hit Ryan's parents house for the traditional part of Thanksgiving. Earlier in the week of course we got to play in the snow. We went to a local park and went sledding. Even though the grass is showing the sledding went great. They boys would trudge up the hill and sled down it all by themselves! It was awesome. I would wait for them at the bottom because there is a fence right at the end and I would slow them before they would ram the fence. A good time for all was had.


Our first snowman. It was so cold that our snow was very powdery - odd for here. It took a while to get the snow to compact.
Lastly I finished putting up our Christmas lights. I am so excited. Every year I dream of Christmas lights bu felt a bit intimidated by them. I think it was because I did know how to secure them. All I could think of was nails and I never wanted to put holes in my trim. Well, today I learned of plastic clips, deposited a lot of money and became empowered. Lights are an investment! Gesh - that was half the pain, but now that the check writing is over and I super happy. I have a 5 year plan in adding more lights every year and then by the times Soren is 10 we will have a masterpiece! Until then I thought it was a good beginning.