Christmas with Mimi

December 26, 2008-January 1, 2009---Mimi was able to come in from Denver for the holidays. We picked her up from the Jackson Metro Airport the day after Christmas. The kids were very excited on the ride over.

We were able to find one of the last three parking spots in the parking lot!! And it was on the back forty of the airport campus. Seriously!! We were on the last row facing the entrance to the airport. There were several vehicles that had nowhere to park. We got to the baggage claim area about five minutes before Mimi's plane landed. Jackson had fallen asleep in the van and stayed asleep in the stroller. Chloe was happy playing with her new Gabba Gabba figurines and Anna Catherine spent the time listening to Taylor Swift on her new mp3 player. You can see from our clothing, especially Anna Catherine's spaghetti strap dress that it was a warm day--try 78 degrees--in DECEMBER--CRAZY!! Jackson woke up as the baggage conveyor belt started up and I was able to catch the startled look on his face.

Later that evening we exchanged gifts from Mimi, Uncle Cliff, and Miss Amanda.

I'm sure you've noticed Chloe wearing these pajamas in many, many pictures. They are her favorite and she insists on wearing them all the time. She also insists on having a bow in her hair because she thinks they look pretty. I didn't want you to thing I make her wear bows to bed.

On Saturday we took the kids to the Mississippi Natural Science Museum. It was our first visit there and it is a very nice facility. We chose to go now because they had a dinosaur exhibit and you know we have to go to every dino event possible!! The museum had five animatronic dinos, fossils, skeletons, and a pretend fossil dig. This was a traveling exhibit. The museum is located in Jackson in LeFleur's Bluff State Park and has over two miles of outdoor trails through "wooded bluffs, river bottoms, lakes, ans scenic swamplands" allowing you to see Mississippi wildlife in their natural habitats. You are warned to stay on the path and even while on the path you must watch for snakes. The signs said to keep your children with you at all times and not to let them run ahead. I was freaking out every time Anna Catherine and Jackson got a few feet ahead of us. It was another 75 degree day so I knew the critters weren't hibernating. Luckily, we only saw birds while outdoors. Indoors they have permanent exhibits with all displays focused on animals from Mississippi: extinct species, endangered species, waterfowl, aquarium tanks of various live fish, snakes, alligators, and turtles found throughout the state. There were also several taxidermy animals (fox, cougar, bear, birds, etc.).

Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Ichiban. We took Anna Catherine to a Japanese steak house when she was around 18-24 months old and she loved it. We've not taken all three to one until this day. The kids were tired from playing at the museum but they were very well behaved. I was nervous about them sitting only a few feet from a hot flaming grill but there were no casualties--WHEW!! Everyone knows what a picky eater Jackson is. The only thing he would eat on the menu was salad and wanted to eat with chopsticks. Well, believe it or not, he was successful!! Then he insisted that I eat my food with chopsticks. It wasn't that hard...maybe I wasn't using them correctly. I am the most uncoordinated person in the world and I was able to get food into my mouth. Eating with chopsticks can't be that easy!

WOW!!!!

Anna Catherine was very tired but the flames also gave her quite a scare.

That night Rick, Mimi, and the kids got to work on a gingerbread house kit that Mimi had brought. Thanks to Carrie's warning I knew it would take two days to make it. They assembled it Saturday night and put it in the freezer to harden. On Sunday they decorated it and put it back in the freezer to set.

Chloe's contribution was eating the gumdrops.

On Monday Jackson and Anna Catherine took turns hitting it with a kitchen mallet until they broke it into pieces.

On Tuesday we went to the Davis Planetarium to see the "Dinosaurs Alive!" movie. It was odd watching a 50 minute documentary on the ceiling. I got quite dizzy because parts of it seemed 3D (similar to an IMAX). At one point Jackson was holding onto my arm asking me not to let the dinosaurs eat him. He like the dino action scenes but didn't care for the paleontology parts explaining how they discovered different artifacts. The kids liked the different astrological displays in the lobby of the planetarium. I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out. I do have two of the orbit demonstrator where you can put coins in and watch them circle the orbits. AC and Jackson were too impatient to watch the coins rotate and essentially threw their coins into the black hole.