December 31

New Year's eve morning started off lazy for us  We had stayed up really late the night before, watching the movie Clue.  Both boys made themselves smoothies for lunch.  Jeremy had a little trouble with his:

 (apparently he was shaking it to get it out of the cup!!!)  We went to see The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug right after this mess!  It was NOT my favorite movie.  I have never been to a movie where a theater full of people just groaned at the end.  When we got home, I got out everything for our big fondue night while Tim made a pumpkin pie (for tomorrow's dinner).  The kids had so much fun having fondue and really seemed to get into it, even singing when they lost things in the pot.

After we ate, the kids spent a long time playing minecraft together.  (Minecraft, Zelda Windwaker, Punch Out, and Super Mario U are the big games this break.)  Just a few minutes before midnight, Tim and I finally finished the REALLY hard puzzle Tim got from my mom.  We watched the last 5 minutes of the ball dropping in NYC.  The kids were wound up and loved the party poppers and blowers (though the dogs didn't).

December 30

We wanted one day at home - we have gone somewhere every day of break up to this point.  We made up for it today!  It was a full day of playing puzzle-working and watching TV (We watched the movie _Clue_ before bed).

 

December 29

Sunday morning, we managed to get up and to church almost on time.  After church, we just had a lazy day - watching football, working the puzzle, and hanging out.

Zachary tried to play us some Christmas music.

Dinner was make your own pizzas.

 After dinner, we played Telestrations.  So much fun.  Let's, see who was the weak link in this game?

Mom gets the clue...

And draws the first picture.

Zach correctly guesses banana.

And Jeremy has a little trouble.

(but at least he can draw!)

We also let the kids watch _A Christmas Story_ all the way through for the first time.

December 28

We left the house at 10:45 for a noon Bearcats VS Nebraska game.  When we bought the tickets, it didn't occur to us that the Bearcat's football team would be playing in a bowl game later the same day.  So, no band, second string cheerleaders, and low attendance.  It was still a great time.

Checking out the work being done in the football stadium:

 The Engineering building that was constructed when I was in school:

We went over to the Gaslight District and ate at J Gumbo's, at the former location of Virginia Bakery.  We hadn't planned that, but it was a nice treat.

Jeremy was grouchy:

Some red beans and rice helped a little:

Zach had a buffalo chicken Po Boy.  Yum!

We came home, watched football, worked on a killer puzzle (given to Tim by my mom for Christmas), at leftovers for dinner, played video games, and were generally lazy people.  Perfect!