Family Updates

We are all doing okay, Sirah has the flu and the other two have colds so that has been keeping us busy. She pretty much needs to be held 24/7 including while sleeping. Which gets a bit tiresome as you can imagine. I can type while I hold her or you would not be getting this update!

The kids are enjoying their many Christmas gifts and I finally downloaded some of our pictures. I realized I had not written about our visit to a local nursing home. The kids went to a small nursing home last week, there were 9 residents all women all in their late 80's and 90's. They sang Jingle Bells, Rudolf, Frosty and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Then they made a craft for each resident - a snowman ornament. Then they shared snacks with the residents of rice krispy treats and juice. Ciaran did a good job talking with his resident, a nice woman in her 90's very hard of hearing but he was good about it. He was a little intimidated when we first got there but then enjoyed himself. Rhiannon really made a connection with a woman in her 80's and asked to go back and visit her. We took some pictures togther and assured her we would come back to visit after the holidays and when all the kids were healthy. On the way home we talked about how nice it is to talk to people of all different ages and Rhiannon showed some maturity in this area and told me why it was important to be friends with people of all ages.

One of the hardest things about being away from family is the kids do not experience this intergenerational closeness on a daily basis. We may start going more regularly if the kids continue to do well and enjoy themselves. I wish we could be closer to the children's great grandparents, they still have 5 out of 8 alive.

We are working on thank you cards as part of schoolwork, reading some of our new books, practicing handwriting and working on a horse unit study. We are recovering from the holidays, from being sick and from the cold. We hope to get outside sometime this week when the temperature gets warmer, atleast we are in double digits now.

Peace,
Tenn