A Very Twirley Christmas

Every family has their own Christmas tradition. For example, there’s the Festivus celebration, in which George Costanza’s family initiates “the airing of grievances.” But since the “airing of grievances” is a daily, if not hourly ritual at the Twirley household, we decided to start a few Holiday traditions of our own.


Matching red shirts

There’s no color more festive than red and nothing cornier than the entire family wearing the same colored shirts. Festive and corny, that’s how we roll in the Twirley household. Next year we’ll have to bring the corny meter up a few notches by wearing matching red reindeer sweaters.

Gingerbread assembly kit

I’ve been buying the gingerbread assembly kits since EB’s third Christmas, and it has become quite the fun experience for both of us. In fact we had so much fun with it last year that I bought a gingerbread train kit right after the holidays (read: big post-Christmas discount), with the intention of putting it together on New Year’s Day. If you recall though, that was the day that EB gave us a big scare with her concussion, so it stayed in the back of the cupboard until this year. Let me tell you, gingerbread kits do not have a long shelf life. This thing smelled terrible – like a cross between Play Doh and….well, a year-old ginger bread. EB took a whiff of it and immediately declared it too yucky for consumption. This suited me just fine since I’ve always had a problem with the idea of consuming something that’s been kneaded and handled by sweaty, dirty hands. To me, these kits are for show, not for eating. So if you ever get an already-assembled gingerbread house from us for Christmas, it probably means that we don’t like you very much.

Hiking

This is the time of the year when I really love living in Arkansas. Just a few short months ago, I was dying from the heat of a thousand suns. But what a weather we had today -- sunny and in the high 50s. One would’ve never guessed that it was Christmas, which would’ve turn off some white Christmas fanatics but suited me just fine. We went out to the Pinnacle Mountain for a family hike and enjoyed the fresh air and some physical activity. B-Boy was strapped into Baby Bjorn and was asleep for most of the hike. He woke up every now and then and looked around all confused, his little brows arched and furrowed. He would look up at me, as if thinking: “Where the hell am I? And who the heck are you? And when are you crazy people going to return me to my cozy little capsule?”

A big ol' Merry Christmas, y'all!