For several years now, our whole family hasn’t been able to get together due to someone having to work the next day or someone wasn’t able to get the time off. However, this year everything worked out just right for our adult children and our grandson to come and visit!
Mr. Ethereal and I enjoyed our Christmas day with just us two, but this year I found the perfect gift for him: new cappuchino mugs from William-Sonoma!
When we were up in South Dakota in early December, our son took us our for breakfast and they had these nice, large, white coffee mugs and I was pretty sure WM would have something similar. They did!!! Charles happily made his morning mocha in one of his new mugs (freshly washed, of course). ;)’
Christmas Walkabouts
It was downright chilly on Christmas day and two ducks over at the Duck Pond were huddled down inside the drain, which helped buffet the winds…
On another walk, I saw this beautiful display which I hadn’t shared during the 12 Days series, and I thought you’d enjoy!
Our side fence with its wreath and Miranda Lambert rose, plus a few stepping stones I brought home this summer to try… A pathway project for this winter and springtime. 😉
Fishing adventures
We drove over to South Lakes Park and fished one of the two lakes there. I am still learning how to fish, but I ended up hooking this guy after Peter angled a faux rat through the waters. We think the fish was attracted by the rat then I got lucky!
The parks around here are all catch-and-release. One has to go over to a state park to angle for fish to eat. We were happy to let him enjoy the rest of this beautiful day as he swam away!
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Opening a few presents
He had already had his main presents from us when we visited them in South Dakota in late November/early December, and we had a couple of days before our daughter would drive up from her apartment in Austin, Texas. So, we let our grandson open one present.
This bag had just some little Happy Meal toys I had been saving. I thought he might like to bring them to school for his teacher to use as rewards but someone had another idea. 😉 We were happy that he was able to come down for a week to stay with us!
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Making a special fort
Mr. Ethereal left a huge pile of oak leaves out front for Milo to play in while he was here. Peter mmediately thought of making a fort! They also gathered pin oak acorns to use as ammunition to defend it.
Red berries off another smaller tree were saved for pretend food. I had fun watching them play and helped rake over a few more leaves for the pile. Mr. Ethereal had to work, though, the week after Christmas so we were on our own during the days.
Peter trimmed some tree limbs away from the roof for us while he was here, which was a really big help! Between Charles and Peter, can you tell they have no fear of heights and were pole vaulters?
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The Perot Museum
Once we arrived at the Perot Museum, when it was our turn to enter the museum we went to the bug exhibit first.
Sorry, the apatosaurus was just too big for me to get in this photograph! I tried several angles to get capture his head and tail together without any luck… This is my Night at the Museum photograph. Great movie, btw!
The bugs were okay, but this is my jam!! I love bones and in another life I could have been a paleontologist. 😀 Even though I didn’t finish my degree, I studied sports medicine and loved learning about the body in Advanced Anatomy and Physiology.
Finally got the angle I was looking for!
In middle school, in our Biology class we had an actual skeleton and not a resin copy. Nobody would touch it but I did. I shook hands with it, which freaked out some of the other students. The skeleton had come from South America. In high school, I took Agricultural science and enjoyed learning about crops and animals. I was involved with 4-H and FFA showing my nubian goats.
A graduate student was slowly cutting away ancient mud from one skeleton. Fascinating! The blue image was shot off the close-up camera’s screen following her Dremel-type tool as it cut away little bits of fossilized stone.
My daughter was always into rocks, so we really enjoyed the next exhibit which were the gems and fossils…
The lighting was superb on these crystalline structures! I am really proud of this photograph and for my now-antiquated iPhone 12 Pro’s ability to capture it. I think it turned out pretty well.
Sioux Falls has a natural museum downtown, and our grandson has visited its interactive exhibits quite a number of times. He really enjoyed exploring all of these new-to-him features at the Perot!
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From our family to yours…
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas season as we did! Grammy and Grampa are very happy and blessed campers…
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May God bless you and keep you safe, healthy and happy in this New Year 2026,
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This post just makes me smile. Big! How fun to be with the whole team — and multiple generations too. I’m sure everyone had a wonderful time. Just looking at your activities I know I would have. This is one to remember!
Thanks, Jeanie! We had a good time and can’t wait to see them all again.
What a special holiday you had with family! It’s always such a blessing when you can all be together! The Perot museum looks like such a fun place to explore and it looks like you and M were both enjoying fishing! Thanks for shairng so many highlights!