The Food
We’ve crammed a lot in the past two weeks, including baking and delivering all of these goodies to our friends and neighbors (offerings included Christmas French vanilla cake pops, caramel toffee squares, Almond Rocha and whipped shortbread).
We’ve done this for several years now and when my neighbor Monica opened the door, she exclaimed, “I really like this Johnson family tradition!)
She’s not the only one (7,000 calories later).
The Nice Hadley
Hadley has been participating in her class choir after school to perform Christmas carols at a local retirement home. She had a lot of fun singing, dancing and kickin’ it with the boys (see bottom right corner).
But what I was most proud of her for was the way she worked the room afterward, meeting and delighting the seniors. The girl knows how to work it when she wants to.
I had a memorable chat with a sharp-as-a-whip, respectful, funny 95-year-old man, Cliff. He was a college professor for a number of years and has been a guest columnist for the Denver Post this past year. We made a great connection and Bode and I plan to start visiting him regularly to play board games (Bode is obsessed).
With board games, not Cliff. But guaranteed, Cliff isn’t going to be the kind of guy to let him win.
The Bad Hadley
Hadley and Bode get along really well most of the time. Except for when they don’t. They both value their personal space so last week, each of them wrote messages on the white boards in their rooms, banning the other from entering.
Bode’s said something along the lines of “No Hadley.”
Keep in mind the kindergartner’s writing abilities are a bit limited.
Hadley, on the other hand, wrote a soliloquy about why Bode should not enter her room. Ever the artist, she also illustrated it.
Me: “Is that a picture of you KICKING BODE?!!!”
Her: “Yes, I’m kicking him out of my room.”
Me: “Maybe that’s not very nice.”
But I didn’t interfere. A couple of days later, she erased the picture on her own and I praised her for it.
Me: “I’m proud that you removed that picture. It’s not nice to even joke about things like that.”
Her: “But I wasn’t joking.”
Jury is still out if she made Santa’s “nice” list this year.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 