candy cane crash and burn

Its been a week or so since I've updated in my journal entry-like way and its been a holiday-mania of sorts, much of which involves kind-hearted folks pumping my kids full of sugary snacks. Santa even gave away full sized candy bars, cans of coca-cola (Coke, seriously?!) and, of course, candy canes. How exactly are these kids supposed to behave after ingesting all this crap? (And yes, I know its my job to monitor the intake, but 3 parades, 2 visits with santa and several other holiday gatherings with family...I can only do so much here people.) I am beginning to think that Santa is always watching just as a psychological and physiological experiment to study the effects of sugar on these little folks. Last year we called Henry and Wynne the sugar-high, super-fly, candy guys. This year they are truly living up to the name. I only hope to survive to 2010 myself with these two clowns.

Since my last lecture, my parents came to visit us in VanBuren, giving Bryce and me a bit of a break from the munchkins in the evenings so we could enjoy some local culture. Our choices in the culture category are drinking at the bar, drinking at home, or drinking on the river while spotlighting deer. We did have a drink at the bar, but decided to save the cash and go pass out at the cabin under 14 blankets to keep warm.

We spent most of Saturday going to parades - the cowboy christmas parade in VanBuren, then visited Alley Spring and Mill, snooped around Emminence, consumed some fried fare and waited in the cold for the Emminence Christmas Lights Parade. As we waited, we watched the bank sign featuring the temperature drop from 32 down to 29. This parade did not disappoint. Not sure where these folks came from, but I felt like I was transported to the Disney Lights parade in Orlando. Wynne jumped and cheered when he saw the best of all...Santa's sleigh pulled by 8 very cool ( and loud) Harleys (motorcycles, peeps) all lit up and on the back of a tractor trailer with no less than 30,000 lights adorning the float. If the coke from Santa, the huge bag of candy from the parade didn't put him in bliss, that did it. He is still talking about it. Tough to come down from a high like that, for these guys, anyway.

The rest of the week was more of the boring, same old, same old stuff; bald eagles, herons, discovering caves, racing giant icicles down the river, making driftwood boats, fishing hats out of the river, attempting gravity defying bike tricks, gluing parade candy onto the gingerbread house, being crazy. The usual. As the week ended, we sadly realized we have only a few days left here.

Friday, we rode to Doniphan for a visit with Nancy Smith where she spoiled us with a delicious dinner. Nancy and Bryce flew off to a meeting while we settled down to Snow White. The boys were sleeping in no time. When Nancy and Bryce returned, we talked into the wee hours, followed by a morning of croquet fun with a beautiful view of the river.

St. Louis was invaded late Saturday after a disappointing visit to the Dinosaur exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center. If you're thinking of taking the kids to this over priced "dinosaur experience"...put it out of your mind now. Go get a book about dinos at your local bookstore. You'll learn more, and still be able to treat the family to ice cream. The boys liked it, but what do they know?

Zoolights sunday night was delightful with Henry's moping and Wynne's demands that the train re-open for his personal enjoyment. After some hot chocolate, all was well and spirits were lifted. Thanks dad. The fun continued as we drove through the city and even to "candy cane lane" to check out outrageous lights displays. Frosty the snowman seems to be the most popular lawn ornament this year. Wynne was quite fond of any candy cane decoration. Hmmm...a pattern?

While its been lots of fun here, we get to move on to see friends tomorrow in Columbia, so we can't wait.