Christmas, Sneakers, Doll Pampering and Vampires

 It's gray and chilly, there's Christmas music playing and we've got the Christmas decorations out to start decorating the house for Christmas. It feels like a perfect day. We've been taking it easy after a whirlwind weekend. There was the usual weekend busyness and then, on top of that, each of the kids had a special event all crammed into 3 fun, but very busy days. It was exhausting, but worth it.

It started with a fun trip to the Children's museum on Friday night.

 The special exhibit was The Wizard of Oz

 Xury loves it now that she's big enough to run around with all the other kids.

 Da-da da-da da-da da. Da-da da-da da-da da.

 While Dominick and Aravis did crafts, Xury and I hung out with the teddy bears.

On Saturday, Dominick and Aravis both had soccer games at the same time. Luckily the fields were next to each other so we could stand in the middle and mostly watch them both. After soccer, I did some laundry and house cleaning, while Aravis played with friends and Dominick went to a Dunk Exchange, a huge event to buy, sell and swap sneakers. He's recently developed a shoe obsession. My initial reaction was negative. I don't see the point in spending ridiculous amounts of money on shoes and bags and designer labels, especially not the latest in basketball footwear but I tried not to pass judgement on something that was clearly important to him. I was, however, honest when he asked my opinion about a particular pair or price. No, I would not spend MY money on those but if he thought it was a good idea and if he thought it was a good deal, then it was up to him. My plan was to ride it out, thinking it would die a natural death eventually, and glad to know he would be learning something along the way. Little did I know, how much.  

Apparently there's a whole, huge world of sneaker collecting and trading I knew nothing about. Some sneakers go up in value after you've paid (the unbelievably, ridiculously high) price at the store. Some shoes from years ago are still in circulation because they've been kept in such great condition. He's learned the names and styles and editions of countless pairs of basketball shoes. He's spent hours on the computer looking at pictures of sneakers. The pay off? Well, beside the knowledge itself, he's developing a good head for business. He bought a pair of sneakers from our neighbor for $35. On Saturday, he traded those shoes for another pair that he liked that were in really good condition. Today, he sold that pair for $150 on Ebay. Not bad! Of course, he's already planning which shoes he'll buy with the $150. Maybe he'll get tired of shoes. Maybe it will turn into a good way to make some money. Maybe he'll amass a huge sneaker collection. Maybe he'll grow up to design shoes. Who knows. I'm just glad I didn't stifle an interest because I didn't think that it was very worthwhile.

In the evening, we popped some popcorn, packed up the car and headed to the drive-in to see Wreck It Ralph and Breaking Dawn Part 2 because that's just the stage of life we're in right now. Tanner read the books when she was younger and has seen the other movies so she really wanted to see this when it came out. I'll admit, I even enjoyed this one a little.

 Xury wanted to sit up in the back of the van with the big girls.

Then on Sunday, after church, it was Aravis's turn for something special. I've always wanted to take my girls to an American Girl Place but never had the opportunity. Recently, one just opened not too far from where we live. I saw on their calendar that they were having some fun events on Sunday so we decided that was a good time to go. (Yes, I know I'm a hypocrite for thinking that overpriced basketball shoes are ridiculous but that overpriced dolls are not) Tanner still has her doll from childhood and while she never got to experience American Girl Place while she was young enough to appreciate it, she still had a lot of fun going.

 She got her doll's hair done and ears pierced at the doll salon. We paid for the hair, she paid for the ears.(I know, hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite!)

 They had a historical doll scavenger hunt and she did this fun embroidery craft.

 She's looked through the catalog a million times and thought how fun it would be to get to do this. I'm so glad we finally had the chance.

 It was a great afternoon with my girls.

Now, the house is quiet because Greg took the big kids mountain biking. The Christmas music is still playing, the sun's gone down and a strand of Christmas lights are sparkling in the darkness and I'm holding a peacefully sleeping baby in my arms. It has been a pretty perfect day.