Well it was Christmas Eve, and that meant the Advents we had been working on all month were finally done. We did the last few missed days together that morning. I have LOVED these lego advent calendars. I hope they have new ones next year.

We went over to Grandma’s house and made little Christmas cards with the cousins for a project I will talk about later, then we went out adventuring in Yuma a little. We need to get supplies at the store and it was getting time for lunch, so we needed to get some Mexican food.

We had seen this place the other day while driving home, and you know I needed to check that out!

20 tacos for 20 bucks, yeah, that was happening.

Malia was of course down to clown, and was along for this taco adventure. They were 20 carne asada tacos, don’t mind it I do! They also came with all the Salsa this caddy could hold. YUP.

We were thirsty, so we went back to El Beun Taqitos to get some of that sweet sweet horchata. And while we were there…

You know I had to get me some fires and a tostada!

 

The night before this was the night of the big DRAMA with Grandma and the kids. Apparently earlier in the day a sun baked toy basketball hoop had been broken, and in an effort to make the best of a broken toy Ethan and Sawyer had found some tools in the garage and tried to nail the broken hoop to the playhouse. Grandma was upset that they had gotten tools out without permission, and when confronted they got nervous and clammed up about what was going on. UNDERSTANDABLY. ALL the kids had ALSO been picking grapefruits off of her tree out back, and the yard was a total mess. She was also upset about the loss of good fruit. THEN while we adults we not paying attention, other dramas were occuring and Grandma was the only one intervening. It all came to a head when she a one of the kids got into a huge confrontation and she yelled at them very loudly in front of everyone. Everyone was upset, not the least of all poor Grandma.

That night a plan was put in place to try to make things right for Grandma.

All the kids at our Airbnb had a stern talking to. What could be do to make things better? Let’s clean up the back yard, pick up all the fruits. Grandma had mentioned that she was thinking of giving them away to her neighbors. So we got bags at the store to put them in, so she could do just that.

All the kids and grown ups were involved in making cards to put in the bags, picking fruit from the trees, and getting the bags all ready.

We put the Christmas cards the kids had made in the bags, tied them up, and put a curled ribbon on each one.

Uncle Sean was really great with the kids. He and Aubrey were our super pickers. Aunt Landy was really great too. She and Ethan were in the big field behind the house getting all the fruit that had flown over the fence cleaned up.

Sawyer looking SO cute.

I think the gesture made Grandma feel better, and I think the project was a good grounding experience for the kids. Tensions can get high when family is together. But saying sorry and serving those we love can make things feel a lot better.