heartland holidays

We've been hanging out with Yeye and Nainai in Rockford. And, here are a few snapshots of our activities.

Binbin has taken to helping Nainai with baking. He has so far "helped" her with pancakes, rolls, crumpets, and shortbread cookies. Tonight we're going to have pizza for dinner, and Binbin and Nainai are making pizza dough.



All day today (Friday), it's been snowing. In the mid-morning, we put on our boots, snowsuit, gloves, hat, and sunglasses, of course, to go outside to play. We finished one snowman and started another. No paparazzi, please. (Binbin shuts the screen door on Yeye)



Yeye has all kinds of fun stuff in the basement. Some of it is his regular stuff, like this ergometer, which can be transformed into a toy...



Other stuff is meant to be played with, like Yeye's own Lionel train from his boyhood. Binbin has learned how to disconnect and reconnect all the cars.



After opening presents, Binbin lends a hand in a Kline family tradition: burning the wrapping paper in the fireplace. Yeye crumples pieces into balls, and Binbin lobs them into the fireplace. (yes, he'd rather do this than put his pants on)



Binbin made it his job to dole out presents on Christmas morning (and he of course helped everyone open every present). Here, he tosses a present to Baba, who makes a mid-air catch on film.



A "before" picture of the Christmas tree replete with presents, carefully arranged by Yeye after Binbin had gone to bed.



Before Christmas, we played with toys stored in the Klines' basement, and some that we brought from Maine. We used legos to make several robots, whose friendly presence at meals was a welcome encouragement to eat with the family.