Child's Play? & Special Delivery

When I worked part time, and we lived in Graham I had lots of time to play with Elena. Victor did not play yet then, exactly. Of course he played in the baby way, but not --pretend etc. The other night it was almost bed time and we had a spur of the moment play session. Now, my favorite thing to play is little people. I have projected this onto my children by buying them little people stuff. I was amazed that sometime b/t last summer and me working my a** off all this school year Victor has learned how to play! :) He loves little people. The other night we played with the animals and the barn and the house and after a while they had to all go to bed--it was so absolutely cute and precious to me! sigh...
Then we got out the flashlight and cut off the light so that we could see them all sleeping in the barn.
The part Victor set up all on his own was the picnic. He set up the table and put all the people in chairs and even made sound effects!
Here are some pictures of a little people set up. Now, this is not the original. This one is from when Victor and I played yesterday.



Re: the special delivery
Each year my family and Isabel and Maria in Spain-the Lanzas family--exchange presents.
It is fun! This has mostly been upheld b/c of my mama who is incredibly thoughtful and sentimental. Over time, though, we have all gotten so excited about it! :)
We put a lot of thought into what we can send to one another that is 1. small 2. from NC or from sevilla, respectively and 3. would be yummy or useful.
This year the box arrived on Friday--So today we went over to my Mama's and enjoyed opening packages from spain, and reading the great letters that Maria writes.
my children got great books and candy that they love and they each got a cute bag (kids love bags...)
I got a license plate--hee hee gracias Isabel! :) no sabia que lo ibas a poder encontrar..
Y una bolsa que me gusta un monton--que bien guay, Isabel, otro great pick! :)
Here are some pictures of that.
Oh y una de las fotos es de marzapan. They sent us candy y uno de los turrones se devorro en, vamos, cinco minutitos??
One of the things they always send is turrones--turron (A giant candy bar) These are in all the stores there at Christmas time.
Chocolate and almonds--que yummy!
I am not talking one almond every two bites either--i mean medio almonds medio chocolate.

Pics:





The letter this year included somber news about how crappy things are in Spain right now.
Things are expensive, and there are no jobs!
...To which my dad responded, "And it is going to be that way here, soon."
I believe him.

Okay, I am off to drink tons of water, and play with kiddies, also George Stepha..whatever is doing a year in review, and I love him..so bye