Sunday after church Christopher and Kelly went to Trevin's birthday party (one of the kids Christopher has played soccer with the last year). Besides the usual bouncy house, cake and festivities, they had Mr. Valentine and his traveling zoo. Mr. & Mrs. Valentine have a collection of dozens of live exotic animals (reptiles, amphibians, centipedes and mammals) which he encourages, nay, requires, every child to "have and to hold". While most of the kids were quite excited by this prospect, Kelly was, shall we say, reticent to the point of tears (for a short time). However, he worked very kindly with her, and she ended up petting a wallaby, and holding a hedgehog and a 2 ft white lizard (not at the same time!), with smiles all around! Christopher petted most everything, and held a foot long centipede and a 2 1/2 ft quite active snake that made a couple trips around his neck! I ended up holding most all of those when the kids were ready to move on to their next beastie. Mr. Valentine does a great job encouraging everyone to not be afraid of the animals, and (by his own admission) is more successful with the kids than the adults.
No pictures - forgot the camera - but if I get some from Trevin's family I'll post them later.
A couple shots around this house, which has been decorated since Thanksgiving. The kids (and mom) put together the gingerbread house, Christopher arranged the snowmen, Stacey did the wreathing all by hand, and Costco provided the manger scene a couple years ago for us. A wonderful season for family to have fun and remember our Savior.
Sunday after church Christopher and Kelly went to Trevin's birthday party (one of the kids Christopher has played soccer with the last year). Besides the usual bouncy house, cake and festivities, they had Mr. Valentine and his traveling zoo. Mr. & Mrs. Valentine have a collection of dozens of live exotic animals (reptiles, amphibians, centipedes and mammals) which he encourages, nay, requires, every child to "have and to hold". While most of the kids were quite excited by this prospect, Kelly was, shall we say, reticent to the point of tears (for a short time). However, he worked very kindly with her, and she ended up petting a wallaby, and holding a hedgehog and a 2 ft white lizard (not at the same time!), with smiles all around! Christopher petted most everything, and held a foot long centipede and a 2 1/2 ft quite active snake that made a couple trips around his neck! I ended up holding most all of those when the kids were ready to move on to their next beastie. Mr. Valentine does a great job encouraging everyone to not be afraid of the animals, and (by his own admission) is more successful with the kids than the adults.
Well, the Change for Change Holiday Basket Program went extremely well - the school collected over $1300 and over 30 boxes full of toys, games and stuffed animals to be given to those who cannot otherwise afford it. 
