This being Claire’s first Christmas in elementary school,  she is enjoying her first extended break in a long time.  Molly’s pre-school is only closed for a couple of days for the holidays, but Claire has about two weeks off.  Here are some of the ways that Claire has kept herself busy while off of school…

She spent the first couple of days in Corpus Christi with he Grammy and Grandaddy.  Claire was very excited to take the trip down there without the me and Kit (Grammy and Grandaddy picked her up in Austin and drove her down there).  Not having been there for the visit, I can’t say much about it, but Claire appears to have had a very good time baking, playing, reading, and entertaining guests.  I think Claire did not want to come back home, and when Grammy returned home after Christmas, she said she really felt like something was missing (Claire).  It was odd having Molly to ourselves without Claire at home.  It was quiet around the house, and it reminded us of the old days when Claire was a toddler before we had Molly.

Heading out to Corpus

Claire spent the next week here at home with a sitter.  Claire and Cassie got along well, although Cassie seemed quiet and only spoke about three words the whole week (yes, I am exaggerating, but not by much).  Claire and Cassie spent the mornings working on art projects, including making necklaces and bracelets from some bead sets she had received for her birthday back in November.  The two were as quiet as a mouse downstairs while I worked in my office upstairs.  They never so much as turned on the TV.

Every afternoon at 1:00, Claire had a one-on-one swimming lesson.  Claire had just started to really swim at the very end of the summer this year, and then all the pubic pools shut down for the summer (while it was still over 100 degrees outside).  This week was a chance to keep Claire a little bit practiced on swimming without waiting until next summer.  Claire ended the week swimming way better than she ever has before, swimming 15 feet out and 15 back by herself.  Claire also practiced “falling” (jumping) into the pool and getting herself safely to shore as well as diving under water to pick up rings from the bottom of the pool.  It was amazing what five half-hour lessons with Hannah Jo did for Claire’s swimming skills (and confidence).  As a side note, once or twice, I took Claire out for lunch at Taco Cabana before swimming, and she learned to love flautas after I convinced her to just try one.

Swim lessons

After swimming, Cassie normally took Claire to Pease Park for a couple of hours.  I would drop them off, and they would walk back home.  Claire apparently made different friends with each trip to the park and invented some pretty crazy games. The weather was absolutely perfect every day this week, right around 70 degrees and sunny.  There was no sun screen, bug spray, or heart exhaustion to worry about when venturing to the park.  You could just stay out there all day and never break a sweat or get a chill.  After getting back from the park, Claire was pretty wiped out and would sit in her bedroom with Cassie and read books for an hour or so before Cassie took off.

It almost sounds like a perfect day to me… swimming, the park, Mexican food, hanging out.  I would personally trade the arts and crafts for some computer games (Battlefield 3, anyone?), but I would even make necklaces if that were a required part of the package.  We wanted to get Claire some rest for her holiday break, but we might be wearing her out with all this fun!