2021-2022 Christmas Trip to OKC Part 2

Robin and Jeremy have a big clock hanging on the wall of their front porch that counts down the days to Christmas. Frank and I set it to start counting the days of the new year. We would be starting our 2022 in Oklahoma.

Saturday, January 1st
There had not been a lot of late night partying, so we were refreshed for some household projects on New Year's Day, mostly centered around Robin's sewing room. First was the removal of a credenza Robin no longer wanted in there. It was too deep and closed in. She wanted something open and shallower to display her quilts. Frank and Jeremy grunted and nudged it out and down the stairs into the garage.

Then they mounted a TV in the space above where it had been. Call it multi-purposing, or alleviation of guilt at having a place only to herself, but Robin's vision was that the kids could watch in there with the French doors closed while the larger, major TV in the living room could be used for other things. She had ordered a 42" wide tufted armchair to place in front of the screen for Autumn and Isaiah to sit in side by side to watch TV. She picked a burgundy velvet as a feminine touch to the room saying she absolutely loved the chair and Jeremy would frown upon something so girly anywhere else in the house. The irony of the picture on the TV screen next to the chair photo has not escaped me.

Robin was fretting because the console table she had ordered from Wayfair to place under the TV was listed as having been delivered – which it had not been. Wayfair's help line assured customers that items stated as having been delivered could show up four to five day later! So what does "delivered" actually mean? Wayfair's customer service sure could use improvement.

That evening, Jeremy and Robin had a date night and the kids would be sleeping over with Frank and me at Anna's place. Anna has second bedroom and the closet in it is well stocked with kid toys and games. We drove over from Robin's shortly after 6:00 pm. It was bitter cold and had snowed. The weather screen shots of my iPhone attested to a a temperature of 14°F that felt like -4°F. Five hours later into the evening it had dropped to 12°F with a windchill of -6°F.

Jeremy and Robin arrived at Anna's shortly after us. The plan was for them to pick up a Hot-N-Ready pizza from Lil Caesar's a few blocks away and drop it off with the kids for our dinner. We joked that upon arrival it was far from hot and ready. It was nearly frozen and we had to heat it up.

While Jeremy and Robin went off for their dinner date, we played games with Autumn and Isaiah. First up was Go Fish. Amongst all their games I was amazed to learn they had not been introduced to Go Fish, a classic in my opinion. It was a nice switch to be able to teach them a game for once instead of vice versa where they taught us. They picked it up really fast and we played a few rounds before moving on.

Then we played Dinosaur Escape. Autumn must have noticed me wince a bit at learning yet a new game so she patiently explained to me. "First off, Grandma, Dinosaur Escape has a really simple concept. The game is cooperative and not competitive." Good introduction I thought, stating the most important ideas first, before the details. Players work together to rescue dinosaur friends hiding among the ferns before the volcano erupts or the Tyrannosaurus Rex appears. It is a game that requires luck in tossing a die, and memory in flipping over tokens and remembering where they are – and boy, are the kids good at both!

Then they brought out a game called Chomp'n Dog. Autumn again encouraged Frank and me. "Even Wyatt can play this game, she assured us." Wyatt is their three year old cousin. Read between the lines. Even Grandpa and I could learn it! By opening his jaw wide, the dog is set up and spring loaded in some way. Players take turns pressing down one tooth at a time. Press the "bad tooth" and the dog's jaws clamp down on the finger of the unlucky player. The result is a mini-ouch accompanied with squeals of joy!

The final game we played with the kids on Saturday night was a raucous, scrambling, non-strategic, far-cry-from logic-driven game called Catch the Fox. The object is to save your flock of chickens from the fox and put them safely back in your coop. Players take turns dropping chickens into the fox's baggy trousers as if he is stealing them and then tapping on his head. At some unpredictable point, his trousers drop, releasing his fowl hostages and the birds scatter all over the table top. Players rush to scoop up as many chickens as they can as quickly as they can. The winner is whoever fills his coop first or gathers the most chickens. No of course I did not get any action shots. I was too busy rescuing my chickens. As the noise level from the game increased, we decided it was late enough in the evening to move on to a quieter activity. But this had been high-paced fun.

We put on the Disney movie Encanto and watched it again. Lin-Manuel Miranda, of Moana and Hamilton fame, wrote the Columbia-inspired music for Encanto, Disney's 60th animated movie. I recognized the characters more easily on this second time through for Frank and me, and I understood the plot better this time. I was glad of the opportunity to re-watch it. Since the kids sang along on some of the songs, I would guess that they had watched this many more times than two. They went to bed easily and willingly at the movie's end.

Sunday January 2nd
Autumn and Isaiah woke up a little after 8:00 am and asked if they could watch Pokéman. All I could offer for breakfast was dry Cheerios but they were happy with that, snacking as they watched TV. We had a laid back start to the day and Jeremy picked us and the kids up mid-morning.

On our drive back through the neighborhood Jeremy spotted a box about the size of a console table leaning against a house with number 11025. Their house has number 11125. There was no proof, but the odds were that this was the console table that Robin had ordered that was reported as having been delivered. After dropping me and the kids off, Jeremy and Frank drove back to fit the large package into the car. They did it quickly and with a show of great entitlement so as not to be accused of being porch pirates. No one was home. Perhaps that is why the mis-delivery was not reported.

Robin confirmed that this was indeed what she had ordered and Jeremy set to work immediately to assemble it. Elliott, their cat, assisted wherever he could.

Since around 2:40 pm Oklahoma time is after lunch California time, when we usually bowl with Alex on Sundays, we all FaceTimed him. Alex was wearing his knit Santa hat I'd made a couple years ago in July 2019. Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah all put on their Santa and Elf hats as well. Alex laughed and clapped and everybody had a good time throughout the call.

                                    

Even after we hung up, Autumn was still in good spirits and showed off her excess energy with this neat acrobatic trick.

Monday January 3rd
Autumn specifically requested that we do something outside the house with Grandma and Grandpa while they were visiting. Monday was the final day of their school holiday break so we went on an outing to the OKC Science Museum, a favorite of Autumn's and Isaiah's. The ceiling art in the lobby never fails to wow me when I enter. The kids race around the big expanse while the adults handle the details of tickets.

Once through the turnstiles the kids race off to the right into CurioCity (i.e. curiosity) and can spend an hour or more exploring, climbing, spinning, jumping, splashing.

We went through a mirror maze. I took no pictures in there; all those reflections were far too confusing. I thought fingerprints on the shiny glass would give me a clue but they all got repeated multiple times. Thankfully I am not the staff member who is tasked with cleaning all those surfaces. I did take a photo of this diagram of the clouds on a wall to help me out. Maybe I will get better with those meteorological questions on Jeopardy. Cumulonimbus cloud any one? What a big name for a thunderstorm cloud!

We spent a fair amount of time waiting in line and riding a Segway. I had ridden one the last time we had been at the Science Museum several years ago but this was a first time for Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah. They each mastered it very quickly unlike me. As I recall my first time years ago I ran over the foot of the attendant. The first photo is a good overview of the course. Riders enter near the red coated attendant seen near the base of the neck of the dinosaur. They do a full 360° clockwise outer loop, then go to the interior where they do a serpentine path:

1. to the left over an orange bridge, right turn
2. upward (away) along an inner straightaway, U-turn
3. back down (toward) along a series of orange speed bumps, U-turn
4. back up (away) over green turf, and U-turn
5. down again, pushing through an orange gate over a pebbly orange surface
6. exit

The photos following the overview are Robin, Isaiah, and Autumn in action.

We pretty much stayed until almost closing time. I would have liked to see the Sherlock Holmes exhibit but, alas, it was a traveling exhibit and had been packed up for its next venue. I still liked the thought-proving quotes and wanted to remember them.

I made a quick stop in the museum store and picked up two card games, a jigsaw puzzle for Alex, and a balancing nail puzzle. This center of gravity demonstration by Steve Spangler Science describes the puzzle.

Can a simple trick with nails teach you an important scientific lesson? Discover how the precarious center of gravity that’s provided by the stability of just one, single nail head can provide a mind-bending gravity lesson. The object of this balancing nail puzzle is to balance a dozen nails on the head of a single nail. All of the nails have to be balanced at the same time and they cannot touch anything but the top of the nail that is stuck in the base.

Even after our excursion Autumn still had energy enough to demonstrate a striking pose. She ran up to the wall and flung her heels up and voila!

After dinner the adults played another game of El Dorado, a repeat from Wednesday. Shrtly after we arrived back home in California, Jeremy texted us a photo of a card in the expansion pack he'd just bought. It is called a "Heroes" expansion pack. Note the name in the header.

Tuesday January 4th
Autumn and Isaiah returned to school and Jeremy was back at work so the Oxenford household was a bit quieter. Frank and I took our time getting over there in the morning so Robin got some work in. The three of us went out to lunch at Panero bread. I had planned to get our boarding passes for our flight the next day but our flight was cancelled per a text from Southwest. Bummer. But that meant we did get to visit a day longer and we were not stranded in some airport.

Before picking the kids up from school Robin and I went to her local library to return and pick up new books for Autumn and Isaiah. Autumn usually wants to pick out her own books; but when Robin saw a particular book was available that Autumn had been waiting for and checked it out, she was thrilled. The library had interesting architecture and was very bright and sunny with all the glass. I was bemused at signs posted that read that warned "In case of tornado leave the building."

Tuesday evening was a family class at taekwondo at Golden Tiger Martial Arts where Frank and I watched the family in action. Autumn had tried out to join the demo team that travels to school and events showing the capability of the dojo (a school for training in various arts of self defense such as judo or karate). She was accepted, so Frank and I stayed with Jeremy to watch that exhibit practice, while Robin took Isaiah on home after their family session. Everybody was wearing masks, but to minimize my time in the studio, I waited in the car until the demo practice session began forty minutes later. I did manage to take a photo of all four of them in their uniforms.

After dinner and before Frank and I  left for the night, Isaiah practiced some of his reading skills for me. I had picked out two books from the library I though he might like. I was pleased I was successful since I am not that familiar with his tastes and they were my best guess. One was Fox at Night by Corey R. Tabor. In that one the fox is scared because every creature he encounters seems like a monster to him but really is not. The other was about ninjas who rode a bus to a farm to help out the farmer with his chores called Dojo Daytrip by Chris Tougas.

Wednesday January 5th
Since our flight had been cancelled Robin was on the hook for another dinner that night. She made a really good crockpot chicken dish. Since we would be traveling the next day (hopefully) we took it easy and watched a couple more episodes of Hawkeye with Robin during the day. We liked the series enough we would be finishing it once we got home.

Later, we picked up the kids from their after school program and toured Christmas lights in the neighborhoods nearby. When Jeremy arrived home from work, he broke out a game of table top billiards he'd bought the kids and it occupied a lot of time before and after dinner.

We did more reading after dinner and then broke out a card game of Gnomes and Trolls I'd bought at the Science Museum. Robin and I had tried it out in the afternoon so I would be prepared to play with Autumn and Isaiah.

Once gnomes gather around three sides of a treasure it is secured and theirs to keep. Two kinds of gnomes, sneaky gnomes or sleepy gnomes, can steal your treasure for themselves or have you miss a turn. Trolls steal unsecured treasure. Whoever has the most treasure when all nine trolls are revealed wins.

Since it was our last night, we hugged and kissed the kids good bye and were getting ready to leave. They would be in school the next day so we would not see them in the morning. They begged for one more quick game so Jeremy brought out Five Minute Marvel. It really is five minutes; players work as a team against a timer. It is hard to explain but watch this short video to see the fast paced action with shouting and throwing down cards. Frank and I watched twice and then joined in to play a few games. It was a fun, fantastic, frenetic, farewell.

Thursday January 6th
Frank and I packed up and drive over to Robin's to wait until time to leave for Will Rogers Airport for our 1:50 pm flight. Frank and I used the opportunity to take photos of each of us posed in or near Robin's newly created sewing room. We have not featured all of her room in our photos because it is not in a finished state per Robin. She still wants to display some quilts, some hanging hooks/rods for completed garments and those in progress, and an accessible display method for her many tools. I wonder if she realizes her sewing room will always be a work in progress because the fabrics and what she creates in there will always be ever changing works in progress. But we left the revelation photos to her, and perhaps to her blog, when she feels ready.

We arrived at our gate about two hours before our scheduled departure time. I took the following photo at 11:48 but it was fiction. From the text messages below we were initially delayed from 1:05 to 1:35 but since our connecting flight was delayed there was no problem. Our flight from Denver however was delayed, delayed, cancelled, rebooked. The rebooked flight was delayed five times and diverted us through Long Beach.

Can't follow all the flight cancellations and delays? To make a long story short, fourteen hours later, after having been routed from Denver through Long Beach to Oakland, we arrived. Miracle of miracles, so did our luggage! Most of the delays were not so much due to weather but rather due to lack of ground crews to man the jetways and the subsequent gate backups. Thankfully though, most of our time was spent on the planes where all were required to wear masks and the ventilation systems are reputed to be better. We came home tired, but COVID-free, and definitely glad we'd made the trip. As an unexpected but welcome treat, Southwest airlines, as an apology, sent Frank and me each a voucher of $500 for future flights. We will fly again!