Will’s been at Sandhill for six months now, and we’ve reached the point in his stay where we can add Lucy to a visit every now and again. This trip happened just after Christmas, so we adjusted our family traditions to fit the time and space available.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2016 challenge. Here’s the full list.

We’ve never been able to show photos of the house where Will lives, because there are 12 boys living there, and it was hard to get photos without faces in them. This time there was only one other boy there, so we were able to get some photos while Will gave Lucy the grand tour. He showed her the horses, the cats, the squeeze machine, all the living spaces, the exercise room, and the chair hammock.

We celebrated Christmas at our Airbnb. We didn’t have 12 days to spread gifts over, so we adjusted our pattern: “something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. And an adventure. (And a couple of something-elses.)”

We brought our little tiny tree for the kids to decorate together, and Will had made some origami animal ornaments. Among other things, they each opened a new set of PJs (of course) and some new clothes, Will got a weighted blanket, and Lucy got contributions towards a giant dollhouse.

The “something to read” was a trip to a local bookstore! They each picked out two books from Downtown Books (a fascinating warren of twisty little passages) and three more from the thrift store!

We also mixed in a walk in Tiguex (“teeg-way”) Park, worked our way through the outdoor exercise machines, and the kids scrambled all over the playground for a while.

This visit was really good, it was nice to be all back together again. Lucy and Will had really missed each other, and they had a great time playing together in person. Happy holidays, everyone!