What we did over Christmas break--Tucson chapter

We spent some of our Christmas vacation visiting the Gludts in Tucson. Prior to them moving there, I'd never actually been to Tucson; after they moved there, I didn't have much interest in visiting Arizona. But I do love my friends, and so I visited. And I have to say, each time we've gone, the Gludts have shown us some pretty cool sights; now I really look forward to our trips.

This trip was no exception. I was excited to see Rob, Kelley and the little Romster. He has gotten so dang cute! He's also a funny little kid, and like most other kids, took an immediate liking to Mark. (Mark's like a rock star when it comes to little kids.)

Each morning, Romi greeted me with a smile and a little grunt. He'd point to our room, and I realized he was asking where my famous son was.

"He's still sleeping, Romi," I'd tell him. "Go wake him up!

And Romi would scamper off to pull the sheets from Mark's bed. Even Mark could not withstand the attacks of an active 20-month-old. It's hard to be grumpy when someone so happy wakes you up.

Romi's favorite activity was waking Mark up every morning.

Considering their age difference (8 years), Mark and Romi got along great. This is partially due to Mark's obsession with other kids' toys (he'll play with anything, even toddler toys) and Romi's laid-back personality. Romi may not speak much yet, but he had no trouble telling Mark what he wanted -- and most of the time, he wanted Mark to push him around the house on his little bike.

The boys played very well together.

Kelley always plans cool stuff for us to see. This time, she chose the miniatures museum, which had a conspicuously large front entrance. However, there was also a little bitty miniature entrance off to the side.

The entrance to the miniatures museum was surprisingly large.

The museum was...well, kinda weird. It was filled with miniature scenes -- elaborately decorated doll houses with lavish furniture and an attention to detail that gave me a headache just thinking about it. There were people and animals carefully arranged throughout the scenes, and even the tiny rooms had been painstakingly decorated with custom wallpaper. It was...different.

Mark dug it at first, when he learned there was a little fairy hiding in five of the scenes throughout the museum. He was off like a rocket to find them.

I tried to appreciate it all, but it wasn't long before Kelley and I slipped into a fit of inappropriate giggles. Mine started when Kelley pointed out a glass floor, under which an entire tiny town was covered in fake snow.

"Romi hates that part," she told me. "It freaks him out."

Well, that was more interesting to me than any miniature dollhouse, and I wanted to see what "freaking out" meant as far as 20-month-olds go. So I placed Romi in the middle of the glass-covered floor, and he just froze. Slowly, he melted down onto the floor -- it was if his body went just went limp. And then, to my amazement, he executed a reverse commando crawl off the floor faster than I could possibly have imagined. He was getting the heck out of there, and it was hilarious!

We spent another hour in the museum after that, mostly looking for that stinking little fairy, but Romi on the glass floor was definitely my favorite part.

The Gludts planned to take us up to Mount Lemmon the following day, but the weather had other plans. First a giant wind/sand storm blew into town while we at the museum. Undeterred by foul weather, Kelley, Mark and I packed up hot cocoa and cider and drove out to a place called Winterhaven to see all the Christmas lights.

Of course, five minutes later, it started to rain. But Kelley and I were not to be stopped. We drove all the way out there, convinced the rain would let up. It never did. Mark was crushed. He didn't care about the lights; he was just bummed not to get any apple cider. His mood improved considerably when I promised him cider at home.

All the rain in the valley turned into snow in the mountains. I'd seen plenty of snow over Thanksgiving, so I gave Kelley's back-up plan a thumbs up.

The plan started with breakfast at a local diner called Gus Balon's, which is famous for its enormous cinnamon rolls. We split two rolls, and it was still waaaaay too much to finish.

We ate cinnamon rolls as big as our heads.

We also scarfed down the rest of our breakfast as quickly as we could, as we had a small table and a squirmy toddler with us. The food was really good, though; Kelley even raved about her oatmeal, which came with about a quarter cube of butter in it, and a side order of cinnamon sugar.

"This is the only place I know of that can make oatmeal unhealthy!" Kelley exclaimed.

After breakfast, we headed out to another museum. The Gludts had never been there, and were not sure how good it would be. They were still a little gun shy from the miniatures museum.

Romi picked this time to nap, so Rob, Mark and I went into the museum. It was sooooo cool! It was filled with all these amazing formerly-alive stuffed animals, which sounds creepier than it actually was. It took Mark and I an hour just to get halfway through it.

The coolest room was filled with every kind of goat, deer and bear imaginable. Kelley and Romi joined us, and we sat on a huge sofa admiring the giant posed animals. Of course, just looking was not enough to keep the boys amused.

The boys dug the animals--especially the fierce ones.

After a while, the boys lost interest in the animals. Instead, they decided to wrestle all along the floor, which was kinda funny.

It was more fun to wrestle than look at stuffed animals.

We had a lot of fun--and I'm not lion!

The Gludts definitely kept us entertained. We spent the afternoon bowling, and then went to dinner with 21 of their friends. Afterwards, Kelley and I were determined to make it to Winterhaven to see all the Christmas lights. (Have I mentioned what a good friend Kelley is? She's Jewish, and still takes us to see Christmas lights!)

The lights were totally awesome! The neighborhood was huge, blocks and blocks of families who'd decorated their yards. My favorite one depicted the 12 days of Christmas, complete with ducks in a telephone booth (four calling birds), parachuting men (10 lords a' leaping), and birds in berets, smoking cigarettes at a bistro table (3 French hens).

Kelley argued with me about one decoration, a bush protruding from a home. It was wearing a Santa hat, but also clearly had antlers and a red nose. Kelley couldn't figure out what it was.

"It's Rudolph!" I said. "Who else would it be?"

She argued back that even Rudolph wouldn't dare to wear Santa's hat, and ultimately decided it was actually a potato.

"A potato?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Really, Kelley? You actually think that's a Christmas potato?" I just shook my head.

But Christians didn't hold a monopoly on tacky yard displays. We stopped in front of one yard with a humongous inflatable Jewish polar bear. The bear wore a kippah, a blue prayer shawl and a Star of David on its foot. After a long pause, Kelley said simply, "Wow. I'm a rabbi, and I have no idea where to get something like that!"

Our last day was spent celebrating Kelley's birthday. Sadly, we had to leave the Gludts and return to San Diego and the Land of Christmas. But don't worry, Gludts, we'll be back to Tucson soon enough!