We've had a fun-filled Christmas and New Year's holiday and I want to share a few highlights.
Gingerbread houses. Karen did a fantastic job as usual making the gingerbread pieces and the kids thoro
ughly enjoyed the creative process. Karen didn't enjoy making the pieces so much, because she had to form each piece prior to cooking. I've proposed we take Aunt Elaine's approach next year, which is to bake the gingerbread first, then cut it.
Sugar Cookies. Emily, Lucy and I enjoyed making sugar cookies for Santa. We had lots of fun picking out cutters and rolling and tasting the dough. Yummy!
Christmas Eve. We had the Bown's come over for our Christmas Eve dinner. They're new in the ward so we enjoyed getting acquitanted and telling them too many family secrets. The turkey was wonderful (thanks Karen!) and the company was even better. I read the traditional Christmas story from selected verses out of the scriptures, then Karen gathered the kids and read them 'Twas
the Night before Christmas with our special pop-up book. We had a wonderful time.Games, games, games. We got lots of games for Christmas and gave several a spin around the block. Tyler loves the Risk 2210 and we had Josh Lund come over to play it. The good news is that it's limited to 5 turns; the bad news is the game can still last 3 hours, give or take. Other favorites include Killer Bunnies (thanks Andrew!), Catan expansions, and the Race for the Galaxy expansion.
Deluxe sights & sounds. We bought an audio system for Christmas to match our t.v. on the wall, along with a blu-ray player. Incredible! Horton Hears a Who was an amazing experience.
Karen finished Lucy's afghan. It's beautiful! Karen's like a machine and is now working on one for Tyler. Camouflage colors this time...
New Year's Eve at the Bleazard's. About 1/2 dozen families and probably 20-25 children. Lots of fireworks. Wii Rockband. Lots of snacks. A very silly game (Things) and too much information shared between friends. It was a wonderful time!
Bowling with Randy. He loves bowling and had money to burn, so we went to Times Square and bowled a couple of games. He's really good, and even got a solid strike. Go Randy!!
Dates with Karen. This was a personal favorite. The Alamo Drafthouse is great fun - nothing special in terms of the food or the audio/visual, but ther pre-movie entertainment (corny old video shorts, old t.v. ads, and other themed humor) and eating in the theater make for good fun. The food is good (I recommend the Hawaiian Calzone) and the Italian Soda's are great (although I like an apple Sprite best).
Lots of nothing. Movies, t.v. shows, naps, playing with kids, eating too much, etc. Also, lots of catching up with old friends.
All in all, it was a wonderful vacation.
