Parentheticals

This last week was Christmas. On Monday evening we cleaned up and then we had a living nativity, where we all dressed up and acted it all out. We also had the traditional Christmas eve meal of roast and potatoes. After we put the kids to bed, and were visited by Santa. Rea and Sara were very good at getting the boys to go to sleep, so they were able to get out of bed and visit with Mike before Santa came. Tuesday we had a fun Christmas morning. The kids all liked their gifts, and they enjoyed playing with them. Timmy really loved his dinosaurs - he first made them into normal dinosaur shapes, and then later he made them into dino-monsters. Wednesday Mike went back to work, and it started snowing. Rea was very disappointed that it hadn't snowed before, but what can you do? At least it snowed some time. Rea loved Mike's teaching is over for a while, so he has been drawing a lot of icons for people, and playing a little Nethack. He hasn't played it in years, but it is

Last week we prepared for Christmas. Mike also started up a game of Twilight Imperium. We play about one turn a day. Right now he is 2nd of 4 players, so he isn't doing poorly. On Friday Timmy and Gideon threw flour all over. It was a huge mess and Alison was very frustrated, especially when Timmy just wouldn't stop after being told to three times. Rea and Sara cleaned up a lot of it, until Mike got home and could get the last of it really clean. After that we went to the OBT to see "Muffet's Christmas Carol", which was their take on A Christmas Carol. It was fun. Kermit (Cratchit) was super depressed all the time, and although Scrooge was redeemed, there was another villan - Comb (Sam Eagle), who stays bad until he is killed by the Ghost of Christmas Future (the Count from Sesame Street) Saturday we went to the Natural History museum with grandpa Mike and grandma Sheila. We had a fun time. Everyone really enjoyed it. The kids also got some Christmas pajam

Alison was really sick this week, which meant that we didn't get much done. This includes team clean and fun activities as well. As of today she is feeling much better, so hopefully this is the beginning of the end. For our date night we watched Ponyo, and tried to figure out how the story makes sense. Tithing settlement is done for the year, so Mike will be home on Sundays again. On Sunday night we had a board game night, with Caitlin and Sal and the Fords. We played The Captain is Dead, and Tsuro. The kids all played a lot and had fun. It was good.

On Monday we went to Winco to get a bulk order of food. We now have a huge supply of raisins, popcorn, and peanuts. Mike forgot his debit card, so the trip took a long time since we had to go all the way back home. On Tuesday the kids did not go to nature group because Alison is still having some morning sickness despite the medicine the midwife prescribed. When they don't get out the kids go a bit stir crazy. Wednesday night was Timmy's date night. He wanted ice cream and a movie, so we had those things. Why he wanted ice cream instead of hot coca is a bit of a mystery. The temperate has remained low enough that the snow on the ground has lasted all week. The kids have been enjoying it quite a bit. On Thursday during the day, Alison's minivan was having trouble starting up. fortunately we have the car jumping device, so we could get it going. We planned on bringing the car to the shop at the latest on the weekend. On Thursday Mike went to the BGDG, and Alison t

On Friday, after releasing his code to production first thing in the morning, Mike took the rest of the day off of work. The kids and Mike picked fire berries and hawthorn berries at the park, and went shopping. We bought a lot of cheese and apples. The local apples were on sale for $0.88 a lb, and the cheese was $2 a lb, so Mike just bought a ton. We had tuna melts for lunch (which the kids always love) as well as tomato soup. There was left over tuna melt filling, so Mike made some tuna pastries and ate them in the middle of the night Saturday we got boots for the kids and the kids bought some Christmas gifts for each other. Sara doesn't like pink bunnies. We bought both of these things at the DI, and even though there were only three pairs of kids boots, they were the exact size that we needed (Alison bought expensive boots for Gideon already since he has polydactyl feet, and they don't fit normal boots.) Alison got nausea medicine because her morning sickness is alw

These last three and a half weeks have been hectic. Sorry for not posting. We usually write our posts on Sunday after church, but with the start of tithing settlements, and Mike being a financial clerk, we have been busy every Sunday at the usual post writing time. In addition to this, with Alison suffering from morning sickness, most evenings Mike has been busy trying to catch up on all of the housework. So, explanations aside, Mike has been readjusting to working again after the trip to Italy. He is pretty much back up to speed. Alison and the kids have been readjusting to life in the US again as well, and attending nature groups and such as is usual. Alison has also resumed teaching for vipkids, and is getting at least one lesson every day, and two or more on some days. Mike's first published game had a successful kickstarter earlier this month, and will be available to purchase through ButtonShy games soon. He is super happy about that. We picked a bunch

On Monday we left venice, and drove to Milan for our flight on Tuesday. On the way to Milan we stopped just over the border of Switzerland in a town called Chiasso. In Chiasso we bought some chocolate and cashews to munch on, and we had lunch. After we made it to our rental in Milan, we decided to send Mike to get some extra food before bed. On the way, the car got a flat tire, and Mike and the kids (everyone went with him but Alison) had to spend over an hour trying to find the tools and fix the flat. Fortunately two helpful Italians made the job much easier and more fun. By the time that we got back, it was rather late, so we just ate and went to bed. On Tuesday we dropped the car off at the airport, and then we got on a plane for a neverending day of flights. At 12:00pm we ended up getting home (none of the connections missed or anything, so at least that was pretty uneventful). Other than Gideon the kids did well on the flights. Wednesday we got our house back in order, u

On Tuesday we picked walnuts and played around the castle with the other kids that were there. The kids specifically requested this. In the evening we cracked the nuts and then made a big pot of mashed potatoes for dinner. On Wednesday we went to Florence. We walked to the Duomo, and then we went to a casual restaurant for lunch, and had some cool modern Italian food: sage meatballs, bruschetta with a poached egg, tomato soup, foccacia. It was very good. Then we went to a Leonardo da Vinci museum with large machines we could manipulate and blocks for creating your own inventions. It was very cool and we stayed for hours. After that we went back to the center of the town, and we hired a horse carriage to take us around Florence. The kids loved riding around the town. It was one of their favorite parts of the entire trip. After the ride was over, we went to ride on the carousel, and then we left Forence to go back to the castle so that we could pack. On Thursday we drove to Bolog

Wednesday we tried to go to the arms and armor museum in Monteriggioni, but they were filming a war movie there, and so we had to walk half way around the city to the other gate (it has a wall with two gates, one on either end). In the end, they wouldn't let us get to the town square, so we had to just leave without seeing the weapons and armor. We saw a bunch of small lizards all over the place (rea counted 11 of them), and we picked some horrible olives while we were there as well. Most of the time in the city was spent at a weird place that we were not sure of the purpose of. It was a raised platform with a hedge all around it except for an entry ramp, and on the top it looked like it had a watering trough. Perhaps it was for washing clothing? After going home disappointed and having lunch, we decided to go to the Bagni San Filippo, which is a natural hot spring that was not too far from the tenuta. We had a fun time in the hot water, but did not take too many pictures becau