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