Favorite Foto Friday - Here Comes Hallowe'en

I am confident I posted this before, though I can't immediately find when.

I know, Hallowe'en is not for another week, but I sincerely hope to have a very cute picture to post on that particular Friday.  And this is appropriate as we head towards the holiday, anyway.  Plus, I miss these kids.

Games from Christmas 2009

The two-week vacation I take around Christmas each year contains many traditions, and there are even a few games that are traditions on their own. I don't suppose, though, I can claim that "gaming" is a tradition. Nevertheless, I certainly do enjoy playing games with my family and friends. The Christmas vacation of 2009 was no different. We played some old games, some newer games, and some brand new games.

Whoonu - a new game, a party game, a game you play to get to know your friends and family. I now know that Troy doesn't like mustard. That's important, don't you think? And Lee likes macaroni and cheese quite a lot -- so I will have to fix her some of my "Dad's Macaroni & Cheese" some day.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot - I can't tell you how many times I saw this game in Jimmy Jam's [sigh and sniffle] but never picked it up. Well, it's exactly my kind of game. It's a bit random, but it has lots of fun flavor.

Ticket to Ride Europe - We've been hooked on this game for a few years now, and the game doesn't get old, though experienced players have an advantage, so it's nice to have new players play with less experienced players if they care about winning. Still, like the other "train games" we play, much of the fun is in the playing -- building tracks, accomplishing routes, working towards plans.

Ticket to Ride Switzerland - This one is new to us. We gave it to Troy for Christmas. If you own Ticket to Ride Europe, you can play this one (it uses the cards and pieces from the TtRE) with two or three players, and it has enough differences to make the strategy slightly altered. I think I have to own this one.

Magic: the Gathering - Of course. Yet, we didn't play it as much as we used to. Now that we have so many people -- all adults -- around for the vacation, playing games that only involved two, or only involve half of us [the women don't play Magic] does not happen as often. Still, we played, and we had fun when we did. I got to see Troy having progressed quite well in his deck building, and I got to provide some advice to Patrick on his. And, one fun memory will be Mike loving to play my 5-color deck with lots of angels in it. I've renamed the deck to Mike's Favorite in his honor.

Eurorails - Well, I didn't get to play this personally, but it got played. And now I will have to find time to play it, or Iron Dragon, sometime soon. And, the new packaging is really great. I'm tempted to get it for myself just for the new "load tokens" not to mention the "chunnel" addition.

Mad Gab - This one is new to our house, but not new to us. We played it recently with Ann & Dave and other friends and had a blast, so we asked Santa to give it to us. He had to look quite a few places in his workshop before uncovering it (he already had many copies packed for other families, I'm sure) but he came through! That Santa!

Apples to Apples - A party favorite. Sherry won the first game so quickly it was amazing. So we played another. Lots of fun.

The Great Dalmuti - One of the games that is a tradition. New Year's Eve. It has to be played. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun. Huzzah!

Superworld - This is the traditional game of the holiday season, because we've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. Paul creates a scenario, putting someone or something in danger, or creating a mystery to be solved, and our heroes must take on the mission. Icebird, Foil, Widget, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and (the new character this year) Anastasia were approached by one of their frequent foes, who proposed a truce so that the team could stop the launch of some nuclear missiles. Each and every team member performed important heroic acts as the disaster was averted. Or, perhaps, they participated in slowing the contact between the human race and an alien species. We're still not sure. But it was fun!

Wii Fit Plus - Finally, since Sherry got this game for Christmas, and since its predecessor was such a big part of our 2009, we had to play it a few times and show it to the uninitiated. I'm quite excited by the new activities, which include riding Segways (reminding me of our trip to Washington DC), a much harder bubble game, and a game that lets you run an obstacle course as if you were Mario in a Nintendo game! (Pictured on the left.)

There were undoubtedly a few more games played - it's nearly impossible to keep track of all the game-playing in the Will Chalet - but these are the ones I can remember now.

When people ask what my hobbies are and I reply that one of them is "games" I don't think non-game-players understand what that means. This is what it means!

2009 - The Year Of...

To wrap up the year, I decided to compile a couple of lists of notable events from 2009. I think I started this in the middle of the year, so some of the key events from the first six months might have escaped my attention. Feel free to comment and tell me what I missed.

In a broad sense, 2009 was the Year of

• Twitter (explodes on the national consciousness, becomes part of the news media)
• Barack Obama is inaugurated - and later won the Nobel Peace Prize
  
• Cash for Clunkers ($1B in a week)
• The Depression that Wasn't
• The End of Jon & Kate
• Cougars -- and I still think they are the invention of middle-aged men, not real life people
• Michael Jackson's death
• Brett Favre as a Viking.
• H1N1 (aka "Swine Flu")
• The downfall of Tiger Woods' image
  
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Star Trek" and "Avatar" in the theaters
• Heath-care reform passes both houses of Congress. Now, how will it be perceived in 10 years?
  

Closer to home, 2009 was the Year of

• Great Courses (for me)
• Wii Fit (and then Wii Fit Plus)
• The Prius
  
• Seeing the space station and space shuttle in the sky over Nordic Fest
• Sarah & Leah both graduate
  
• Losing Doug
• Joining Mt. Olive
• Opening the time capsule from 1999, and preparing the one for 2019
  
• Sarah & Troy in Clarion, IA
  
• Season Tickets to the Vikings with Adam, Lucas & Dad
  
• My first trip to Japan and China
• Our first trip to Washington DC
  
• The wedding of Sarah & Troy
• Mannheim Steamroller in concert
• Leah entering NYU and thus...
• The Empty Nest

Happy New Year, everyone!

Plane Facts

We get to have Thanksgiving this year with all of our kids, except one. Sarah & Troy will be at our house for Thanksgiving break. Lucas & Lee will be in town. And Adam & Marisa will join us and also see Marisa's family, so that's great.

But Leah will be in New York.

I will absolutely enjoy the kids I have around.

But it won't stop me from missing the one who is absent.

I checked Expedia.com early last week, and it would cost $700 to get her a ticket to Minneapolis and back, and even then, she'd have to leave Minnesota early Saturday morning, because all the flights east on Sunday are full. And the flight would have two connections (Cleveland and Chicago). And of course, she'd still have to pay for the taxi or shuttle to-and-from JFK. So, that's not going to happen.

Though we've been on our way to being empty-nesters for a while, this is the first time we've not had Leah for a holiday. It was hard to miss Sarah for Thanksgiving last year, and it will be just as hard to miss Leah this year.

But once Thanksgiving is past, Christmas is right around the corner. Then we get to have her around for almost a month!

So, Steve, just hang on. You can make it!

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P.S. When I talked to her last, Leah knew exactly how many weeks, days and hours it would be until she arrives home for Christmas break. It made me smile [from the toes up.] And I do believe her anticipation is not solely because she'll be in the same state as her boyfriend. I think we parents & siblings have something to do with it.

My Kind of Father's Day

It's not every father's wish for Father's Day, but it works for me!

• Church & chatting with friends
• Lunch with the women in the house
• Movies in the afternoon (Lady in the Water and Once)
  
• Dinner with all the kids who are in town (and that was most of them)
• A gift of the Re-issued 1959 Edition of Risk (with the old-school wooden pieces!)
  
• A few hours of Rock Band with everyone involved (Lucas got the drumming gene from Sherry, apparently. It did not come from me!)
  
• A chapter in a science fiction book before lights out

Now that is a good day!

Thanks, family!

Valentine's Day - In Moderation

I'm not quite willing to throw out Valentine's Day, as Roland Martin suggests, but I agree with the basic points he makes. 1) Husbands should show love to our wives (and vice versa) on a regular basis, and attentive spouses should not feel pressured to go overboard on Valentine's Day simply because our culture says we are "bad" if we don't up the ante on that day. 2) Showing affection and appreciation should not be a competition.

Unlike Roland, I like having a particular day of the year devoted to romance, even though it's primarily driven by retailers, because I think many people need a reminder to treat their spouse or significant other in a special way. In fact, I think many men need an excuse, given the peer pressure that exists in society to appear non-romantic -- until Valentine's Day, when everyone is supposed to be a combination of Romeo & Cassanova & Brad Pitt.

I think the key is moderation. We should not give in to the pressure to outdo others with the gifts we buy or events we plan. In fact, I've felt pressure to outdo myself, but I realize that type of escalation is self-imposed; Sherry doesn't judge me based on gifts or plans getting bigger, better and pricier each year.


.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Photo from the Flickr photos of clarescupcakes. Don't they look yummy?

Epiphany

Epiphany was yesterday (January 6.) Christmas is "officially" over.

Sometimes it amazes me that "The World" allows Christmas to be over on December 26. I mean, the whole US retail/commercial market spends two months (at least) hyping a religious holiday as a reason to sell us stuff, but then doesn't take advantage of the fact that there are, in fact, Twelve Days of Christmas. (Forty in some cultures, but I think that's overdoing it, and not giving Epiphany its due.)

From my visit to Spain I learned that the Spanish people traditionally celebrated Epiphany with the big gift exchange (which makes sense -- that's when the Magi arrived with gifts for the newborn King of the Jews) but that tradition is eroding as more people adopt the Western tradition of gift giving on (or just before or just after) December 25.

Honestly, I hope the 12 Days don't ever get commercialized. It's nice to celebrate "Christmas" with "The World" for the entire month between Thanksgiving, and then celebrate with the church for the next two weeks as well.

So, welcome Epiphany. Your inclusiveness and joy will be welcome, on our way to Lent.

Christmas Eve 2007

A rough Christmas Eve timeline, from our house.

10:00 AM - Get up. Vacation is glorious!
Noon - Lunch. Many options, since we've had such good meals in the preceding days.
12:30 PM - Sarah, Troy and Leah play Rummicube while Sherry prepares the frosting.
1:15 PM - Decorate the sugar cookies. Troy and Lee are initiated into the tradition. Several good decorations, with this years notables being some intricately decorated trees and snowmen, a tie-dye cookie or two, a polar bear in the grass, and the Star Wars characters.
2:45 PM - Sherry starts cooking the chicken soup. The rest of us do our own thing, killing time, anxious and exicted. Once again, the Wii Sports game is used for some bowling and baseball.
5:00 PM - Arrive at church. We're the first people to sit down (but not by much) so we had our choice of pews. 7th back on the right. And all nine of us fit quite well -- good thing we're all thin! (Though I'm less so, after all the goodies I've been eating!)
5:30 PM - Service begins. A mix-up puts the hymns out of order, but at least we sang them all! Pastor's message: remember, we didn't deserve Christmas, so be thankful and appreciate this most holy of nights.
6:55PM - Start the photos. While the soup noodles cook, we get our pictures taken. Everyone looked so great!
7:15 PM - Dinner! Chicken noodle soup, French bread, cheese which Adam sliced, goodies, veggies, crackers, lefse!
8:30 PM - Open the gifts! One at a time. Excellent fun, and joyful togetherness. I got to go on a hunt! Using 15-year old pictures of Leah from a hunt in 1992. What a joy! Some great gifts, too.

• Adam & Marisa: a digital photo frame. I'll get that working this morning.
• Lucas: A Wii-mote charger. Also, an enjoyable task for this morning.
• Sarah & Leah & Sherry: Framed poster-sized photos of Halfdome, Maui & Kuai.
• Lee: A painting of Gooseberry Falls for Sherry and me.
• Sherry: Several nice articles of clothes, the Pullman Dark Materials trilogy (Golden Compass, etc.), and a new leather coat!
• Mike: The Writer's Journey by Mark Vogler.
  

11:00 PM - Movie: Eragon. We had gotten it for Leah, and only she and Lee had seen it before. All nine of us watched, unlti Sarah & Troy wisely decided to go get some sleep before leaving at 5:45 AM Christmas morning for Waukesha.

This was a blessed Christmas Eve. Surrounded by my family, full of love. I hope each and every person who celebrates Christmas had a great day!