-> Christmas Decor Part 1 <-

This year I spent a good amount of time thinking about how we should do our christmas decorations before I started working on them. The house we're in now is quite a bit smaller than our last house, and so I have a lot less "decoratable" spaces. In fact, we had to displace Kris's string base that had been living in the corner of our living room so that we could fit the christmas tree in! So it took some creativity to do everything I wanted to do.
I was thinking about ways that we could decorate that would be fun for Max, and maybe even include him somehow. I thought maybe an advents calendar would work. I couldn't really find any that I liked though, and I was reading a magazine that suggested giving small gifts as an advents calender. So I thought I would go for it and do it myself. I got a playmobil nativity scene and wrapped all the individual pieces, also wrapped up some boxes with little treats and a few christmas books that we already owned (that Max doesn't remember at all) and some PJs for christmas eve and then numbered them all. I didn't think this would be that hard, but it took me almost an entire saturday to do it!
I put the little presents in some pretty green and red bowls with some pine cones and ornaments and placed them on the table next to my lovely nativity.
What do you think?
Now I just wish I didn't know what was in the packages! They look so festive and exciting.

So far it's been working out great for Max. He's able to keep track of what number each day is and he loves the playmobil. We've been talking about the different characters of the nativity as we open them up. I hope it's helping him to learn. It's definitely helping to build excitement for Christmas for all of us I think!

Stay tuned for part 2....

Katamari Damacy

So what is Katamari Damacy? Only the single most awesomest video game ever. The basic concept is a little guy pushes a ball around that stuff sticks to. At first, only small stuff will stick, but as it snowballs, you can work your way up to rolling up pretty much anything: animals, people, monster octupii, skyscrapers, trees, etc.
The game is also very Japanese psychedelic in a yellow-submarine kind of way.

For us, it all started fall 2004 when some good friends invited us over to play the game for playstation 2 at their house. Ginna, who had been openly anti-video game system, was very skeptical. Still, she was willing to give it a try. We played and Ginna couldn’t get enough. I liked it too, but Ginna liked it the way I liked Mario Bros when I was about 10 yrs old. As we drove home, I suggested that we should consider getting a PS2. To my surprise Ginna was into it.

We set out to get one, but sony was just introducing the new “slim” models and since it was close to the holidays they were all sold out. We liked Katamari Damacy so much however, we bought the video game for Christmas even though we didn’t yet have a system. Fortunately, Kenny and Kelly still had an old system back in Utah that would still work if the moon was in the right position and you finessed the system just right, using appropriate positive affirmations.

We played Katamari as much as we could while we were in Utah for Christmas break. Kenny even stayed up all night one night playing it on the big screen TV in the basement, trying to beat the game.



Kenny let us take the PS2 and soon we were home and playing. It was great fun, especially during the winter when it was too cold and yucky to do much beside stay home. Also--those of you with kids will understand this--it was great to have something fun to do together after Max was in bed.

Katamari was so great it influenced us to buy a new TV so we could see it better. Luck was ours and while we were in the store looking for our TV, a new shipment of PS2s arrived. We bought one, only to have it stolen when our house was broken into a few months later.

Eventually, we bought another PS2 and we were back to our Katamari. A sequel had been released and everything was great. Still, as much fun as it is to play after Max is in bed, I’ve been waiting for Max to figure out how to play it with us.

Max + Katamari = Love
Recently, Max has really started to enjoy Katamari. He has figured out how to move the character around and he has a great understanding of the game’s objectives. Now, he is constantly requesting that we play Katamari or Na Na Na as he calls it. Ginna and Max like to play together from time to time and I join in too.

Saturday, we were at a birthday party for a girl from Max’s school. The party was at Gymboree. There were activities and games, but we struggled to get Max to participate. Max likes to do his own thing anyway, but I couldn’t figure out what he was doing. Then it dawned on me. Ginna took some pictures with her phone and I made a little slideshow using some music from Katamari. I think it’s pretty obvious what Max is up to.

∞∞ Seven Random Thingys About Me ∞∞

My dear friend Megan tagged (or challenged is how I like to think of it) me to come up with seven random unknown but interesting things about myself. This was really really hard! I'm not really used to delving too deeply into my habits or thoughts I guess, and so it's been interesting to do so. Hopefully my seven things aren't too boring and hopefully some of you don't already know them! Without further ado:

1. I really don't like vegetables. The only ones I can really say that I like a lot are carrots and broccoli. That's it. Kind of sad huh? The ones that I like OK are cauliflower, some squash, lettuce, kale, potatoes, sweet potatoes, (do those count as veggies?), green beans, corn. The ones I find tolerable depending on the presentation are onions, some squash, alfalfa sprouts, spinach, artichoke, peppers. I HATE tomatoes (yeah, sorry dad, I still do), brussel sprouts, eggplant, asparagus, beets, olives (wait, are olives actually fruits?), okra, kohlrabi, peas.
Alright, that's a long enough list. Do you get the picture? I'm not so good at vegetables which makes eating well a little bit of a challenge. I've become a lot more adventurous in the last few years though, and have extended and improved the happy part of the list. My plan is to keep working on it. But no tomatoes. Never tomatoes.

2. I love to sing. I love that we get to sing at church and I take advantage of that fact. However, I absolutely hate it when somebody is singing the same part as me and I can hear them. So if I'm singing soprano and the person behind me is also singing soprano loud enough for me to hear them I have to switch parts. Bass or tenor works fine for me as long as I can't hear anybody else singing it.
My singing and sightreading skills have really had a hard test lately. Kris got called as the ward chorister and he's been picking the hymns that nobody ever sings and nobody knows except the really old ladies. So usually if I don't sing the songs really loud nobody sings at all. It's been interesting. I used to think I knew pretty much all the hymns in the book but Kris has helped me to realize that just isn't true.

3. I really dislike politics. When I was about 11 or 12 my mom got me this great book. It was some kind of kid's guide to politics and I thought for sure I would end up as some sort of politician, maybe even president. No way. These days sometimes I don't even want to vote. I feel like voting without researching into all the issues and candidates is no good. And I hate discussing politics because I never feel like I know enough about what's going on to have an opinion I can stand behind. I am not the kind of person that can just pick one side of an issue and argue it unless I know all about it and have proof and examples to back me up.
So I just avoid politics as much as I can.

4. I didn't know my hair was curly/very wavy until we moved out here to Kansas City. I thought it was straight. It's not. I can make it straight but it wants to wave and curl if I just leave it on it's own. Weird huh?

5. I am terrible at sewing. Some of you might find that weird if you know my mom. She's awesome. And my mother in law is awesome too. I have a fabulous sewing machine but I barely know how to use it. Maybe someday when I have a little more time I can learn more and won't be so terrible.
I did make one thing once I'm very proud of. Witness the pea pod:
6. I'm really scared of badgers, wolverines and wild boars.

7. I spend most of the time when I'm trying to go to sleep planning what I'm going to do the next day (most of which I never get done) thinking of the phone calls I need to make, thinking about the work things I need to do and writing emails to people and blog entries. Most of the emails and blog entries I write never actually get written in real life, but sometimes I'm confused and think that I actually did write them. And they're so much more witty when I'm half asleep than they really are once I do get around to writing them. So all of you out there that have been waiting for an email or a phone call from me, relax. I probably already did it. And Megan, you were probably wondering why it took me so long to write this entry? It's because I wrote it like 7 times already and every time it was great but I couldn't remember any of what I had written the next morning.

So there you go. Now maybe you know me a little better. Maybe not?

I'm not tagging anybody especially, but any of you that feel the urge to do this, please do. It's fun to learn things about each other. Actually I take it back. I'm tagging Kari, Lorri (lorri, you really need your own blog!!), Charlotte, Lechelle and Miffy. Let's hear it guys!!

::Chinny Chin Chin::

Here's an update on the chin, 11 days out from the incident and 6 days out from the removal of the stitches.
Looks pretty good, don't you think? Kids sure heal fast. It's amazing.
Special thanks to my Aunt Lorena who told me that the stitch removal wasn't a hard thing. I was really worried about it up until she told me that. And she was right. It was no big deal. Max was really great. He stayed still and let the doctor do her thing, and even started giggling at the end. I'm not sure what the giggling was all about but that's ok.
I bet in another week it'll hardly be visible. Yay!

••• I & J •••

I guess that really should be pronouced Iyuh and Juh--in Purple Dragon speak.
I did a deplorable job of keeping track of what happened during I and J weeks. The only snack I can remember is ice cream. That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Sorry. I promise I'll make up for it during Kuh week.
Anyway, here are a couple of the fun projects that the kids did during these weeks.
A jack-in-the-box (which was a big hit with Max) and an igloo:
An indian headdress (yes this looks VERY similar to the thanksgiving week indian headband, but I promise, it's different):
And last but certainly not least, here's an awesome picture of a Jaguar. I love it:
Pretty cool stuff. J was always his favorite letter when he was small so I think he had a good time.
Back with kuh kuh kuh week soon, stay tuned......

Ken Hendricks, Green Candidate?

For those of you who are following Ken Hendricks' run for president, you can check out some new info I've added to his blog, A Better Choice.

>> Thanksgiving Highlights <<

My Thanksgiving post got preempted by the chin injury, so here's a quick late report on how our day went.
We got invited to breakfast at the Bhesanias. When we lived in our last house they were our across the street neighbors. They're wonderful. We had some delicious breakfast with good company. The Bhesania's daughter Amy and her husband Jason are some of our best friends out here, so it was really fun to get to hang out. Their other daughter Tina and her husband were also there along with their 6 yr old Brett. Max and Brett had an absolute blast playing together, and Brett was a really great playmate--really patient and kind to Max.
Brett and Max drinking delicious juice:
Brett, Mehroo and Max:
We played a little ping pong, and then we had to head out to our next appointment!
It took all three boys to play Amy! Next we headed out to the Biggs family thanksgiving get-together. For those of you that don't know, the Biggs family is my great-aunt on my mom's side and her family. They all live out here and it's so nice of them to always involve us in their family events!
We had a great time. Kelly came with us because Lechelle was out of town. It was really fun to get to spend time with Kelly, but we missed Lechelle!
Max really enjoyed the pin-ball machine in Aunt Jeanie's basement. It was tough to get him out of there, even for pie.
Max likes turkey!
Here's Max and his 3rd cousin (is that right mom??) Mallory. I'm afraid he might have taught her a few things her parents may not have wanted her to know--like jumping down multiple stairs at once! I love this picture though.
Later in the evening we went to have desserts with a couple from the ward. They have a 18 month old daughter who adores Max. It was really fun to relax and enjoy just getting to know them a little better. It was nice to have Kelly there too.
We had a great thanksgiving this year, although we missed all of you loved ones we didn't get to see.
We were thinking of you! And now we can say Merry Christmas!!

**You Should See the Other Guy**

So at the end of the BYU vs. Utah game, Max got into a fist fight with an unruly Ute fan. He got a mean uppercut to the chin that resulted in this:
and this:
But you really should see the other guy.

OK, obviously I'm just kidding. Right after the BYU game yesterday Max was walking around with his pants down around his ankles. Kris went over to help him get his pants up--chaos ensued and giggles and shrieks suddenly ended in screams as Max ended up face first on the hard wood floor. It's tough not to end up that way when you jump up in the air and somebody has ahold of your legs.
So he ended up with a split-open chin. I don't have any photos of that, hopefully you understand.
Since it was saturday night, of course we couldn't get ahold of his doctor and ended up at the ER of the local children's hospital. I was afraid we'd end up waiting there for hours, but luckily it was pretty empty and they took us straight in.
Here he is getting a sticker for allowing the nurse to take his temperature orally instead of rectally. yay!
(Thank goodness for Camera-phones or else how would we document our lives??)
They put some topical anesthetic on his chin and let it sit for about 30 or 40 minutes. Luckily there were about 6 sponge-bob episodes on in a row while we were waiting. Otherwise I don't know if we would've made it.

After they thought his chin was numb enough they strapped him down to a "papoose board" and started into working on him.
The doctor seemed pretty new and pretty nervous. Her hands were shaking pretty bad and she was slow. But she did a good job. Kris held Max's legs and Max screamed as loud as he could the whole time. I was holding a towel at about his nose level so that he wouldn't be able to see the doctor working on him, but I got a little woozy three quarters of the way through and had to turn the job over to someone else and sit down.
Once they finished up and let him sit up he was ok. And once they brought him his orange popsicle he was extra ok.
When we left he burst out of the hospital doors yelling, "My chin is FIXED!!!" and Kris said "That is why I want to go into pediatrics. You can be basically killing a kid one minute, and then three minutes later when you're done he's the happiest kid you ever met. That's fun."
I was just glad his chin was fixed. It took three stitches. But that's nothing a little McDonald's can't fix, right?
Ah well, all's well that ends well as they say. I just can't wait until I get to take him to the doctor's to get the stitches out! I'm sure that'll be fun. Wish me luck!

==] Happy Thanksgiving! [==

Here's hoping everybody has a happy and safe thanksgiving, and eats just enough but not too much!
Happy thanksgiving from an indian:
also from a pilgrim:
Also a couple of small turkeys and one big turkey:
If you can't tell it was "thanks" week at Max's school. They talked about what they were thankful for, and pilgrims and indians. They had a big thanksgiving feast today with turkey and yams and cranberries and pumpkin pie. Yum!
This is my favorite thing he did this week though:
After I saw this adorable drawing we walked home from school. I asked him what he was thankful for. He said "my family!" (ohhhhhh!!) Then I asked him if he knew what a family was. He said "Yes, it's mommy and daddy and Max."
That made me so happy!! I love that he knew what he was saying and he meant it. It's amazing! I'm grateful for my family too. Grateful for my Max and Kris.
Happy thanksgiving! Love to you all!