Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas and we spent the afternoon at Cara's folks house. We had a nice quiet time there. Opened a few gifts, had a nice big dinner, installed a universal remote. It was also the usual- getting on Leesha's case to leave Jack alone, finish eating, eat with her mouth closed, not speak with her mouth full, enjoying Jack's ever-increasing vocabulary, etc. Leesha got a couple of gifts, but they were two things that she was very very excited about getting.

One was a Webkin dragon. She had been asking for this particular Webkin for a long time, long enough ago that she probably forgot about it. This was also kind of cool, because the dragon is no longer available anywhere other than places like Ebay (which is exactly where we got it).

Webkins are a fantastic marketing ploy, plush animals that include a code that you plug into a webpage and you can navigate your newly purchased animal through an online community featuring games and chats and all sorts of things like that.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an MP3 player that she really wanted. An amazingly cheap little thing that didn't seem to work creating much drama this morning. Leesha is now with her dad and reports that she got it to work. That's good.

Tonight we finish the Doctor Who Christmas Special. We started it last night but put the 2nd half on hold because we were both fading.

Today was all about the Zoo. We were a large clan: David, Darlene, Craig, Tracy, Nathan, Aaron, Cara, Leesha, Jack and me. We met our cousin, Melanie who works at the zoo. She let us in for free!
We saw all the standard stuff plus a 3D movie about dinosaurs which was really good. The gibbons were disappointingly mellow. Watched the dolphin show from the underwater window. I think that may be the best way to see it, actually. Also saw the bird show. Jack stayed awake the whole time. Thank you, Melanie.

Last night, just as I turned out the light in our room I heard the chain-link fence between our yard and the neighbor's. So I went to the window. Our room was completely dark. I watched three guys moving through our yard right by the window that I was looking out. I waited for the first guy to get right next to me and then I yelled "Hey! Get out of our yard!" Ho ho, how that guy jumped! He kind of said something like "Eh!, Sorry, sorry." and they RAN. I couldn't stop laughing.

Best birthday since #9.

T's, Willis West, Capital Ws, CaraJoy's folks. Greg made me two t-shirts- one of Dr. Midnight and the other was Snake-Eyes vs Storm Shadow. Very good Birthday

Willis weekend

Mom and Dad came up to see Jack Elliot (like they did when Simon was born). They stayed at David and Darlene's house. The plan was to have everyone (including Greg and Mandy and Simon) come to our house on today, but...

We lost power last night storm.

So we met for a short time at David and Darlene's house and then continued on to Greg and Mandy's and spent the day/evening there. Very good time. Cogs and Eddie are great and adjusting to Simon very well (except for Cog's need to dominate Eddie occasionally).

LOST

Cara's folks came over for dinner tonight.
I crawled around on the roof cleaning out the gutters with David's help.
LOST was fantastic on cd. We don't watch it on TV anymore. On cd (our DVD player can read DVIX files) its widescreen, clearer than our reception and no commercials.

Snow

We got a ton of snow all yesterday and last night.

I shovelled most of the driveway so we could get our car on the road. Cara is very concerned about how the pregnancy is going and she wanted to go to a clinic today. After she talked with someone they told her to stay home and drink a lot of water. That doesn't seem very good. She became very worried.

Later Cara has calmed down and said she felt fluttering in her. So I guess she's ok.

We gave Catan card game a try. Kind of overwhelming at first, but we sort of got the hang of it.

I just finished shoveling most of the driveway for the 3rd time.

David and Darlene brought us Chinese for lunch.

I finished my book today. That's always a great feeling.

Cara's folks were here for dinner tonight. Leesha was a pill because she's not totally back to normal from being sick and she was hungry.