Friday, December 30, 2011

Imagination

Hi All! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It was my dream to get Christmas letters out this year, but the kids have been keeping me busy. In some ways, I think it was easier to blog when the kids were younger; weird to think that when they required constant supervision I actually had more free time.

Anyway, the State of Virginia has mandated that this week be a vacation week (not a "free" vacation -- more like a furlough where I can offset the loss of income by using banked vacation time), but Adam's employer has not been similarly generous, so I have been spending the time trying to keep the kids occupied. This can be a challenge, as you can well imagine. Things we have been doing:

o Playing Scalliwags. If you are not familiar with this game, you can check it out here. The gist of it is that you use different body part cards to create pirates, and when you have enough pirates, you can "set sail"; the only problem is that the other players use event cards to make sure that doesn't happen.

After the second game, the kids got tired of losing, so they cast the game framework aside and just started using the body parts to make funny pirates. The natural extension of this was to start plotting adventures for their funny pirates. This was a good use of time (allowed me to clean up after lunch, to fix dinner, clean up the mess the cat made, etc.), although it has led to rather stilted conversations at dinner ...

Adam: So I got my bonus check today, and --

Xavier: Hey, remember that time when she hit him with the oar, and he fell in and almost drowned?

Gwen: Ha! Ha! And remember how she ended up with a green head after that and how none of them want to go out with her?

Adam: What, was this from Tintin?

Gwen (dismissively): No, Dad, this was from playing Scalliwags today. (Back to Xavier) And remember the time ...

I guess you had to be there.


o Working on the Pinewood Derby cars ... except this was an aborted project when we realized that we won't be able to attend the actual pinewood derby. After massive disappointment, Xavier announced to me today, "Since we can't do the Pinewood Derby, I've decided to use that block of wood to make a sculpture."

Me: Um, okay.

Xavier: Since I've never done this before, I decided to do either Emperor C. C. Caesar or the Korean Empire.

I'll let you know how that goes.

o Going hiking ... except Xavier caught a cold over Christmas and his asthma has been an issue. We did try walking through the neighborhood yesterday, and everything was going fine until a dog behind an invisible fence stalked, lunged for, and growled at Xavier, making him cry, and exacerbating his asthma even more ...

Luckily, we went to Tintin in the afternoon, and Xavier was reassured that while most dogs might go to hell, a few fictional ones might go to heaven.

As with most vacations, I'm sure this one will end with me being happy to get back to work so I can take a break (KIDDING! But software is less likely to fall down the stairs while clowning around.) I hope you all have a wonderful 2012, that it is better than 2011, and that I have more time to blog next year. In the meantime, there are bedrooms to clean (sigh).