In which the Year Ends

And really, it's probably about time. In a lot of ways I've managed to avoid most of the problems 2009 presented for everyone else - I kept my job and the economy didn't completely kill us as we live pretty stripped down as it is. But I'm certainly ready for things to return to a more even keel. So, get on that 2010. I suppose a monolith is a little too much to wish for as 2001 presented us with a striking lack of the real thing. Maybe we'll attempt a manned mission to Jupiter just for grins and chuckles. Although I suspect Mars has a little more priority.

Casa del 'd' had a pretty decent Christmas. The kids had a good time (and the adults did too). The girls only got up 3 times before I yelled at them at 4:30 to knock it off. I wouldn't have minded but lovely wife and father-in-law seem to think you're supposed to sleep in on Christmas. Madness I tell you. We managed to get everyone up around 7 and had presents and breakfast and so on.

It's definitely more interesting (for me) having a boy around the house on Christmas. Now we have an excuse to get cool things like race tracks and Nerf guns and Lego and ... well you get the idea. We had a lot of fun putting things together and then playing with them. I can recommend the Shake n Go race track thing (eh ask lovely wife what it's really called) and Nerf guns are pretty fun too. We got to build a fun dragon lego set courtesy of father-in-law.

As a family we got Pitchcar (thanks Dad!) and it remains a lot of fun. We even got lovely wife's Dad to play. And have a good time too. So if you are ever looking for a game that literally just about anybody will play and have a good time with, this is it. It is a little expensive, but so so worth it.

There have probably been some amusing stories in the last couple weeks, but I've got no idea what they are. I learned that the mail room here at the Library is capable of maintaining sub zero temperatures quite nicely and the postage machine will not work in such conditions. Envelopes won't seal, postage stickers will only sort of stick, the ink won't work, you get the idea. And I got to spend most of that day in that room. I wore my coat. It sort of helped. I eventually got feeling back in my hands...

We've seen lots of movies. Alvin and his Merry Chipmunk Friends Make the Goo Goo Eyes at the Conveniently Female Chipmunk Band... err the sequel (I will not write what they're really calling it) was as horrible as you might imagine. Which of course means the kids loved it. Star Trek was still good. Night at the Museum 2 was a lot of fun as was Up. I really liked those last two (which goes to show that kid's entertainment need not alienate the adults).

We've played lots of games. I can recommend New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well as Wii Sports Resort. The archery levels are fun as are the sword fighting levels. Don't much care for the frisbee golf. We'll see if it grows on me any. And I'm having a good time with the new Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Not for kids, but fun for me.

Hopefully you got to spend Christmas with those you love. If not, hopefully next year provides you with those opportunities. I don't really have any profound thoughts to share as this year draws to a close and the next one starts. It happens often enough that we're all pretty used to it by now. The girls will attempt to stay up and ring in the new year, but I think I may just head to bed. So have a great New Year. And get off my lawn.

Oh and a quick resolution. I'm going to try to include more pictures next year. Not of the kids of course, that's crazy talk, but I really hope to put up some pictures of the games we're playing and so on. The kids might be in some of them, but really, since when was this blog about them...