Playing Games

Bastian and I are playing Tier auf Tier on this lazy Sunday afternoon. To determine who goes first, the instructions say "Whoever can balance on one foot like a flamingo for the longest time starts the game." Between Bastian and I, I can stand on one foot the longest. I won. Now we're to play another game.

Holiday Countdown Day 17

December 17 - Make or buy an ornament for each family member related to a significant experience from the past year.

This is a new tradition that I can't understand why I didn't think of it before. What a lovely way to grow a meaningful collection of ornaments! Our neighbor friend does this, which is where I took my inspiration. For Aleks, I knew exactly what to buy - a bone to signify his bone graft - though in retrospect I'm not sure how much he'd like to remember the year this way. I guess it's all about me. We found an ornament in the shape of a bone a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that I knew this activity was coming, so we should get a head-start on our browsing. It's supposed to be a dog bone, I suppose, but it works nevertheless.

Jon came home one day last week with his all picked out. I had spent a lot of time in stores trying to think of what could represent his finishing his PhD. He figured it out while buying a soda at the school book shop.

We had trouble deciding what might represent something that Bastian did or enjoyed or learned this year. His warming up to the homeschool co-ops didn't seem wholly positive. He hasn't quite learned to read, though he's getting the hang of letters (and numbers for that matter) like a boss. He didn't start riding on two wheels. He liked to play a lot of video games though. A lot. I just couldn't stomach that though. And then it hit me - the other thing he really did genuinely enjoy this year that was all him was board games. He loves board games. Finding a ready-made board game ornament was tough though. Wheel of Fortune didn't count to me. So I had to make one. One of his favorite games is Othello. So I got some wooden tags and painting a teeny tiny Othello board.

We glittered up the edges and back to make it properly fancy.

I still had no idea what to get for me. Everything I've been doing is pretty much the same stuff I've been doing. Except maybe teaching Stop Animation, but still. I thought about finding a vegetable ornament to represent my ascension to full manager of City Fresh, but I couldn't find one and it didn't feel quite right. We saw a yarn ball ornament, but it was way overpriced when I knew I could make one easily. I'm not sure I did quite enough knitting this year to really warrant it, either (though I did finish my first lace pattern). Then, a friend showed me this tutorial for a golden snitch ornament, and I knew we had a winner. Yes, the most significant event of my year was the last Harry Potter movie. Go ahead, scoff.

The ornament ended up being quite a pain in the butt. Shaping wire is not my forte, for one. Secondly, no matter what the tutorial says, Fabri-tac is not necessarily a guarantee for making those wings stay on. One of my wings keeps falling and I'm thinking the only solution may be glass glue. Which I will get to...later. After all the other Christmas stuff I have yet to do.

Holiday Countdown Day 14

December 14 - Make Lego snowmen (and maybe other types of snowmen as well).

I got this stupid snowman kit at the craft store because it was cheap and easy. All you do is glue the pieces together, so it's not really creative, but at least this way they were able to do more than one type of snowman. Especially considering how long it took Aleks to put the Lego Snowman head together. We don't own quite enough white Lego bricks, as luck would have it.

I still think it looks great.

Holiday Countdown Day 13

December 13 - Make gummies.

Aleks has wanted to learn more about candy making for awhile. I'm no candy-maker, and I'm not certain what his exact aim in all of it is, but I agreed to put making gummies on the countdown list, thinking we'd maybe give some away as gifts. I found a tutorial on Instructables (actually, there were several, but this seemed the simplest and most to bring about the desired consistency). It was certainly a rare event for me to be headed to the grocery to buy Jello, but I got a large box of cherry, which we used about half of in combination with non-flavored gelatin.

First, you mix the two with water in a Pyrex measuring cup. Let sit for ten minutes to allow the gelatin to absorb all the water. Then place the cup in a saucepan of water to double boil the mix and allow it to melt into a pourable consistency. This takes awhile. Aleks did the stirring and almost had a disaster when he fell off his chair. Luckily, it all worked out and no one was injured, though we were all startled.

We poured this into a bred pan (which I lined with plastic wrap, just to make it easier to get out, though I'm not sure that I needed to. Putting it in the freezer as the tutorial recommended did help quite a bit in speeding up the hardening process.

They look like Jello, but they are quite a bit harder, I swear. The boys ate them all before noon the next day. So alas, no one will receive any. They weren't that great and I'm sure there are better ways of doing it. Using Jello as the flavoring might have been just too much gelatin, though the other recipes I read which called for fruit juice didn't seem to have the consistency we desired. Clear juices I think help with clarity of the end result. The other thing is that this recipe didn't make that many. I'm not real anxious, however, to make a big batch any time soon.

Holiday Countdown Day 11

December 11 - Build a gingerbread house (or rice crispy tree house, as the case may be).

We got out our rice crispy treat house kit and set to work. First we had to make the crispy rice mix, melting the marshmallows.

We pressed the treat mix into molds and hoped it would all work out. It was both easier and more difficult than I'd imagined. It was also sticky. I helped the boys get the structure going and they decorated the house. Aleks made a Skyrim dovakiin figure out of the remaining crispy rice treat mix. This was instead of the recommended reindeer, penguin, or snowman. It turned out pretty well, actually.

Once finished, the house immediately began to collapse. Marshmallow may not be the most reliable structural element, it turns out. The boys ate bits of it throughout the next day and Jon composted the rest of it in the evening. So that was short lived. Fun and sugary sweet, however.

Holiday Countdown Day 10

December 10 - Have a fancy dinner with china, silver, candlelight, and guests.

We invited our friend Heather over for our fancy dinner. It was very fancy. The kids and I cleaned in preparation while Jon went to a department holiday party. I taught Aleks how to dust while Bastian vacuumed. Aleks had determined the menu. He wanted raw oysters and salmon steaks with buttered broccoli. I bought sparkling lemonade and champagne, nice cheeses, assorted olives (including Aleks' favorite, garlic stuffed), and a pre-maid key lime tart. Jon pan-seared the salmon individually and we placed them on a bed of rice pilaf. We steamed broccoli and slathered it with some of our homemade butter.

The table was set with crystal candelabras, my newly-inherited China made in 1940s occupied Japan, real silverware (also newly-inherited), and stained cloth napkins, which was unnoticeable in the dark. Classical music was piped out of the computer.

Aleks wore a sports jacket, Bastian a sweater, and I a hand-me-down studded halter dress which Aleks asked about being made of mithril. We toasted sparkling beverages and were all so full that dessert was postponed until long after dishes.

Aleks ate most of the oysters, FYI.

I didn't get any photos, but our javelina, decked out for the holidays, watched over us while we ate.

Holiday Countdown Day 9

Due to scheduling conflicts, we had to switch Days 9 and 10. Thus, Day 9...

December 9 - Have a Mad Hatter tea party with friends.

We invited the neighbor girls over to join us. We had the latest version of Alice in Wonderland playing in the living room. We had four or five different tea sets on the table. Bastian and I made a chocolate beet cake for snacking.

Then, as we were getting ready, Aleks decided he wanted to be the White Rabbit. I had said we would dress up, but I figured we'd just wear whatever, not necessarily dress as characters from the books/movies. Besides, I didn't have Alice in Wonderland costumes. Then I went digging and came up with some. We made Aleks' ears out of quilt batting. Bastian's knight tunic fit nicely as a playing card.I knew that the neighbors' parents had been the Mad Hatter and Alice for Halloween last year, so I called her up and told her to pull out the costumes. Melody was the Mad Hatter.
Kallie was Alice.
I think I'm going to get Aleks into some of the theatre courses in our co-ops. He's really naturally inclined toward imitation.
Kallie and Bastian went digging for one of the cats' mice toys to put in a tea pot on the table, but couldn't find any. We have a mouse-themed matroska set though.

The Queen of Hearts is quite lonely when she's had everyone's head chopped off.