Virtual Babysitting

There's a game on the Wii called "Animal Crossing."  You can create up to 4 characters for your town (and you have 10 animal neighbors).  If someone else has the same game, you can visit each other's towns.  My town is Willowby.  Melissa and Danica play in Dewville.

Danica likes us to play together (from our own homes).  I'll get a phone call, and a sweet little voice says, "My gate is open, Grandma.  You can come visit me."  I've had to get creative in trying to entertain a 5-year-old online in a virtual town with limited options.  Here are some of the things we do.

We go fishing.  Sometimes we're after the same fish, and you never know which one will catch it.
(Danica's character is "Odette" and she's the blond in the tiara.  Mine is "CindyLou" with the dark hair.) 

We can show off fish we've caught.

We can go bug hunting...and we're not even afraid of the dark, or the bugs -- well, except for maybe the scorpion and the tarantula, because they will attack sometimes and knock you out. :-)

We like to show off the bugs we've caught.  Ha, ha...mine is bigger!

 We can listen to the music of K.K. Slider at the local cafe on Saturday nights.

 Or see the art exhibit at the museum, if we're feeling in need of some culture....

....or get up close and personal with the fish at the museum....

....or check out the dinosaur bones.

We occasionally play hide and seek, which can be challenging if we hide indoors.

We can even "talk" to each other.  Danica uses the game's onscreen keyboard, but I got lazy and hooked up a wireless keyboard to the Wii, which makes it so much easier.  Her spelling is quite creative, but I can usually figure out what she's trying to say.

 Grandchildren are the best "invention" ever!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, and best wishes for a great year in 2010!  

(Boy, that makes me feel really old to say "2010"!)

We had a very nice Christmas.  Danica's enthusiasm is catching.  Christmas just isn't the same unless you have small children around. Here are a few pictures:

This is Danica on Christmas Eve.  She likes how curly her hair gets when she's had it in braids.

Clay has been wishing for an artificial Christmas tree for many years.  I finally found one I could live with.  It remains to be seen whether it is more trouble or less than having a real one, since we now have to store it all year.

Here is the very photogenic Dewsnup family.

The girls were excited about Christmas.  Mira wore her Santa hat most of the time, although occasionally it slipped down over her eyes and she got a little perturbed.

Mira had a unique way of opening Christmas gifts!

I don't think she noticed the toys inside, but she sure enjoyed the wrapping paper.

She wanted to help Uncle Neil open his gift.

Mira is checking out the tree, and eating the Nativity scene.

Melissa had mentioned that she'd like one of those inexpensive flat cheese graters, and Neil "ran with it."  He bought a variety of graters and wrapped them separately, but after opening a couple, the element of surprise was missing.

Neil and Nathan joined in the festivities.

Yes, these are really my gifts, not Danica's, but we're really going to enjoy "playing Barbies" together.  I've got quite a toy collection at my house.  My grandkids are certainly never going to be bored when they come to visit!

Danica was very excited by the new Disney princess, and she hasn't even seen the movie yet.

One of Clay's favorite holiday traditions is to watch the Harry Potter movies.  Here he is enjoying the latest one.

I am very grateful to have been surrounded by my wonderful family today!

She Stands

Mira has recently discovered the joys of standing.  I think it makes her feel tall, like she's one of the "big people" now.

Mira had her eye on that jigsaw puzzle.  But she was too late--Melissa, Danica and Clay had already finished putting it together.

So she just played with the box.  

I played the same game with Danica that I used to play with Melissa when she was the same age--after a puzzle is all done, I take about 10 random pieces out and see how long it takes her to put them back in.  It wasn't much of a challenge for Danica.  She had them back in within just a few moments.

 

Danica takes very good care of her little sister.

We feel very blessed to be able to spend time with our wonderful granddaughters.

Fun with Friends

We are part of a group of friends that have held a monthly potluck for many years. The December potluck is extra special because in addition to the usual wonderful food and good conversation, we participate in that traditional bonding ritual known as the "white elephant gift exchange." This can get quite adversarial at times (all in good fun, of course), but tonight was fairly mild. I guess we're getting soft as we get older!

Unlike some other versions of the game, we do not open any presents until all of them have reached their final destination, which happens when someone gets tired of stealing a gift from someone else and chooses the last gift from underneath the tree. In our version, a gift can be picked 3 times before it is "dead" and cannot be stolen any more. Our sometimes intense competition for a gift is based solely on how it looks and "feels" when shaken.

This beauty came across my lap rather early in the process, but alas, it was not meant to be mine permanently.


After the "stealing" portion is done, it's time to open up the gifts and see what we've been fighting for.
Bruce was properly enthusiastic about his "Skin So Soft" lotion.


Judy was happy to support the Springfield High School Millers.


ShamWow! and De-Icer were practical gifts for Julie.


Craig is not sure what he's going to do with Sylvester.


Would you believe there was an entire lamp post in this box? Well at least a miniature one.


Kyle is still smiling because he hasn't opened his present yet!


LeAnn got someone else's unfinished project to work on, because she has so much spare time, you know.


Warner got properly excited about his Christmas tree candle.


Virginia liked her snowman Christmas card display tree.....


.....once she and Warner figured out how to assemble it (which took a lot of concentration).


And here is Carol opening the one that got away from me.


Darn! I really coulda used that fish bank. :)


But I didn't go away empty-handed. I got a genuine Coconut Bank from Hawaii!!!! (Kinda scary, isn't it?)


Oh, well. At least it came with a moose! :)

More Randomness

My blogging seems to be getting pulled in different directions, just like my life -- I keep starting projects then getting sidetracked with something else, and nothing ever gets done.

So here are a few completely random photos.

First, it is a well known fact that I'm not a "crafty" person, never have been and never will be. Apparently the solution is to stick to projects suited for a 5-year-old. Melissa and Danica invited me over to make pine cone turkeys, and we had a fun time (see Melissa's blog for more details). I'm kinda proud of how my turkey family turned out.



Danica has fun making elaborate houses for the Littlest Pet Shop animals (please note that these are Grandma's toys, not Danica's) LOL



I like the fact that Google occasionally honors special events, birthdays and anniversaries with a modification of their logo. Since Cookie Monster has always been one of my favorites, I was excited to see this cute one for Sesame Street's anniversary.



We have a very good, very easy chili recipe made from tomatoes, tomato sauce and 4 different kinds of beans. After rinsing out the cans to be recycled, I decided to stack them up for fun, and called it the "Leaning Tower of Chili" i.e. from Leaning Tower of Pisa ("Pizza") to Leaning Tower of Chili -- yeah, I know it's a "stretch" but that's how my brain works.



Lastly, in honor of the Thanksgiving feast, I offer for your consideration "HOW PUMPKIN PIES ARE MADE". I got this in an email from my friend Cathy. I thought it was funny, but some may disagree.

Note that the book he is reading is "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Texas."

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Oh Happy Day!

My boss Arlene is really into the Hawaiian culture, and several weeks ago she offered me some tickets to a program of songs and dances of Hawaii, which I was interested in seeing, and Clay agreed to go. However........


Neither one of us realized it would be taking place at the same time as an Oregon Ducks football game.


Then why is he so happy, you might ask?


He has just discovered that the game is being broadcast on an FM station of the MP3 player I threw in my purse at the last moment (even though we both thought it was only broadcast on an AM station, which my player does not get). The game went into double overtime, so Clay was entertained throughout most of a fairly long program -- he said he was "multi-tasking" as he could listen to the game and watch the dancing at the same time!

So, we both had an enjoyable evening!

I took mostly movies of the dances, so here are just a couple of pictures..


These little girls were very cute.



Here are a few clips from some dances, in case you're interested (I threw this together really fast, so not very professionally done).


Oh, the Ducks won the game, by the way! :)