Five

Happy Birthday Ellie!  Today... did not go as planned.  At all.  Originally I wanted to give Ellie her first ever birthday party with her little girlfriends over.  Well, I am only aware of three that exist and all three couldn't come.  Ellie swears there is a girl named "Winter" in her dance class, but last time I was there, I heard their teacher call every other name BUT Winter.  I wonder how many times this poor little girl has said, "Ellie, that's not my name."  Ha!  SO!  I thought it would be nice to send her off on a Daddy Daughter date during the day.  Well.  Joe ended up having to leave town for the day for work.  So THEN I thought, I will take her out while the boys are at school.  I have a friend who owns a bunch of farm animals and horses and she has offered to take us out horseback riding a bunch of times, so I jumped on that.  I even lined up a sitter for Zoe.  Well.  Not only did Jackson get sick and have to stay home from school, but my friend with the horses also got sick.  SO!  I figured, all Ellie really wants is to just feel special and spend some time with her Mommy, right?  So, I decorated her door with balloons and streamers and  wrapped up some sugar cereal for her to open in the morning.  After breakfast, I told her to take a bath and gave her another gift to open beforehand---a bath toy to play with in the tub.  When she got out I gave her another gift to open before she got ready---a birthday outfit.  And then I did her hair and nails and snapped a couple shots.  I wanted to do a full photoshoot, but she was DONE!  So we went to the grocery store and I allowed her to pick out some snacks and treats for us to enjoy after lunch.  And then we made some Koolaid flavoured lip gloss.  And by "we" I mean me.  And it took 30 seconds.  She wasn't that into it.  After that I thought she might want to paint with me, because I never let her paint.  It's always such a mess.  Well, she chose video games with Jackson.  Ha!  And because it was her birthday and I was exhausted, I let it happen!

We then did a family party at McDonalds.  McDonalds is kind of great because you got to bring your gang, make a mess, and leave.  But I did a bad thing.  Late last night I was trying to find some last minute birthday ideas to make Ellie's day a little more special, so I went on Pinterest (that's where I got the lip gloss making idea).  Pinterest is kind of the devil when it comes to feeling good about yourself and your plans for your child's party.  I don't even think my wedding reception was as fancy as some of these themed birthday parties!  Sheesh!  But at least I had a theme!  It was Wildstyle from the Lego Movie.  And the only thing that made it that theme was that Ellie wore all black like Wildstyle and she had two Wildstyle Lego gifts AND a card.  I was going to do a cake with Wildstyle's face on it, but when we were at the grocery store picking up ingredients I asked Ellie if she'd like a Wildstyle cake or a cake with whipped cream and cherry pie filling, ...and she chose the latter.  In the end she didn't even want to eat it.  Zoe helped her out though.  Zoe couldn't get enough of that cake.  She kept trying to eat it before dinner, and then she managed to eat not only her piece but the piece that Ellie left behind as well!  Anywho, Ellie seemed happy enough with her day.  After opening all the gifts I asked her which one was her favourite, ...now mind you, I spent some money on some of these gifts she had actually asked for, but the one she loved most was a $3 dollar tea set from the Dollar Store.  When will I learn my lesson?  Anywho, here's a hideous picture of our extravagant Pinterest party!  Along with a few more from the evening.  Matt came in place of Charlie (Charlie was out of town with Tarilyn and Bash.  Boo!).

Ellie, yesterday you were wearing a pair of your favourite size 4 purple track pants that have very suddenly become two inches too short.  When did this happen?  A year ago on this day we were also in a McDonald's Play Place (you like McDonald's) in Burlington with your friends and it is hard to believe a year has already come and gone.  I wonder if this is just what happens when you get older like me.  Every day seems like a blink and you are just willing for things to slow down.  Although some days I feel like I am still trying to figure you out, I WILL say that you are a sweet and good girl AND very smart.  Dad sat down with you to work on this LEGO set and he showed you how the instructions worked and you totally got it AND were even quick at figuring it out!  I am so impressed!  You are also getting really good at sounding out simple words (with some help) and you are even starting to spell things out phonetically.  Honestly, you will probably be so bored in Kindergarten.  You love to draw, draw, draw.  It helps that you have older brothers who love to draw as well, so sometimes you kids will be up at the table drawing and creating stories with your drawings for hours.  You will even do this on your own while the boys are at school.  You can't wait for school and now that you're five, you think it's your turn now, ...so I got to do some explaining that it will be a while yet.  You especially love to make cards now that you can "spell" and have a passion for the arts.  You also have a sneaky side to you these days.  We have way too many electronic games that you can get your hands on, so if it's not the iPad, it's the iPhone, or the WiiU or the computer or the XBOX.  We have had to start password protecting some of these things because in the middle of the night you will sneak by our bedside, steal the iPad and take it to bed with you and play for who knows how long!  I think we are passed that phase now that you have discovered that our phones and iPads are password protected.  But it hasn't stopped you from turning on a game of Minecraft when you're supposed to be sleeping (the XBOX is in your room)!  You don't do it all the time, but more than once we have discovered you this way and Dad has had to unplug it before bed.  We also have a time limit on the electronics during the day and you always find a way to trick me into thinking that you are playing with actual toys and using your imagination, when really, you're hiding behind the couch playing the WiiU on the mini game controller.  Oh man.  Your Dad and I have NO idea what to do with you because although you get sad about getting caught, you will still do it the next day.  Or the next minute.  We are trying different things with you (time-out and taking away privileges do NOT work), and I think the thing that seems to work best (which is essentially common sense) is giving you more attention and positive praise.  You are such a sweet and pleasant girl (and more obedient) when we make that more of a focus.   Your interests these days (other than drawing and getting into trouble with electronics) is dressing up, watching your favourite show "Zig and Sharko," helping me bake in the kitchen, bossing Zoe around, and being a cat.

I love you Ellie!  Happy 5th Birthday!

Auditions!

As you read my title, I hope you will sing it like the song "Tradition!" from the Musical, "Fiddler on the Roof."  Musicals have been my life.  Or, more specifically, MY musical has been my life these days.  I have not slept for many moons.  Many.  Many.  Many moons.  Because of the day I was anticipating yesterday.  Auditions for my Musical!  So so so anxious about what kind of a turn out I would have.  Would I find the right people for each character?  I didn't realize how talented my cast would need to be as I heard a few people sing and thought, "not good enough for Senorita!" (Or insert whatever name).  And I was especially fretting about having enough talented men come out that I forgot to focus on finding talented women!  There were so many women interested in auditioning that I didn't bother trying to hand pick.  I just expected that we would find SOMEONE from the day of auditions.  Well, the men blew the women out of the water!  Each man that auditioned, I kept wondering, "where am I going to put you?  We only have three male leads!"  And I know there is the ensemble, but honestly, each man that came through deserved a leading role.  As for the women, there were just not enough that blew us away.  Some that would be good enough, but no stands outs.  Towards the mid-end of rehearsals, I started getting nervous that we wouldn't find what we needed that day (and rehearsals start next week!  Talk about stressful!).  Senorita is Hispanic.  Um.  She needs to have an accent.  Well, no one could do one.  (I know I can't.  Mine always turns British.  Or Asian.  Or anything but Spanish).  Until Susanna Bezooyen stepped in.  After being disheartened by earlier auditions, one of us asked flippantly if she could do a Spanish accent.  And she went off!  She blew us away!  She was perfect.  My heart leapt and I had faith again!  It was like a movie---the climactic 11th hour where we were so far away from what we needed and then boom!  We are saved!  And this wasn't the only experience I had that day.  There were many throughout the day where I had goosebumps, or we all laughed out loud because someone just wowed us to death.  And there were definitely some comical experiences that weren't meant to be comical, but when you are sitting on a panel with a group of awesome/funny ladies and you are nearing the end of auditions and are starting to get loopy, things can get especially funny!  I will say that most people were respectably talented, but there were the odd few where I had trouble not smiling.  It makes me glad that we were able to keep auditions to ONE day.  Even though it was kind of the funnest day I've had in a long time---it was exhausting.  Exhausting, but SO fun.  Can I just tell you how excited I am about my team?  I have Jayna Butler co-directing with me, and Kelly Stebner and Gill Stebner as my choreography team!  Talk about a blast!  We laughed so hard all day!  And each of these women are so talented!  I feel so spoiled to be able to surround myself with such amazingly gifted and upbeat friends.  Our new "team cheer" is a line from "Welcome to 1934" that we heard over and over that day because they used that song for choreo (Kelly's fav line), "this must be God's wrath!"  Yes, it was a long day and we were over-tired.  But it was funny to us.  At the time.

The only thing that worries me at this point is having drop outs.  Right now, everything is perfect.  The people we have chosen for the leads are just too perfect.  If they had to drop out for one reason or another the first few weeks into rehearsals, I think it would crush me.  One of my faults is fretting about future things that may not even happen and that I have no control over!  SO.  I need to take a breath and focus on what I can control.  Sleep is NOT one of those things right now.  Nor do I think it will be for the next two months.  We've jumped up rehearsals two weeks, so we get to start right away.  That makes me a little nervous because I'm not sure I feel totally prepared, but if I am being honest with myself, I don't think I would feel totally prepared if we waited two weeks anyway!  So let's get started!  Here's to a very good and fun and exciting start to my "limitless year!"  I am learning much already and have so far to go.  But I know I can!

A Letter To My Grandmas

I was just catching up on my friend's blog and read about how her Grandma recently passed away.  It brought tears to my eyes for her loss because I know they were close.  She wanted to say a few words to her at her gravesite, but couldn't.  So she wrote a letter.  Probably something I would do because I am sure she wouldn't understand me through my blubbering.  My Grandma Nelson passed away from breast cancer when my Mom was eight so I never met her.  And my Grandma Ord passed away from Alzheimers when I was too young to remember ever meeting her.  I remember my Dad sitting on his bed crying the day he found out though.

To my Grandmas, I would like to write a letter.

I have never met you but sometimes I feel like I know you.  I know you through my parents.  Grandma Ord, you look like Jenny, which must mean there's a little of me in there somewhere too since everyone to this day still thinks we are twins.  You were also the first and only woman who graduated from university in optometry in your class.  That is rad.  You are a go-getter and I feel bits of that in me sometimes.  Feel free to give me more of that!  Grandma Nelson, you used to sing with Grandpa at the piano while my Mom looked up at the two of you singing together from under the piano bench.  I love envisioning that in my mind.  It is very romantic and I absolutely love romance.  I also love music.   And when I married into Joe's family and inherited two sets of grandparents, I felt overwhelmed.  I didn't really know how to act or what to do, but there are bits in each of my grandmas that I love that I imagine are in you.  Grandma Marie Burnham may be on top of the whole service thing, immaculate house thing, making perfect dinners thing (she even has a Marie Burnham cook book) and propriety thing, but get her talking about her early love life and the spunk/sass comes out!  Grandma Hazel Gibb is a hard-working farm girl and is kind and sweet and has a twinkle in her eye.  That twinkle often makes me wonder how my relationship with both of you would have been.  Would we have been close?  Would I not be as awkward around old people as I am now?  Would I recognize your actions and voice in me?  There are some days that I am truly sad that I missed out on enjoying the experience of "going to Grandma's for Christmas" or for anything.  But there is much to look forward to.  I look forward to knowing you better one day.  We have many stories to share.  For now, I take comfort in enjoying the grandparents I have now and find joy in knowing I will meet you Grandma Nelson one day, and Grandma Ord, though I may not remember you and you may not remember me, I will see you again.

I love you both.

Your Granddaughter,

Maren

Zoe's Hair

I have gotten more comments on Zoe's hair than I can count.  It's so curly!  It's so long!  It's so long and curly.  One day Christie made a passing comment, "I wonder what it would look like straightened?"  Ha.  Oh yes.  I had to try this.  So later that day I gave Zoe a bath, blew her hair dry for the first time in her life while brushing it out.  She hated every minute of it.  Tried escaping the entire time.  And she looked like a 70's diva.  After that process it was time for the straightener.  Not happy with that part either!  I had to section out her hair so that I actually got every single piece.  The whole process took about 40 sweaty minutes or so.  More than a two year old (or the Mom of that two year old) would like.  But here are the pics of her transformation....  (She looks a little like Fabio).


Did it stay straight you ask?  Not a chance!  All she had to do was have one sweaty nap and her hair was wavy and curly again.  Well, that was a couple months ago, and her hair has grown considerably since.  The last few weeks I have been feeling like there is just no way I can keep up with it.  Often I don't even bother attempting to put a brush through that mop because it is, well... a mop.  A crusty, snaggedy-raggedy mop.  All she has to do to un-tame her one beauty is eat or sleep.  (I promise, I am just quoting "Little Women" here because I thought it would be funny, not because I think it's true!).  Which is what most people need to do every day.  "Do I have to leave the house today?  No?  Sweet."  And I put the brush away.  Or, "Let's put on a toque. And leave it on.  Forever."  If I wanted an easier experience with attacking her curls I'd have to essentially give her a bath every time.  Honestly it's just easier than a spray bottle these days.  And she poops 80% of the time in the tub.  Still!  Every time I put her in that darn tub she reminds me, "A-no poopin' in da tub! Only poopin' in da toilet Mom!" Yes. Yes, please do that this time.  People.  It was time.  It was time to cut it all off!  Her first real hair cut (Aside from the three I gave her as a baby just to even out the Raggedy Anne's).  And I was terrified of what it would do to her tight curls at the bottom because her hair was starting to get more flat on top (likely because of the weight).  I was going to ask Tarilyn to do the honours, but I felt bad about sending my two year old to her place and hoping that she'd actually sit still for the process.  Plus it's winter and the roads are nasty.  SO!  Being as this is my year of being "limitless" I decided to check out some "how to" clips on YouTube.  I cut the rest of my kids hair all the time, but curly hair is WAY different.  And I found the clips to be very helpful.  I did everything they showed and managed to slice off a necessary 4 inches of hair!  I am SO happy with the outcome.   Can I just say, learning these sorts of things on my own and doing them gives me such a sense of empowerment.  I did this!!  Not sure I could say that if I wasn't happy with the outcome, but since I am, I will.  She looks like a mini-Shirly Temple.  And I want to eat her.  Honestly, if I straightened it again, it would likely still be pretty darn close to the same length of the above pics so I know it won't be long until she is back in that chair watching "Bubble Guppies."  Bless "Bubble Guppies!"  It took me about 45 minutes and she was still for the whole thing.  I have NOT had such luck in the past with other kids.  And thankfully I had nothing to worry about with her hair losing its curl.  It is most definitely not going anywhere.  And our brushing sessions from here on out will be much, MUCH shorter!   ...Until she's in that chair again.

Limitless

This weekend I drove into Calgary with Jenny to have a post-Christmas "Favourite Things" Party at Alysha Sladek's brand spankin' new massive and beautiful house.  Well.  The roads were terrible.  No ice, but the visibility was incredibly stressful.  So essentially, that deterred our Edmonton and Cardston friends from joining us girls (Sarah joined us though).  The selfish side of me wished they had braved it, but the wise side of me was glad they didn't try.  We still had a great time playing games and hanging out, but at one point in the night we decided to Skype each other.  The Edmonton girls all got together at Barb Butler's and it was sad at first knowing that they should have been in the same room as us, but we managed and still had a good laugh playing Two Truths and a Lie.  You can learn a lot about a person playing that game.  Mine were: I rode in the back of a police car, I said the H-word yesterday, and I am wearing black nail polish (*answer at the bottom).  We also talked about New Years Resolutions.  The Edmonton girls were drawing tattoos on their arms of one word that describes what they want to accomplish this year.  I loved that idea, so us four in Calgary decided to find a word as well.  Some people used, "simplify" or "nourish" or "discover" but the word that kept coming back to me was "limitless."  Sometimes I feel limited.  I can't do this because I didn't start doing that as a kid (like dance class for example), or because I haven't taken lessons or been to school, or it's not my natural ability, etc.  This is my year of no limitations.  If I really want to do something, I am going to find a way to do it.  It is always so easy to find excuses to not get something done.  I'm too old, I could never start now.  I have too many kids with too many schedules.  I don't have enough schooling or experience.  Well.  That's not going to stop me this year.  Yes, I am being inspired by the fact that my musical is FINISHED!  I am going to workshop it this Spring.  Already I have worries.  I can make a lot of excuses as to why I should not put this Musical on stage.  I don't know if it's good enough, or funny/clever enough.  I am putting myself in a very vulnerable position by putting myself out there and it's kind of a scary thing.  I don't know if I'll make a good director.  Will people take me seriously?  I don't know if I'll have the cast I hope I will, or ENOUGH of a cast that will be committed to rehearsals.  I don't want to drive an hour twice a week to Edmonton and back on snowy roads.  What if the roads are bad?  What if I can't find a babysitter for my kids on those days when Joe is not in town to help me out?  What if my pianist backs out last minute?  What if I can't find a male lead that is strong enough?  Well.  There is always going to be a reason as to why something should be pushed back, so I am not allowing anything to stop me.  I will work with what I have and I will do it now.  I feel like Veruca, the golden-egg girl from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, "Don't care how, I want it NOW!"  Haha!  But this is less about me getting what I want, and more about my perseverance and determination to do and follow through with what I would like to accomplish.  Life is boring if you're not stretching yourself and finding new ways to rediscover yourself.  Who knows what I am capable of!  So.  This year I will be limitless.

*(Lie: Nail polish.  Truths: I was peer pressured into stealing candy at Mac's when I was eight, and got caught.  So the officer drove me home in the back of his police car.  And I have never sworn in my life.  Not until I started having children.  Haha!  It takes a whole heck of a lot of NO SLEEP and annoying/stressful situations to get a swear out of me.  No one was in the room though.  Except for God.  I am a sinner!).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year y'all. We had a great Christmas at the Burnhams this year.  Not sure where else we'd go since we live in their basement, but alas, it was a fun Christmas.  I thought it would be much busier but most siblings had another place to stay the night, so it was pretty much just Nicole and Bobby sharing the house with us, with the exception of Christmas Eve.  Now that was a fun night!  We went to the Old Folks home to put on a little Christmas Program.  Our family sang "Silent Night" again.  It was a little hilarious.  So.  In my last post, remember when I said Noah was begging to sing first?  Well, I let him.  But it kind of messes Ellie up because she has a hard time figuring out what note to come in on.  In our practicing, she would come in lower than the note she was supposed to, so I told her to think high.  Much higher than the note she was starting with.  Well.  She took my advice to a T and came in REALLY high.  Haha!  Oh it was cute.  I will say, although it feels good to serve, I kind of missed having our own little quiet Nativity with the kids and acting out all the parts.  But experiences like that are good for us too.  Afterwards, we all opened our pjs from the elves.  I have lots of pictures of Christmas day, but nothing from Christmas Eve as my camera battery was dead.  I checked it that morning and it was fine and within hours it was dead.  Sad.  Anywho, there is a new gift-giving tradition in the Burnham household that we got to partake of this year.  After all the kids went to bed, we did a white elephant gift exchange.  But instead of silly gifts, we did awesome gifts and each spent about $40 bucks per person (not couple).  I was so anxious because I knew what Celeste was giving for her gift and I wanted it so badly, but then Christie said she was going to fight me to the death for it.  So that made me even more anxious!  Celeste has a real talent in crocheting and she made a cowell neck animal hood for a little girl.  Well, thankfully Christie went before me and picked a different gift, and I chose the right one!  No one tried stealing it (maybe it was because I was growling at anyone that came near me.  Ha!  Take that!), thank goodness!  But what anxiety!!  So, not only did I win her cowell neck hood, I also scored a ton of chocolate and candy.  I swear that gift was catered to me (there's a pic of Zoe wearing it below).  Matt chose Mitchell's gift and we all knew it was going to be good when he started giggling.  But the rules are if you touch the gift, it is yours to open, you can't change your mind!  So, he opened up a 5-pound gummy bear!  Disgusting!!  We all had a little bite of it and it wasn't the same as the regular gummy bears, but funny nonetheless.  I just can't believe he spent $40 bucks on it.  Ha!  Oh.  I almost forgot the best part.  Food.  Instead of turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, the Burnhams do fondue.  And instead of Joe and Christie and Colette in the kitchen all night, each sibling was in charge of a meat and a sauce along with crackers, cheese, fruit and veggie-trays.  Oh so good.  Then before bed, the ones who weren't light-weights played "Werewolf."  I could have played that all night.  What a fun game.  Mitchell and Christie are hilarious to play with.  And everything is funnier when you're tired of course.

Anywho, here are some pictures of Christmas morning.  Zoe was not very happy as the sickness that has been going around the house was sticking around longer with her than anyone else unfortunately.  So, she didn't enjoy Christmas as much as I had hoped.  She was at least snuggly though.   I was pretty much in charge of Christmas gifts this year (well, I guess that's me every year generally), which is a little stressful as the kids get older and larger in number because I worry about fairness and who has what, and is this child going to be jealous of that child and did I get enough with our tiny budget?  Well, this year we had one Santa gift, one Jolly Holly gift, a big gift from me and Joe and they each got a book.  This was also the first year that the kids exchanged names and we took them out one by one to buy gifts for each other with their own money that they had to save up.  It was really cute watching them decide what to give.  Jackson was generous with his money and went over the budget to get something for Noah that he knew Noah really wanted (a Minecraft book).  And Noah was very selective about what he thought Zoe might like (dress up accessories from the Dollar Store).  And it was the best watching them watch the other child open their gift.  A great new dynamic to opening gifts on Christmas morning.  I never know if it's all going to be enough, but between stocking stuffers and Grandma and Grandpa gifts, it was most certainly enough.  Noah got a Zoomer dog.  He specifically asked for a brown, white and back one.  Well.  I didn't even know they made those and then magically one appeared in the store and Santa must have picked it up for him!  He also asked for a bag of diamonds because he wanted to be rich, but unfortunately Santa passed on that.  I think the winning gift was the Smithsonian one he got from Jolly Holly (our elf that keeps the kids in line.  Can't I have her all year round?), where he gets to chip away at a rock for treasures. Jackson got a Kidizoom watch and a magic set.  Zoe got a little kitty that walks and meows (she giggles with each movement, it's adorbs), and Ellie asked for a ginormous pink unicorn.  Well, the ones online were not cheap, so I had just so happened to mention this to my friend Renee that I visit teach and she happened to have one that was in storage and no longer being loved.  Well.  It most certainly is being loved now!  She also asked for a American Doll, and I searched far and wide for a knock off (which was still not that cheap, but definitely more affordable), and she does not even touch it.  Maybe she knows it's a knock off.  Ha!  Her favourite gift was a dollar store crown and wand from Zoe.  Figures.  We spent the day lounging around and playing with our new toys and took a break to play in the church gym.  It was too cold this week to go outside, but we got some sledding in before Christmas and swimming in after.  Otherwise, we've kind of just been sticking to the house, playing games and eating lots of junk.  The perfect Christmas if you ask me!  Here are some pictures from our Christmas day!

All year long I've been working on writing and illustrating this children's book. I had the idea a while ago and thought I would just go ahead and do it.  As children we would beg my Dad to tell our favourite bed-time story, "My Ivory Soap."  It was an Alan Ord original.  And each night it was a little different, but it always involved me, Sarah, Doug and Jenny and a lot of incredible vocal dynamics.  Instead of using my siblings as characters, I decided to use my own kids and pass down the story-telling tradition.  They immediately wanted to read it, so here we are Christmas morning as Jackson is reading to us.  I started illustrations a year ago, and I'm glad I did or I would have never finished before Christmas.  Some people can just whip drawings together, but it took me a while (actually it was the colouring that took the longest).  I've never done cartoons before, so figuring out how I wanted each child to look was a challenge.  A super fun challenge.  And a lot of youtubing videos on how to draw cartoons.  Ha!  Another project done.  Now what?

I look tired. Tired and make-up-less.  Because I am.  In my pjs too.  Just as it should be.  This was such a fun Christmas (minus the sickness---I guess it could have been a lot worse though).  Looking through all of these pictures makes me sad that Christmas is already over.  And looking out my imaginary window because I am in the windowless basement right now, I am even more sad because of the big fat dump of snow we got this weekend along with minus 30 weather.  January.  Yuck!  Anywho, we had a fun time.  I think New Year's Eve was the funnest though.  Each couple piled in some cash to buy a prize (which in the end we decided to keep as cash---which might have turned us into sinning gamblers.  President Burnham, you're kids are bad examples to me), and we played four different games throughout the night in between eating lots of yummy food.  You gained points per game along with your spouse, ....so if your spouse was really bad at a game, then good luck!  We played the Newly Wed game, ...Joe and I... are not newly weds any more.  So apparently we know nothing about each other.  Ha!  I thought it was very clear that if I were to marry an actor I would choose Henry Caville, and Joe thought I would say Hugh Jackman.  He was so three years ago.  And I thought my greatest bad habit was zoning out whenever Joe is talking about something important.  Nope.  He put ingratitude.  I didn't know that was a habit, but apparently I'm really bad at it.  Which means I'm really grateful!  Right?  Is that how it works?  I promise I laughed and I promise Joe felt like a super jerk, and then we fought about it all night.  Just kidding.  Because being humble is one of my greatest habits.  We also played a dice game called Greed, and that game is SO fun!  Kind of like gambling too.  (Pres Burnham really needs to reign in his kids!).  And then we played the card game Golf.  And Crocono, which hurt my finger-nail each time I flicked one of those thingies, but it was still fun.  Playing all of these different games reminded me that I really do like playing games, and not just the same ol' ones like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.  Thanks Matt and Tarilyn for setting up the night!  We started winding down games at 2am, at which point we discovered that Joe and I were tied with Christie and Mitchell!  So we had a game-off with Golf.  My least skilled game.  Other than The Newly Wed Game.  And... drumroll.... Joe and I won!  Woot woot!  I think what I've learned about myself from that night is that I am kind of competitive.  I don't mean to be, but I like winning.  I also learned that it is irresponsible to stay up that late, and that's why I never do.  I was a beast the next day from no sleep.  But I guess that's what New year's Eve is all about.  Not the last five years, ....but this one.  Probably the funnest NYE I've had in a long time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!