Considerate Kyler

The other day Kyler asked me a question.
K: Mom, is your ankle feeling better?
M: Yes, Kyler, thanks, it's a lot better.
K: So we can kick it now?

Christmas calendar

Since I was little until I was about 14 (or so), my mom made a punchout Christmas calendar for my sister and I. I have fond memories of punching it out every December day leading up until Christmas Eve. I've been making it for Ilea and Kyler for the past 4 years, usually finishing on the 30th of November :). Normally there are some elves and Santa figurines and plastic holly sprigs that are placed around the calendar to give it a little festivness (is that a word?). This year I decided to do something a little different and have the kids decorate each side of the calendar. Jenny let them use some of her holiday stamps and they went to town as you can see.

Inside each circle, there is usually some kind of candy or toy. Sometimes (most of the time) the toys are too big to fit into the circles so we leave notes inside the circle that says what the toy is. This year we alternated the candy and toy circles, forgetting that the kids alternate punching each day. It turns out that Kyler is the candy puncher and Ilea is the toy puncher. Ilea figured out, after the 5th or so day, that she was always going to get the notes. Next year I'll have to be a bit more random with the prizes. 

Benefits of a fake Christmas tree

For most of the years we have been married, I have tried to convince Jenny to get a fake Christmas tree. Jenny grew up with real Christmas trees all her life and I grew up helping my mom setup the fake tree every year. This year we (including Jenny's parents) convinced her to get a fake tree. After shopping around, the most realistic looking tree ended up being a 12 footer that we found at Costco. They were sold out all over Puget Sound and this tree was the display model. I was a bit concerned because it didn't come in a box, but after taking down the display model, there is no way the tree would fit back into the two boxes. So no boxes ended up not being a big deal.

Here are some of the benefits of a fake tree that helped convince Jenny:

1. Fixed cost. No more $45+/year for a real tree
2. No expenses in disposing of the tree after Christmas
3. No need to water the tree every day
4. The tree never dries out
5. No fire danger
6. Pine needles do not fall all over the ground
7. Bigger tree
8. No tent caterpillar (One year we got up in the morning and there were little caterpillars all over the living room. What fun.)
9. The tree can be put up early (around Thanksgiving).
10. No bald spots. (I wish I could say that for me. ;)
11. Looks just like a real tree. (It has fooled a number of people already.)
12. No killing of Christmas trees each year.
    

The negatives of this fake tree are:

1. No evergreen smell
2. Have to find a place to store it in the "off" season
3. Need to spend 1-2 hours taking it out of storage and setting it up and 1-2 hours taking it down and putting it into storage.

1 week Update

Hi All,

Here is a picture of my foot after one week. On Wed I was finally able to get into a shoe. I'm not using crutches anymore, and by Friday, there was not much of a limp. Everything gets worse in the evening. This morning (Sat, day 10) my left foot looked almost normal. You could even see some wrinkles on the side which haven't been there! But tonight it's back to sausage foot, with an extra large ankle. It still hurts all day, but I'm down to only one pain pill a day (usually around dinner, when it's getting pretty sore). The whole thing is improving, but slowly.

Gimpy

Hi All,

I'm doing much better today. The picture I've included is actually from my right foot - the one I didn't hurt. Last night I caught my pinkie toe (on the good foot) on my crutch! It's all purple today. When I say I'm clumsy, I mean it! I can limp without my crutch, except for the stairs. I'm really taking it easy and not using it much. It hurts a little more now that we're in the evening. You can see from the pictures it's looking a little better. Ok, it still looks like Hulk Foot, but at least you can see where ankles are supposed to be. Did you notice I fixed my toenail polish?

1st snow of 2005/2006 winter

We got about 3 inches of snow last night. Here is a picture of our house covered with snow. Houses with snow always seem to look better.
Ilea's school is running 2 hours late and Kyler doesn't have school today so he will probably get to play in the snow before it melts. Maybe I'll be able to take some time to build a snow man with him.

Hulk foot

Jenny got a Hulk foot with her sprained ankle. It is even turning a little blue-green.

She is doing well, but it does still pain her. She can hobble about with a single crutch and put a little pressure on the foot. She is still taking some pain and swelling medication and tying to take it easy. She has a bell chior performance this Sunday so that will probably be fun.