Tag Archives: Board Games

Week 14 Summary: Jury Duty And Seeing Mom ๐Ÿฅฐ

This was an eventful week! I had jury duty for the first time in my life, and finally got to visit mom again. I started playing a new video game with our partner, a new doll and book came in, got to have lunch with my old boss, finished a few more commissions, and was finally able to play LEGO for date night again. Letโ€™s get to it!

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Monday I was up by 6:00am, because we had to leave by 7:00am so I could be at the courthouse on time for my first jury duty ever. Normally, I would be super excited. As a still kinda fresh citizen (just two years) Iโ€™ve long wanted to be called. But now that I have a new job, it really complicated everything.

For this week, I had to call out on Monday to be there, and even though I got enough days off to see my mom without even asking for them, if I was selected for a trial all that might not happen. Plus, if I couldnโ€™t get rides for every day, Uber would add up a lot. So I was concerned.

Anyway, that didnโ€™t completely remove my excitement. The waiting room was very large and comfortable, plus, there was a lounge for jurors. We were shown a video first explaining the process.

It was a โ€œhurry up and waitโ€ situation until you got called for a jury pool. Sometimes you also had to fill out a questionnaire if the judge requested it. I waited a couple of hours before I was called, and in the meantime had cookies, coffee and read a little more.

I was finally called, filled out a questionnaire, waited a little longer, and then we all walked a whoooole lot, took an elevator to the 16th floor, and lined up to wait outside of the courtroom.

I should mention that the building was huge and beautiful. The view from up there was honestly amazing.

It was a civil case, not a criminal case โ€”a lawsuit between a couple of homeowners and Citizens Insurance. As soon as that name was said I knew I would be excused. We are insured by (and feel great antipathy towards) Citizens. So I definitely have heavy bias. It was a good thing too because the trial would have lasted until Thursday.

Everyone had to talk to the judge, and we passed a microphone down the line. That was a little nerve wracking; my heart was pounding out of my chest by the time it was my turn. But the judge was really nice and kept cracking jokes with everyone.

I told him how Iโ€™d been excited to be called. He pointed to the door and said there was mental health counseling available if I needed it, which made everyone laugh (people arenโ€™t usually excited to be jurors). But later, privately, he thanked me for my enthusiasm.

Once I began to explain my feelings toward Citizens he had me stop because it would taint the rest of the jury pool. So when everyone went to lunch, the judge had a few people stay behind and called them one by one to the bench, where the lawyers also were.

A few people were excused due to biases; one woman due to poor English language skills. When I explained my own bias, the judge asked me if I would ignore the law because of my bias if it was clear that Citizens wasnโ€™t in the wrong. I said that I wouldnโ€™t, but that I couldnโ€™t say the same if it came down to a grey area, which is very true. That was enough for him and both sets of lawyers and I was excused for that trial.

I thought I might get picked for another pool, but when I got back to the selection room, they sent me home. So now I am done for at least a year. Even though I wasnโ€™t selected it was still an interesting experience.

After that I went for a walk. Christopher let me have some spending money so I went to Dollar Tree and had lunch at Panera. I saw this cool theater on the way:

Hereโ€™s another nice photo I took during the walk:

I got quite the haul at Dollar Tree: a Bluey sandwich box, a Grogu cup, a Crayola coloring page and stickers, a few packs of cards for scrapbooking, dinosaur stickers, a tiny parasaurolophus friend, and a blind bag toy. Oh, and a snail greeting card.

The blind bag has this wee white tiger cub:

After I got home and took a shower I played more Diablo II with our partner. I had a drink and some chips and brought Churrasco downstairs because his โ€œgotchaโ€ day would be Tuesday (2021) and I felt like he needed some attention.

For dinner, we had fajitas. I donโ€™t normally like them because of the onions, but Christopher took them all out so it was pretty good.

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Tuesday was a pretty good day, even though I began to get my monthly irritables (PMS) and felt quite irate at times for literally no reason. One good feeling I had throughout the day though, is excitement to go back to work on Friday. Maybe I do like the job after all.

Anyhow, Tuesday was a day of chores and of working on art, but I still made time to play Diablo II with our partner. Playing this together is our little โ€œthingโ€ and I really do enjoy it a lot. My character is called Squirrelman. I wanted to play a Druid and itโ€™s been pretty fun having ravens and a wolf and this vine thing with us. And some sort of spirit.

Our partner plays a necromancer so we have a bunch of little skeleton men follow us, plus two hired hands. Weโ€™ve got quite the band.

It reminds me of similarly setting an hour aside to play visual novels with Christopher, something I miss very much. Iโ€™ll have to see if I can convince him to do that with me again.

Iโ€™ve been catastrophically failing at not buying any toys or books this year. Honestly, Iโ€™m not exactly upset about it. Itโ€™s still helped: Iโ€™ve skipped out on a lot of video games and scrapbooking supplies. But I do not regret any toys Iโ€™ve gotten this year at all.

I think I may adjust my goal for the year, and, when it comes to toys and books, setting up a rule of getting rid of something before I get something new. That may be more manageable, because honestly I love new toys far too much.

After our partner ordered the little alien doll for me, I began to look at baby dolls, something Iโ€™ve never really been into. Babies are just not really my thing, not even as dolls. But I did see two that I liked a LOT, enough to add them to my wishlist and perhaps get one next month. One is another little alien, but two are more conventional babies.

I really like Crabby Cakes and her pouty expression. Itโ€™s very funny and unique. Sheโ€™s more of a toddler doll. The other one is Honey Bunny and more of a simple, sweet baby boy doll. Both look very huggable with their soft bodies. Iโ€™d like to get them this year, but I definitely need to make some room first. If I can decide on something to donate/sell, Iโ€™ll probably get Crabby Cakes in May.

I should mention that not a single penny of my new job earnings are going towards toys. Instead, I reserve my modest Patreon earnings for my frivolous spending, which otherwise would be zero. Thanks to Patreon Iโ€™ve been able to get things like an ice-cream at work, lunch when I went to jury duty, the dinosaur book I saw at Barnes & Noble, some canned coffee and snacks for the month, etc. It makes me really happy to know that the art I still draw is for stuff like this. So, I am really grateful to everyone who is supporting me there.

In the evening my guys took me to my momโ€™s. I brought her birthday presents with me:

As soon as I got to my momโ€™s I saw a big slug. I was immediately excited of course. It was a big little guy and rather speedy for a slug.

Here’s some video:

I brought this little carnotaurus friend on this visit. He doesnโ€™t have a name yet.

We were set to play Jumanji this evening but in the end we had too much to catch up on.

My mom always has a lovely snack spread set out, usually by the time I get there, and itโ€™s one of the things I look forward to the most when I visit her.

This time she also surprised me with empanadas!

Hereโ€™s a pic of grumpy old Sweeney:

I continued to read Raptor Red in bed. I had my little trike with me, he doesnโ€™t have a name yet either. I really have to fix that.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

I was up by 7:30am, working on art after my coffee. I took a shower and worked on the blog while waiting for my mom to wake up. It was a pleasant and quiet start to the morning.

Oh yeah, I was looking through the Ring camera on this morning and saw this funny black cat who was a bit suspicious of one of my decorations:

After my mom got up, we had mate and cheese bread!

While my mom did some housework, I had lunch (she had a big breakfast). I had a ham and cheese empanada and read Raptor Red some more.

Then I worked on art some more. I worked on a commission for Nero, on a YCH, and on a badge for Willy Joe.

We went to walk around Target and PetSmart and we had a little snack at Starbucks. On the way there, I saw this weird clock on a building:

Target had this super cool Super Mario basket!! ๐Ÿ„๐ŸŒˆ

At Starbucks I had a pink drink and a banana walnut loaf:

There was a super cute little gremlin of a dog at the Starbucks line:

During the car ride home, I found a ladybug on my clothes! It started flying around, so I caught it and held a finger out of the window until it flew away.

I came home with a nice haul. First, I got these super cute decorations for the snail tank:

Then I got these outfits, the two small ones are for my little alien doll, the snail one doesnโ€™t have a designated stuffie or doll yet, but it was on sale AND it had snails! I was not going to pass it up.

Finally, I got a little Aggretsuko blind box because it came with a dangler and I wanted a new one for my work lanyard butโ€ฆ it is a little wonky, especially for the priceโ€ฆ

We had pizza for dinner and watched YouTube, and I cuddled Sweeney, but he wasnโ€™t very thrilled about it… ๐Ÿ˜…

With PMS and all I was extraordinarily irritable in the evening, but was able to get some chores done and ready for the next day.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

Itโ€™s date night again! It was also Rudyardโ€™s birthday. Not his “gotcha” day, but the day he was made at the factory, back in 2020. So Rudy is now three years old. His “gotcha” day, when I first got to hold him, was September 27th of the same year.

Also, I got to have lunch with my old boss, Al, today. We had SO much to catch up on! We went to Cracker Barrel. I tend to only eat there with him, so it had been a very long time since I last was there.

In the afternoon I cleaned the snail tank and put in some new decorations…

Later I accompanied our partner on some errands and then we went shopping for groceries for dinner. At the supermarket he bought me my favorite flowers again –these are the biggest sunflowers I’ve ever had!

I still haven’t named my new little dino gang, but here is my stegosaurus with one of the flowers:

We played LEGO for the first time in many weeks. I finally started working on Emma’s Art School:

Dinner was incredible! Our partner made quesadillas. He put so much effort in them, no shortcuts taken.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

Friday was a busy day. It went by quickly. Chores all morning, some commission work too, but I did set some time aside to check out my new dinosaur book:

I do not normally record video of books, but I did in this case because I wanted you guys to see just how beautiful it is. I’ve amassed a respectable collection of paleontology, natural history and dinosauria related books now, but this one blows them ALL out of the water. I got the book on sale, but had it been twice the price, I would have still felt it was a bargain for what you get:

Then I was driven to work, and worked until 8:00pm. Work was very busy and enjoyable. I found out that I and a few other workers have only one day next week due to budget cuts from above, but hopefully the week after that will be better for everyone. I intend to use the time well, and work on commissions all week long.

(On that note, you’ve probably noticed that ever since I got the job, a lot if not all of my goals have been temporarily paused. I decided that this was a better course of action than trying to juggle a million things at once. I need to, above all, to finish the final commissions. Once they are done, using my free time from work to work on hobbies and personal art won’t be stressful.)

Anyway, I got picked up around 8:00pm by our partner and got home to Christopher serving a wonderful meal.

We relaxed together for a while after dinner and then they went for a walk while I got ready for bed.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

Friday I only worked four hours in the morning and early afternoon. But, I got up at 6:30am and, after a shower, finished these three commissions!

Then I went to work. It was only four hours, but being a Saturday, it was quite busy! As always I was a little early, so I doodled a snail for one of my coworkers, who did most of my training. I left it on a post-it note on her mouse. When I went back upstairs to clock out, I noticed that she had stuck it in the place where she keeps all her post-its, haha.

The guys picked me up at two, and we had Mod Pizza for lunch!

When we got home, my new little alien was waiting for me at the door. I opened her right away. She turned out to be even more wonderful than I was expecting! I’ve named her Tritium:

Even though I bought a couple of outfits for her in newborn size, they are still too baggy… I’ll have to figure out something else.

After a shower, our partner and I played Diablo II some more while Christopher napped.

For dinner, I had a potato and a rice cracker with cream cheese:

In the evening we went for a walk together. I took my little triceratops just in case I got a good idea for a picture somewhere. Eventually I did take a photo of it with a baby mango.

Our partner convinced me to go out for the evening which I did though I had a lot of housework to do. Gotta live a little. We went to Salt and Straw in Coconut Grove and I had a black olive and goat cheese waffle cone (as in, ice cream) and even though it tasted just like it sounds, it was truly delicious.

Then we stopped by a little cafe/restaurant and had some drinks and fries before heading home.

We got home very late, around 12:30am. Still, I did as many chores as I could. I was in bed by 2:00am.

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Sunday I worked a little on commissions in the morning and then went out for a stroll. I needed someplace to go to encourage me to walk, because Iโ€™ve been feeling very unmotivated and tired. So I decided to see if I could find a better outfit for Tritium, but being Easter, everywhere was closed.

I walked into buybuy BABY, a place I never go into. A store full of baby stuff felt kind of bizarre to walk through. I saw some very cute toys, including this floppy puppy, and I finally ran into a Benny Phant in the wild! I came so close to caving and getting one!

Some cute dinosaur puzzle toys…

I liked these bandana bibs for my stuffed animals, but not at that price!

I came home with what I really wanted, which was a better outfit for Tritium. I’ll make her a bandana myself.

Once back home, it was time for lunch and more Diablo II with our partner. We had aรงaรญ bowls!

Diablo II has some effed up imagery… ๐Ÿ˜ณ That aside, Squirrelman has acquired a crowd of critters. He now has five wolves, five ravens, a spirit, and one of those thorny plant viney things.

Have an Eastery picture since it’s Easter:

In the evening we ordered Chinese food and watched Legend!

I’d always wanted to watch this movie. Plot-wise, it is as flat as a board and incredibly dull. The acting is overly theatrical, but that aspect has some charm. What really sells this movie is its unbelievably detailed sets, costuming, and makeup. It was wonderfully trippy, and had I watched it as a child, I’m sure that it would have had a tremendous effect in my young psyche.

Anyway… that’s all I’ve got to share for this week. It was long, busy, eventful, for sure! I wonder what next week will bring…

Week 7 Summary: Valentine’s Day And More ๐Ÿ’˜

Happy Sunday, friends! Here I am with another weekly summary. So far, I still haven’t been able to recover my determination for all my yearly resolutions. It’s very frustrating when life gets in the way of them, even if it’s fun things that get in the way, but I haven’t completely fallen of the wagon. Anyway, let me tell you about our Valentine’s week!

๐ŸŒˆ Monday & Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Not much to say about Monday –I spent it getting everything ready for Valentine’s Day, which was Tuesday. Tuesday morning I gave Christopher his present. I wish I’d taken a picture of how I set it all up –the canvas all wrapped up, his bunny next to it, the card and the chocolates. It was there for him to find when he came down to breakfast. But, I can at least show you the drawing I printed on canvas for him:

Our partner ate his Valentine brigadeiros throughout the day. Around noon he took me to Best Buy to pick up some pretty Razer RGB headphones he bought me as a surprise, but they ended up being the wrong ones, so we returned them and ordered different ones later. We got lunch while we were out and it was still a really nice outing, especially since I’d still been feeling pretty low from the week before.

In the evening I went to see my mom, but before leaving, I left his card on his nightstand, and Christopher gave me mine. ๐Ÿฅฐ It was actually one of the nicest cards he ever gave me.

When I got there, my mom had a whole fondue spread prepared!

Then we played the new chutes and ladders game. It was really fun and reminded me of playing it with my grandma when I was little!

I gave my mom a card, some chocolates, and a little potted orchid. She had a card for me too!

This was actually a really fun evening. It cheered me up.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Wednesday morning, we had mate as usual. E.T. had some, too!

And Sweeney enjoyed some cat grinder time:

We found out that E.T. can cross his fingers! Doesn’t this snack spread look nice…

Also, man, it’s so weird but E.T. has always reminded me of my dad. Even when I was a toddler, he was really old and wrinkled. My child brain always thought they looked similar, and I know I even said so… poor dad. ๐Ÿ˜…

Also isn’t this Daniel Tiger juice cap super cute?

With Shampoo gone, Sweeney has gotten more and more affectionate with my mom…

Don’t mind his swishy tail at times, Sweeney is a bit of an oddball. He was really happy, purring intensely.

This was a really enjoyable visit. I was home with enough time to do a bunch of chores which is always good.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

I was very busy most of this day, but here’s a photo of Christopher’s (slightly) late Valentine’s Day present!

Always thrilled to get Godiva, I’d be surprised if they last me a week, haha. The Santa chocolates were an extra sorta freebie. ๐ŸŽ…

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

On this weekend, Christopher’s Grandma and my mom-in-law came to visit. They brought the little ceramics we painted on our last visit. I think they turned out adorable!

Friday night was really special. For no particular reason other than family visiting, we all went to a nice, fancy restaurant, “Jaya at the Setai”. It was a very glamorous place! There was a huge pool in the middle. Not a swimming pool, I mean a decorative pool:

Here’s Christopher and Grandma…

I had a Fig Old Fashioned. It was my first time drinking whiskey. I LOVED this thing! The cinnamon stick had been burned just a little. It smelled so good.

It had an odd menu –some Thai stuff, some Indian, some Japanese. At first glance, I struggled to find something I thought I’d enjoy. But everything I ate was an amazing experience, it didn’t feel like simply “eating dinner”. I think it might be my favorite fancy restaurant that I’ve ever eaten at!

There was a colorful gallery attached to the hotel/restaurant. While a lot of the stuff was cute (and I love anything with Harvey characters) the idea of rich-ass people buying stuff with these moneyed characters and even Bitcoin symbols is SO cringy to me, haha. ๐Ÿ˜… But it made for some fun photos:

When we got home, we saw this pretty beetle hanging on our door:

I’ve gotten to a point with my manuscript where I desperately need guidance of a sort that many, many Google searches have proven unhelpful with. I tried to use my old Nook e-reader to just get free e-book versions with my accumulated credits, but it was sticky and gross (the material that it is made of degraded horrible with age) so I bit the bullet and got some manuals. They are very useful and are being pivotal in preventing a block I can’t get past at a key moment in the book:

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

To start this day, here is a cute photo of Kotoko napping outside in the late morning…

We had Mod Pizza for lunch!

After that, everyone went inside JOANN to find a frame for the Asuka puzzle that was recently put together. I stayed in the car to avoid temptations, and our partner surprised me with a Blue lollipop holder when they came back!

Later, I spent some time drawing for myself and reading about mapmaking. I spent time outside with our partner doing these things. The weather was mild and it was a highlight of my weekend for sure. Kotoko even kept me company after he left:

Later in the day we went out to buy coals for our partner’s hookah, and he treated me to a geode which you could hammer open. I didn’t actually know what it would be like inside, so it was a magical experience for me. And it looks like a perfect little dinosaur egg!

In the evening, after dinner, we watched the work-in-progress version of Beauty And The Beast on Laserdisc.

It was a really fun experience!

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Grandma and my mom-in-law went home on this day, but first we went to have breakfast together:

It was the first time I really didn’t like my food at The Village Tavern. The potatoes were undercooked, and the crab cakes were really fishy. But the little muffin was delicious.

Now I have to tell you about a definite conscious decision to make an exception to my no-new-toys rule –one I would and will do again if another release like this happens. Outside of the Colossal line, my most favorite Jurassic toy line is their Imaginext toys, and within them, the SUPER cheap, super sturdy, XL dinos.

These are released rarely. It’s been such a long time since the last one. Well, they decided to come out with a rainbow chicken I mean pyroraptor. I was not going to pass it up, especially not under $10! I finally opened the box after family left:

I love the art on these boxes and had to save it for future scrapbooking!

You can see next to my hand what a sizable boy it is, and so colorful and cute. I was over the moon when it came in. A colorful highlight to my week! Absolutely no regrets about this one.

I’m gonna call them Salsa, or maybe Fiesta. ๐Ÿค” I still haven’t decided.

Anyway, that’s all for this week! Also I want to say, if you are reading this on your email, MANY times I edit mistakes immediately after posting, but you’ll always see just the first version in your email, I think… sorry about that. You’re generally better off reading posts directly on the site.

Have a great week, everyone!

Visiting My Mom ๐Ÿ’ž

Yesterday I visited my mom, and stayed overnight until today. As usual we had snacks and wine, and in a new tradition/routine, I brought along a board game. Battleship, this time. I also brought along Fidget Spinner, one of my Furbys. They’re so expressive!

My mom won the game. The next day, Shampoo had to go to the vet. She wasn’t doing so great. I stayed home working, and took this picture of Sweeney as he waited by the door for them to come back.

After getting some meds, Shampoo seemed to perk up a bit. She ate with gusto for the first time in a few days.

I pet her a little bit. I always know it could be the last time, she is so old. But anyway, I got to see her again, and overall it was a really nice visit.

Fun Weekend With Family! ๐ŸŽƒ

My mom-in-law is visiting again! Yesterday we went to Nobu Sushi to celebrate our partner’s birthday. Tonight it was burger night!! ๐ŸŽƒ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ•ท

Later we played some board games! Starting with Pokรฉmon Labyrinth:

It’s such a fun and cute game! And my mom-in-law didn’t hate it so I hope we can play it again. ๐Ÿ˜Š

After Pokรฉmon Labyrinth, we played Blokus!

Once game time was done, we watched Hocus Pocus (the first one) because my mom-in-law had never seen it and neither had our partner. It’s such a fun film.

The Game Of Life: Jurassic Park Edition! ๐Ÿฆ–๐ŸŒ€

This weekend my mom in law visited and we played the Jurassic Park version of The Game Of Life! My mom got it for me for my birthday.

And yes, that is alcohol in a sippy cup ๐Ÿ˜ Although our partner added a bit too much gin for my liking this timeโ€ฆ

It took us a while to figure out the rules. We were drinking, and Christopher, who would have been the only sober one, was on strong painkillers at the time. ๐Ÿ˜…

I loved the details on the board! It was so colorful. The dino pieces were great, too.

I hope we play it again. I really like our other, normal Game Of Life that we have, but I think most everyone else doesn’t like the board games I like so we only play them once. ๐Ÿ˜ž Even though while we play, everyone seems to be having fun.

Pokรฉmon Labyrinth!

Tonight for date night we played the Pokรฉmon version of Labyrinth! Excuse the doofus eating peanut M&Mโ€™s off the table pleaseโ€ฆ ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ

Here’s some close-up shots. As always with Ravensburger games and puzzles, the quality is amazing!

It was our first time playing this game. More challenging than I expected! I can’t wait to play it again.

Board Games, Ramen And a Movie! ๐Ÿœ๐ŸŽฅโœจ

Yesterday was date night! When Christopher got home, first he and I spent some time playing board games together while our partner was still busy working. We played Battleship first and Christopher won –twice!

Then we played Quoridor which was a birthday present he got from my sis-in-law. It’s a very simple game. But fun!

Cilantro threatening Christopher’s meeple ๐Ÿ˜

This time, I won! ๐Ÿฅณ

After board games we went to Sakura Ramen for dinner, where we had our usual pork bao bun appetizer, and of course, ramen!

Then it was back home to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once together. We went to bed late, but happy.

New Games! ๐Ÿงฉ๐ŸŒˆ

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary! My mom sent us some board games, and Grandma sent a check that we used to get another board game and the new Nintendo Switch Sports. I also got the new Jurassic World Domision KerPlunk, so I figured I’d make a post about all the new board games.

The games we got from my mom were Happy Little Dinosaurs, Yahtzee, and that Pokรฉmon-themed Labyrinth game:

Here’s KerPlunk!

And here is the game I am most excited about, that we got with the gift money from Grandma –Raptor!

I’m really excited for many game and date nights with these games in the near future! ๐Ÿ˜Š

Christmas Eve And Christmas Day ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽโœจ

Good morning everyone. It’s Monday once again and life has to go back to normal… I have SO much to do today, but I’m feeling really happy. Before I start my massive pile of chores, I wanted to share the highlights of the holiday with you guys.

๐ŸŽ„ Christmas Eve ๐ŸŽ„

To begin with, here is the outfit I wore for Christmas Eve. I felt pretty cute.

This pic is from the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Elliot was getting some cuddles from Christopher:

My mom and sis in law were already there from Wednesday night. We were waiting for my mom and our friend, to start Christmas Eve dinner. He got there much earlier than my mom so we played Monopoly. My sis in law won.

I lost first (no surprise there) so while they finished the game, I began to grate cheese for our cheese breads, and slightly grated my hand in the process. ๐Ÿ˜ญ

My mom finally arrived about 20 minutes before dinner was ready to be eaten. The food was amazing. Our friend and I worked on it together and I actually managed not to screw up anything too horribly. Or at all, actually. We had picaรฑa, rice and beans, Russian salad, and cheese breads.

Kotoko wanted to sit at the table, so Christopher brought a tall chair for her. She stared at everything very intensely until she got a tiny piece of picaรฑa for herself. ๐Ÿ˜…

I also got this cute picture of both of them together. It’s so sweet, I love it.

After that, we cleaned up and then we opened all our presents. I got a lot of wonderful things; my haul is shared at the end of this post. Our friend made wrapping paper angels on the floor but I didn’t take a picture fast enough so I just got this. The cats had fun with the paper too.

Then we exchanged our cards. Mostly, it was me having cards for people. My mom had mailed me hers earlier in the week, and Christopher did have one for me. But otherwise it was me giving cards to everyone as usual. ๐Ÿ˜…

There are things which I don’t share very openly on this blog (about my relationships and relationship dynamics, though if you follow my private Twitter you know what I mean). Maybe that will change a little this coming year, I don’t know. I may become more comfortable about it since our entire family is aware and, by and large, are all very lovingly (if teasingly) supportive of our lifestyle. But for now, I still wanted to share the two “cards” I made for the two people most important to me in the whole world, though they are a little edited for privacy:

These are actually 11″ x 14″ poster boards with printed construction paper on top, as well as felt, jewels, foam stickers, you name it. The characters were drawn digitally and carefully cut out. I put a lot of love into these things, and they were so big that I had to buy these large rolls of construction paper to make my own envelopes for them (and I decorated the envelopes too).

Then when the time came I was excruciatingly embarrassed to give them to the recipients, I ended up going into another room to look at Christopher’s card. ๐Ÿ™ˆ

At the very end of the evening we began looking at our future cruise excursions again. Eventually our friend started screwing around with the page’s code… I’ll leave you to guess as to what his edits were.

(He has a bit of a warped sense of humor.)

๐ŸŽ… Christmas Day ๐ŸŽ…

On Christmas Day, me, Christopher, and my mom and sis in law all went to Grandma’s house in Port St. Lucie to have Christmas lunch… dinner? It was at 3:00pm. And open presents for a second time. We had to wait while food still cooked so my sis in law, Christopher and I sat exactly like this for maybe two hours:

It was very cozy. Generally this part of the holiday is more stressful, for many reasons. It was this time too. But being on the couch with them like this, I was happy anyways.

For my gifts there, I got a few gift cards and this amazing snail plush that I’m naming Romaine:

After that we went to my mom in law’s house in Sebastian, to finally relax. I gave her roommate the presents that we had for her and she gave us two gift cards. There was a bit more present-opening, and once we’d sufficiently woken up from the meal stupor, we got an unnecessary (given our full stomachs) spread of amazing snacks set out, some alcohol, and the brand new retro Game Of Life that Christopher got for Christmas:

The rules were surprisingly detailed and difficult. Christopher was in charge of reading them as we went along.

For reasons that only Christopher and I really understood, me landing on this box was pretty funny so he took a picture:

In the end, my mom in law’s roommate won, but it was a close game. My sis in law HATED this game by the way. Haha. anyway here’s a photo of the resident pom, because I always have to post one:

๐ŸŽ My Christmas Haul ๐ŸŽ

Ok, time to share my Christmas goodies! I’ll start with one of my favorite things. This was the present I got from Buddy, Sarah and Santa. I really wanted both of these and they were so much nicer in real life than I expected:

In particular the Daisy one is super adorable and really big for an Amiibo. I love them so, so much, I can’t wait to display them in my studio.

I’m pretty sure this book was from my sis in law. It starts to blur together who gave me what:

I already have one of these books (of a different sort, but same series) and they are super useful for writing!

From my friend Sammy (whom many of you may know as toddlergirl/babystar) I got this very cute set of Little People toys from my wish list. It’s characters from The Office!

Watching The Office with Christopher is a really sweet and important memory when it comes to our relationship so I’m super happy to have this set.

From my mom in law I got these adorable shoes that she had me pick during Black Friday:

From my mom I got this INCREDIBLE Jurassic World Legacy Brachiosaurus. It’s HUGE! I haven’t been able to put it together yet. I can’t wait!

Also from my mom I got this little gnome to put on the back porch. It matches another gnome she got me a while ago:

These cute little guys were from my mom in law. I love them so much! Can’t wait to put them around my studio as well.

It’s really nice that all of my family (pretty much) is so understanding and accepting of my Littleness that I can get presents like these for Christmas. It makes me very happy. ๐Ÿฅฐ

My mom got me a DYI mini library building kit:

Apparently, it’s supposed to look like this:

But it’s like, unbelievably small… It takes on average 20-40 hours to put together. I’m not sure I’ll have the patience. ๐Ÿ˜ฅ We’ll see. It’s a very cute concept, I just legitimately think it’s probably too hard for me.

I also got a bunch of gift cards. I don’t like to support Chik-Fil-A (that was from Grandma) but, she doesn’t know that and I’m not about to get into it. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

There was one other Amazon gift card, which I used to get more hangers for my clothes and this Sesame Street Bert and Ernie Tervis cup:

I gave the $10 gift card to Christopher as well as a small bit of cash and he put the rest of the money so I could have these games:

So now we’ll have even more games to play together when our friend moves in which is great. ๐Ÿ˜

I also got a bunch of cute, funny earrings from my mom:

There was also the snail plush you saw earlier, and two t-shirts from my mom in law. I’ll share those when I wear them. One is a Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous shirt and the other one has a really cute little snail.

I’m super happy with all my gifts! I’m sure I’ll share more photos as I open boxes and put things together.

How was your Christmas? I hope you made lots of good memories! I know I did. And I hope to make many more good memories next year.

Mwakoโ€™s โ€™21 Visit ๐Ÿฆ Day Three

๐Ÿ–๏ธ At The Beach ๐Ÿ–๏ธ

I think today was my most favorite day of Mwako’s visit! It was definitely our most “kiddy” day. We went to the beach and played lots later that day back at my house.

We were up very early and off to Target to get some beach toys since I didn’t have any. Mwako got me a bucket, some scoops and a saxophone playing parasaurolophus!

I wore my Wen swimsuit, which I love to pieces still, and my new Toy Story Land hat that I got during the last Orlando trip. ๐Ÿ˜

Mwako took lots of photos of some –some candid, some I posed for. I think these might be the only photos of me at a beach ever.

There was a lot of seaweed, and I didn’t want to go into the water because it required wading past it. So Mwako basically dragged me screaming into the sea, I wish I was joking. ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ Then I clung on to him like a barnacle, and didn’t want to go back into the beach because of wading into the seaweed again. There was SO MUCH of it.

While we played in the water, a vehicle came and swept a lot of the seaweed on the beach away (or rather, “tilled” it into the sand). So at that point we went back to play on the nice clean beach.

My large blue bucket was quite unmanageable. I wasn’t able to make a big castle with it, I guess the sand was the problem. Being full of seaweed, it easily fell apart. But I was able to make a few small structures! A tiny city of sorts.

My parasaurolophus simply stood by playing an ominous tune on his sax.

Eventually the village was done! It even had bushes for decoration. A peaceful neighborhood, for the time being.

Mwako doesn’t really like his picture taken, but he approved of me taking this one from far away. He is looking for seashells for me to decorate my houses with.

All of these beautiful beach photos were taken by Mwako.

Of course, I had to “enhance” them with stickers… ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

Here’s a couple more he took of me:

At this point my sax-playing parasaurolophus decided it was time to give in to his dinosaur instincts and destroy the town.

Just like that the poor entire town is gone. For some reason, after this I felt very satisfied, and just sat staring out at the sea in contemplation.

…before sentencing my parasaurolophus to be drowned when the tide came in as penance for the wanton destruction: