Dominion!

For Christmas we received a card game called Dominion. It is kind of a nerdy game for those of you who aren't familiar with it. It's a variation of Settlers of Catan, but you don't really have to interact with other people...perfect for antisocial engineers. And you don't really have to worry about people blocking your roads off or ruining your plans.

Alyssa calls it "Mommy's Game" and asked to play it one day. Erik created a version for her with rules that are easier for her to understand and with fewer cards. She loves it! We play it almost everyday now!

You can play Dominion at playdominion.com. You should try it. Be careful, you will become addicted!

Travelings

I feel like I have too many posts to merit counting that are about our journeyings north and south, east and west across this wide expanse of promised land. I will try to make this painless. It is kind of important to our story. I don't want to be reading this when I'm 80 and wonder how the heck we went from being in Delaware to being MISSISSIPPI for crying out loud.

First stop - Washington D.C. I'll spare the details about how long we waiting for Erik on Academy street so he could finish something before we could actually leave...most of the details already escape me...but we left Delaware in the dark of the night and drove away with its twinkling lights in our rear view mirror...details details.

We went to see the LDS church visitor's center and temple lights. The temple lights were small, but the visitor's center's premises were EXTRAORDINARILY done. At first I thought they had really shown up the Salt Lake City lights, but after visiting SLC I came to the conclusion that LEDs were the best thing every invented for the Christmas season! More lights, less cost! SO BRING ON THE LIGHTS!

Is it disrespectful to ride on the fake camel? 

My favorite part of that evening was Alyssa. She saw a most lovely decorated tree and said, "OOO! This tree is beeautiful! Take my picture!" And then stood facing the tree with a big smile on her face! We got her to turn around, and indeed, we took a picture.

If that's not an Archibald face (Maria) I don't know what is!

After the lights and bells concert we scooted on down to Taylor and Krystalee's house. It was a most splendid evening drinking hot cocoa and sitting around a real Christmas tree (way to go, Krystalee!). I felt sad that we were on our way to leave their neck of the woods forever, but happy for the time we spent together!

Who knew that Alyssa is fluent in Hebrew? She and Fife are so smart!
Courtesy of KL and her blog - used without permission :)

Woo...this post is getting long already.

Then we traveled on to Knoxville. We loved Martin's, the grocery store, on the way that supplied us with a delightfully enormous sandwich for a very inexpensive price. We stayed the night and Sunday with the Jensen's. Mmm. A lovely time, indeed. (I'm still working on getting that pork shoulder meal to work Anna...you have a knack for crockpot cooking!)

Alyssa and James played happily. Church was lovely and Anna and I had a good time as well. I am so grateful that the Lord put her in my life 5.5 years ago! She has made many a-things bearable.

From Knoxville we continued, en route to Memphis and then on to Dallas! Destination reached! We were blessed to travel safely and well. Alyssa, once again, was our traveling champ! She can ride forever without being to grouchy with us! And it was so nice to reach family in the end. It was a much needed reprieve from weeks of stress!

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night!

I just have to take a moment and dedicate a post to some "so longs" from Newark Metropolitan area. I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I had hoped, but I did get some.

Alyssa and I said good bye to our favorite past time: library time at Newark FREEE!

Alyssa said farewell to her buddies! She told me today she is going to marry the stud below.

Aly and B-Stud

D-Dude and Alyssa

 I said, "see ya soon" to my peeps...and their kiddos!

Bri and Baby Hann

Josh, Joy, and Jerry 

I wish I had gotten pictures with everyone! Truly, my friends, I am so grateful to know you and have you in my life! 

And finally...

 These fellow friends represent all the wonderful kids I worked with in nursery and primary in the Newark 1st ward. These girls could sing best of all! I loved watching their earnest and excited faces.

Stacy and her sweet girls

These boys represent the boys...all of them with their mischievous ways! I miss them!

Our time in Delaware was lovely. It has kind of an orange hue of happiness about it. We grew a tremendous amount as a family and as individuals! We made so many good friends! We learned how to handle a lot of grown-up things that I hope to never have to deal with again (so long Christiana Farms apartments). But most of all we had fun! Delaware is a spectacular place to live if you want to be so near but not in many great cities in the United States! We took over 3,000 pictures there (though I am sure more than 1/2 of them are just of Alyssa...hehe)! But really! What a wonderful place! And...what exceptional people! Keep it real and stay in touch!

Good bye Delaware. Thanks for the memories!

Apply, smack, lick

Did you ever have some good ol' Lip Smackers when you were a wee lass? I had a few. They always smelled so good, even if the quality of lip moistening was lacking.

Well, a variation of these fruity sticks have entered our house full force. Alyssa has a sizable collection that she keeps in a purse. Throughout the day she applies them, each and every one, to her lips. First she puts each one on as she takes them out of her purse and then she reapplies them as she puts them back into her purse.

Today she started applying them to my lips and after each one she would instruct me to lick my lips. I declined the command because, honestly, they kind of gross me out. Eventually, I did take a little lick myself, mostly by accident...mmm! "Razzapple magic" exploded on my taste buds! (A hint of sarcasm, as it mostly tastes like plastic or something of that nature.)

No wonder she loves them so much and they warrant two applications each time!

[I took the pictures at my own peril. She did NOT want her, nor her chapsticks', picture taken.]

New Beginnings

There are more where this came from. I look forward to another year of adventures and some throw backs to remember what we have done in the last two months!