<p>D2 had her dental checkup yesterday, D1 has to see her dr. as she has a ganglion cyst on her wrist. Always something to do when they get back home.</p>
<p>Grades are slowly trickling in. D2 has all but one of her grades, “Actually good” has translated to As so far. She hopes the last grade comes before Christmas so she can get transcript for transfer apps. D1 just has one grade in. Thought she would get a B but also got an A. She is my laid back about grades child. Thinking this will be a very happy and relaxed Christmas for all of us! :)</p>
<p>Missipie – I think of phobias as irrational fears; the fear of the dentist is entirely rational. I sympathize.</p>
<p>As for the dress – yep, we’re dull. But you can’t imagine her thrill of putting on the first dress and seeing that it fit and was beautiful. You can’t imagine my thrill!</p>
<p>another vote for Banagrams! we were introduced to it by friends on vacation last summer, and now we take it whenever we travel - small, compact, good for small and large groups. I’ve given it as a gift twice this holiday season.</p>
<p>funny wisdom teeth story (it’s okay, missypie, you can read this one:)):
we came home after D’s surgery and in her drugged stupor, she reached into the freezer for a contraption she’d made beforehand - she soaked a dishtowel and froze it around a gallon ice cream tub, making a frozen u-shape that fit perfectly around her jaw and under her chin. i expressed surprise and admiration for her ingenuity and she responded (remember she was under the influence of strong pain meds) “yup, i’m a m<em>f</em>ing genius!” trust me, she did not learn to talk like that at home!</p>
<p>Zetesis - as an avid fan of Say Yes to the Dress, I can only imagine your joy! congratulations!</p>
<p>That’s so sweet and so nice that it turned out that way. I watch *Say Yes to the Dress * and I do wonder how I would react if D loved a dress that I hated. I imagine that all of our lovely Ds will look beautiful in whatever they try on…but I think that some of the more “sexy” dresses they try on on the show aren’t all that appropriate for a church wedding.</p>
<p>Pretty funny! But I’m such a control freak that I also hate the idea of people telling “funny things Missypie did while drugged” stories. </p>
<p>But with that said, was the soup story on this board or another? Someone’s kid had oral surgery and had those drugs that make you forget stuff. The mom made homemade soup and every few hours the kid would wake up, surprised and delighted each and every time that there was homemade soup.</p>
<p>S just called and found they had indeed taken out all four wisdom teeth. Don’t we feel foolish. S was absolutely certain the top two hadn’t been removed. AND they said they won’t charge us for the extra two since we had specifically only asked for only two of the four to be removed. That saves us some serious money and now S doesn’t have to go back this summer. Talk about a nice Christmas present! I love the soup story.</p>
<p>Still missing most of his grades, which will be posted on the 23rd. His job is 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm, so not as many hours and not the early mornings his brother had, both of which he is happy about. He feeds napkins into a press so pretty easy and his buddies are all right beside him so he gets to socialize. These hours get me off the hook from preparing dinner every night. H and I got used to leftovers many nights after S went to college. When S is home we don’t seem to generate many leftovers.</p>
<p>My daughter and I just finished a game a few minutes ago. I won the first round and she won the second. </p>
<p>I sent Bananagrams to her in a goody box sometime in the fall (and made her bring it home with her for Christmas fun). It’s a great dorm room game as it takes up no space and can be played alone (if bored) or with a group.</p>
<p>Santa always leaves his (huge) sack on our living room floor on Christmas morning. It has held bicycles, toy kitchens, gameboys, Wii, etc. This year there aren’t really many “toys” so I’m looking for a few things for the sack. Banangrams will be great. Think I’ll add some markers for each kid…seems like they’re always running dry when there’s a project to be done.</p>
<p>I ordered a bananagram for my daughter you should get comissions. Zetsis how fun! happy for you !!! My health insurance did not cover wisdom teeth. D2 is like me and only has 3 will save me money, but we have dental now. I think it ws 800.00 per tooth.</p>
<p>I thought of stopping at Target on my way home and picking up bananagrams too … sounds like something my family would like. Played Scattergories last evening, Apples to Apples the night before. H and daughters delight in making up off beat clues/answers …</p>
<p>ShawbridgeSon had his wisdom teeth out in a massive surgery almost a year ago in which the wisdom teeth extraction hardly rung on the pain meter relative to the other stuff. It was the seventh of seven procedures. So, he doesn’t even know if having them out was a problem. </p>
<p>He’s back and finished with his paper. I’m guessing sloth-like behavior for several days. Sleep, eat, eat,sleep, eat, eat, sleep, visit friends, eat, eat, eat, sleep, sleep. A trip to Costco is in order to feed him and the wandering hordes that will probably troop through.</p>
<p>Just poppin on quick as dinner is cooking, but I looked for Banagrams today at Barnes and noble. No luck - sold out. Of course the woman said it was THE hot game LAST year… the way she said it I felt like I was a kid with an “L” stamped on my forehead!!</p>
<p>So… I am thinking Target is probably out of it as well. Wish I knew about this little gem earlier! I am over Apples to Apples and would prefer a game where the rules are a little more set - the Judge part of Apples to Apples give my kids too many opportunities to point out how whomever is the judge at the moment is out to persecute them and wouldn’t know a good answer if it bit them. </p>
<p>Will look at this settlers cabin, but we’re simple folk when it comes to games. :-)</p>
<p>And oh… came home after being gone since noon only to find that the cat has been sick numerous times and no one has thought to clean it up. Seriously?? I really miss the whole Santa won’t come threat. It was such an excellent motivator this time of year!</p>
<p>Settlers of Catan, awesome game. Sloth-like behavior, perfectly describes geek_son at the moment. Been a stressful semester for him – he thinks it ended well, but it was really hard work. Now he’s sleeping in past noon, playing big-screen video games, and eating normal food. If he doesn’t leave the house at all, it’s a good day. That works for me, at least for this week. I’ve been putting in hours close to his on the job, so I’m ready for a break.</p>
<p>We probably won’t put up lights at all… I was waiting to do it together when he got home, but it’s been raining non-stop and we’re both pretty tired. Low-key is good this year – we’ll go look at other people’s lights. :)</p>
<p>Zetesis, how exciting about the dress and all it implies!</p>
<p>Modadunn, one of the simplest games of all time is 10,000 – played with five dice. Wikipedia has rules for a 6-dice version of it online. [Dice</a> 10000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice_10000]Dice”>Dice 10000 - Wikipedia) Dice aren’t hard to find, so it’s an easy stocking stuffer to just print up the rules and wrap them around a package of dice. It’s really a pretty addictive game. Another popular dice game is Bunco – local families plan parties around large groups playing Bunco. Rules vary, but a bunch of variants are online. <a href=“http://www.buncorules.com/rules.html[/url]”>http://www.buncorules.com/rules.html</a></p>
<p>Hoping all kiddos are safely home or smoothly on their way by now, and wishing wonderful holidays to all of you!</p>
<p>Final grades are finally posted and he got a 3.11 GPA, so cleared that 3.0 goal. He had one C in a 4 credit class (biology) but has the A’s to offset. I am so happy. Now we can really enjoy the holiday.</p>
<p>Another quick game suggestion: a card game called Ruckus is flying off the shelves of an independent toy store here. I purchased a set at Amazon, but we’ve not played yet. </p>
<p>I’ll check in again in a bit. Cookies in the oven.</p>
<p>Transamerica is a good game for groups: quick, fun. Each player has five secret cities that he must connect with train tracks. The trick is to get the other players to build your tracks for you.</p>
<p>Bang! makes a lively party game. Players are secretly either sheriffs/deputies or outlaws. The outlaws are trying to kill the lawmen and the lawmen are trying to kill the outlaws, but nobody knows which is which.</p>
<p>Ticket To Ride is another good family game. Players trying to build rail routes connecting American cities. Sounds like TransAmerica, I know, but the game mechanics are completely different. TransAmerica is more of a light quick party game, whereas Ticket to Ride is more like Monopoly.</p>
That works for me, at least for this week. I’ve been putting in hours close to his on the job, so I’m ready for a break.</p>