Jungle Cruise

 

Tonight the four of us were skippers of our own boats, passengers aboard for a Jungle Cruise!  We set up this board game, and for some reason I was thinking it would be a shorter board game, as it has a clear start and finish line there, and it doesn't look like there are too many spots to stop along the way.  This is amazingly misleading!  There is so much more to this game, and even though it's fairly easy to play, it still takes a long time to navigate through the dangerous waters to get to final destination.  We had a good time playing though, and everyone enjoyed the bad jokes that were on every single card.  We got to the end of the game, each of us, with more passengers than I thought we would.  Mom got there first, and Madison got there last, way behind at the end.  Surprisingly, she tied for first with Mom, with Nana and I there in the middle.  Still, it was a fun game.  Again, it still took a while to get through - more than an hour, I think.  Maybe an hour and a half.  

Today was an indoor day.  I had great hopes to do something big and outdoors this morning, but the weather was so bitterly cold and windy outside, that any idea of doing anything outdoors was banished.  My first thing was a walk through the Magic Kingdom, a half-hour walk on the treadmill that takes you all around the park.  I think I'll do EPCOT tomorrow!

We did go out today, but not doing anything outdoors.  We were at the library first, dropping off a movie and a puzzle, and picking up a few new movies and a puzzle.  On our way there, we first saw it:  snow.  We had flurries out there today, and that's always a nice surprise.  It was pretty cold out there though!

After the library, we were over at Hobby Lobby looking for one particular thing, and in a rare moment, we actually walked out the door without buying anything there!  We also went to Goodwill next door, and that was just to look around really and get out of the house.  They didn't have much, but Madison and Mom got some new clothing there.  

We got home, and Mom has this fantastic new recipe with cauliflower and cheese, and it's such a fantastic new entry at dinner time.  We had that and potatoes, and that was just fine for all of us.  Right around that time, Madison and I were lugging things downstairs, a great deal of the Christmas decorations to put up and away.  They're waiting for us downstairs now.  We also did some writing - just a bit.  There's a new devotional entry for Star Wars, one based on the end of "The Rise of Skywalker."

Madison did some piano today, and tonight we read more from Esther, nearly done with the story actually.  Haman knew he was in trouble before he even got to that second dinner, because only then did his wife and so-called friends start thinking about the fact that Mordecai was Jewish.  You almost felt sorry for the guy, if not for the small fact that he wanted to commit genocide against an entire race of people!

We read from "Scoundrels" after that, and we had our usual bedtime routine.  The groundhog keeps showing up randomly in our bedroom, sometimes wearing my sneakers or using my laptop.  And now, in her room, there's the Frog Prince, who you'll be seeing soon enough.  He's our Valentine's Day frog that sings that odd song whenever he's shaken or touched.  He just sits there and shakes, and sings a song, "Just one kiss, and I'll be your Valentine.  Your prince is waiting here inside.  Just one smooch, and you'll be mine, yeah!"

It's a crooner's voice, and it's slightly menacing in a way.  Like, you really don't have a choice but to kiss this frog.  Somehow, in the twenty-five years that I've had this little frog, we've managed to avoid kissing him.  Hopefully Madison will be able to resist as well.  Because I'd hate to see what this little frog would ever become.  Yes, I'll have to post a video of him some time for posterity.  I don't think there's a single recording of this song anywhere, as short as it is, and specifically written for a small vibrating frog.

Anyway, he was under her pillow tonight, so just as she went to bed... there was the song!  Fortunately, she didn't throw that at me.  She throws a small plush Princess Leia thing at me each night, and yes, all this practice is making her aim get better!