Play Date

Today is one of the funnest days of the year - it's when we get to play with all our Christmas toys!  Madison got up early for just such a reason, and Daddy did too.  The reason:  Disney Infinity.  Presently, we have every figure released in America - next year, we'll have access to Mickey, Phineas and Ferb.  But right now, we've got about 27 little figurines all lined up in the living room, on the "bench" just waiting for their chance to jump in the game.  We pretty much played them all today, from Davy Jones to Madison's favorite character so far, Elsa.  Madison has quickly caught on to the idea of making her own world, and creating something fun to play around with.  But she also loves the fighting in the game too - this afternoon, we visited her cousins David Austen and Jonathan online, in their world, and got busy throwing snowballs and ice bombs.  She was having a blast!

We visited the world of the Lone Ranger first, and then got to the Caribbean with the rest of the pirates - soon after, we were at the campus of Monsters University.  We enjoyed this one so much that we watched the movie together tonight.  Mommy, Daddy and Madison sat on the couch, while figurines of Mike, Sully and Randall looked on.

There was more than just video games, of course.  Daddy read some books to Madison, and we all took a little nap halfway through the day.

We didn't go anywhere though.  In fact, we all stayed in our pajamas for most of the day - the exception being Madison, who wanted to wear her new sparkly Rapunzel dress.  More sparkles scattered throughout the floor of the entire house.  Our home is now glitteriffic!

Madison got two entire albums for Disney Infinity - these will hold all the power discs for series one and two.  We have all of these discs somewhere in the house.  We even have several for series three already (ones Daddy patiently tracked down at Toys R Us weekend after weekend).  But we decided with some of the figures and discs that the best thing to do - and the funnest thing to do - would be to give them to Madison throughout the year for good behavior, or for holidays.  If she does her piano practice one week, she'll get a Disney Infinity disc.  If she does well in school, then why not give her another disc, or even a new figure for those special days.  For holidays, we'll give some out too - like on Valentine's Day, we'll probably give her Rapunzel, and the three power discs (so far) associated with her movie, "Tangled."  For Chinese New Year, we'll give her Kahn, Mulan's horse.  This will be a fun little motivational tool throughout the year, rewarding her for good behavior.  Of course, Daddy can't wait to try them all out, particularly Francesco the race car.  But keep in mind this game has been around since August, and Daddy has resisted temptation to play it since then - the reward at the end will be greater!

The smoke alarm went off tonight.  But it only did so to remind us that it is low on batteries.  It generally waits until 2:00 am to do this sort of thing, but Mommy and Daddy were the only ones awakened by it, fortunately.  We were able to replace it with the one 9 volt battery we had left in the house, and the night was saved, for the time being.  Better get some more batteries tomorrow, and check those other smoke alarms.

The weather outside has been frightful.  Okay, not exactly frightful with blizzard conditions, but it has been pretty cold out there.  It's the kind of weather that drives you indoors the moment you set foot outside.  Only those who are confident and determined make it out the door on days like this, and unfortunately, we were neither.  We stayed indoors, except for that one expedition to the curb to get the trash can, and check the mail for straggling Christmas cards (we got three more).

Christmas Cards:  it's a dying art, isn't it?  We sent out about fifty, and got a fifty percent return on our investment.  No, it's not about getting things in return, but over the last five years, the art of sending a Christmas card has been fading, like Blockbuster videos and newspapers.  The thing is, it costs more and more money to actually send a card.  This can be replaced for free with an email, text, or a message on your nearest social network.  We're old fashioned:  we like the idea of getting something in your mailbox.  So every Christmas, we stubbornly stick to our routine of sending out a deluge of cards.  It's the thought that counts!

This year, we had sent out a picture of Madison with Santa, and of course our usual letter - you know the kind, right?  It sort of updates everyone on your year.  We didn't write a grocery list or anything, but the truth is, we did have a really special year.  And in fact every year we've had Madison has been simply wonderful.  And the word on the street for 2014 is this:  next year is going to be even better!