Post-Christmas

The day after Christmas. We have already stepped into that territory my mother never had to: limits.

Santa brought Little One a Nintendo DS for Christmas. She also received 3 games for it: Nintendogs, The Incredibles, and Luna White Dragon. Her friend also has a Nintendo DS and when they have a play date, they can play together on them, wireless-ly. Pretty cool. The friend also has Nintendogs and it was highly recommended.

The device has dual screens: one with the game graphics on it and the other with icons for control. It comes with a stylus for using the touch screen to control it. The graphics are photograph quality. It "hears" your voice and can play it back to you, not so remarkable, until you realize that it performs commands based on your voice commands. DS2's phone does that, too, and I find it really neat. Closed, it's about 3x6" and maybe 1/2" thick.

She expressed some frustration with the game last night and I remarked, "If you had read the directions and were having trouble, I'd help you. But as it is, I believe your next course is to try the directions." She grumbled, read the directions, and thanked me. Imagine that.

Nintendogs has a variety of dogs you can adopt -- animated photographs of real dogs. You train them with your voice to sit, lie down, shake, wag tail, jump, and catch the Frisbee. Little One adopted a Yellow Lab and named him Shadow. So as she is playing this game, she is yelling into the game, "Shadow, sit!" "Lie down!" "Yes!" "Jump! ...Jump! ...Jump! ...Jump!" In the background, you can hear the tiniest barks and the sound of cars rolling by (if she is in backyard mode) or the crowds cheering (if she is in Dog Show mode.)

Fortunately she read a new book, The Giraffe, The Pelican and Me, by Roald Dahl, tyvm DS1 and DIL, this morning. Then it started. "Sit! Sit! Sit! Good job. Roll over. Roll over... Roll over... Roll over...."

I have established a one hour limit. I hope that's fair. There are lots of other things to play with, and I may allow a little extra time later in the day if she becomes bored. However, it does seem a tad addictive and I am just trying to be careful.

Her friend's mom allows her to earn Screen Time (TV, pc, and handheld) by reading, with a 1:1 ratio. One hour of reading earns one hour of Screen Time. DH and I have discussed this and we hate to make a chore out of reading as she loves to read so much.

Other gifts she received for Christmas: a Learn to Draw kit that contains a wooden articulated man, sketch pads, step-by-step books, different kinds of pencils, etc. She drew for about an hour and a half yesterday and did some amazing stuff. I may scan some later to post here. A beautiful sterling chain from great-grandparents; several books including Narnia, Guinness Book of World Records, Wizardology (if you have not seen this cool book, plz check it out. In person really beats online as it is tactile. Other books in the same line are Dragonnology, which she already had; Fairyopolis, which she also received yesterday, and Egyptology, which she does not yet have.) Two cd's, both sound tracks: Narnia and Harry Potter Goblet of Fire. She had asked for these but not asked for any pop music. Yea! A new bathrobe and slippers. Two journals; a 1000-piece puzzle and an American Girls puzzle kit in which you complete the puzzle to solve a mystery (also from DS1 and DIL). One other gift so small it hardly merits mention, but is pretty neat, eight tubes of lip balm, in all sorts of flavors: Reese's, Hershey's chocolate, SweetTarts, Twizzlers, Jelly Belly, Dairy Queen, and two others we can't remember. These things smell just like the real thing. I believe her favorite is SweetTarts. Handy as her lips chap really easily and I always have to coax her to use some lip balm. Now maybe she will remember on her own.

In years past, we have given Little One a gown for Christmas, from American Girl, with a matching gown for one of her dolls. This year she is in the largest little girls' size, and if we were to buy one for her, it wouldn't last a year -- she is growing so tall, so fast. This is a consideration as they are a bit pricey. So I purchased a sewing pattern for a beautiful, detailed nightgown in a women's small, and made her one out of white batiste. Yards and yards of eyelet trim and "beading," which is an eyelet with little buttonholes down it, through which you weave satin ribbon. I used pale blue satin ribbon. The gown has long sleeves with elastic and more eyelet at the ends. I constructed the whole thing with french seams, so that there are no raw edges, on the inside or the outside. It came out fine and I was so glad that she really appreciated it. I told someone on the phone that her "big" gift was her Nintendo DS and she called, "No, Nana, -- my big gift was the gown."

I know we will look back on this Christmas with some nostalgia. It was her last appearance in the church Pageant. Ten is such a cool age as they are interested in everything, and not too old or too cool to really play anymore. Those days are soon coming to an end. Ten-year-olds are very creative, and curious, and energetic.

I had worried if we'd be sitting around the house missing DH while he worked on Christmas Day. I had even called the Shelter to see if we could work there, only to find out that the local Temple takes Christmas Day as a gift to the Christians. How cool is that.

The day actually passed by quickly. We fixed a big breakfast, then got ready and went to church. When we came home, it was already afternoon and I spent the remainder of the day cleaning and preparing a big Christmas dinner. Ironed special table linens, made a coconut cake with Little One. The time went by quickly and soon he was home.

After dinner, he built a fire and we sat in the living room. I finally got time to look at my Learn to Knit book and give knitting a try. I practiced for about an hour. I think I have a basic understanding now, and can do the basic garter stitch, but I unravelled all I had done as it had a gap or two in it. We will un-decorate a little today and then I hope to try again.