Pot Luck....what's been going on

Yeah, yeah...I'm way behind and it does seem like a lot has happened since the last "real" blog entry.

SNOW

First of all, it snowed last week. That's a big deal here in the Houston area. That just doesn't happen that often. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos, but it was real snow. Huge, chunky flakes. I have a snowball in my freezer to prove it.

MEGAN

We were invited to dinner at Allison's on Friday. Megan was cooking. We saw this as an opportunity to help Henry appreciate the nuances of being invited to someone's home for dinner. So we allowed him to select the flowers that we would take as a hostess gift for Megan. He was quite picky and looked everything over quite carefully before selecting a small glass vase bowl/vase, with just roses and a few carnations "floating" on top.

Henry had so much fun playing with the other kiddos, even though they were all much older than him. Fortunately, he is quite used to playing with his older cousins, so just fell right in step with whatever the older kids were doing. He jumped on a trampoline in the backyard...a first for him. Towards the end of the evening, the kids all ended up in front of the TV and Henry was right there among them. Here are a couple of pics:

Oooooh, and I don't even know where to start on dinner. Megan had prepared one of the most yummiest of Chicken Picata's that I've ever been privileged to get to eat, complete with the lemon butter, capers and artichoke hearts. It was served with a side of angel hair pasta, steamed veggies, and a lovely garden salad. (There was supposed to be garlic bread, but we forgot it in the oven, so we ate it as a pre-cursor to dessert). Oh, and speaking of dessert, it was my most favorite...creme brulee. Megan had made it from scratch, complete with torching the sugar on top. Here she is in action:

MISCELLANEOUS

Here are a few pictures of the boy that I've taken over the past couple of weeks:

Here he is at bookstudy with Nana and Papa. This will probably be the last official "bookstudy" since we will be out of town for the next two weekends. When we return, it'll be the first of the year and we'll be under the new program. The end of an era...

Here he is dressed for the meeting one night. I think he looks so cute with his t-neck and sports coat:

And here he is dressed for the children's symphony. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I think he was one of the best dressed young men in attendance. Especially when he was wearing his coat:

JOKERS AND PEGS

For those of you that have never heard of Jokers and Pegs, you are missing out on one of the best games. You can check out more about it here. Anyway, after another yummy dinner at the house of one of the families in our congregation, we decided to finish off our Sunday evening with a round of J & P. Now, we've been playing this for the last two winters while my parents are in town (and other times, too). Henry is always relegated to "helping" someone, or playing on his own terms, with his own cards, board, and pieces separate and apart from the adult game.

Since he is such a game-playing little boy, I had decided to see if he was up to playing on his own. He was so excited when he realized that he was going to have a spot at the adult table, get to play on the "real" board with his own pieces and his own cards.

Before we started, I wanted to see how much of the game he understood just from observing all of the adults playing for the last few years. I started in with my questioning:

• Me: How do you get one of your guys out of start?
• H: With a face card!
• Me: What do you do with an 8?
• H: Move backward.
• Me: What do you do with a 9?
• H: Move one guy forward and one guy backward.
• Me: What do you do with a 7?
• H: Move a guy 7, or split it between two guys.
• Me: What do you do with a Joker?
• H: Knock somone off.

Okay, wow, he seemed to have it down. This is the first time I've played without having my trusty little cheatsheet to help me remember what all of the rules were. He actually played fantastically on his own. I did kind of keep an eye on his cards, but there was only 2 times that I needed to intervene with any kind of guidance in what he should or shouldn't do. Unfortunately, he didn't win his first solo game of J & P, but he (and all of the rest of us) sure were proud of how well he did on his own. Of course, he had us all in stitches through most of the game with his take on things. Here are a few of his gems:

• Papa, guess what? I might knock you off!
• Mama, I'm gonna play this joker. Sorry, Mama! (as he knocks me off)
• 1, 2 ~ I'm gonna get you (as he played a 2 and came close to knocking Papa off)
• 1, 2, 3 ~ Sing with me (gotta love the exuberance of youth)
• If I could, I would double-wham you (to Aunt Leslie and Nana when he landed between them)

Well folks, that's all I can think of right now. We're heading to North Dakota at the end of the week to see my Grandmother. I'm hoping that we have enough warm clothes to survive the sub-zero weather that is going on there.