I printed and assembled copies of the Trinidad Head Light Station model, which I designed earlier in the year, to give to my team at work as end-of-the-year gifts (one of our main projects is named after the lighthouse).
That was all I printed this month, but I received some fancy filaments for Christmas that I’ll need to come up with some fun uses for in 2025.
Despite my hopes from last month, I did not get much game playing in this month either.
Played a session of The Guild of Merchant Explorers at a board game meetup. I won.
Played a scenario of Mechs vs. Minions and introduced the game to friends. We ran the gauntlet and succeeded in reaching the other side while subduing the minions along the way. Victory.
After playing Creature Comforts at a board game meetup last month I thought Jess would enjoy it. So she found it under the Christmas tree. We played with friends and I won after a very productive final turn bringing in 29 points in just the one turn.
Tallying up the blog posts gives us 63 games played in 2024.
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
While I had somewhat assumed that Forever Peace was a sequel to The Forever War Haldeman addresses directly in the introduction that it is not.
But it does continue to explore and discuss the issues that affect the participants and victims of continuous warfare. It then goes on to explore the idea of what if you could open everyone’s minds to collectivism and seeing humanity as one. What if we could reach a state of mind where violence against others is seen as violence against oneself and therefore pointless.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
This was my Christmas gift from the girls this year. A Japanese fantasy book (translated) about a cat, books, and an old bookstore. They nailed it.
When Rintaro’s grandfather dies he withdraws even further from the world than usual as he takes over caring for the old bookshop.
Then a cat approaches him for help rescuing books. His love of books empowers him to break out of his shell and engage with the world around him.
And those are the only books I completed in December. Most of my reading was on a book in French and I just didn’t quite finish it. So it will show up next year.
Looking back over this year’s blog posts I tally 41 books for the year! With 1 of them in French.
Merry Christmas!
Mom gave us a fake-snow machine! It’s more convincing than one might think–particularly in pictures.
I baked gingersnaps, orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, chocolate shortbread, baguettes (for Christmas Eve cheese fondue), and dinner rolls (for Christmas dinner).
I bought twinkling lights for the tree this year and so had several extra strands of lights leftover. I tried my hand at writing “Merry” on the fence (I think it came out pretty well).
On Christmas Eve everyone took turns reading stories. Heather played a few songs on the cello. I played a few songs on the trombone. We opened books from the girls and spent some time reading and eating treats. London practiced being a present under the tree. And then Santa came.
The girls were up about their usual time on Christmas morning–which is about 6:45. But they let us sleep a little longer and we got the morning moving around 7:30.
After pictures and stockings in the living room we moved on to the family room with the tree. But first Corinne had a few surprises of her own for the morning. She created, in secret, a surprise gift randomizer. This entailed her writing down gifts from herself on sheets of paper and sticking them in the pages of a picture book. We each opened the book to a random page to receive a special gift from her. Several of them involved her making us special items in Minecraft. She also gave us gifts she made at school including her “Christmas is…” book in which she describes the memories that make Christmas special for her.
I ordered the family campfire art from Uncommon Goods. Took a few back and forths with the artist to get the proof correct, but it came out pretty well. Even has London and Phoenix curled up by the fire.
Corinne was super excited to receive a box of “Captain Crunch’s Oops all Berries.”
I found a copy of the Springbok “Twelve Days of Christmas” puzzle on eBay for a non-absurd price. Jess’ family had it growing up and she’s been wanting it for nostalgia for a while.
Corinne became enamored of the horse toy when she saw it in a local shop. So she was extremely happy to find it under the tree.
Heather received a variety of things, but I think the thing she ended up being most excited about was the wireless computer mouse that she can use at school with her Chromebook and at home with her tablet.
Amongst other things (including the aforementioned snow machine), I received a variety of 3D printing supplies including some fancy filaments and a case for my newish Kobo eReader (which I keep meaning to write up a quick post about because I’m very pleased with it).
It was a good year. Though for unknown reasons I really had a hard time feeling much Christmas spirit this year. Didn’t feel like Christmas was near and then it was here and even during the day it somehow didn’t feel like it was happening. The girls all seemed to have a blast though. Corinne still has the unbridled joy and excitement of childhood that clearly comes through in her pictures. Heather is reaching the more subdued teenager stage.
I think perhaps next year I need to spend less time in the immediately preceding days trying to get baking done and more time just enjoying things. Maybe it will be easier if there aren’t car repairs needing to be scheduled (still not done), leaking ceilings to be worried about (hopefully resolved), and broken dryers to be fixed (seems to be working again now). Being an adult can sure be a drag sometimes.
Heather is in advanced orchestra this year by virtue of this being her second year in orchestra on the cello. Of the six cellos she placed as third chair.
At their winter concert they played several songs. First, “Prelude to Te Deum.” Then two Halloween songs: “Creatures” and “This is Halloween” (from The Nightmare before Christmas). They followed that up with “Le Froid de l’Hiver” (“The Cold of Winter”). And after a number from a newly created “Chamber Orchestra” comprised of the top players of each section (not included in the video), the full orchestra finished their performance with “Forever Joyful!”
Download here: Heather-orchestra-winter-2024 (124 MB)
