This is the worst one we’ve had so far and I hope it doesn’t happen again. Thank goodness we have a snowblower.
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Max’s of Manila
Eclipse
This year’s total lunar eclipse is extra special because it fell on the winter solstice (^_^). I woke up a quarter to 3, got my camera and then woke Finn up since he said he wanted to see it. I don’t know when he’ll be able to see another one so I figured it’s ok even if it’s really early.
My Little Man
He looks so grown up in his suit! All spiffy for the Year-End Thanksgiving Worship Service at Church. This was taken at the multi-purpose room downstairs, before the Children’s Worship Service. This is the spill-over room in case it gets full in the sanctuary, which you can see in the projector behind Finn.
Spiciest Ever!
I read about Peaches Hothouse and how they say they have the spiciest fried chicken in town. I forwarded it to Jojo and he asked around his office if anyone lives in Brooklyn where this restaurant is. He asked his coworker to buy the extra hot fried chicken for us. His coworker picked it up last night and gave it to Jojo today so that’s what we had for dinner.
Do you know about the ghost chili? It used to be the hottest pepper in the world but is now in 2nd place. That’s what they used on the chicken. It doesn’t look very intimidating here, but i guess that’s why they call it ghost chili. You can’t really smell the spiciness and it’s not lava red in color but boy does it burn! I don’t really sweat much so this didn’t make me sweat unlike Jojo. It didn’t bring me to tears either, close but didn’t happen. It did get me sniffly but what surprised me was that my face was flushed! Like how you get when you’re out in the winter cold. The good thing about this pepper is that you don’t feel it in your nose like horseradish does, and it goes away more quickly than other kinds of peppery heat. No burning aftertaste.
It is a bit pricey, for 3 pieces of chicken, 2 slices of bread and one side. But I guess since I wasn’t able to finish everything, I get 2 meals for the price of one. Not bad.
UPDATE – Dec. 18:
I just had the rest of the chicken for dinner tonight and I must say, I didn’t feel the burn this time. I guess my taste buds just got a shock the first time? Hmmm …
Holiday Concert
This morning was the holiday concert at school. Every class sings 2 songs and Finn’s class sang Oh Christmas Tree and a Kwanzaa song.
Gift
Rice Cooker
We have a brand new rice cooker! Ours is still working, but it’s only a 4-cup. This is a 10-cup, with options for different kinds of rice plus, it can work as a slow cooker too (^_^) I’m loving it coz it’s non-stick so it’s really easy to clean. The digital display counts down a few minutes before the rice is done and if you choose the delay setting, that will show up on the display too. Best of all, it was really affordable!
Five Kinds of Christmas
There were 2 shows on Saturday, one on Sunday which was booked for special needs kids. It felt really great doing that show for them coz they don’t get to enjoy live theatre with their families. They say they usually get turned away because the kids would disturb other patrons. Sad but true. Surprisingly, all the kids sat through the whole show without any tantrums (^_^) That means we can do more of this kind of show for them in the future.
There are Five Kinds of Christmas I’m Telling You …..
Put ‘em up!
There are Five Happy Kinds of Christmas Cheer …
The cobbler and “his” wife
What would you do with your prize money?
Five days, six days, seven days, eight days!
Thank you rich person!
What’s he saying?
A Christmas Carol
We had 2 shows yesterday, 2 & 7pm. It was great! My first time doing a radio show and it’s cool to see how they did it in the old days, doing sound effects and going live on the “radio”. Wonderful mix of cast from pros to newbies. There will be more radio shows in the future, I think.
Wii Night
Yesterday, the CWS (Children’s Worship Service) group held a Virtual Sports Night aka Wii Night from 4-8pm. The kids started with registration where they were grouped into 4 teams: red, blue, green and yellow, and they were given a badge. Finn was in the green team. There are 4 sports that they can participate in: Mario Kart, Tennis (singles and doubles), Baseball and Bowling. Finn joined Mario Kart and baseball. The badges were stamped once they’ve finished their game.
They did some physical stretching first before going into the 4 different stations for their games. The racing and baseball stations were upstairs, the tennis and bowling were downstairs. The individual scores were then tallied into the team scores. After the 4 events, the kids were gathered downstairs for the finale, which will then determine the champion. All of them lined up according to their team and the final game was bowling where each frame was played by a different kid on their team, that way everyone gets a chance to bowl. Everyone was so excited during this last game but the good thing is, everybody was cheering for everyone! It was really all in the spirit of brotherhood (^_^) In the end, the blue team won. Prizes were given away for the winning team, and the best individual scores.
You’ll see in the slide show below the bricks hanging from the ceiling. They contained coins and the kids would “punch” the bricks (much like how Mario does it) and if they’re lucky, a coin would drop. Prizes were also given away depending on the number of coins you get. Finn got 6 coins and he exchanged it for a coloring book.
Next week, the married couples will be having our own gathering. Although I hope they hold a Wii night for adults next time =P
Cozi
I’ve been meaning to have a photo journal where I can post a photo a day. Never was able to do it … until now. I found out about Cozi while looking for an online calendar. I liked this site for a number of reasons: it’s free; you can color code your appointments so you’ll know at a glance who that’s for; you can set reminders to be sent to your email or phone about said appointments; you can put your calendar on your desktop; it has a journal that you can choose to share or keep private; it has a to-do list; it has a grocery list that you can also choose to be sent to your phone if you forgot your written list; there’s a message board that can send your messages to either email or as sms; and you can sync your outlook with your cozi calendar so that whatever you put on your outlook calendar will be reflected in your cozi calendar.
So far, I have the desktop calendar, I’ve set up reminders for some of our appointments (we’ll see how that goes through email), I’m using the journal and have decided to make that as my photo journal, I’ve made a grocery list and I’ve used the message board to send an email to Jojo.
Oh and I forgot to mention something about the journal, you can choose to protect key words and replace them with something else like if you don’t want the names of your family members to be known – like how you would replace your child’s name with DS or DD for example. So when you write down your entry with their names, DS or DD will be posted instead when it gets published. This is great if you’re in a hurry writing your post and you forget to replace the names yourself.
I think Cozi is pretty handy especially if you have a busy family. This way your appointments don’t overlap and everybody can see where they have to be when and be reminded as well. The journal is a great way to jot down what’s happening and the message board is great too for sending quick notes without having to go to your email. I’m liking it so far (^_^) And if you get the chance, visit my Cozi page. You can also just click on the link above on the navbar labeled Cozi.
Fall Foliage
Last year we weren’t able to take a drive to see the foliage. This year, we were a bit late =P Most of the leaves have fallen already, but at least we were able to take a walk in the woods some, and take pictures.
Keeping Warm
Fall is definitely here. It’s been chilly and for a few days now, very windy! Jojo bought us an electric fireplace for the living room (^_^) It gets cold there, even with the heat on, so this will definitely help when we’re there. It’s a nice additional focal point to the room, even in the summer. We just turn off the heat and still have that nice, warm glow from the “fire”.
At the Park
We try to go biking every weekend, if the weather is fine. Today is the first time all 3 of us went since Finn can ride by himself now. He still needs to practice getting on and off (^_^)
Crazy Hair Day
Today is crazy hair day in school! Since Finn’s is short, I can’t really do something really crazy. We just TRIED (his hair is so stubbornly flat, doesn’t want to stick up AT ALL) to make his hair spiky and then spray painted it with gold and cheetos orange (coz it really looks like you ate a bag of cheetos and wiped the orange stuff on your hair =P).
UPDATE: I took more photos in natural light so you can see the colors better.
Photos taken this morning.
Bikes
Jojo ordered our bikes online since it was cheaper and we got them on Thursday. This afternoon we thought of riding together, but since Finn doesn’t know how yet, we just brought his bike and walked to the park so we can teach him first.
Getting the feel of it.
He didn’t realize he was doing it by himself =P
While Finn was resting, Jojo took a turn on his bike.
He knows how to ride now!
Confident (^_^)
All he needs to learn now is how to get on and off without falling =P
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