Tag: family fun

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Christmas 2024

I had such a nice Christmas this year. My company was closed on the 24th and 25th, and I took the 23rd as a floating holiday, so with the weekend I had five days off. It took me a while to get my apartment decorated this year, but I finally did it and was able to enjoy my tree and other decorations for a couple of weeks leading up to the big day.

Michael was with me on Christmas Day this year, and we slept in until around 10am and then opened our stockings and gave each other presents. I decided that I wanted to have Michael be in charge of filling my stocking starting next year and when I told him that, he wanted help shopping for me this year to add to the couple of little things I had bought for myself. I thought that was very sweet.

For presents, Michael gave me two puzzles – one for Christmas and one for my birthday. He picked them from my Amazon wish list, so I definitely liked them!

In addition to his stocking stuffers, I got him a set of Pokemon books, a Lego set, and a new keyboard for his computer. I usually get him a video game, but he only had one on his list this year, and his dad got it for him. I did put gift cards for Nintendo and Steam in his stocking along with a bunch of different treats.

Peanut Butter got a small squirrel stuffed with catnip. I think he liked it!

After we opened presents, I made us French toast for breakfast and then got started on dinner, which was a turkey breast with assorted sides (different for each of us based on what we like). Later that day, I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, so that was fun. All in all, it was a very good day!

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Adventures in Gaming

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Our Miniatures

A few months ago, my son Michael came to me with an idea – he wanted to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons. Luckily, there is a weekly game held at a game store very close to our house, and I heard they were open to new players. So I took Michael over and the Dungeon Master (DM) helped him make a character (a dwarf cleric) and then walked him through the game play. He loved it!

After a couple of times, the DM convinced me to give it a try myself. I decided to be an elf wizard and it was actually a lot of fun. So I asked Joe if he was interested and he checked out the various races and classes on the website and decided to be a half-orc fighter.

Since then, we have been going every other Wednesday night to play D&D as a family. (We go to a life group connected to our church on the opposite weeks.)

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Bag of Dice

We recently started a new campaign with new characters and are really enjoying the adventure. We even had a dinosaur race last night!

We have gotten some dice, a player’s handbook, and even some miniature figurines to represent us in the game. I am also really enjoying learning how to create characters and cast spells. The trickiest part for me is remembering what to add to each of the different dice rolls. But the group we play with is very patient so it’s okay.

I am looking forward to continuing to play with this group in the future and seeing what adventures we encounter. I have also started watching a couple of ongoing games on YouTube and Twitch, which is a lot of fun and also helps me learn the rules. We still enjoy playing board and card games as a family and with friends, but the extra strategy and social interaction required in D&D adds a whole new level to the experience of game playing!