Thinking like an alchemist by the Christmas tree

Christopher's on his winter break now, which is the best ever.  He's been so excited about having a chance to stop and rest, and so we decided to do as little as possible on Saturday, his first day of the break.  Chris downloaded a game for his phone called Alchemy, which has you start with the four elements, and then build up to making things like atom bombs, animals and robots.  It's turned out that I'm really good at this game, because I can think using medieval logic (or at least in metaphors), instead of actual scientific knowledge (which is, of course, what Chris has).  I helped Chris to figure out that active robot+plutonium=atom bomb, and mammal+honey=bear.

We're mostly sticking around here for Christmas again.  At least, we're not going back to Saskatchewan.  (Flying is so expensive at Christmas.)  Yesterday, we did a little bit of Christmas shopping (for the people we'll see around here), and we realised that, other than the fact that we miss our families and the snow, we're glad that we're here for Christmas.  We're taking a relaxed pace over the holidays, and will get a lot of down time after a few hectic months.  We're going to a nearby gulf island to spend a few days at a spa resort, around Chris's birthday.  I hear that the resort doesn't get a lot of cell phone coverage, and there's only wifi in the building that has the front desk, and we're really cool with that: we're going to be forced to unplug for a few days.  Our plans involve hiking and going to a carol-singing night with locals and aging folk rock stars (this is a peculiar island, where a lot of famous people from the 1960s seem to retire).  And we're really hoping for some clear weather, because Chris's birthday begins with a lunar eclipse, and we're taking a telescope.

I'm so glad that we're going away for a few days before Christmas.  It forces me not to over-prepare for our house guests (and also forces us to relax before our house is taken over by a visiting toddler!).  It forced us to take care of Christmas presents early, and not to overdo the baking. 

And so now I have a quiet evening of housecleaning and the Community episode "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas".  (Again.)